We planned to travel through the USA and hit Mexico fairly quickly so as not to spend too much money in the states ($1 US goes a lot further in Central America than in the US). We travelled through Washington, picking up groceries along the way (we have set ourselves a goal of spending only $20 US on food for the whole 4 or 5 days that we will be in the US). Hmm – let’s see…some Mr. Noodles, some Kraft dinner, some bread and peanut butter, some more Kraft dinner…and so on! We hit Oregon and travelled to the coast where we arrived at Nehalem Bay State Park after dark. It was an amazingly clear night and the stars were so unbelievably bright. We headed off for a short walk over the sand dunes to the beach before crashing for the night.