New York, New York.

We arrived in New York with a long list of things we wanted to see and a very definite schedule. We find ourselves sitting at this computer still with a very long list of things to see. We both love New York and highly recommend that you all come and visit.

We were lucky enough to be welcomed into the home of Mrs J. in Brooklyn, right next to an F line subway station. Thank you to both Mrs J. and Michael J. for organising this for us. It was great to have space in an apartment to ourselves and the local knowledge from Mrs J. She seems to know every single street and subway station in the city.

We spent the first two days riding the big red bus around the city, taking in sights like the empire state building, Wall st, ground zero, south st pier, Harlem, Chinatown, Little Italy, SOHO and everything else you've ever heard of. Our tickets included a night tour of Manhattan. It was impressive to see the skyline and Times Square at night.

We spent Wednesday wandering the streets before going to see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. We had dinner at Red Lobster near Times Square.

We decided to duck out of US territory for lunch on Thursday and headed to UN plaza which is officially international territory. We saw the security council chamber as well as the general assembly. The UN even has its own postage system complete with international postage stamps.

Today is Friday and we've just visited the Guggenheim museum and the metropolitan museum of art. They are both huge and impressive. We capped off our day with a stroll through Central Park and dinner in a restaurant where none of the staff spoke English.

Tomorrow we fly to London. We'll only be there for a day before we head to Portugal.

Washington D.C. (again)

After four nights in Millinocket, it was time to join the real world again and head to Boston. We traded our zipoff pants for jeans and jumped on a bus heading south. No more hiker discounts. No more hitch-hiking. No more eating out of eskies (coolers) left on the side of the road. No more pints of ice cream. Needless to say, we were going to have a hard time adjusting.

We spent three nights in Boston and saw... nothing. We basically just relaxed in the hostel before heading to Washington to do the tourist thing.

One thing we discover in Boston was that it was possible to get to Washington for only $35 (greyhound was about $80). One of our fellow hikers told us about the Chinatown buses, a group of bus lines that travel between major cities on the East cost for a fraction of the price of the more major lines. The only difference is that these buses stop in the Chinatown district. We arrived at the address from where the bus was supposed to leave, but it was deserted. There was not a bus in sight. We rounded the next corner to be ambushed by a group of street vendors from different bus companies. They were all yelling, "twenty dollar! twenty dollar!" but even when we asked would not tell us where the bus was going. We eventually handed over $40 and again asked where the bus was heading. "This way!" and we were shoved on a bus none the wiser as to its destination.

Six hours later we arrived in DC and we were quite proud of the success of our budget traveling. We made our way to the hostel and were surprised to find that our room had been upgraded from a 12 person dorm to a 4 person dorm. Things were shaping up well for Washington. We headed across the road to the nearest pub and ate the money that we'd saved on busses.

We saw all the essential tourist attractions that we'd missed on our first visit to Washington; Arlington cemetery (Kennedy graves, tomb of the unknowns and Gen. Robert E Lee's house.), the presidential memorials, various war memorials, the Holocaust museum and the spy museum.

We jumped on the train to Pennsylvania and met up with Mark and Karen. It was great to see them again and we spent three relaxing days in their home and exploring Downingtown. Mike even got a haircut!

Finally it was off to New York.

Katahdin, Baxter State Park

You know you're a thru-hiker when... You've just walked 2174.6 miles in just under 5 1/2 months and stood on top of Mt Katahdin

We got out of the car back at the trailhead after three nights in Bethel just as Donkey (love) and Hot Springs came wandering across the road. They were the first other hikers that we'd seen in a couple of weeks. We could almost smell Mt Katahdin in the distance, but every time we were promised a view of Katahdin over the next few weeks it was raining, cold and we could barely see our hands in front of our faces.

Between Bethel and Andover (the last 220 miles of the trail) we managed to stop in every town along the way; hamburgers in Caratunk, shoe shopping in Rangely and sleeping on the floor in an overcrowded hostel in Stratton. We finally made it to Monson, the last town-stop before the 100 mile wilderness (114.5 miles to go).

We'd been warned that there was not much in Monson - just a general store and a few places to eat. What it lacked in size, it made up for in small town charm. Within a few minutes the general store owner knew us on a first name basis and was inviting us over for breakfast the next morning (home farmed eggs). He also invited us to his store after hours for a bluegrass jam session. We stopped by that evening and the store was crowded. The music was fantastic. Basically anyone who could play was invited to have a go. They do it every Friday night, so if you're ever in Monson don't be afraid to drop by.

After an enormous Breakfast, we hit the trail with the aim of summiting Katahdin seven days later. We'd always intended to run through the 100 mile wilderness but we also spent lots of time relaxing next to lakes looking for that elusive moose. We'd heard that there were lots of hikers walking around us and planning to summit on the same day.

The 100 mile wilderness is not quite as wild as it used to be. There were numerous road crossings every day and you could frequently hear large trucks in the background and motor boats on the lakes, although we have to admit that it was still very beautiful.

Our first view of Katahdin came two days before we were due to summit. There were about thirty trail miles left to go, but it looked like we could reach out and touch it.

We met up with Baro, Jangles, H-Bomb, Shasta, Mouse, Hot Springs, Donkey, Cash, Lifesaver , Snuffy, Jellybean and the Jersey Boys. (3 of them) just as we left the 100 mile wilderness. They were all planning to summit the same day as us.

At the ranger station at Katahdin Stream campground, we were given a number for the thru-hiker we were that year. We were numbers 210 and 211, but we still had 5.2 miles to go until the Katahdin summit. We'd heard of several people who'd injured themselves between here and the end. That night we had a spaghetti cookup hosted by Mouse's parents who'd driven all the way from Alabama.

We summited on the 8th of September at 10:44 am, which makes Cat the winner of our little competition with a guess of 10:43 am. Half way up the mountain we joked that it would be funny if someone guessed the exact time. It wasn't until we got into town that we realised just how close Cat's guess was. We thought she'd guessed 10:40 (sorry Cat, that's what the postcard says).

It was Friday evening when we arrived in Millinocket, the closest town to the end of the trail. We were eager to pick up our real town clothes (jeans etc) from the Post office, but we arrived 10 minutes after the post office closed:-( It was like the night before Christmas. We were trying to go to sleep so that the morning would arrive sooner. Unfortunately we were still on hiker time and woke at 6 the next morning, 3 hours before the post office opened.

We got there just as they unlocked the door and handed our ID to the clerk and smiled apologetically and told him we had a few boxes waiting. We wondered why he muttered under his breath, "just a few, huh?!?" He turned to the letter pigeon hole behind him and began counting as he pulled them out... 1... 2... 3... 4... Next he came out with our clothes boxes. We thanked him and began to leave as he was turning his back again. He came back with two more boxes and again we tried to leave. This time he said, "you'd better make yourselves comfortable." Eventually we ended up leaving the post office with 9 boxes and 4 letters.

Our parents had sent us the usual supply of Tim-tams, vegemite, stuffed toys and miscellaneous newspaper clippings. Thanks for keeping us refueled throughout the hike and giving us a way to mess with American tastebuds (see photo of Cash trying Vegemite earlier in this blog).

The next one was a pleasant surprise. We'd jokingly said to our friends, "We'll be here in about a month. Send us a package if you want." Bel, Cat, Pete, Im and Will sent us birthday and congratulatory presents. Thanks guys Zan says, "It's great to wear real pj's for a change." Mike says, "I've been helping old ladies cross the road." Zan says, "I really have to stop Mike from running down the street in his Superman underwear!"

We finally got to the last letter and read...

Dear Michael and Roseanne,

Congratulations. By now you should be in Millinocket, Maine...

Yours Sincerely,

(insert signature here)

John Howard MP
Member for Bennelong
Prime Minister of Australia

We're now kickin' back in the thriving metropolis of Millinocket deciding where we want to go next...