Route: Goulburn to Melbourne by the Hume Highway
Distance: 740 km (460 mi)
Both yesterday and today, I was quite disheartened to pass the occasional sign that said Tourist Route N [where N is some number between 1 and 12 - although I’ve not seen routes 1 or 2 or 10, but I can only expect they exist as I’ve seen all other numbers up to 12]. But, as the priority was to get home, I have resigned to attempt to drive them another day.
So today was the big push to get home. Google estimated the drive to take about 8 hours. I made it in about 7. Fortunately there was very little traffic, and I was in the driving zone, so we made good time. And I didn’t even speed by that much. I would say I averaged about +8km, and the speed limit was mostly 110.
As an aside, perhaps it is because of the car being so small and all, or perhaps it is due the psychological aspect of being raised in mph where 3 digits was really fast, but every time I approach 100 kph, I have a hard time going much faster. Folks, 100kph is only 60mph. That’s like a turtle’s pace for back home. But here, most people abide by the speed limit pretty well, and 100 or 110 is pretty common for the upper limit. And personally, after I get to about 120, I don’t like to go much faster …
Anyways, Goulburn was a surprisingly large town [population ~24,000], but it had a much smaller-town feel. And it worked. By the time Ruthie and I got up slightly after the sun, and went for a walk down ¾ of the main business strip, the town was bustlin’. During our walk, we found a rather large secondhand shop, where this old Italian lady talked Ruthie’s ear off - but not for naught, as we learned of a fantastic place to grab breakfast. [She also judged us for staying at the Astor - the pub - motel last night, but whatever.]
Goulburn also featured a humongous two- or three-story sheep. It was a merino wool store and museum. We parked behind the balls and took pictures under it’s quadruple chin. Good times.
We left the sunshine behind us, which is kind of bittersweet. Sure, we were starting to bake pretty good a couple hours into our trip [I even managed to sunburn the top of my right knee from the sun beating in through the slightly rolled down window], so when we drove into the cloud cover, it cooled things down a bit. But now that we’re back and it’s rainy, it’s bittersweet to miss the hot sunshine.
So, yeah, we’ve made it back home safe. Our apartment was still standing - no outlets that were left on went crazy. I didn’t pull an Edward Norton in Fight Club and detonate my own apartment via my alter ego while gone. And we even were productive upon arrival: unpacked everything, sorted clothing, and Ruthie started laundry.
Tomorrow’s agenda: nothing. Ahh, that’s great to hear.
-EP
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Road trip to Sydney - day five (return day one)
Route: Sydney to Goulburn by way of the Hume Highway
Distance: 195 km (121 mi)
This morning started off in the luxury that my middle-class Marriott budget can afford. We wallowed a bit in our beds after the sun woke us with its bright rays reaching the 20th floor early in the morning. Then a quick trip to the gym, and an awesome buffet, and we were out to start our day.
Except that our day really had only one thing planned: a harbour cruise that started at 2.30p. And it was only 12. So Ruthie and I killed some time by walking a few blocks down the street to check out this “motorcycle superstore” we’d seen from the top of the hop-on bus yesterday. I tried on some jackets and a bunch of helmets, while Ruthie drooled over riding boots and bought some new gloves. I also picked up the oil and coolant necessary to get my motorbike running again once we get home.
After an easy trip on the free tourist bus down to the Circle Quay [pronounced “key”], we found our correct pier and started the wait for our boat.
Sure we saw the Opera House and the Coat Hanger [as they call their famous bridge] the first time we were in town, but it was kinda cool just to sit in between them for a while and relax. Then, of course, once the boat arrived, and we perched ourselves up top, we were treated to some killer views of both landmarks. We were also shown roughly where Mr. Crowe resides, where Ms. Kidman used to live with Tom Cruise, and quite a few other luxury properties. Of course, not to be outdone by the eight-figure properties were the stupid expensive yachts parked in all the various piers around the harbour.
Upon concluding our wonderful afternoon on the water, we hightailed it back to our car to rush out into Sydney traffic. Much like any other over populated city, we crawled along, going about 20km in an hour, as we started to feel our stomachs grumble again.
What turned into a random exit from the main road in order to fill up the gas tank ended up with an even more random trip to a Chinese place that had quite excellent food - and it didn’t even break the bank. Seriously, dinner was half the price of breakfast.
Today also marked the first time in this trip that we’ve actually done any driving at night. We have decided that we are tired of spending money and are ready to head home, so we’re making the straight shot via the inland route, Hume Highway, to Melbourne. Our goal was to reach Goulburn tonight, so that we had a mere 8 hours [longest actual driving stretch of the trip] ahead of us tomorrow.
Mission accomplished, and I even managed to talk Ruthie and Lorraine into ignoring their “sense of adventure“ and staying at someplace that wasn‘t called the Cockroach Motorlodge. Okay, maybe “cockroach“ wasn‘t in its name, but the way I looked at it, it might as well have been. Yet, at this point, I can still hear the music from the bar downstairs slightly through the window - so not perfect by any means.
So one more day, and then home, sweet, Melbourne. Although, now we have a new thing to worry about when we get there: the fuel gauge is acting quite bizarre. The random pull off to a petrol station was prompted by the fact that the trip odometer was only at 85km and yet the fuel meter was sitting at E. As we pulled into the station, the needle dropped past E and then moved up to about a quarter tank. Something’s fishy …
-EP
Distance: 195 km (121 mi)
This morning started off in the luxury that my middle-class Marriott budget can afford. We wallowed a bit in our beds after the sun woke us with its bright rays reaching the 20th floor early in the morning. Then a quick trip to the gym, and an awesome buffet, and we were out to start our day.
Except that our day really had only one thing planned: a harbour cruise that started at 2.30p. And it was only 12. So Ruthie and I killed some time by walking a few blocks down the street to check out this “motorcycle superstore” we’d seen from the top of the hop-on bus yesterday. I tried on some jackets and a bunch of helmets, while Ruthie drooled over riding boots and bought some new gloves. I also picked up the oil and coolant necessary to get my motorbike running again once we get home.
After an easy trip on the free tourist bus down to the Circle Quay [pronounced “key”], we found our correct pier and started the wait for our boat.
Sure we saw the Opera House and the Coat Hanger [as they call their famous bridge] the first time we were in town, but it was kinda cool just to sit in between them for a while and relax. Then, of course, once the boat arrived, and we perched ourselves up top, we were treated to some killer views of both landmarks. We were also shown roughly where Mr. Crowe resides, where Ms. Kidman used to live with Tom Cruise, and quite a few other luxury properties. Of course, not to be outdone by the eight-figure properties were the stupid expensive yachts parked in all the various piers around the harbour.
Upon concluding our wonderful afternoon on the water, we hightailed it back to our car to rush out into Sydney traffic. Much like any other over populated city, we crawled along, going about 20km in an hour, as we started to feel our stomachs grumble again.
What turned into a random exit from the main road in order to fill up the gas tank ended up with an even more random trip to a Chinese place that had quite excellent food - and it didn’t even break the bank. Seriously, dinner was half the price of breakfast.
Today also marked the first time in this trip that we’ve actually done any driving at night. We have decided that we are tired of spending money and are ready to head home, so we’re making the straight shot via the inland route, Hume Highway, to Melbourne. Our goal was to reach Goulburn tonight, so that we had a mere 8 hours [longest actual driving stretch of the trip] ahead of us tomorrow.
Mission accomplished, and I even managed to talk Ruthie and Lorraine into ignoring their “sense of adventure“ and staying at someplace that wasn‘t called the Cockroach Motorlodge. Okay, maybe “cockroach“ wasn‘t in its name, but the way I looked at it, it might as well have been. Yet, at this point, I can still hear the music from the bar downstairs slightly through the window - so not perfect by any means.
So one more day, and then home, sweet, Melbourne. Although, now we have a new thing to worry about when we get there: the fuel gauge is acting quite bizarre. The random pull off to a petrol station was prompted by the fact that the trip odometer was only at 85km and yet the fuel meter was sitting at E. As we pulled into the station, the needle dropped past E and then moved up to about a quarter tank. Something’s fishy …
-EP
Monday, October 24, 2011
Road trip to Sydney - day four
Route: Wollongong to Sydney by way of the Grand Pacific Drive
Distance: 95 km (59 mi)
Following up on the bizarre mood last night, we almost didn’t make it into Sydney. I was torn: while I felt like the closer we got to Sydney, the further I wanted to be from a big city, I had a hard time letting go of how anti-climactic it would be to drive all this way and not actually come into Sydney. So after we waffled a bit, Ruthie finally made the judgement call to come on into the city. After having failed to get on the internet from the hotel in Wollongong, we eventually stopped at a Macca’s for a bite and some free wi-fi, where we booked a room at the other Marriott in Sydney [at the time, I’d forgotten there were two], and started planning our time in the city.
We actually left Wollongong at a decent hour - a much earlier start than the previous day. Which enabled us to meander just a bit as we finished our drive along the Grand Pacific Drive [we stopped for a bit at the Sky Bridge], and get into the city with plenty of time to do something this afternoon.
We got into our hotel, got settled, and booked a hop-on-hop-off tour bus trip, where we only hopped on and hopped off once - at the hotel - and set ourselves up for a harbour cruise tomorrow afternoon.
The bus tour was pretty good. We sat in the upper seats, had a good audio tour, saw some sights, sat in traffic, and killed the afternoon pretty well.
Then we decided we’d go to dinner. And what better place to go, than to Outback Steakhouse. Turns out, despite my original impression that all the ones in Australia were only located in Sydney, it was actually a bit of a drive out to one of the suburbs to get to it. Of course, the drive was made worse by the traffic and the fact that I made one wrong turn, and it took 25 minutes to correct because of said traffic. But eventually we got there, and we stuffed ourselves like the Americans that we are.
First, with the exception of a few of the sides [beetroot, for example], and the units [250g instead of 9oz], the menu was just about the same. And it was the first restaurant at which we’ve had American style service, where the hostess greeted us, seated us, and the waiter was there within minutes. I would have to say that the food wasn’t nearly the same as the Outback back home. I had the special, and it while it was tasty, it just wasn’t quite as flavourful. Ruthie had her filet, and had the same comment. Plus, they don’t have A1 or any steak sauce, so Ruthie was missing out on that. The mashed potatoes were still damned good though. And t he bread was just as tasty. Unfortunately, they don’t let you pick two sides, and you have to pick soup or salad as one of your sides, so we all got a little salad. I totally agree with Ruthie: I think I missed ranch dressing. No dessert - we were way too full.
Back at the hotel, I made full use of the internet, stalked some people on FB, sent an email or two, and looked up Kindle Support, and phoned in the issue. Ruthie will have a new Kindle in a couple weeks, and then all will be right in her world again. They covered the replacement entirely, so all we have to do is get Ruthie a new skin to replace the one she’ll lose when we send the broken Kindle back.
As I wrap this up, I will close by saying, I’m glad Ruthie pulled the trigger and we got here. Sure, it’s the most expensive part of our trip, but we expected that, and sure it’s a bit chaotic dealing with a foreign city, but it’s been fun. Plus, the view from our 20th floor room is pretty good [not as awesome as the view from our first night here where we looked over the Opera House, but still good].
-EP
Distance: 95 km (59 mi)
Following up on the bizarre mood last night, we almost didn’t make it into Sydney. I was torn: while I felt like the closer we got to Sydney, the further I wanted to be from a big city, I had a hard time letting go of how anti-climactic it would be to drive all this way and not actually come into Sydney. So after we waffled a bit, Ruthie finally made the judgement call to come on into the city. After having failed to get on the internet from the hotel in Wollongong, we eventually stopped at a Macca’s for a bite and some free wi-fi, where we booked a room at the other Marriott in Sydney [at the time, I’d forgotten there were two], and started planning our time in the city.
We actually left Wollongong at a decent hour - a much earlier start than the previous day. Which enabled us to meander just a bit as we finished our drive along the Grand Pacific Drive [we stopped for a bit at the Sky Bridge], and get into the city with plenty of time to do something this afternoon.
We got into our hotel, got settled, and booked a hop-on-hop-off tour bus trip, where we only hopped on and hopped off once - at the hotel - and set ourselves up for a harbour cruise tomorrow afternoon.
The bus tour was pretty good. We sat in the upper seats, had a good audio tour, saw some sights, sat in traffic, and killed the afternoon pretty well.
Then we decided we’d go to dinner. And what better place to go, than to Outback Steakhouse. Turns out, despite my original impression that all the ones in Australia were only located in Sydney, it was actually a bit of a drive out to one of the suburbs to get to it. Of course, the drive was made worse by the traffic and the fact that I made one wrong turn, and it took 25 minutes to correct because of said traffic. But eventually we got there, and we stuffed ourselves like the Americans that we are.
First, with the exception of a few of the sides [beetroot, for example], and the units [250g instead of 9oz], the menu was just about the same. And it was the first restaurant at which we’ve had American style service, where the hostess greeted us, seated us, and the waiter was there within minutes. I would have to say that the food wasn’t nearly the same as the Outback back home. I had the special, and it while it was tasty, it just wasn’t quite as flavourful. Ruthie had her filet, and had the same comment. Plus, they don’t have A1 or any steak sauce, so Ruthie was missing out on that. The mashed potatoes were still damned good though. And t he bread was just as tasty. Unfortunately, they don’t let you pick two sides, and you have to pick soup or salad as one of your sides, so we all got a little salad. I totally agree with Ruthie: I think I missed ranch dressing. No dessert - we were way too full.
Back at the hotel, I made full use of the internet, stalked some people on FB, sent an email or two, and looked up Kindle Support, and phoned in the issue. Ruthie will have a new Kindle in a couple weeks, and then all will be right in her world again. They covered the replacement entirely, so all we have to do is get Ruthie a new skin to replace the one she’ll lose when we send the broken Kindle back.
As I wrap this up, I will close by saying, I’m glad Ruthie pulled the trigger and we got here. Sure, it’s the most expensive part of our trip, but we expected that, and sure it’s a bit chaotic dealing with a foreign city, but it’s been fun. Plus, the view from our 20th floor room is pretty good [not as awesome as the view from our first night here where we looked over the Opera House, but still good].
-EP
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Road trip to Sydney - day three
Route: Batemans Bay to Wollongong by way of the Grand Pacific Drive
Distance: 288 km (141 mi)
We went 800km from Melbourne [and 10,000 miles from home] just to play mini golf. Seriously though, we’ve seen a couple mini golf places here and there, and we’d been itching to play. So we had the place nearly to ourselves [one other family for part of the time], and it was actually a decent course even with the lack of moving parts. After a trip to Vinnies [a secondhand store, which landed me a new shirt and a couple cheap books - where cheap, secondhand books in this instance are $3 as opposed to new paperbacks being $30], the car wash [there was an incident involving a coffee sitting on a curb when I was parking that resulted with lots of splashing over the bonnet], the petrol station for topping off on both fuel and oil [noticed that the oil was a bit low before we left], we hit the road.
But not before we got pulled over for a random breathalyzer test. At two in the afternoon. I had heard that Australia pulls no punches when it comes time to test drivers randomly. However, I didn’t think I would have to drive to a different state to get tested. Needless to say, I passed with flying colours!
The morning started off with a jog and a nice trip around the corner to a café for breakfast on the water. Aside from the sunburn, you couldn’t ask for a nicer morning. I don’t know when it happened, but somewhere along the line, Ruthie got me - who likes his eggs scrambled, hard - to start liking eggs benedict. So this morning was eggs benedict over wilted spinach with smoked ham.
Heading out of Batemans Bay, we lost touch with the tourist routes but managed to find the Grand Pacific Drive, which has kept us off the main highway and in and out of coastline towns. Just by looking out the window, you can feel that we’re getting closer to a big city. Towns are getting closer together, and are more populated each time. Traffic today was much heavier than it was yesterday.
Additionally, it seems like as we get closer to more people, Ruthie and I are a bit more tense. Perhaps it’s just the fact that we’ve been cooped up in a car for such long periods of time with each other [and Lorraine]. Or maybe it’s something bigger. I’m not smart enough to figure that one out …
We got to see a heard of kangaroos by the roadside today. Most importantly for the girls was the momma ‘roos with their joeys poking out of the pouches. Lorraine was happy like a pig in shit.
Oh! I forgot to mention yesterday’s big score for Ruthie. We wandered the main street of Eden for a bit in the morning, and found ourselves drawn into the discount store by kitschy Japanese stuff. So after spending a solid 20 minutes sifting through all the fun stuff, we finally tore ourselves away and wandered the rest of the aisles. The next thing I know, Ruthie’s got a “garden wombat” tucked under her arm. Ya know those monochromatic figures of wildlife with which some people like to populate their garden? Well, now our garden [and in the mean time, our apartment balcony] will have a wombat. [The lady ringing us up said they were pests - same could be said for squirrels, though, right?]
Speaking of Oh! moments - here’s a fun one: Ruthie opened one of the bedside drawers in the hotel room tonight as we were getting settled, and found a rolled up 5 dollar bill. And sure enough, there was a white powder on the inside! Tempting as it might have been, though, I washed it, and am now trying to flatten out the note in case the crease and curve are telltale signs.
Another indication we’re approaching a big city: the prices of things are going up. Sure we’re staying on a golf course hotel, but it’s actually the cheapest one in this town [that we could find easily]. Frustratingly, we’re supposed to have internet, but after the wi-fis downstairs weren’t working and I can’t get the hardline to cooperate either, it looks like we’re outta luck.
Tomorrow, we try our luck at finding cool stuff in Sydney that everyone can enjoy. Perhaps a bus tour or a harbour cruise, we’ll see. Good news is that the weather has been damned perfect for the trip so far, and with any luck, it’ll keep up and the rain will hold off until we’re back in Melbourne.
-EP
Distance: 288 km (141 mi)
We went 800km from Melbourne [and 10,000 miles from home] just to play mini golf. Seriously though, we’ve seen a couple mini golf places here and there, and we’d been itching to play. So we had the place nearly to ourselves [one other family for part of the time], and it was actually a decent course even with the lack of moving parts. After a trip to Vinnies [a secondhand store, which landed me a new shirt and a couple cheap books - where cheap, secondhand books in this instance are $3 as opposed to new paperbacks being $30], the car wash [there was an incident involving a coffee sitting on a curb when I was parking that resulted with lots of splashing over the bonnet], the petrol station for topping off on both fuel and oil [noticed that the oil was a bit low before we left], we hit the road.
But not before we got pulled over for a random breathalyzer test. At two in the afternoon. I had heard that Australia pulls no punches when it comes time to test drivers randomly. However, I didn’t think I would have to drive to a different state to get tested. Needless to say, I passed with flying colours!
The morning started off with a jog and a nice trip around the corner to a café for breakfast on the water. Aside from the sunburn, you couldn’t ask for a nicer morning. I don’t know when it happened, but somewhere along the line, Ruthie got me - who likes his eggs scrambled, hard - to start liking eggs benedict. So this morning was eggs benedict over wilted spinach with smoked ham.
Heading out of Batemans Bay, we lost touch with the tourist routes but managed to find the Grand Pacific Drive, which has kept us off the main highway and in and out of coastline towns. Just by looking out the window, you can feel that we’re getting closer to a big city. Towns are getting closer together, and are more populated each time. Traffic today was much heavier than it was yesterday.
Additionally, it seems like as we get closer to more people, Ruthie and I are a bit more tense. Perhaps it’s just the fact that we’ve been cooped up in a car for such long periods of time with each other [and Lorraine]. Or maybe it’s something bigger. I’m not smart enough to figure that one out …
We got to see a heard of kangaroos by the roadside today. Most importantly for the girls was the momma ‘roos with their joeys poking out of the pouches. Lorraine was happy like a pig in shit.
Oh! I forgot to mention yesterday’s big score for Ruthie. We wandered the main street of Eden for a bit in the morning, and found ourselves drawn into the discount store by kitschy Japanese stuff. So after spending a solid 20 minutes sifting through all the fun stuff, we finally tore ourselves away and wandered the rest of the aisles. The next thing I know, Ruthie’s got a “garden wombat” tucked under her arm. Ya know those monochromatic figures of wildlife with which some people like to populate their garden? Well, now our garden [and in the mean time, our apartment balcony] will have a wombat. [The lady ringing us up said they were pests - same could be said for squirrels, though, right?]
Speaking of Oh! moments - here’s a fun one: Ruthie opened one of the bedside drawers in the hotel room tonight as we were getting settled, and found a rolled up 5 dollar bill. And sure enough, there was a white powder on the inside! Tempting as it might have been, though, I washed it, and am now trying to flatten out the note in case the crease and curve are telltale signs.
Another indication we’re approaching a big city: the prices of things are going up. Sure we’re staying on a golf course hotel, but it’s actually the cheapest one in this town [that we could find easily]. Frustratingly, we’re supposed to have internet, but after the wi-fis downstairs weren’t working and I can’t get the hardline to cooperate either, it looks like we’re outta luck.
Tomorrow, we try our luck at finding cool stuff in Sydney that everyone can enjoy. Perhaps a bus tour or a harbour cruise, we’ll see. Good news is that the weather has been damned perfect for the trip so far, and with any luck, it’ll keep up and the rain will hold off until we’re back in Melbourne.
-EP
Road trip to Sydney - day two
Route: Eden to Batemans Bend by way of “Tourist Route” 11, 9, 8, 6, 7, [missed 4], 5
Distance: 208 km (129 mi)
After a hearty breakfast in Eden, we set off for the day attempting to meander our way along the Sapphire Coast and see the ocean as often as possible.
The day’s highlights include stopping at a random inlet to kick some sand around; the Blue Pool, which was a salt water pool built into the rocks at one of the random towns; taking tourist route 6, to find Pam’s for some grub - where no matter what you ordered on your sandwich, you got meat, lettuce, tomato, beetroot, and onions; getting lost along tourist route 6; and passing tourist route 4 while trying to find tourist route 6, only to learn later that it would’ve connected us where we needed to go eventually.
Despite feeling like I was specifically told to visit Batemans Bend by two different coworkers, I am failing to see why. Perhaps I’m biased by the fact that we went on the hunt last night first for Chinese, and then fast food, only to fail miserably. Really, we were just looking for some takeout, but first the KFC failed when they sold neither baked beans nor those doughy pieces of heaven called biscuits. Instead, I was informed that when I asked for two biscuits at the drive through, that “biscuits” are, in fact, breast pieces of chicken. So we did actually get two biscuits according to KFC, but no doughy goodness. What KFC doesn’t sell those buttery pieces of heaven? I mean come on! And so then we decided that after looking at the smallest five pieces of chicken ever, we might try our luck down the street at McDonald’s [or “Macca’s” as the sign says, even though I’ve never actually heard anyone say that], we ended up sitting in the parking lot waiting for our chicken salads for at least 15 minutes. I mean, I expect McD’s food to be crap, but I at least like it to be expeditious crappy food.
In other news, Lorraine can add a whale to her animals spotted. While Ruthie and I were down exploring the Blue Pool, Lorraine was up at the lookout with some randoms, and they pointed out a whale to her. We also spotted a flock of kangaroos on a hillside, so I’ve told her she’s no longer allowed to plead for the animals to come visit when we pass signs.
I saved this update for the last minute on Wednesday morning, and at the risk of making Ruthie mad at me for slacking while she gets the car ready, I will wrap this up.
-EP
Distance: 208 km (129 mi)
After a hearty breakfast in Eden, we set off for the day attempting to meander our way along the Sapphire Coast and see the ocean as often as possible.
The day’s highlights include stopping at a random inlet to kick some sand around; the Blue Pool, which was a salt water pool built into the rocks at one of the random towns; taking tourist route 6, to find Pam’s for some grub - where no matter what you ordered on your sandwich, you got meat, lettuce, tomato, beetroot, and onions; getting lost along tourist route 6; and passing tourist route 4 while trying to find tourist route 6, only to learn later that it would’ve connected us where we needed to go eventually.
Despite feeling like I was specifically told to visit Batemans Bend by two different coworkers, I am failing to see why. Perhaps I’m biased by the fact that we went on the hunt last night first for Chinese, and then fast food, only to fail miserably. Really, we were just looking for some takeout, but first the KFC failed when they sold neither baked beans nor those doughy pieces of heaven called biscuits. Instead, I was informed that when I asked for two biscuits at the drive through, that “biscuits” are, in fact, breast pieces of chicken. So we did actually get two biscuits according to KFC, but no doughy goodness. What KFC doesn’t sell those buttery pieces of heaven? I mean come on! And so then we decided that after looking at the smallest five pieces of chicken ever, we might try our luck down the street at McDonald’s [or “Macca’s” as the sign says, even though I’ve never actually heard anyone say that], we ended up sitting in the parking lot waiting for our chicken salads for at least 15 minutes. I mean, I expect McD’s food to be crap, but I at least like it to be expeditious crappy food.
In other news, Lorraine can add a whale to her animals spotted. While Ruthie and I were down exploring the Blue Pool, Lorraine was up at the lookout with some randoms, and they pointed out a whale to her. We also spotted a flock of kangaroos on a hillside, so I’ve told her she’s no longer allowed to plead for the animals to come visit when we pass signs.
I saved this update for the last minute on Wednesday morning, and at the risk of making Ruthie mad at me for slacking while she gets the car ready, I will wrap this up.
-EP
Friday, October 21, 2011
Road trip to Sydney - day one
16 October 2011
Route: Melbourne to Eden by way of Marlo/C107 scenic route, stop at French’s Narrows turnout
Distance: 579 km (360 mi)
Ruthie set us a goal of leaving by 10a on Sunday morning. We were pulling out of the garage at 10.20a. So not bad. But in true fashion for me, I rushed out the door forgetting a few things. 1. I left my book [just started Battle Royale] sitting beside the bed. 2. I brought a laptop, but none of the photos I need to work on [and I’m way behind on photos] are on this laptop. 3. Since this country has conveniently placed switches on every outlet, I had meant to run around the apartment and turn everything off - but I failed to do so. But at least it’s only 3 things. We have our atlas, and plenty of guide maps; we have Ruthie’s newly acquired dashboard compass that is so old, the liquid has vanished and the directional ball is a bit shriveled [don’t ask me why she bought it]; we finally have cupholders [they clip into the air vents]; Ruthie bought me a fuzzy seatbelt cover so that the thing wouldn’t dig into my neck all the time; I have cameras; and we have our sunglasses.
So far our only actual mishap has been the mysterious and very unfortunate breakage of Ruthie’s Kindle. For reasons unexplained she set it down to look at something and when she picked it back up, the screen was all messed up, like something had cracked. There’s no easily available internet at the hotel room, so I can’t see what the internets say. But that makes two of us without a book - and it’s a bigger deal for Ruthie to not have one.
During our back roads driving into Eden, we finally saw some wild ‘roos. Wallabies, actually. Which makes Lorraine happy, as every time we passed a Caution Wildlife sign, she’d start calling for the kangaroos to come out. *dramatic eye roll* The first one we saw as I was in the middle of slamming on the brakes to not hit it - but the second one was nicely perched beside the road, and we were able to slow down and wave at it before it ran away.
The hotel we picked for the night, Twofolds Bay Motor Inn, is pretty decent. There is a nice view of the ocean when you walk out the door. We went in search of seafood for dinner last night, but ended up with just some pub food. Still good, though.
The ocean, while still cold [according to Ruthie at least, I didn’t tempt fate by trying to touch the surf], is beautiful shades of blue. Now that we are in New South Whales and as we work our way north of Eden, I expect/hope a lot more of the road will be closer to the ocean.
PS - I am wearing shorts. For the second day in a row. This is very excites!
-EP
Route: Melbourne to Eden by way of Marlo/C107 scenic route, stop at French’s Narrows turnout
Distance: 579 km (360 mi)
Ruthie set us a goal of leaving by 10a on Sunday morning. We were pulling out of the garage at 10.20a. So not bad. But in true fashion for me, I rushed out the door forgetting a few things. 1. I left my book [just started Battle Royale] sitting beside the bed. 2. I brought a laptop, but none of the photos I need to work on [and I’m way behind on photos] are on this laptop. 3. Since this country has conveniently placed switches on every outlet, I had meant to run around the apartment and turn everything off - but I failed to do so. But at least it’s only 3 things. We have our atlas, and plenty of guide maps; we have Ruthie’s newly acquired dashboard compass that is so old, the liquid has vanished and the directional ball is a bit shriveled [don’t ask me why she bought it]; we finally have cupholders [they clip into the air vents]; Ruthie bought me a fuzzy seatbelt cover so that the thing wouldn’t dig into my neck all the time; I have cameras; and we have our sunglasses.
So far our only actual mishap has been the mysterious and very unfortunate breakage of Ruthie’s Kindle. For reasons unexplained she set it down to look at something and when she picked it back up, the screen was all messed up, like something had cracked. There’s no easily available internet at the hotel room, so I can’t see what the internets say. But that makes two of us without a book - and it’s a bigger deal for Ruthie to not have one.
During our back roads driving into Eden, we finally saw some wild ‘roos. Wallabies, actually. Which makes Lorraine happy, as every time we passed a Caution Wildlife sign, she’d start calling for the kangaroos to come out. *dramatic eye roll* The first one we saw as I was in the middle of slamming on the brakes to not hit it - but the second one was nicely perched beside the road, and we were able to slow down and wave at it before it ran away.
The hotel we picked for the night, Twofolds Bay Motor Inn, is pretty decent. There is a nice view of the ocean when you walk out the door. We went in search of seafood for dinner last night, but ended up with just some pub food. Still good, though.
The ocean, while still cold [according to Ruthie at least, I didn’t tempt fate by trying to touch the surf], is beautiful shades of blue. Now that we are in New South Whales and as we work our way north of Eden, I expect/hope a lot more of the road will be closer to the ocean.
PS - I am wearing shorts. For the second day in a row. This is very excites!
-EP
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Back in Sydney
Nearly three months [about 6 days shy, actually] after our feet touched ground in Australia - Sydney to be exact - we are back. This time, however, we're slightly more aware of how to drive on the wrong side of the road, and we've got a +1.
So, here we are on a road trip to Sydney. We left a mere 3 days after all of our stuff arrived from off the boat. Well, off the boat, through customs, onto a truck ... minor details. Fortunately, Ruthie did a pretty damned good job of getting our stuff organized before we left, so we don't have an entire disaster awaiting our return.
Of course, the thing over which I have been pining was with that shipment. However, the mirrors to my motorcycle arrived broken. So while I was bemoaning the unfortunate timing of the arrival with our departure, it kinda works out that my mirrors are [hopefully] en route while we're on this little trip.
So we're at about the midpoint, and all parties are alive - even though Lorraine swears she's going to die via lack of clean oxygen with as much toxic fumes as we produce. But, while I've been internet-less, I've kept a bit of a journal, so I'll be posting those after we get back.
-EP
So, here we are on a road trip to Sydney. We left a mere 3 days after all of our stuff arrived from off the boat. Well, off the boat, through customs, onto a truck ... minor details. Fortunately, Ruthie did a pretty damned good job of getting our stuff organized before we left, so we don't have an entire disaster awaiting our return.
Of course, the thing over which I have been pining was with that shipment. However, the mirrors to my motorcycle arrived broken. So while I was bemoaning the unfortunate timing of the arrival with our departure, it kinda works out that my mirrors are [hopefully] en route while we're on this little trip.
So we're at about the midpoint, and all parties are alive - even though Lorraine swears she's going to die via lack of clean oxygen with as much toxic fumes as we produce. But, while I've been internet-less, I've kept a bit of a journal, so I'll be posting those after we get back.
-EP
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Noaaauuuuuuwwh
One of the frequent topics of conversation
before I left for Oz was how much my diction and/or accent might or might not
change. I would have to say that I am
much more easily influenced by the language of those around me. I find new words and phrases novel and try to
incorporate them into my speech. Or at
least that’s how I used to be before I came here. Suddenly I am the one with the accents and
using the funny words [or so they tell me – I think they’re all weird], and so
I now find myself trying much harder to not
integrate all the local colloquialisms into my regular speech. Well, that’s not entirely true – I suppose
it’s more that I’m attempting to be much more selective on what I
integrate. My actual pronunciations, on
the other hand, are a battle that I refuse to let go.
So far, I’ve only faltered twice on
pronunciations and phrases that I find are silly, and they’ve just happened out
of my mouth before I could stop it. The
first was the pronunciation of “banana” – they make all their a’s sound like
the sheep’s sound: baaa. The second was
the common greeting, “how ya goin’”. I
refuse to acknowledge this as an acceptable greeting. I can’t even logic how you get that set of
words to make sense. But, to my horror,
the other day, I was busy meeting a lot
of locals, and after the 59th new person, and hearing “How ya goin?”
42 times in rapid succession, I greeted the 60th person with that
silly phrase and caught myself aghast.
But with those two instances, I’ve been
doing pretty well to be selective.
“Bogan” is a their term for “redneck”, except as far as I can tell a
bogan is a redneck with a sprinkling of douchebag. I’ve been trying to learn all the slang,
derogatory terms for redheads to harass Shane, but so far all I can remember is
“ranga” and “bluey”. “Ginger” is
apparently quite mild, and “ranga” is the next step up. “Bluey” just happens to be another mild term
that seems to fit Aussie sense of humour, so to me it’s a whatever term. Pronunciation-wise, “Melbourne” is pronounced “melbun” and as only
one syllable. And most glaring is the
way they say “know” and all its homonyms.
I don’t even know how to attempt to type out how their “no”s sound …
there might be a u or even an umlaut in there and it's at least three syllables long.
There are probably a few others, but at the
moment, I’m drawing a blank. If I find
any particular gems, I’ll have to write them down for this thing.
-EP
Friday, October 7, 2011
As expected...
Ya know, I totally knew that the moment I hit the "publish" button here on this blog, plans would change. There just seems to be something that happens where 90% of the time, the moment I think we've settled on something I tell someone about our plans, things go the entirely opposite direction.
In this case, not necessarily the entirely opposite, as we might still be headed east, but I think the huge road trip has been postponed. Ruthie talked to our postmaster today [after riding my bicycle - "push bike" down here - to the consulate since I had the car], just after his return from Queensland, and apparently the water there is still frigid. Seeing as how the reason we were headed to the beautiful beaches of the land of sun, was to jump in the waters before the jellyfish swarmed. Turns out that even though air temperatures up there don't drop below 20, the water temperatures certainly do.
So, instead, we're looking at other options: beachy and mountainous roads that don't necessarily require getting into the water; more, shorter road trips instead of one big one. [Tomorrow, in spite of the dodgy forecast, we're off to the Grampians again.]
Don't get me wrong, I'm not upset that the huge road trip is postponed - there is still plenty to see and do within one and a half days from Melbourne. But what gets me is that when I vocalize plans that are in the works, be it an email to Mom, or mentioning it to someone in passing at work, boom, the plans change.
Ahh well. That's how it goes.
In the mean time, very exciting news: the movers contacted us today. As I was in the midst of a busy day, I forwarded them onto Ruthie, and it looks like we might have our furniture delivered by next Thursday. [For the record, furniture delivery added to our change of plans, as it's easier to have Ruthie here waiting on the movers than me, since they offer no time window, I'm trying to save actual leave for said road trips, and plans for the massive trip included Ruthie and Lorraine leaving on Monday or Tuesday.]
So, if our furniture gets here on Thursday, October 13th, and it was picked up on Monday, July 18th, it will only have taken nearly two and a half months for us to get our stuff. Well, they told us 45-90 days, so I guess 84 days is better than 90, right?
-EP
In this case, not necessarily the entirely opposite, as we might still be headed east, but I think the huge road trip has been postponed. Ruthie talked to our postmaster today [after riding my bicycle - "push bike" down here - to the consulate since I had the car], just after his return from Queensland, and apparently the water there is still frigid. Seeing as how the reason we were headed to the beautiful beaches of the land of sun, was to jump in the waters before the jellyfish swarmed. Turns out that even though air temperatures up there don't drop below 20, the water temperatures certainly do.
So, instead, we're looking at other options: beachy and mountainous roads that don't necessarily require getting into the water; more, shorter road trips instead of one big one. [Tomorrow, in spite of the dodgy forecast, we're off to the Grampians again.]
Don't get me wrong, I'm not upset that the huge road trip is postponed - there is still plenty to see and do within one and a half days from Melbourne. But what gets me is that when I vocalize plans that are in the works, be it an email to Mom, or mentioning it to someone in passing at work, boom, the plans change.
Ahh well. That's how it goes.
In the mean time, very exciting news: the movers contacted us today. As I was in the midst of a busy day, I forwarded them onto Ruthie, and it looks like we might have our furniture delivered by next Thursday. [For the record, furniture delivery added to our change of plans, as it's easier to have Ruthie here waiting on the movers than me, since they offer no time window, I'm trying to save actual leave for said road trips, and plans for the massive trip included Ruthie and Lorraine leaving on Monday or Tuesday.]
So, if our furniture gets here on Thursday, October 13th, and it was picked up on Monday, July 18th, it will only have taken nearly two and a half months for us to get our stuff. Well, they told us 45-90 days, so I guess 84 days is better than 90, right?
-EP
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Off to the land of permanent sunshine?
Lorraine arrived on Monday. And with
her, she brought the good news of Ruthie’s unemployment being granted. So this meant a few things. One a sigh of relief since Uncle Sam has been
seriously dragging his feet to repay me for travel expenses and get my foreign
pay allowances sorted out. Two, Ruthie
felt like she could go shopping. So what
did she buy? A ukulele. Yes, the instrument that is key in one or
three songs that make her cry within four notes. So, after mocking her for a few minutes,
asking her how she was going to be able to play while she’s crying, I picked it
up and began to try to figure it out.
It’s been quite a few years since I’ve played a musical instrument – and
never since I’ve attempted to play a guitar.
Sure, in my youth, I turned my violin on its side and picked at it a
bit, but that doesn’t count for much. So
we’ll see which one of us actually learn to play this silly thing.
In the mean time, what Ruthie’s
unemployment also means [as well as finally receiving word that Uncle Sam is
working towards getting things sorted] that we can actually put together plans
of a road trip. Ruthie has the
destination of Whitsunday picked, and I’ve started putting together a route. Because I don’t have the luxury of two weeks
off, it’s going to be kind of a piece-meal trip. Ruthie and Lorraine
will drive up via mid-country and more direct routes from Melbourne to Whitsunday. That will probably take three days, at which
point, I will fly into some Cairns,
Townsville, or Whitsunday, depending on the price of flights. Then we will begin our long journey down the
[majority of the] east coast of Australia,
including travelling the Pacific
Highway between Brisbane and Sydney. Or at least that’s the plan at this
point. I’m always hesitant to write down
plans like this because it seems that I have a knack for spelling out how I
foresee them, only have them be the complete opposite when the time comes.
-EP
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