The next morning, I took the scenic route up Old White Bird Road, a long, steep road that had been an engineering marvel in its day. It was washed out in many places, covered only by gravel. However, because of this, not many cars were present. For the entire climb, I only saw one car. In fact, that one car pulled over to chat with me for a while.

Even though I never saw any cleanup crews, Idaho had hardly any litter on the road. Perhaps the people there were taught to pick up their things when they were little.

The fingers of modern technology seemed to be encroaching on even the most isolated heartland of America. Every farm seemed to have a satellite dish, and even the most rural general stores rented videos.

I stopped at Three Rivers campground in Lowell. It was there that a pattern began to emerge: Good SamParks, like that one, were good places to stay, with reasonable prices. KOAs, on the other hand were rip-offs. Oh, the KOAs had everything necessary for living, but they were all so commercialized.

The store was out of white gas, but I was able to get some from some campers. They wouldn’t take any money for it.