I Quit!

After only a couple days on job training I realized that I really didn't want a job. I've had a job since I was 12 years old and I'm 38 now. I've got some money and I don't really need to work. At this point in my life all I really want to do is to do as a please when I please. I sold my house to go and wander about the world and until such comes that I might need to work to extend my, as they say here and Europe, holiday then I will work.

I felt like an absolute shit-head for saying that I would work for Chris and Loey and then saying "No sorry, but I really can't." They were very understanding, and even invited me over for dinner to their cabin. Such wonderful people. Their philosophy was that when you work with travelers we understand that their plans change as they need to and we have to work around them. At least I told them with plenty of time to make other arrangements for plan B or C.

My plan is to now go drink some beer and smoke a little cannabis. It's just past noon. Not a bad way to get the day going.

Photo Day

In front of the Hemp Embassy in Nimbin. Also, notice the Give Way sign. There are no stop signs, at least I haven't seen any, there are Give Way signs instead. No need to stop, but give way to the other vehicle. I like it. How many times do you really need to stop at a stop sign anway?

I love the Australian money with one exception. The "paper" money feels slightly like plastic and is almost impossible to tear with your hands. Plus it's very colorful and there is a little "window" or clear spot on each bill. There are no single cent coins. Everything in Australia is rounded to the nearest .05¢ which makes buying things so much easier. The only problem i have is that the larger gold coin is $1 but the smaller gold coing is $2. That took me about a week to get used to.

Sun rise in Nimbin. Such beauty here.

They have Monarch Butterflies here. Lots of them flit around this hostel.

Birds, bees, flies, and lizzards all eat from this flower. I don't know it's name, but it is very pretty and smells sweet like, hmm, how do i describe it... a combination of honey and lilly.

I'm Going To Take A Job

That's right. I'm going to take a job here at the Nimbin Rox Hostel. The owners Chris and Loey are expecting a baby about June 24. They need someone to basically run the whole hostel for a couple of weeks during and after the baby is born. So, I, with great thought and contemplation, have decided to do this job. Why not? When am I ever going to have the opportunity to stay in an absolutely beautiful place for free and with a little bit extra, but the money is not why I'm doing it.

Here I am, a foriegner, have said in a few hostels, but have never worked in one, and now I'm being asked to manage an award winning hostel for a few weeks. I'm in.

So my plans are changing. I was suppose to leave for Thailand on June 24, but I can stay in Australia up to July 24, so I will have to do some flight changes. But I'm excited about doing this job. It looks like I'll be in Nimbin for a couple of months.

How ya goin'?

First of all, again I love reading your comments and I will try to answer your questions and respond to your post. So check out the past blog postings comment section for replies. Anybody out there know how to answer directly after a comment within the blogger.com format?

Wow, things move fast. I've taken off my watch and feeling total unencumbered by time. It's great.


A few pictures then a couple stories.

Going with smaller pictures for quicker uploading (it took 12 minutes for these):

My "cabin" in Nimbin

Looking directly out the front flap.

The Roche Family Hotel. I stayed on the second floor corner. Yeah, right above the sign to the place! For 28 bucks! The food was great too.

This is Les (he pronounced it lez). He is a "native" Australian and lives just outside of Murwillumba. As you might be able to see on the ground to the left are his wares. Some very nice leather and kangaroo hide work. I bought a cool wallet.

Stories:

About an hour after getting to the Nimbin Rox Hostel I was talking to this 20 y.o. woman, Lynn, from Germany, in the Teepee, who's roommate is Japanese, and she said "Who vould haf thot dat only 20 dase ago I woult be in ze mountens uf Australia, smoking weet all the day vit a japanese man?" A brilliant observation.

I was learning German from this about 5 or 6 y.o. little girl, Anna Ziegler of Germany. She is here with her family (Father, Mother, and 2 y.o. brother) on holiday.

She would say something and I had to mimic her. I don't remember exactly what I said, but according to her parents she was making me say things like, "Miene haren ist brown", I wear glasses, things like this. Then I said okay it's my turn. You say what I say. So I told her to say "The dog is purple." And she says "The dog is people." Perfect! Oh that is beautiful. Much better than what I said. Say it again. She said it again, and again, and again.

I was crying I was laughing so hard. I've got a grin on my face and my gut hurts just thinking about how funny it was. A great family.

I'm In Nimbin!

Lots to tell you, but I'm at a place where there is only a dial up connection, and they charge $4.50 an hour. Aahh I love you Australia! Anyway I spent the night at a wonderful old Pub/Hotel, The Roche Family Hotel in Grafton. Twenty-eight dollars got me a room to myself, with two beds, a sink in the room, shared toilets and shower stalls, on the top corner with 6 windows of a 1920's/30's old hotel with bay doors opening to the outside wrap around balcony. The guy checking me in is a biker! Thank you Honda!

Now I'm in Nimbin at the Nimbin Rox Hostel and this place is calling out to me. I reinjured my back while Dustin, from Port Maquarie, was showing me some of the Sticky Hands Kung Foo that he teaches and he barely toched me, at least preasure wise, and he moved my back out of alignment. My back hursts. On Friday here, Thursday in The States, I tried to get an appointment with the local chiropractor but they were booked, so i got a homeopathic massage therapist to help me out. i've never had a more theraputic massage. She helped me out a lot. Now I need to get into the Chiropractor to keep on the road to wellness. I will conveles here. Until I feel otherwise.

This is a good place to be for a long time.

Bike Broke in Port Macquarie, Fixed Now, Still In "The Port"

First things first. When we last left off I was in Tamworth and on my way out of town I spied a Motorcycle Museum. So I stopped in and looked at about 50 cool bikes. They even made me a cuppa tea with cookies! Glen, the volunteer for the day gave me a personal tour as I was the only one there for about an hour. I told Glen that I was planning to go on the "Thunderbolt Highway". He said yeah a lot of guys ride that one, but you should take the Oxley. That is a road! Oh you'll like that one. But, I say it's The THUNDERBOLT Highway. He says, yeah, but what's in a name Mate? Okay, the Oxley it is and what a fantastic ride that is/was.

I don't think that I have been on such a long and technically challenging motorcycle road. It had everything, long sweepers, corners that changed altitude and sharp corner after sharp corner with winding road in between. I was tired after that ride and I think I'll do it again. Heh heh. At the end of the road is the city of Port Macquarie.

So I get to the City Center of Port Macquarie and I decide to stop and see where I might be able to find a cheap place to stay. So I pull into a parking space that is in the middle of the street that divide tow lanes of traffic. By my "Rough Guide to Australia" guide book, I see that the Hotel Macquarie is near by and cheap. So I jump back on the bike turn the key and... nothing. No lights at all. Nothing. No starter noise no nothing. Nothing makes a bikers heart sink quicker. So I do a quick diagnosis and I can't quite figure out what is going on, so I start walking to the hotel. They have a room for me (a bedroom to myself with shared toilets and bathroom for only $40! Deal.) I plop my helmet and jacket on the bed and head back to the bike to pack up everything and (thank God for those backpack straps!) I think to myself, I'll worry about it tomorrow.

I find a nice cafe to grab a bite to eat. Maybe you've heard about it, McDonald's. They have, get this, McCafe's here. Oi vey. Anyway, while I'm sitting there I see a guy with a helmet coming out of the theatre and I run up to him to ask if he knows if the Honda shop that I saw on the way into town is open on Sundays? He says he doesn't know, he has only been living in town for about 3 months, but is willing to help. So he comes over to my table, where I'm eating, and we chat for a bit. Dustin is an architect and a Kung Fu teacher. A very interesting fellow. We chat for quite a while that evening over several beers at the pub in the hotel. The next day...

Happy Mother's day! I get up and go take a look at the bike. As I was just getting to the bike Dustin drives up on his way in to work. So we check out the bike and find that the main connection for bike power had melted and a 30 Amp fuse had blown. Replace the fuse and... Vroom vroom! The bike works! Whew. Thanks Dustin, I'm off to put my bike into the hotel parking lot and wait for Monday.

Monday morning I get up and find out that the Honda shop opens at 8 A.M. Cool. I eat a good breakfast (BTW on this trip I eat a big breakfast every day that I can. A good breakfast will keep me until 2 or 3 in the afternoon and then some kind of snack will suffice until dinner), then I START the bike (whew), and head to the Honda shop. I get there and they are swamped. 3 guys are standing in line waiting around for the service dept. I talk to Werner and show him the melted bit and tell him I'm traveling, he sends over a mech. who finds out that there must be a contact short somewhere, more than likely at the base of where the plastic bit is all melted, causing the bike to push more amps through to compensate, melting the plastic piece, and blowing the fuse.

He, Heath tells me what he thinks needs to be done is to clean the heck out of the connections, toss the melted plastic bit, and cut the wires, re-strip them, and put on these new clip connectors. Okay I says, you're the mechanic. He doesn't have the time to do the job himself so he gives me the tools and some pointers. I do it all, he comes over and checks my work, and suprise, surprise, suprise the bike runs! Not only does it start but it runs perfectly fine now. Good job Thom! I quiz Heath for a bit about this situation and he says it should work fine unless there is a different problem with the electrical that isn't evident right now. Okay then, here we go.

I take the bike out on a good hour long run and everything functions great. I broke down in "The Port" (as the locals call it) and stayed for four nights. It is nice here and the weather is decent with highs around 70 and partly cloudy skies. Plus some great places to eat and drink. I will leave soon for parts unknown at this point. But this was as good a place as any to get stuck for a while and chill out and read a good book (now I know why the Devinci Code is so popular, what a read).

Some Things I've Noticed

-There is no, or very little tipping in Australia, but the service is also lacking. Most of the time I have to service myself, which is fine, at least my meal didn't cost me 15% more. And really wait staff don't really do to much anyway to earn an extra 15% most of the time. Sorry to all you wait staff people out there.

-We say "How ya doin'?" They say "How ya Goin'?"

-The $2 coin is smaller than the $1 coin. That took me a couple of weeks to get used to.

-The Traveler's Information Centers are great. These people go out of their way to get you what you need. Especially if you need a place to spend the night or want to do some touristy sight seeing.

- The electrical outlets all have a switch on them. Plus the plugs are bigger and different than what we have in the U.S. A light switch looks like the switch here, but without a plug next to it.

-THE BEER -- Most of the beer is yellow but with more body and malty tasting, but with more flavor than a Bud or Coors. The big ones here are Victoria Bitter (which isn't), Toohey's New (I usually drink this one), there are others but I can remember these right now. I've only seen and tried one beer that was darker in color that is a Toohey's Old. It was not good. Tasted like a bad amber. Bleh.

-Road signs are few and far between. You gotta know where you are going and if you miss a road sign you better go back because they don't like to repeat themselves.

-Bottle shops are the common way to get your alcohol. They seem to be everywhere. A bottle shop sells beer, wine, and spirits in the bottle and some are drive through. Tell them what you want at the window and they bag it up and send you on your way. Many resteraunts and cafes are B.Y.O. and have no corkage fee. They will even provide glasses or mugs, sometimes kept in a cooler for you, and some even provide a wine bucket with ice, if it's a white wine.

-Washing machines cost about $3 to $4 per load and a dry is about $2 to $4.

-We have beware of deer signs. They have beware of Kangaroos and Wallabees.

-Sometimes their accent is tough to figure out. -- At a petrol fill up I go in to pay; I have yet to see a gas pump with a card reader you have to go inside to the attendant to pay, the guy inside says "How ya goin'?" I say fine thanks, he says "Yawndatooah?" I say pardon me? He says "Yawndatooah?" I say I'm sorry, say that again? He says "Yawndatooah?" I say, did you say "Yawndatooah???" He says yeah. I say I don't know what that means. He says "Ah you on dah tooah, on your motorbike?" Oh, yes, yes I am on the tour on my motorbike. I'm awndatooah.

-Happy Mother's Day!!!

It's A Lot Like This:

I'm at the only internet cafe (that anyone of 3 people know about) in Tamworth the "Country Music Capital" of Australia. You'd think it'd be nothing but hicks in hats and big trucks, like Ellensburg, but it's fairly cosmopolitan for Australian standards. There are sidewalk cafes and a pedestrian friendly downtown. I've got stories to tell. "The 3 Sisters" Katoomba, the Blue Mountains in the distance.

Katoomba is a really nice place and I wouldn't mind going back for a longer visit. It reminds me of a much more hippier Roslyn with a bigger population too. There are sidewalk cafes, and small shops along the main drag. The big claim to fame is that they got the cool tours and stuff for the Blue Mountains which is a million hectares of undisturbed mountains and forests. Most all the trees are gum trees. Everywhere gum trees. There is a really nice hostel there too, The Blue Mountain YHA is a converted old motel. I would have stayed longer, but I just got the bike the day before and in the morning it was -1 C! Just below freezing. Gah.

From here I went to Bathurst and then on to Lithgow where it was still cold out so I had to buy some warmer gloves and pants. From Lithgow into Windsor is a marvelous bike ride on the highway called "Bell's Line of Road" it was just enough twist and zip that it never got boring.

Windsor is a growing town in the middle of wine country but it sucked. NEXT!

The next morning... I hit the Putty Road. What a magnificent road for a motorbike! At the north end it was very twisty. Some corners were posted at 15 KM! The road had great sweepers with some parts of the road covered by trees. So pretty.

I ended this day on the "Pacific Highway, which is like most pacific highways too much traffic, small towns and bad driving. I wound up in a town called Blackbeach. It was a dumpy oceanside place with a great visitor's center.

Made it up to Aderdeen The road was nothing exciting more or less a highway but it sure is pretty there. It reminded me of home. Lots of flat land with rolling hills and horses and cows. from here and spent the night in Tamworth at the Tamworth YHA and got little sleep.

Right now I'm in Tamworth and they have a giant guitar. Where's Paul Bunyan when you need him?

I'm Over Heeeerrrrree!

Two days on the road and I've gone from Sydney to Katoomba, to *correction* Windsor not Wilson, to Blacksmiths Beach. I've put about 500 km on the bike so far. I've got some cool photos and what not to post, but I'm at the Blacksmiths Beach visitors center and they have FREE internet, so I'm just posting to keep you all up to date. But me, the bike, and the one bag are doing great. Tomorrow I hope to go to Aberdeen! But Texas can kiss my ass.

I'll try to find a good internet place and post some stuff. Good thing I'm at the information center. Woohoo.

One Month Ago

I started this journey with some basic ideas in mind and questions I would like to answer about myself.

The 3
What are my passions or am I passionate about?
What direction should I take my life?
What do I desire in life or a career?

A good traveler has no specific destination and is not intent upon arrival.
-Lao Tzu

The only thing that you have to decide is what to do with the time that you are given.
-Bilbo Baggins LOTR movie.

In this month of travel I don't know if I have answered any of the questions but I think about them from time to time. I've given some thought to becoming an educator of some sort. I know that I still have a great deal of passion for radio. I like triple M. That is a quality station. But other stations I've tuned into are pretty much crap and there are not many to choose from. As far as desire? Besides a good woman, a good job, and a place to call home, I wonder what I desire?

Oh yeah, I decided to just buy the bike with my credit card. Any other way would have been too much of a pain in the ass for me, and the shop. BTW, customer service in this country (and I'm judging the entire country on my experience here in Sydney) is sub par to what I'm used to in The States. You'd think that if I was going to give you 7 grand you'd be doing flips to help me get you the money. But I had to do everything myself and had to practically pull the information from the sales dudes brain about the best way to go about getting them my money. Also there are rarely even close to enough checkers at any grocer. I've only been asked once, during a meal, if everything was alright? But then again, tips are not expected here and when I do tip they are very thankful.

Tomorrow I get the bike from the shop and I begin a whole new chapter of my adventure. I'm a bit nervous about riding on the left side of the road and I'm hopeful that nothing bad happens from me doing an accidental right side of the road thing. *fingers crossed*

Buying A Motorcycle!

I feel almost normal today. Still some brief bits of wooziness but decided to give the whole bike search a real go. Coho (Hi Coho!) sent me a link to a bike shop that will buy back the bike as long as it's in good shape when you return. http://www.closemotorcycles.com.au/ Plus it is within easy walking distance. So I went there today and found an awesome Honda ST1100 for $7000 AUD or about $5400 USD. It runs great! They don't dicker on the price if you do the buy back program, fair enough. I put down $500 so they don't sell it and now I need to figure out how to get them my money without having to deal with excessive credit card fees. I talked to the mechanic who worked on it and he likes the bike and said it still has plenty of go left in her. It has 190,000 KM, and he thinks it has at least another 60,000 KM to go. Sweet! He changed the oil, new filters for oil and gas, new tires, new brake pads, and a tune up! I also bought a helmet, jacket, and gloves. The total comes to $7395.00 and I'm on the road. I can't wait.