America...F Yeah.

We stayed in SaintJohn one night and to be honest I think that's all that's needed. We took Lindsay, our waitress' advice and didn't really wander the town at night or talk to any suspicious looking locals. Apparently St John is not the safest place for two young ladies.
Parts of it were very industrial and most of it is built on a hill (surprise!). The houses have a bit of a Newfoundland feel but the newfounland warmth is not really there. But I am glad I saw it and think it does deserve a little more exploration.
We did go to one site on our way out of town.... The majestic Reversing Falls!!! I pictured waterfalls going upstream, sort oflike salmon, but it was an illusion created by water currents and tides. It's always those tides!
We drove and drove and drove, well I did t Jocelyn did until we reached St Stephen, the last Canadian town before crossi g into the States....I don't think muh happens in St Stephen... Ever. They do have a large infor centrefull of new Brunswick info (and for some reason the gift shop in the pharmacy sold Anne of green gables touristy stuff) I get the feeling not many people stop at the tourist centre except to use the bathroom as the lady there was so eagerto tell us anything we could ever want to know! She did tell usabout a new border crossing though which was very helpful.

K, whoa america, you need to chill out! What's with all the cameras?!? Anyway we crossed with no issues (we still have those illegal apples!) andmade our way through Maine ( the Way Life Should Be apparantly). Can we talk recession for a minute?! It's pretty easy driving through these small towns to see who was hit pretty hard I think. A lot of empty buildings and houses. It may not be because of the current economic climat imnot really sure.
We drove through Banghor Maine which we continually mispronounced but the town is not very big so it was okay.
We were told at dinner that New Hampsire was approximatly four hours away. Now I had a funny feeling this was wrong... When I cculated the drive from st john to Montreal it said it was approx 11 hours, we'd already been driving for6 hours so itwas only 5 ish hours to Montreal so NH could not havebeen 4 hours away, plus it was clearly not 4 hours away given the distance on the map. Small town Americans need to work on their geography....
We reached NH, luckily we saw the small sign or I would have had no idea. Live Free or Die is NHs slogAn on their license plate.... Somehow I think I'll stick with Yours to Discover... I think it has a less threatning, no dying vibe to it.
Anyway the mountains and lanscape in Maine and NH are fantastic. We rolled into Gorham around 7 and started looking for somewhere to stay and decided in the Town and Country Inn, it was pretty great and had a pool open until 11 so we were down. Gorham was a funny place, I feel like they film slot of murdermysteries, horror or Csi episodes there. Maybe it's because we were there mostly in the dark, but it had a very distinct feeling to it I liked it. However no one could tell us why mt Washington or mt vernon were popular, except for the fact that they're mountains. We packed up and drove the half an hour drive across the northern part of nh and we were in Vermont. No stopping and we hit the border!!! Yay!!!
Before I get to the border though I have a few questions for my American friends. I would like to better understand you:
1. What's with the bridge sitting? Every bridge we passed at least two teenage boys were just hangin out on the bridge. Now maybe I just don't notice them here or maybe I don't see a lot of bridges but it seemed fairly frequent and obvious in the states.
2. Do you really need that many flags? I'm all for flag waving and yes since the Olympic Canadian have become more flag wavingesque, but really? On EVERY powerpole ? You could probably cut back on the flag budget and save yourself a lot of money. I would still understand where I was.
3. So many really small cemeteries. Why? I mean REALLY small

So we crossed the border and I don't know why but Jocelyn and I agreed that it doesn't even matter how long you've been outside of Canada, it's almost a relief when you cross the border and see the bilingual signs. We'd only been gone inthink 24 hours but it's always great to come home.
Don't get me wrong or start sending me hate mail, the states are great and have a lot to offer but there is something about cross Into home, maybe it's the " hello bonjour" greeting at the desk or something, I'm sure Americans feel the same in reverse.

We blasted Klassified (I'm from Canada oh oh oh Canada) as we drove I to Qc! 
We hit Montreal around 230 and stopped for some eats in old montreal before we met up with Sofia to play baseball at mcgill!

All in all a pretty sucessful few days driving! Were here in Montreal today and then my east coast portion is done so soon! But more to come from the west soon enough.

If you find yourself bored at work or school and want a quick getaway in late aug or september you know where to find me!

Have a great day!
Kate