eugene

i am at a hostel in eugene tonight i am in a dorm room.

i went to the top of the space needle in seattle this morning - it was foggy and i couldn't see much but the fog raised after about 1/2 hr. candice recommended a tour in seattle that was fantastic.

i got lost trying to get to the hostel i am in a really bad mood

going to eureka tomorrow it is a 7 hr drive. atleast i have a hotel waiting at the other end

later

sarah

seattle

hi all

i wanna come home!!! i am getting really homesick and tired and lonely - its a week from today until i get on the plane but i wont be home til friday cant wait

seattle is very nice i would recommend seattle as well.

i met up with candice last night for dinner in vancouver - thanx for the directions mum. it took me a lot longer to get there than i thought but only because i left seattle at peak hour and was trying to get out of the city with everyone else and i had to wait in line at the usa-canada border for atleast half an hour. i ended up being an hour late. dinner was nice and it was good to meet up with someone i know. i didn't end up leaving vancouver until midnight and i got lost on the way back so i didn't make it back to the hostel until 330am. vancouver is a bit scary - there are lots of homeless ppl on the streets could have been the part of town we were in though.

today i went for a drive around seattle it is a nice place then i went to see a movie. tomorrow i am going to see the space needle on the way out of the city.

the hostel here is nice it is the best hostel yet and would probably be nicer than some of the hotels. except that there is no parking - there is metered parking on the street but it starts being metered at 8am.

later

sarah

Spokane

I didn't have access to a computer last night so i will write about butte now

I was staying in a period b&b. it was fantastic. it had some great chandeliers. i have some photos but this computer wont let my upload anything. the lady at the b&b suggested a walking tour of the town but as it was really cold i drove it instead. I also drove up to the look out. it was kinda scary. it was on a dirt road that was covered in ice and snow - but it was fun. i had my first encounter with ice on the road yesterday. i was driving up a side street and started slipping on the ice it was very scary but after the first time i was able to do it easily. the lady at the b&b gave me a personal tour of the b&b which was a 1890s mansion. it was really good.

The drive today was not at all boring. the road was all wet and it started to snow. its not hard to drive in the snow just annoying - it blows horizonatally into the windscreen but doesn't have enough water in it to require the windscreen wipers. it just cuts the visablity. today i drove out of the mountains. it was very steeply downhill. i didn't realise just how high up i was as i have been climbing very slowly through vallies. today i descended the whole lot in an hour. it was fun driving fast down the windy mountain. the road was really good so everyone was still doing 80 miles/hr (approx 130-140kph) the wet road and the snow just made it more interesting.

i am supposed to be meeting with candice tomorrow but i havent heard from her since last week and i dont know how to contact her - grrrrrrrrrr.

also i forgot to complain about the hotel in billings - some idiot pulled the fire alarm at 3am in the morning - everyone had to get up and wait outside while the fire brigade checked the place out. it was very cold outside at 3 in the morning.

any way i dont have anything else to write

sarah

Billings

I am now in montana. montana is much more picturesque than wyoming. i had a short drive today through what i thought would be mountains but it is just paddocks with the occaisional hill. i drove next and around the mountains but not through them. it is colder here. i think that it is quite elevated here which is why it is so cold. i am staying in another hotel tonight. none of the lights work in the room but that is the same as all the hotels. only one lamp works.

I hope that mark is enjoying my nice comfy bed!!

I sent a postcard from NY - have you recieved it yet?

there is nothing else interesting to say today

sarah

1) this is a picture of the hire car if anyone is interested - it is a saturn ion

2) this is where is stayed in denver - it was someones house. all the houses are old and the upstairs floor squeaks lots and loudly

3) garden of the gods - colorado springs

Casper

Hi all

sorry i didnt write much in denver. the hostel i was staying in had its private rooms in some lady's house. she didn't have a communal computer so i was using her personal laptop. denver was very nice. the weather was great - something like 10 degrees c! I visited the main shopping mall - its kind of like the burke st mall with shops and resturants lining the street. i had a very nice meal at a chinese resturant. entree, main, dessert and 2 burbons and coke for $30 and it was an actual resturant!

this morning i went to colorado springs and the garden of the gods. it was a long way out of the way (south 1hr when i should have been going north) but it was very nice. it is some very impressive rock monoliths.

i am currently in casper, wyoming. it took a long time to get here because of my detour. the parts of wyoming that i have seen are not very interesting - grass, grass and more grass. i think that they have cattle on the farms but it is kind of hard to tell as there are lots and lots of paddocks with nothing in them but grass. there is the occassional cow.

i have been having trouble getting more credit for my phone - they dont call it 'mobile phone credit' here but i dont know what they do call it so noone seems to know what i am looking for.

mum - thanx for talking to bax hill for me

claire - it is nice to know that im not the only one to forget about different time zones. how was the honey moon?

hope your all having a good time and that the weather is nice - it is going to be 70 here tomorrow!

later

sarah

Denver

Denver is really fantastic.i really should have taken more time here. i am staying at a hostel

i will write more tomorrow there is a queue for the computer

sarah