Ceduna to Port Augusta

We had a lovely relaxed day in Ceduna yesterday for my birthday. Our motel was 2 kms from the centre of town so we did plenty of walking by the time we had walked to the Sailing Club for dinner on Friday and into town for breakfast and dinner on Saturday. Ceduna is quite geared for the tourist trade but by this time of year it is still very much a country town. The bakery was the only place open for breakfast but fortunately they served bacon and eggs so Bob was happy. After doing our washing back at the motel we went for a ride to do some shopping and see some of the local beauty spots. There is a wonderful masaic tile memorial to people lost at sea. Bob promised me oysters for lunch but then got distracted by the Subway sign at one of the roadhouses. Instead we had some as entre when we went for dinner at the Foreshore Hotel Bistro. Just as well we were walking home as dinner was substantial. During the afternoon we went out to Shelley Beach Caravan Park. There is a group of people from Walpole and Manjimup who spend various periods there about this time each year. And they are all grouped in Walpole Street of the Park which has been named in recognition  of their loyalty.
This morning we set off early as breakfast was just a muffin and coffee in our room. It was almost too early as although the town was in bright sunshine we discovered a bank of mist surrounding the town as we rode out. It lasted for about 30 kms but as we had our warm gear on we were OK. The ride to Port Augusta went smoothly and our motel accommodation is very comfortable. Small friendly place with complimentry continental breakfast and nearby Bistro for dinnner.
Off to Mildura tomorrow.

Photos from first days

Hi, I forgot to post these photos of Boulder so will try to send them now. The woman in the photo is our Hotel Owner extraudinaire. The buildings are from main street of Boulder. More later.

Norseman to Ceduna

We left Kalgoorlie by about 9am and had a good run down to Norseman. We went into the town and while there had a chat with a pensioner who described how the town was shrinking as the mining dried up and families left town. The baker was still running the Cafe thank goodness and we bought really nice sandwiches to take with us as we knew we were unlikely to get anything as good out on the next phase of the run.The weather was sunny and about 20C all day but the cross wind was a bit of a nuisence. Almost perfect riding really. We stopped to eat our sandwiches at a Parking area and arrived at Caiguna at 3pm. This was a bit early but we could see all the units were filling up and decided not to gamble on accommodation further up the road. All day there had been a steady stream of mptorbikes heading west which we thought was probably people from the Ulysses Easter AGM heading home. If there were more of them coming though we could find all the accommodation taken. Also Telstra was having problems again so we couldn't phone ahead to check. As it was we could only get a budget room at Caiguna which was a bed with clean sheets, a shower and tea and coffee facilities. It was quite nice to stop early and we went for a walk over to the airstrip and then to the Caiguna hole of the Nullabor Links Golf Course. It was good to get a walk.
This morning Bob was up early because he knew we had already lost an hour with the travel east. We had breakfast and were on the road by 8-30 Central time. Again we had near perfect riding conditions all day. We were at the WA/SA border by 12md. Bought our lunch at Eucla and again took it with us to eat along the road. We were making really good time when we arrived at Nullabor Roadhouse and found their price for a standard room was $160. We decided to keep going but first I insisted that I needed a coffee. Bob had promised one at Mundarabilla and then zoomed straight past. The coffee and the break gave us a boost so when we arrived at Nundroo and found it just as sad and unloved as last time we were there it was easy to decide to keep going the 150kms to Ceduna. We have checked into the motel we had booked  for tomorrow night and will now have tomorrow to relax in Ceduna which is quite a nice town. We followed our hosts recommendation and had dinner at the sailing club. Much like the Walpole Country Club and volunteers serve dinner each Wed and Fri during the tourist season. We had the local specialty; Whiting and it was very good.
Tomorrow we will probably catch up with some of the Walpole crowd who come over to a beach near here every year. Also plan to go to the Bistro at the pub for dinner for my birthday.
The WiFi at this motel is not functioning so I will publish the story at the Visitors Centre tomorrow.

Kalgoorlie

We had breakfast with the Orange family, loaded the last of our gear, gave Obi a last pat and left Doubleview at 9-30.The weather was ideal. 20 C all the way not like our last trip 2 years ago when it was quite wet. The road was remarkably busy at first but thinned out after Marredin. We have now marked the roadhouse at Tammin as the most likely coffee stop after a very average one at the Etamuka Pub at Condinan. The road was in good condition especially at the Kal end where there have been recent road works. We checked into the Albion Shamrock Hotel  Motel at 5 o'clock. It is a classic old pub up in
the Boulder Block with comfortable motel units out the back. Sadly the only one of about 5 pubs which has been well maintained. The others are showing signs of their age. After having the very good Steak Night special we headed for our room. When I went to reception to get our Wifi codes Margaret the owner, who informed me she owns 6 pubs, asked if there was any chance that Bob would take her for a ride. We are packed and ready to leave so Bob has taken Margaret down town to a service station to fill the bike. She had to have one of the staff to take her photo onn the bike and went off happy as larry. More tomorrow.

Another test

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Oklahoma

It has been a few days since I have written in the Blog. Since then we have travelled uneventfully to Chicago. One interesting experience we had in South Bend Indiana was when we went to a Chinese restaurant next to our motel. As usual the rain that had been threatening all day settled in just as we were heading out to eat. We took a look up and down the street and decided that our most comfortable option was likely to be this nearby restaurant. Since we consider we have very good Asian food in Australia and all the ads for Asian restaurants that we had seen had only mentioned buffets we  were a bit sceptical. However we found the restarant was very tastefully furnished, it was all  alacarte and had an interesting wine list. I had one of the cocktails on special, my first I  hasten to say. It was very delicious pear and ginger with lime. The menu was influenced by the central Chinese province of Hunan so was different to any we had seen before. Bob couldn't resist having Singapore Noodles which were on the menu as an "old favourite". I chose a spicy prawn dish  which was very good.
The next morning we drove into Chicago. It was a bit "hairy" getting around all the motorway junctions to arrive in Downtown but Bob handled it well and we checked into  the International Hostel and returned the car without incident.
That afternoon we walked down to Millennium Park which is close by the Downtown area and then for quite a distance along the Lakeside walk path. Chicago Downtown is a very attractive city which I think I have said previously.
The next morning we flew to Dallas with only a slight delay due to thunderstorms and collected our hire car at the airport. Lou, Mike,, Brandy, Todd and the boys were there for dinner and we had a fresh fish dinner which was delicious. Since we had left Maine we had learned not to order fish in the restaurants so we were fish starved. On Friday morning we drove up to Oklahoma City for a bit of shopping at a Mall Lou Ann had recommended and then headed to Janet and Terry's. It was great to have a quiet evening with them and catch up on the family news. Saturday they planned a full day agenda. We headed to Choctaw to meet up with Kaleb and his lady, Jocelyn. Then we all went to a German Beer Fest which has been held in the town for 25 years. The beer was imported from Germany and just as good as we remembered. I am sure that the Brats were locally made but they were good too. We then visited the Olkahoma Bomb Memorial in Oklahoma City which has been developed into a beautiful site since we were there last. The museum was new and had very impressive audio visual details so it took us a while to work our way around. John joined us here and we then went to the top of OC's newest tower building to have a drink and look at the view which was spectacular particularly because the sky was clear. From there we headed to the  Downtown Bricktown Canal area. This had also been intensively developed since our last visit. The Canal area has been beautifully landscaped and we walked around before meeting John again. He had gone ahead to stake out a restaurant and claim a table. The restaurant is owned by a  professional basketball player. It is fairly new and was absolutely rocking when we arrived. After a bit of a wait we were give a table out on the patio overlooking the canal. This was highly desirable because the noise inside was deafening. There was a very loud rock  band across the canal but the food was good, the breeze was pleasant and we could talk in between the music.
Yeaterday was family lunch at Janet and Terry's. Kelsey made it home from College to complete the gathering. Once again we had fresh fish. Thank goodness we are related to keen fishermen. This was a very relaxed day with Kaleb asking us lots of questions about Australia and Janet and John joining in with reminiscences about their visit to Australia with Betty and Dale when they were young adults. Late in the day when everyone was heading home Janet and I made a lightening visit to the Outlets. Dinner was no problem. We ate well on left overs then slept the sleep of the just.
Tomorrow we head south again and fly out on Wed to arrive in Sydney on Friday for an overnight stay. Back to Perth on Saturday so this will probably be my last entry. It has been a great trip with beautiful scenery intergrated with catching up with family and friends. The  fact that our friends feel like family and we know our family over here well enough for them to be friends too has made the hospitality fantastic.

South Western Vermont

When we left Plattsburgh we drove onto the ferry and back to Burlington. We went straight to the Lakeside of Lake Champlain. This is the lake which is second only to the Great Lakes being 24 miles wide and 120 miles long. Burlington has a very attractive lakeside development and we enjoyed strolling along it. A free clipper then took us up to the market area in the central retail area where there was a Saturday farmers market. There wasn't much that we could buy but I did get some fresh fruit to eat on our way. From there we drove South crossing the border into Massachusetts to a small community in the Berkshire Mountains. It was beautiful countryside and our motel looked across the valley  to the forested hillside. Our host recommended the Old Forge restaurant just up the road for dinner and we rocked up at about 7pm to discover it was seething with starving people. It was the only decent restaurant in the neighbourhood and we just squeezed in the door to join the queue. As we didn't want to drive further to find an alternative we waited with the other fairly good humoured customers for the 15-20 minutes we were told to expect before we could have a table. As we got to the head of the queue and I could actually see the seating options I realised that there were very few tables for two. Most of them were for four or more. As the couple behind us seemed pleasant sorts I suggested that it they agreed  we should opt to share a table in the interests of being sooner rather than later. They quickly agreed and as the service was slow due to the crowd we passed the time very pleasantly. They were both motor cyclists though of course he rode a Harley but that provided plenty of conversarion options.
The next morning we set off quite early to explore the area starting with nearby Mount Greylock. The road was quiet and it was a long sloping approach to the top as it is the highest mountain in Massachusetts.  Just before we reached the summit we were flagged down to make sure we didn't skittle a runner. He was a very fit young man and we had just parked the car when he appeared at the finish line. There was a big reception for him and all the successive runners of a very large field. They had come from the opposite aide of the mountain which was over 3,000 feet high and run 8 miles virtually staight up. The front runners were very fit but some of the others who were obviously doing it more as a fun run looked very tired as they finally made it to the finish. On our way down the road they had come up we pased many of them still slogging it out and we were impressed at how they had managed a very steep climb. From there we drove to some of the small towns dotted through the area. We ended up at Bennington Mall where we resisted shopping but both of us did get a much needed hair cut.
When we arrived back at the motel we discovered that we didn't have any water to the room. When I phoned the manager he was very very apologetic but explained that the motel obtained their water from two springs that fill a well. It has not only been hot in that area but they have had a drought. Consequently one of the springs had dried up. They had spent the whole day cleaning the resultant muddy water out of the well and connecting it to the second supply. It took another couple of hours for the well to have sufficient water in it to supply the rooms. As he told us that this water would be highly chlorinated to ensure it was safe we deferred our showers to the morning.
That night we had pizza and salad in our motel room that we had purchased earlier at the Mall.
We didn't fancy tackling the Old Forge again.
Today we set off early because it is the Labor Day holiday and we figured the roads would get busy. It did get busy as the day went on and as it has been the whole time the temperature was up to 90F and very humid.  We drove 420 miles and then called it a day in Erie.