We spent a couple of nights camping in the Columbia River Gorge area bordering Oregon and Washington.. This was one of the places that Lewis and Clark explored. The rocky buttes and basalt mountains lead to a lot of twisty, up and down driving with changes in elevation. The speed limit was 65 - too fast for these curves. There is a slower historic road that goes into the forests. We found many beautiful waterfalls. I think the best was Bridal Vail Falls. I found that my trecking poles really help manage the steep hiking trails. We had the best night sky, it really looked like stardust. We drove into Portland and were thrown into CITY. We got lucky and drove into a cool area that had a gigantic REI store. Yahoo! Our bank too! We saw a group of food trucks that included homemade pot stickers. Tomorrow we go to the coast and head up to the Olympic National Park.