Date: 2003-10-07
To: The Long Road Home
Miles today: 0.0

As I write this, my travels are truly all over - I knew this beyond doubt on Sunday when, after 234 nights away, I finally made it back to my own bed.The last few weeks have taken me on a fairly long and winding road - through many new places and eventually home.Its been a very different experience from my time spent on the trail - not just for the obvious reasons, but more because I found myself muddling through rather than plodding relentlessly on towards a clear and definable goal.Up until Katahdin the whole of my trip had followed a fairly clear, if far from detailed, plan, however, there had never seemed any point in thinking this far ahead, there were just too many question marks - mainly I didn't have a clue when I might finish or, indeed, if I would even finish at all.As it turned out the end came bit earlier than I had anticipated and now I found myself with time on my hands, untold opportunities, but no real desire to persue any of them. In many respects it often felt like I was simply going through the motions - my only real plan was that I was heading, eventually, to Toronto, but instead of being excited by the possibilities that this held I saw them more as hassles and problems to be overcome.Anyway after 2 nights in Millinocket I headed off for the bright lights of Bangor where I thought my plans, or lack of them, might start to take shape. I favoured heading straight into Canada but still didn't know if this was possible or whether I might need to head South instead.Once in Bangor I found out that I could indeed catch a bus to Toronto via New Brunswick and Montreal so as I lounged around doing little more than eating, resting up and watching TV I decided to head to Fredericton, New Brunswick and see what it was like.As it turned out it was a really nice little place, with a bit of an older feel, some history and quite lively, as it was a university town with lots of restaurants and bars. During my 3 days there I tried to come up with some great plans and seriously looked into doing another walk along the Bay of Fundy and up towards Moncton. For a while I even managed to fool myself that I would actually do it, but it was obvious that my heart wasn't in it and I decided instead to head straight for Toronto.On the way I stopped for 1 night in Edmunston, New Brunswick which was interesting as it was French Canadian with French being the language of choice for the locals. One day was enough though and he next day saw me on the overnight bus to Toronto where I was going to catch up with an old friend.Toronto was again mainly eating, resting up and watching TV only this time I did a bit of strolling around, drinking and listening to CDs as well and even managed an excursions to Niagra Falls, which was very different from what I expected - good, impressive, beautiful, but not exactly in the setting that I had expected; and a trip to see Tom Russell play at a local bar - he was very good, probably the best thing I've seen on spec for some time.Next stop was back to the UK to spend a week in London at my sisters, one night at my parents in Stonehaven and eventually on Sunday back to sunny old Aberdeen.