Adventure 9.

My theory is that millennials are taking over these old highway motels and gentrifying them. It's happening in America too. It's rather charming, actually. There is always something a little funky about these places no matter how much they try to yuppify them. 

It's great to be waking up at 6:00 in the morning and have hours to get ready to leave. Also a little daunting to know that the opposite would happen on a trip to Europe. 

I'm sure if we were at home, we'd be glued to the news. Here...we can't seem to get anything to work. This trip has proven once and for all that Linda and are out-of-date, left technologically stranded. I'm probably the last generation of store owner that can get away with a cash register and a clipboard. We finally found a store with maps but we passed since we're going to reach Churchill today and we're hoping Wes can help us get GPS.

It seems to me that there are a lot more birds here, and that they're a lot more noisy, and they inhabit very colorful trees. 

The sun ROSE over the ocean this morning...

 

Having the whole day of quiet in a motel room just to read and nap was incredibly refreshing. I'm an introvert for sure. Too many people!!!

Adventure 8. 

Overall, it appears to me that Australia is taking better care of their homes and neighborhoods, though I really haven't been here long enough to be sure about that. In Oregon, the coastal communities can often seem run down. Here, the downtowns in all the small towns seem prosperous. Lots of kids and playgrounds. 

It seems like the wealth is spread a little more evenly than in America, though again, I haven't really been here long enough to be sure about that. 

 

No one here seems to have heard of Oregon. To be fair, Linda and I haven't heard of most of these places either. We usually say, "We're the state on the west coast just above California. Basically, halfway between Seattle and San Francisco."

They've all heard of the latter, at least. They also all seem to ask about fires. 

Linda and I decided to take a day off from traveling. We checked into a motel only about 15 minutes away from Eden in Mirembula and are just resting. Tomorrow we push on to Wes and Ev's place in Churchill, which is five hours away.

Adventure 7. 

We have been driving all the "tourist detours" on our way south down Princes Highway. We kept seeing signs showing pictures of kangaroos or wallabies "next 3 miles" or "next 9 miles."

Hey, where are they? You promised me wallabies!!!

We got to Eden, and the motel manager directed us to the nearby golf course. And there they were, even a joey in a pouch. All the people going to dinner completely ignored the critters while the stupid Americans took pictures. 

As Wes told me, "There are 30 million people in Australia and 50 million kangaroos."

So I've finally seen some. Also saw whales splashing off the jetty, plenty of large and small and very noisy birds. Wes and Ev are going to take us to basically a petting zoo and an island with penguins. 

Meanwhile, in Shellharbour, we visited a mall in order to get an American to Australian adapter and to visit the corporate bookstore there. 

The mall was enormous and busy. Weird. I think malls are mostly dead in America, replaced by "lifestyle" shopping centers. (I may be wrong, maybe that's just in our neck of the woods.) But for an area with a population smaller than Portland, the mall was huge.

Anyway, the bookstore folk didn't want to talk so we moved on.

Last night we stayed in Moruya. It had an independent bookstore and owner was chatty. They had a lot of current bestsellers in trade paperback that won't be out of hardcover in America for a year or more. Apparently, hardcovers aren't really done here, except sometimes later, and only ordered by special request. An interesting difference. 

We've decided to stay in Eden for a couple of days recovering from all the traveling. I'd hoped we could stay one whole day doing nothing before now, but each and every motel we've stayed at had some reason we didn't want to stay. (3 out of 4 promised two beds and delivered one, which is really annoying. Linda has terrible restless leg syndrome and I thrash and turn so much we've learned we sleep better next to each other, but a foot apart in space.)

In a couple days we'll reach Churchill, Victoria and visit Wes, my best man our wedding, (and I at his) and his better half, Ev. They sound like they have plans for us. 

Meanwhile, back at the home front, Jasper the cat has taken to Todd, apparently, so all is well. Toby will be house and cat sitting the second half of the month. 

Adventure 6

Little things that are different. 

Not a lot of huge pickups. What pickups there are, are midsized.

Everyone backs into parking spaces. 

Their cups of coffee are small and dainty. 

Basically, when you travel by plane you are cattle, being herded everywhere by exasperated cowboys. 

Australians bustle as much if not more than Americans. 

Light switches are cute little nobs, and have to be turned to "on." (I suppose to save energy,)

You don't pass on the highway, you "overtake."

Can't cancel reservations at the hotels, as far as I can tell.

Our rental car has a definite portside tilt. We've decided it is the car, not us. Biggest problem continues to be turning on the wipers instead of the blinkers. (55 years of muscle training.)

Food portions are also smaller. 

There are McDs everywhere and thank god they all have wifi. 

Australians are very very friendly and helpful to helpless old codger Americans. 

I keep telling Linda, "This ain't Australia until I see a Kangaroo!" We ran into a lady at a reststop and she asked with a puzzled look, "What's with the fascination with kangaroo?"

I answered, "You come to America and we have wolves, and badgers, and opposums, and raccoons..."

"Oh," she exclaimed. "I'd really like to have a raccoon!"

"We have black bears, and coyotes, and mountain lions, and deer, and elk...but we don't have kangaroos."

Adventure 5.

So much traveling is just traveling, so not much to say. 

I drove all day yesterday on the left side of the road. It was alarming how cars seemed to be coming right at me, even though it's just a mirror of the same thing in the states. My biggest problem was that I kept hitting the wipers when I was trying to use the turn signal, then I'd get flustered and miss the turn altogether. 

Got honked at two or three times, so I know I was probably out of bounds. The lanes seem much narrower here, at least until we got to the M (the equivalent of an interstate.) Turns out, the road from Sydney to Wollogong was all traffic until we turned onto a national park road, and emerged on the other side on Princes Highway. Now we're in Wollongong, which I'd never heard of but which is somewhere between Eugene and Portland in size. We naively thought is was a little town and wandered around lost for a while.

Thank goodness I got the advice that all McDonalds have wifi services, so we are able to stop and sort things out.

Even though we thought we were getting international service on Linda's phone, it doesn't seem to be working or we aren't doing it right. Fortunately, we still have email to communicate with Sabrina.

I left Sabrina in total charge, ordering and all, but it's interesting that she still lets me kibbutz a little without complaint. It seems like the younger generations are much more cooperative in that way. Boomers just seem more competitive and jealous of there prerogatives. 

I've learned this about myself: it's not that I don't want to delegate, it's that IF I delegate I want to delegate the whole damn thing. That's why Sabrina has been given that power, because I know she'll do it responsibly. 

(Same as, I'm not really a workaholic, it's just that if I'm going to work, I'm really going to work, and if not, not.)

Anyway, we wandered a little off the path in the national forest, but didn't buy any permits. Linda doesn't feel like she can walk too far, so we're pretty much going where a car will go. 

Finally got out of traffic at Wollongong, the ocean spread out in front of us. From here on, we just have to stick to one highway, Old Princes Highway, which is kind of cool. Goes to Churchill, then to Melbourne, then on the western edge up to Adelaide. Keeps it simple.

We're only driving about three hours a day, taking every turnoff we see. Both of us have the power to say, "Go that way," and we go. 

The vegetation is tropical, but unlike Ohahu , seems dry this time of year. No wildlife yet, except the Ibis's and some crows with white tails. (Looked it up.. Pied Currawong?

Adventure 4. 

Took off from Redmond without a hitch. Was the most nervous at the beginning. Got to Seattle, waited three hours, then a five hour flight to Honolulu. Managed to catch the shuttle to the hotel and settled in.

That was a long five hours. Two babies crying in the row across from us all the way. I had my earplugs thinking I might snooze, so wasn't bothered much. They really do pack people in like sardines. Linda taught me a new online game and we took turns playing it.

Lots of friendly people, many oldsters like us--I guess we're probably the generation that can afford it. We seem to be chattier than most people, which is a bit of a surprise. I've been calm and collected the whole trip, which is also a bit of a surprise.

You know what? They make it really easy. The routes and routines are all intuitive, easily marked, and the people are mostly helpful. The tourist industry seems completely tuned into the duffers. 

Took the shuttle back to the airport this morning, rented a car and drove all the way across the island to the north beaches. Seemed like mostly locals there, not so many tourists. Saw a sea turtle and some very tanned people, old and young, half naked, old and young. 

Drove back, negotiated the rental thing, back to the hotel at what for us was around 8:00, but 5:00 local time. 

On our way to Australia tomorrow, me much relieved that it isn't a difficult journey at all. Though 12 hours in a plane, (plus two or three hours of hurrying up and waiting) is intimidating.  

Todd, Toby, and Jasper are taking care of the house. Jasper patrolling the neighborhood making sure all is secure. King of the Cul-de-sac. 

Having the whole day with the car was the way to do it. No hurry, no worries about getting lost. Just looking at everything. Now that we're on our way, I can see it's something we needed to do.

Adventure #3.

I almost bumped our airline tickets up to a higher class. It would have cost a minimum of 2k to do so, on top of and more than the original tickets. I filled in all the info and my fingered lingered over the submission.

"Nah, I'll sleep on it."

In the morning I decided that the flight would be the equivalent of a long work day. Instead, we'd donate the 2K to Linda and my chosen charities. Mine being Family Kitchen, and Linda's a new homeless venture in Redmond, Oasis Village. 

So if we suffer on the trip, it was for a good cause.

 

It's weird how time just sped up once we decided on the trip. But in the last week, it's slowed down again in anticipation. I think we've gotten everything pretty much ready, so now it's a matter of waiting and doing the small things. 

 

A little before dark yesterday, we got a knock on the door. It was one of the neighborhood children, a seven year old (or so) little girl, asking if it was okay for her to take Jasper to the park (which is a couple of blocks away.) 

"We'd rather not," Linda and I said.

"Well, he followed us down to the park. My brother is bringing him back."

 We look down the sidewalk and the brother, who is probably about nine-years old, was awkwardly carrying Jasper. The cat seemed to see us watching, and he squirmed out of his arms and ran, tail fluffed, to our backyard.

Thing is, Jasper will hardly let Linda and I pick him up. As much of a lap cat as he is, being picked up isn't something he likes. So I was astonished that he let the neighbor kid pick him up, much less let him carry him. 

We're told that Jasper gets around, watches the kids playing, communing with the cats who are housebound, and otherwise making his presence known.

King of the Neighborhood, apparently.