Frank is out of the mountains and back onto the flat, heading out of Sacramento looking for the American river which will lead him to San Francisco.

Frank has had another reunion, his wife Carole has at last joined him after a delay of 5 days due to flight cancellations in the wake of the horrific attacks. Flying from Norwich to San Francisco via Amsterdam using KLM she reported a friendly atmosphere onboard, finishing her journey with bus journey for the 150 miles out to Sacramento, arriving after dark. Her first reaction to seeing him again was classic:- "it was like meeting a bewiskered highly polished oak cabinet" she said in response to his bearded, tanned and trim figure. Temperatures are again soaring up to the high 80's unlike the cool Autumnal wet East Anglia she left on Wednesday. It sounds like Carole may have difficulty keeping pace with Frank who has had nearly a 3000 mile start on her, she plans to get a skateboard and let Frank tow her along the trail. He is planning to be near, if not in the legendary goal of his 6 month walk in a week, perhaps 6 months to the day?

Frank describes Sacramento is a very pleasant city with a population of some 1/4 Million, a lot larger than some of the tiny settlements Frank has encountered during his long trek, but preserving the original centre with a continental atmosphere and pleasant parks.

The terrorist outrage of the 11th is of course not far under the surface. Although Frank has noticed the flags that were showing last week are now coming down and a lot of Americans are getting on with their normal lives, he says there is an air of expectation that something will happen this weekend. As we in the UK heard a report that the US had banned Louis Armstrong's single "Beautiful World" nationwide, Frank and Carole listened to the the president's address to congress.

We hope that all goes well for Frank and the US in the next week.