We do things our way. Isn't it charming?

I've been thinking a lot about income equality on this trip, as on all trips. When you travel the disparity strikes you anew. 

Here in Australia, it seems much more egalitarian; but traveling has also taught me that I'm only seeing the surface. Still, it I think I can see some similarities and some differences.

Today Linda and I visited the Newtown area of Sydney. It struck me as slightly seedy, slightly glamorous, probably mostly hipster. So the question was, when does this Funky atmosphere become gentrified? Along the way we met a young man who exclaimed "It isn't the same Newtown! You should have seen it ten years ago!" Which is the cry of every long time resident of a gentrified area. 

The clerk at the bookstore told us that the majority of her business was tourists, which put a new light on the hordes of people on the sidewalks. Most of us were tourists. The bookstore was eloquently seedy, if that makes sense.

It reminded me of downtown Bend. We're maybe a little further along in the gentrification process; much of the funky has already been replaced by the upscale, but there is still a little of that. 

So tonight in the motel, I'm reading a book by Kim Stanley Robinson, "New York 2140," about a future drowned New York that nevertheless is still motivated by ruthless capitalism:

"...as with everything, the logistic curve rules; rate of profits drop as workers expect higher wages and benefits, and the local markets saturate... So at that point capital moves on...The people in the newly abandoned region are left to cope with their new rust belt status, abandoned as they are to fates ranging from touristic simulacrum to Chernobylic calm."

The words "touristic simulacrum" really leapt out at me. 

I was in a small indie bookstore in Wagga Wagga a couple of days ago and the woman was basically trying to create a store like mine in a downtown that was struggling and I was trying to tell her that she needed to make her store different and authentic. 

But, to be fair to her, that only works if you're in an area that has become a tourist attraction, such as the store we visited today...or to be completely honest...with my own store. 

In a sense, it's a performance, something to attract the tourists. It's charming and authentic that we don't have a point of sale computer; it's curation that we pick our own books; the books are arranged in an eccentric manner; and so on. 

In a sense, it's a "touristic simulacrum."

That's not putting it down. It's an adaptation to circumstance, it's fulfills a real need. But it's only possible and necessary when the proper ingredients come together.  

I was reading a review of a fancy New York restaurant in the NY Times and it struck me the same way. It wasn't really about the food, it was the performance, the act of doing it. 

I think it has to be intuitive to those of us that do it. It has to be, in a real sense, authentic.

We do things our way. Isn't it charming? 

Stupid travel tricks.

So I haven't done much traveling, especially in the latter half of my life. Been pretty much working behind the counter or home writing for my adult life.

On a whim, I booked a trip to Australia. What inspired me is that my friends Wes and Ev are in residency for a couple of years, so we could stay with them for awhile. That was the one smart thing I did on the trip.

I did very little planning, and boy does it show. I think I did this in about the most expensive way possible. So without further ado, what I've learned (which would be particularly helpful the next time I visit Australia--which will be never.)

1.) When they say get there early for your flight, they really mean it; especially for international flights. Nearly missed our flight out of Hawaii. 

2.) Book a round trip, stupid. Save some money. And while you're at it, collect some flyer miles. (Actually, we may have gotten lucky with getting away with booking a one way trip...)

3.) Sign up for some hotel program or another that allows you to cash in bonus points for free stays. Comfort Inns are about Linda and my speed. In fairness to my own stupidity, it didn't occur to me that the program would be available in Australia until the last third of the trip. 

4.) If you're going to rent a car for a long road trip, make sure it gets good gas mileage. Didn't even occur to me until we were well into our trip. 

5.) Speaking of road trips. While they are fun, they are also exhausting, so it might be better to do more staying in one place for a longer period of time.

6.) So some of the touristy things. While I particularly loved visiting the small towns, driving down country roads, going for nature walks, I suspect I'll remember more the stuff Wes and Ev planned for us: a sanctuary visit to feed kangaroos, the March of the Penguins, going out to dinner with them. 

We're going to be in Sydney for the last five days of the trip and I've decided to do the tourist thing: the Opera House, the aquarium, stuff like that. I hadn't intended to do that but we flew 8000 freaking miles to get here so get some of those memories.

7.) Figure out the things you'll need that the country won't provide. (For us, it was electrical adapters; sharing is fine, but better for each person to have their own.) I've traveled this whole trip without cash, which maybe isn't the smartest thing to do. Need my coffee in the morning, in a certain way. Need my soda with ice (what the hell, Australia? What do you got against ice?) 

8.) Most people don't care you're from another country, so unless they ask, don't make a big deal of it.

9.) Carry a small back pocket (or purse) notebook with essential info and a place to keep notes. Things will occur to you along the way that you'll want to remember. A phone is great, but having the backup of a notebook is very reassuring. 

10.) Speaking of phones, don't get all cheap like Linda and I did and have only one phone hooked up for international service. Really stupid.

11.) The small differences are unavoidable and a constant pain in the ass. Just figure they are going to happen.

12.) GPS. Of course, but I hadn't realized how important it was.

13.) Don't bring your homework with you. You'll never get to it, so it's a waste of space. On the other hand, you'll read more than you expect (lack of TV?).

14.) Pack light. No really. You can do laundry. 

15.) More underwear, less pants. Only need one over-shirt (or sweater) but don't forget a light coat if you're headed for spring, winter, or fall.  I could have gotten away with two pairs of jeans. Right number of shirts, about four. Light shoes will cover most everything, including hikes.

 

I'm going to remember more things and will add them later, but there's a beginning list.

Murdered by a book.

Ran out of reading material on the trip so grabbed a title I'd vaguely heard of: "The Thursday Murder Club," by Richard Osman.

It's about a retirement community group of crime solvers.

I don't recognize any of these old coots, even though I'm the same age as some of them. They're all endearingly quirky, but they seem like what a middle-aged man imagines old people to be like. Sure enough, the author is 52. He has a glimmer, maybe.

Then again, I've never felt like the rest of my age group, ever. The idea that people would choose a retirement community is amazing to me. I can't imagine. 

I'm also a little tired of CUTE narrative voices.

Going to finish it, but next trip I'll bring more books.

Our house is still intact?

Just read a story about a woman who's house was demolished while she was on vacation...

The only reason we left our house, and more importantly, our cat Buddy Jasper, is because we had our two sons willing to occupy the place while we were gone.

We're a day away from Adelaide now. The weather has been rather nice for half the trip and rather horrid for the other half. Big rains and wind yesterday. 

I'm realizing now that we didn't do much planning for this trip other than the broad outlines. Part of this was on purpose--I didn't want to tie us down too much. But what we're discovering is, a road trip is a road trip. It isn't landing one place and relaxing. Fortunately, we had our week with Wes and Ev, but the rest of time is mostly on the road.

Don't get me wrong, I love seeing the terrain; Australia seems to have so much more variety of trees and plants and birds and strange animals. The rolling and green hillsides are cool. 

But the roads are narrow and hard to navigate, and being unfamiliar with the driving makes it hard to make impulse decisions to pull off the road. So we aren't do that as much as I thought we would. 

Somebody said that Australia was like the US in the 1950s, and I can see that. I think it's the relatively fewer people. I keep noticing how the smaller towns seem kept up, and yesterday it occurred to me that we in the US gave up on a lot of small towns when we built the interstate system. 

Here, their equivalent of an interstate is not so overwhelming, except outside the big cities. So the highway system is still viable for businesses, which in turn keeps the small towns going. 

We keep taking wrong turns with our GPS, which has a tendency to tell us to turn right or left one intersection too soon. Then we go on long detours getting back to the main route. This has turned out to be a feature, not a bug. 

I've enjoyed the country roads we've accidentally found ourselves on.

Halfway through our trip to Australia.

Halfway through our trip to Australia. Toby is taking over the catkeeping and housekeeping chores from Todd.

The last couple of days I've finally started feeling like myself. I was in a bit of fog there for the first week or so. 

We traveled from Sydney down the east coast of New South Wales and on into Victoria. Lots of little towns along the way. It's hard to remember towns that have such unusual names. Sydney, (first night), Mascot (breakfast), Wollongong, Shellharbour (second night, visit to the mall), Gerringong (for picnic lunch in the park), Moruya (third night, breakfast), Eden (fourth night, first appearance of live kangaroos, echidna alongside the road, back up to Merimbula (fifth night), and then on to meet our friends, Wes and Ev Hare in Churchill, (about an hour and half from Melbourne.

Most all this trip was on Princes Highway, which at times was an "M" (the equivalent of interstate) but most of the time was a two-lane highway.

We took lots of side-trips down interesting roads, spent time at beaches (saw some whales far in the distance), time in "national" parks, which I believe is the equivalent of state parks, (lots of signs warning of fox poisoning). We'd stop in small towns along the way for meals. 

We stop at every bookstore we see. Interesting to see the differences and similarities, the biggest of which hardcovers are rare. All the "new" books come out in trade paperback.

As I said in an earlier post, these small towns seem to be kept up pretty well. One of the towns was not so much touristy and almost everyone was a resident, so was glad to absorb that. Can't remember the name of the town and it was too small to find on the maps.

No one much impressed we're Americans. (I know, I know.) 

Also, as I said earlier, it really is the small things that throw you. Things as little as finding how to open the gas cap, using the right terminology for things. Close, but not quite. The general outlines are the same, but of course eucalyptus trees have a different feel than pine. 

Wes and Ev had us pretty much scheduled from the start. First day, we went to an animal sanctuary to feel and pet the kangaroos and koalas, see the Tasmanian devil and the dingoes, (no wombat). Then on to an airbnb on Philip Island. Spent two nights there, had dinner in the town, then on to the Penguins. Small little blue penguins ("Little Penguins" is actually their name.) They come ashore every night during breeding season, The March of the Penguins, so you can sit on a viewing platform only feet away (inches) as they come shore. On our night, there were 2500 of them. They ignore us big galoots, except the Chinese tourists who no matter how often they were warned or threatened with eviction, took flash pictures. I found myself pointing at the guy left of me, who was so fidgety trying to hide his picture taking that it was distracting. (It scares and blinds the penguins.)

Then the walk back up to the parking lot with penguins squawking and making big noise along the way.

"They're having sex, aren't they," I said to a park ranger.

"If you hear their wings rustling, they are. But they are very quick and efficient."

"Oh, is that what you call it?"

Next day, we requested a rest day. (I've read three books on this trip so far, which I didn't expect. But as I said, we drop into bookstores everywhere we go.)

Yesterday we drove on into Melbourne, to the Victoria Market, which is a famous (?) bazaar. Lots of very kitschy product and shady boothkeepers (at least, they felt that way to me.) We did buy some Australian opal ear rings and a necklace because it's our 40th anniversary in a few days, and opal is the gem for October. So we'll remember our trip. 

Yesterday, Wes and I went for a walk in the wilds. This is what I've been looking forward to the whole trip. Saw a mob of kangaroos in the wild, walked up a hillside to see the 'primordial' forest. I thought I'd be doing more of that, but Linda arthritis is giving her trouble. She's offered to stay in the car while I troop around and I may take her up on that the second half of the trip.

Another rest day while Wes and Ev actually attend to the business they're here for.

Tomorrow it's back to Melbourne to visit a church friend of Linda's. 

The second half of the trip is up the Gold Coast road to Adelaide, (which is spectacular by all accounts.) Then straight a few nights on the road to Canberra, then finally back to Sydney where we hope to meet our niece, Sophia, for a day or two. 

Home by way of Hawaii again.

I'm glad we gave it a month. Hard to imagine heading back after a couple of weeks.

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.