Welcome to Adobe GoLive 5

Odyssey - a long journey containing a lot of exciting or dangerous events
Dave - Family of Edwards - Skater hockey enthusiast . Manager of Oxford Blues senior team. GB national squad member

Ok Finally I can write an action packed email to keep everyone up to speed with my trip.

To start out I flew out to New York. The flight was good, long but I didn't die so that is a blessing.

As soon as I got to new York I went out and checked out the nearest rink with colleen. We ended up at Chelsea Piers an awesome sports complex with 2 ice rinks, an outdoor international size roller rink with all the trimmings and loads more stuff indoors which I wasn't too interested in (probably because it wasn't hockey). So the next day I got up really early and took the subway to battery park to catch an early ferry to Liberty island, but they were cancelled for that day which sucked big time. So here I was at 7:00 in the morning at battery park (right at the bottom of Manhattan). I decided to walk back up to the hostel.

From the park I kept seeing huge trucks hauling enormous twisted steel girders coming from ground zero. I walked up past where the trade centre was you can get a block away from it now. It was really weird walking up through there, business men in suits were walking past me wearing masks and there was an awful smell of toxins. That was really strange.

Later that day I hired some skates and skated up to Central park through Broadway and about a million pedestrians (very frustrating)! The weekend I was there was the weekend of the marathon so that was all being set up and I got to skate part of the track and through the finish line! Central park was so cool it is HUGE and filled with people running. On the way back, because of all of the pedestrians on the way I decided to take to the road racing the taxi's all of the way down Broadway to the MTV studio's where I saw Jennifer Lopez.

So I had finished with New York and headed off to Williamstown, Massachusetts a four hour bus journey into the woods.

When I arrived at Williams I put my bag down and was immediately dragged out by John and Travis to a couple of parties which were really fun I had a girl following me around all night asking me to introduce myself (with my English accent) that was funny. I got to see my first American football game, the Williams homecoming game where they played their college rivals Amherst the winner of the game placing first in the league.

When Williams won the game in overtime this charged everyone to party through until 4:00 am bearing in mind they had started partying at 9:00 am! Homecoming is one big huge party it was so much fun.

At the end of the week a group of us headed off to Boston to see the Bruins play. It was a really good game Boston won so the atmosphere was awesome.

From this I left the guy's and headed off to the hostel with the intention of sticking around and seeing the sights of Boston for a few days.

When I got to the hostel they told me they were full (I guess that was my fault for not booking ahead). I then asked for a close recommended hostel. A $20 cab ride later and I had arrived dying for some sleep at 12:30. I crept into the bed and tried to get to sleep. The beds were so squeaky that all you had to do was fart and the bed wobbles and squeaked waking everyone. I was just nodding off when the guy underneath me decided to come in blind drunk screaming and shouting "I'm f****ng dead" and "you are all going to die", jumped into bed and carried on kicking my bed and throwing stuff around. I was so tired that I tried to sleep through it, after a while it went quiet and again I was just getting to sleep when somebody realised that he had cut his throat with a knife! The hostel owner took the guy to the hostel but this didn't all finish up until 4:30 am! I then got an hour of sleep and was up an out of the hostel for 6:00 am and on a bus for Toronto by 11:00.

So I arrived after an 11 hour bus journey I found Toronto surprisingly warmer than I thought. I checked into the hostel early morning and went looking around. Toronto is HUGE I couldn't believe how big it was. Whilst there I visited the CN tower twice once in the day and the second time at night it was so much better at night! I also visited the hockey hall of fame which was awesome! I never realised how great Gretzky was until I entered his world of self glorification. This is the one for the Vikings! I hugged the Stanley cup with my Vikings shirt on and I have photo's!

Toronto can be pretty boring if you are there too long there isn't as much going on as New York but quite a few interesting touristy things. I saw the Maple Leafs play Florida Panthers in what was said to be the best game of the year! I did have crappy seats but it was still good. The second game I saw was against Carolina and managed to get a seat right behind the goal. Carolina won that night so the atmosphere wasn't as great but still these are the best athletes in the world and I can see why!

I left Toronto on Thursday night and caught an earlier flight which also supplied some more amusement for those of you safe at home.

I had planned to go to the airport a day early because I have to book in at 3:30 am so I figured I could stay there, but they wouldn't let me, but they told me I could book on to another flight as opposed to staying in a real expensive hotel so I booked another flight that was cool I got 3 seats to myself so I got to lie down BUT.. half way through the flight the stewardess' start panicking and start calling out for any doctors.

Then ANYONE with any medical background, then I see a stewardess walking round with like a surgical apron and gloves on with a blue hair cover thingy they wear in hospitals.

I never found out what happened. I never asked in fear of them telling me the captain was dead and we were all going to die!

I just got to LA last night and stayed in the crummiest nastiest dirty hostel ever. It was like some stoner's house (highly recommended in the book) the same book I threw away this morning after another, my second wonderful hostel experience and Boston.

Which brings me to now. I am staying in The Cadillac hotel on Venice beach right below Santa Monica it is very very cool here. Its right by muscle beach and in the heart of everything that's happening around here. I can now relax knowing that nobody is going to kill themselves underneath me tonight.

I think I'm going to buy some skates and skate to Malibu stopping to sleep at hostels on the way. Then back down to as far as I can go.

I hope everyone is well I apologise for not keeping in touch but I have had no access in Canada. I have now signed up to an American service and should be online sometime everyday. So stay in touch I have some cool photo's if you want to see them just ask I know people don't want to be receiving massive attachments aswell as this essay I have written.

There is the story of my life for a month I know it sounds stressful but compared to holding two jobs, coaching and training everyday of the week some days till 2:00 am this is awesome! Yes I am having the time of my life and have met some awesome people along the way!