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Simon and Deb's Excellent Adventure ........

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G'day there Zooks old mate . Long time , no hear .
We had the BEST time . Great people . Lots of laughs .
If you're planning to head over , JUST DO IT .
Way cheaper than we ever thought .
Can't wait to get back again next year .
It'll take me a bit to continue the saga as I'm back at work and don't have access to photobucket (interweb police) so it might take a day or two . Lots of pics and less dribble from here in . The adventure REALLY begins from here .
Good to see you back . Quite a few people over there were asking about you , and where you'd gone .

Cheers , Simon . :)
 
Simon, What a great start to your story, looking forward to the rest of it. If you make it out West on one of your treks, you need to visit Colorado. There are quite a few of us old gsers around this part of the country so, if I am still in traveling condition by then, I would like to show you a bit of the Rockies. Keep the installments coming. Regards, Ray
 
Thanks Simon. Real nice hearing about the States through the eyes of someone a bit closer to home. Sounds very cool. :D
 
Simon,

This is great!! Thanks for sharing. Glad you could visit, and the master of story-telling has reeled quite a few of us in! Keep it coming!
 
Sorry about that, work..............

We were up and gone at 3am. Motel to LAX, in a shuttle, with a "famous person?" I asked who she was and she got offended? No media frenzy. Bummer. Was looking forward to that and may have been "discovered".
LA, Detroit, Dayton. 5 hours. I hate planes. Interesting though. I had a window seat and almost wore the glass out. Leaving the west coast the country appeared a bit arid. I'm thinking, ' a bit like home'. Dry, sparsely populated, spectacular, hard country.
Then you cross the Rockies......
Nothing like home at all. Farms. Lots & lots of "farms". Shoulder to shoulder for a thousand miles. Unbelievable. Towns and cities "everywhere". We have "patches" of agriculture (cropping) and cities close to the coast and basically the rest of the country is "empty". The scale f the agriculture was staggering. Flew over (could see) Denver, Des Moines, Chicago and Detroit. Changed planes at Detroit and off to Dayton to meet up with Josh and Rose.
You need to know what's going on here. We don't know any of the following people. Only via the GSR. Unbelievable.
Frank, I like your work.

Josh is picking us up from the airport, then motel, then his place. He's sorted the bike and organised a ride to "show us around" the Blue Ridge Parkway, for 4 days. Unreal.
Josh (TheCafeKid) and Steve (MrSteve) got us installed and off to see the bike.
Met Rose (Kinnet) and Hootch (their dog- the only American with the good taste to appreciate Vegemite Toast).
america178.jpg



Then this.....
america167.jpg


It's love at first sight.
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Met Rob (Kparkfan) and Heidi and Bonita (Mrs Steve)
Lasagna and salad, beer (or wine) and laughs. Good stuff. This is going to be good fun.
Steve and Josh fitted a back rest/rack for Deb, and a screen. I had to restrain Steve who was keen to carve up the tail piece with a grinder, to fit the rack. "Luckily", Josh had 4 more so one of them was used. The original was too pretty to hack. Masterful work there Steve, old mate. Looked like you'd paid money for it (not much though).

america031.jpg
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Unbelieveable. Everyone's so friendly and helpful. Unreal. Good honesty, happy people with a shared passion. Great stuff. Individuals, one and all.I think that's why I've always enjoyed bikes. Only ever really met "good" people.
Back to the motel at midnight (thanks Josh) and sleep......

Cheers , Simon and Deb .
 
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More...give me more...

Why oh why are you dragging this out....:D:p;)
 
Kangaroo Two??.... just name the time & place.. I was so glad to be part of ride & have an opportunity to meet both of you. Now.. get back to the story tellin'
 
Josh picked us up and off to "titles" (?) . Turns out it was easier to leave it all with Josh as I wasn't a citizen . Anyway , got a plate and all legal . I'd rather it was all in my name in case ................ I think a little more digging is required , maybe .

Off to Competition Accessories to get helmets and riding gear for Deb . Bargain . Payed a little less than half Aus prices . Got 2 HJC's and a full set of Tourmaster gear (2 liners , armour) . Scored some Dju Dju bells as well . They worked good as we never saw a Dju Dju the whole time we were there .

Off for a first tentative ride (solo) guided by Josh . All good . The 750 is a lot more agile than the 'S , but (obviously) is way down on power . Lots of fun playing with the gearbox again . Haven't had to do that so much lately . Picked up Deb and off for a bit of a "sus" it out ride . Good . All good . This is going to be a lot of fun . Bring on tomorrow .

Fuel............... (gas) .
To get fuel in Aus , you pull up to the pump , grab the hose for the fuel you want , and fill your bike . The nozzle can be easily taken from a dribble (topping up) and flat out , and anywhere in between . Not so the Americans . STOP or GO ! That's it . Or I'm an idiot that can't drive a fuel bowser . Deb twigged pretty quick and went straight for the hand towel each time . I spewed the first time it happened . Fuel everywhere . Barstard . Cost's about half of what we pay down here .
You have to pay for fuel by credit card or cash BEFORE you fuel up . That was a pain as some pumps wouldn't accept our card , some would . Had to make sure we kept extra cash was all . Almost unheard of in Aus , though it'll come I suppose .

Rob and Heidi dropped over with a mobile (cell) phone for us to use . Load up some credit and go . Rose set up a Gmail account so we could stay in touch with home . You people are unreal . We wouldn't have believed we could be made so welcome . Stoked .

Back to the motel at 7.30 pm (again with Josh - unreal) . An excellent meal of salmon and lemon herbed chicken , coupla drinks , apple crumble and coffee , coupla drinks and off to bed .

The Blue Ridge Parkway awaits tomorrow ...................

Cheers , Simon and Deb . :dancing:
 
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Hey, good, the updates comming at a faster rate now. Thanks Simon.

Pre-pay before pumping is common in big citys, or maybe in smaller cities just on the pumps remote from the office.
And most pumps, the first 1/5 travel of the lever is slow, and after that is fast.

MOre, more, want more of the story.

.
 
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Yea, too many service stations are getting ripped off from people who can't or won't pay so trust is no longer available here. I think it sucks but hey, what can I do?
 
Most places here in Minnesota they still trust us (don't know why, there are a lot of gas drive-offs here too). Good story, keep 'em coming.:)
 
Hmm. A lot of the pumps around here still have the warning stickers about what they do to people who steal gas. I guess that's not a pre-pay station, then. I dunno, because I like to pay at the pump with the card.

I know what Simon is talking about with the on-off pumps. Even just cracking it, you've unleashed a flood. I've adopted various ways to deal with this including aiming the nozzle into the tank at an angle to keep the splash inside, and giving up on adding just a little more to get it full. Some places have pumps that are easier to control slowly. They seem to be the older pumps without card readers. Then there are pumps that are just plain slow, taking 10 minutes to fill a car.
 
I really must save up some $ so we can join Simon and Deb for the next trip.:)
 
Colin Green said:
I really must save up some $ so we can join Simon and Deb for the next trip.:)
Click to expand...

Colin

Just check out any of our rallies - if you contact the organizer, I'll bet they could round up a spare bike for you.

There are several folks that do this here within the States
 
We were a bit slow getting organised the next morning . The cab we booked the night before never fronted . We got to Josh's at about 8.00am .
Shortly there were ..............
Steve Wing AND trailer .
Bonita GS850L
Josh and Rose GS1000GT
Dale GS 1000GT
Brad GS 850GT
and us GS750B
america058.jpg



america057.jpg


A bit of a mixed crew of ........... persons unknown . Lots of laughs and prestart excitment . Getting to know more people .
Steve fitted all our gear (plus a box of spare parts) into his trailer . All we had , was the tank bag . Brilliant. He also had an Esky (ice box) on board . Interesting . Coupla drinks , I'm thinking . No , well yes , water and soft drinks (soda) . Good thinking , but ..............

america054.jpg


america057.jpg


Off we go . Dayton (Ohio) to Beuna Vista (Virginia) . The first tank of fuel was on "the slab" . Interesting , again , I thought . A slab in Aus is a box of beer . All would be cleared up shortly .
It took a bit to get used to riding in a group as we very rarely ride with others normally . Steve lead the way with the rest of us in front of Bonita . They had radios so could make sure no one got left behind . Good idea , just not used to it . It may get a bit interesting in the wiggly bits though .

I've got no idea what route we followed . As all the names were "foreign" , they blurred . I'm sure Steve , or Josh could fix you up .

Found "the great Aussie dream" and the connection to "the slab" at our first stop .

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Very happy chappy ...........

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Cheers , Simon and Deb .
 
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