After getting our rental RV from Portland we spent one more night with my old host family, who had showered us with their hospitality. Or if not showered, then jacuzzied, since we took one last dip in their back yard after they went to bed… Be that as it may, not only had they fed us, housed us, taken us to their campsite for 4th of July and given us a bunch of food and other stuff to take on the road trip, they also went and got us a massive amount of maps and TourBooks from AAA. As members the pile was free for them but to us the maps would have cost $5.95 apiece and the TourBooks $14.95 each. We grabbed everything we thought we could need and already started to worry about how we could possibly repay them for all of their help. We would be returning through Salem at the end of the trip, so we would have some time to think about that…

After we got everything packed into the RV we started heading back north to go see Mt. Hood, the towering volcano visible from almost anywhere in the area. I hadn't gone to see it during my exchange year in Salem and now was finally the time to do so. We headed up I-5 and took the roads 205 and 212 to 26, which took us to a town called Zigzag. There we stopped at a visitor center to ask about short day hikes in the area. They suggested that we could drive up Lolo Pass Road eventually to Top Spur Trail trailhead and that's what we did, after paying $5/vehicle for a one day pass to the area. The road up to the trailhead wasn't in the best of shapes but our small RV made it through marvelously. We were told to hike up the short trail and then follow Timberline #600 trail that loops around Bald Mtn. with splendid views along its 3.5 mile length. I am somewhat ashamed to admit that we got lost on the trail and ended up walking quite a bit more to the east than what we had hoped for. It wasn't too bad though, we got some amazing views of Mt. Hood and found our way back easily enough simply by turning back. It might not have been the best short hike we've done, but it was OK. Despite getting lost our biggest problem was actually the persistent flies that kept bugging us the whole way. They reminded us of the ones we suffered from in San Ignacio Mini in Argentina. These ones didn't smell as bad when squashed, but they bit harder…

After we got back to the car we headed down the same road we took there and stopped at a free camping spot within the national park. The 19' RV proved to be quite comfortable for both cooking and sleeping, the double bed over the cabin was actually the longest bed we've had on this trip, if not ever. In the morning we got up somewhat early to be able to make it as far east as possible. We were heading towards Yellowstone National Park with intentions to be there before the weekend. This being already Wednesday, we had a lot of driving to do. We got back on road 26 and turned to 35 towards Hood River where we stopped at a Walmart to buy some small necessities we had forgotten to get, like vinyl gloves for emptying the waste tanks. From there we followed the Colombia River on I-84 which was marked as a scenic drive. It wasn't too bad but we still enjoyed the small detour we did on road 30 between intersections 64 and 83, the views were better from the higher side road. We had talked about driving up to Washington to see Mt. St. Helens, but decided not to on the account of having a bit of a schedule to keep to.

We wanted to make it all the way to Idaho on the same day, but eventually stopped just before the border at Ontario to spend the night at the local Walmart Supercenter. Walmart has a huge chain of stores all around the country and in most of them they allow overnight parking free of charge, but on the Idaho side of the border the stores were all on our No-Park Walmarts list that we had downloaded on our computer. It's a useful list to have on a road trip in the States, as well as a list of Walmarts in general. That we have in the form of an app called TruckerPath, which is directed towards truck drivers and lists all Walmart location along with a whole bunch of other less useful information. The app works OK even offline, though it only gives a very inaccurate map that way.

Sleeping at a Walmart parking lot may not sound too comfortable, but it was actually quite nice. First of all it was free. Secondly, this being a Supercenter the store has a very large parking lot, so we could find a somewhat secluded spot at the back. Thirdly, since it was a Supercenter it was open 24 hours a day and thus actually provided us with more security than some campgrounds might. There are lights and security cameras and people around us all the time. And as an added bonus the toilets are also available 24/7. We have a good toilet in our RV, but the black water tank is only 17 gallons (64 liters), so we try not to use it if other options are available.

After a surprisingly good night's sleep we got back on I-84 and drove it all the way up to where it meets I-86 to Pocatello. The interstate was everything one can expect from an interstate in Idaho, meaning very dull. We passed seemingly endless stretches of empty landscapes, slowly rising towards the Rocky Mountains in a completely flat expanse of land. There wasn't much of anything of interest on the way, or at least we didn't stop to see it. We just drove and drove and drove. It was a long day, but in the end worth it, since after we got on I-15 in Pocatello we made it all the way to Idaho Falls where they had another Walmart Supercenter. We were still 107 miles away from West Yellowstone, our planned entrance to the national park, but this was as far as Walmarts went. Wyoming is the least populated state in the U.S. by area and thus there are hardly any Walmarts there. The parking lot was similar to the one in Ontario, as was the store. The problem with sleeping for free on the parking lot of a massive supermarket is that you end up buying a lot of things you otherwise might not. We haven't been doing that bad but we might have picked up a couple of items along the way… Oh well, we only have a month to go and Iceland Air is going to let us have two checked luggage per person for the same price if we want to.

And no, we didn't see anything else of these cities other than the Walmarts. We had come a long way, driving something like 700 miles (1100 km) over two days and we did it in an RV. We were tired but glad we'd made it so far. From Idaho Falls we had a manageable distance to Yellowstone to be able to make it there early enough to get a campsite in the busiest time of the year. We were hoping…