First of all, thanks everyone for all the messages. I’d love to message you all back individually but am paying for computer time by the minute, and I want to go and explore. But dont worry, I’m sure I’ll spend plenty of time telling you all my stories when I get home. Over and over again, of course.

So I’ve just arrived in Chicago and am checking out my hostel. I’ve never stayed in a hostel before and was a bit nervous because I’ve heard so many horror stories- but it’s awesome here!! The 4 girls on the trek are all in the same room (I didn’t shotgun a bottom bunk quickly enough so unfortunately am on the top- no getting drunk for me!). The hostel is absolutely huge- there’s a floor with a kitchen and a common room and computers, and we get free continental breakfast here… woop.  In about an hour we’re going on a bike tour of Chicago, it’s drizzling but who cares? And then think we’re gonna go out drinking. Yay. And tomorrow we’re free to explore, I’ve heard Navy Pier is good and you can hire inline skates round Millenium park, so think I’ll check those out.

So since my last post we have left bear country. We were disappointed that we didn’t see any bears, but it’s nice to be able to sleep with our stuff in our tents before- the national park camp sites were really strict and we had to have all our bags in the trailer. They had some really strange rules there too, one of my favourites was ‘no food allowed in tents OR sleeping bag’ (damn, I always keep a sandwich under my pillow) and it is illegal to imitate a wolf or coyote noise.

Yesterday and today have mostly just been really long drive days- 10 hours yesterday (and I had a hangover) and 8(ish) today. But the day before we were in the Badlands national park- the scenery there was amazing, but the best thing was we got to stay in a lodge. I really appreciated a bed after 10 nights straight of camping. And there was another trek group in the lodge too, so we got together in the evening and played loads of drinking games (hence my hangover). And in the afternoon I had one of the most terrifying experiences of my life when I went on a sunset horse ride, and had no control over my horse, Chance, who wnated to go down the steepest bits of the hill rather then stay to the path. Ok, most terrifying was probably a bit of an exageration. It was mostly just funny.   

I now only have 4 nights of my trek left- 2 in Chicago, one in Ohio and one by Niagra falls, and cant believe how quickly it’s going. I’ll be home a week today, after a couple of days in New York! So anyway, I’m going to go explore, and I’ll update when I can, probably in the big apple.