Change of Plan

I think I've decided I prefer smaller towns. Cities are too much trouble. I also really enjoyed Moose Jaw, and could have hung out there longer than the few hours I was there, except I'd promised my hitchhiker I'd take him all the way to Winnipeg. He was happy to hang around, but I felt I should get on the road at some point - especially as he'd offered to buy my lunch in the next town! I've had good experiences in small towns, whereas cities mean enforced parking restrictions, navigation problems (you don't really need a map when a town only has 3 streets...) people who get annoyed about you parking outside their house, and way too many choices of everything - you have to decide if this laundromat/auto repair shop/supermarket/whatever is the one you should go to, whereas in small towns, it's probably the only one! And in cities you can't find anything, because you have to know where it is, and you can't just drive up and down all the streets because there are too many of them. So right now I have to wash clothes and I'm thinking I'll get an oil change and tune up somewhere. But I'll wait til I'm not in Winnipeg because here I'd have to do research first. In a small town, I'll just turn up at the first auto parts store or something that I see, and ask where I should go! And then maybe meet some locals and get decent advice and all that sort of thing. People have more time in small towns, I think.

So maybe I'll stay in Canada to go to Montreal, and see the small towns along the rest of the Trans-Canada highway. the big cities of the US feel a little daunting, not to mention dull, at the moment, anyway.