Day 4: Broken Hill and o/n at Adelaide

24 February 2013.
 

The morning started off great with a fantastic dose of culture.  We hit not one, but two art galleries, containing both international and Australian art – both aboriginal and otherwise.  The first, the regional art gallery, was surprisingly good.  I’m not really sure what I expected, but it far surpassed whatever low standard I had imagined.  It was full of historical and contemporary Australian artists, including a couple by a bloke called Pro Hart. 

Pro Hart also has his own gallery, and so it was to his building we went next.  Ruthie, being much more cultured than I, knew the name of Pro Hart prior to our visiting.  The man was incredibly prolific and produced a massive range of style of art to boot.  Lastly, it was obvious he was successful in his art by the four Rolls Royces parked out front. 

From getting our serving of art and culture, we went back to the information centre to pick up one last souvenir and feed our newly discovered Gloria Jean’s addiction before hitting the road. 

This time, the road trip portion – while long – was almost a bit more interesting.  The bumps in the road that one might consider towns were both more frequent and much more varied in size.  One or two were barely more than a public toilet and a general store [not even petrol available].  Others were towns that looked really run down.  And then there were at least two towns that a successful, thriving sense about them.  Which caused us to ponder, Why?  What was it that made one town survive and the other one not?  Both were significantly far away from a major city, but something made a difference.  Or perhaps it was not the actual success of the city that differed, but the simple upkeep.  Ruthie reckons that neat sidewalks make all the difference in the world. 

The road trip continued on [and on], and all was well until I got busted for speeding.  Two things played in here, one apparently the speed limit had changed from 110kph to 100kph between the aforementioned bumps; and two, 8.6mph over on a county road [even if it is the major thoroughfare] is apparently enough unlike I95 in Maryland.  Honestly, I don’t even know how I ended up doing 114 even when I thought it was still 110 because I had been using cruise control.  It must’ve just been one of the random and varied moments I was driving by foot instead of finger.  Anyways, hurt pride aside, the next hurt will be felt in the wallet: $400 for my speeding ticket.  Ouch.

At first I was over it, and then after the next town [not that it matters, but for all the towns we went through, I was definitely going the speed limit – isn’t that where it counts most?], I got passed by a dude in a SUV when I was going the speed limit of 100.  Where was the copper then?  So that then spoiled my mood, and soured our approach to Adelaide. 

The distance to the city finally dropped into double digits, and then a couple more long breaths and we were suddenly paying attention to street names looking for our hotel.  After the long, and ultimately frustrating drive, we’ve called it an early night with room service and Day and Knight on the local television.  

-EP