A Local Weekend

I don’t ride on ANZAC Day anymore so had scheduled in a weekend of absolutely nothing… my sister had plans to be away for the whole weekend… awesome empty house and can just relaaaaax.

I had planned to have the girls around on Saturday night then that changed to Sunday night then I canned it altogether when I decided a few days earlier that I was going to quit smoking… didn’t think that drinking and not smoking was a good mix for me just yet!

It also turned out that my sister wasn’t going away either 

Saturday morning I got up and tried to distract myself by cleaning up… failed and smoked the remaining four cigarettes I had by midday. Ah well, at least they are all out of the house now. Gave up on cleaning and pulled out my longstitch tapestry thing… figured out that I have been working on that for around ten years now and haven’t even finished a third of it (I bought it back when I was married and my ex-husband liked to go out and take lots of drugs and get really drunk all the time and I didn’t so I’d spend a lot of time at home by myself… pick it up every couple of years and do a little bit… I might finish it by the time I’m 60!) Anyway, settled in on the couch for some telly watchin’ and long stitchin’ and it was nice. My sister came home and spent some time also sitting on the couch.

Sunday Glenn came round to have a look at the kitchen and stuff that we want to do round the house. Then after he left Trina asked if I wanted to go to Bunnings, I said no I was going to Stevo’s but then I thought maybe she’d like the company seeing as she still hadn’t heard from her boyfriend even though he’d said he’d spend the weekend with her. So I thought I’d be nice and keep her company instead. We went to Bunnings and Magnet Mart and got some kitchen brochure things (I thought we should go to other places as well but my sister didn’t want to drive that far) so then we went home and I went back to the couch before dinner at mum’s then home. The boyfriend finally called her so he came round then it was annoying being in the loungeroom with them so I went to bed about 9pm, after being informed that the telly was “booked” for the next day… so much for day three of bludging in front of the telly 

So Monday morning my alarm went off cuz I forgot to turn it off. I didn’t fancy being stuck in my room all day so had a look… FarRiders tag was still in Dartmoor Vic, too far for one day, but the Canberra Riders one was at Berry… that’ll do! So I got up, showered, watched a little telly (the sister’s boyfriend hadn’t arrived yet) while I had a coffee then I geared up… and up and up (damn winter) and set off. I didn’t have much of a plan but decided to go down the Clyde and work out which way I’d come home later.

It was really cold heading out to Braidwood and I stopped there to use the toilet (no smoke break which was very weird) and hugged the exhaust for a while cuz my hands were frozen. Then off to the Clyde (hurrah!!!!!) Had an awesome run down apart from near the top, coming around a sharp corner and there was a big arse truck doing about 20km/h with two cars up his arse! Eeeeek glad my brakes work. Wasn’t behind them for long then I had a pretty much clear run to the bottom (heaps of traffic coming up though, which was to be expected I guess given ACT had the public holiday).

Turned left at the roundabout and fuelled up at Cullendulla before heading onto Ulladulla. A pretty good run along here too, bit more traffic but nothing too annoying.

Well that all changed after Ulladulla. Then it sucked arse. We’d do 80km/h… until the overtaking lanes… Then everyone would do 130km/h… *sigh*. This continued on to Berry grrrrr.

Got the tag photo 

Berry

and had some donuts… I asked for two, they gave me three and it turned out they charged me for three when I thought about it later. Ah well I ate them all anyway.

There had been heaps of traffic heading south on the princess as well so I thought fark that! and headed up the backroad from Berry to Kangaroo Valley. Was stuck behind a car, thought I had what looked to be a good overtaking spot and the car gunned it… ah well… was probably a good thing as they appeared to know the road fairly well… kinda a good thing with completely unmarked, potholey switchbacks in the road! It was very pretty and we wound our way through to Kangaroo Valley. Fuelled up (again weird with no smoke break) and hopped back on to head up to Fitzroy Falls. Had a clear run to near the bottom but the magical sign of an overtaking lane coming up made me happy :o) until a complete fucktard with canberra plates (of course :roll:) cut me off and proceeded to very slowly move past the car in front of it… grrrrr. So I was behind them for ages until finally I could get round and then around another car and a clear run for the five corners that remained :roll:. And then I was behind three trucks and about 100 cars (felt like, actually I think it was only about 10 - 15). Eventually all the trucks and most of the cars turned off and I got around the remaining cars and had a good run through the Highlands Way and it was cold again by now so stopped in at Marulan and hung out under the hand dryers in the toilets for a bit before saddling back up for the run into canberra. It rained on me a bit here and there but not enough to don the wets. Got into Canberra just in time for coffee, where Carl gave me cigarettes and they were fantastic.

And that was my weekend. Not what I’d planned at all!

Easter Weekend 2009

OK so I’m a bit behind in my blog…

Easter weekend was set to go exploring some roads I hadn’t done before up around the NSW/QLD border.

I set off Thursday after work with the intention of slabbing it up to Singleton… well that didn’t last long, I was bored of the freeway about halfway to Goulburn so topped up the fuel at Goulburn then went Taralga/Oberon and into Lithgow.  It was almost dark by the time I left Goulburn and was dark for the Abercrombie river crossing which was okay until heading up the other side and I am presented with a cliff face - where did the road go??? Oh yeah switchback to the left 

Fuel at Lithgow then Bells Line of Road.  I had an awesome run along here, really enjoyed it, very little traffic and I got around what traffic there was very easily.  Then up the Putty Road.  I stopped at the Halfway Roadhouse which was closed, I was getting pretty tired by then and it was cold (had been cold since about Goulburn lol) so after a bit of a rest into Singleton to try and find somewhere to stay - there was only one place still open dammit and it was expensive but I was real tired so paid the money and fell into bed. 

Slept in a bit the following morning, oops.  Straight up the New England to Glen Innes was the plan and I got there about 1.5 hours later than planned.  Fuelled up then down the Gwydir to Grafton - a very pretty bit of road and then onto Casino via a little town I can’t remember where I stayed the night.  Up pretty late on Saturday and outta Casino and onto Nimbin where I had never been before.  It kinda looked like a prettier Newtown.  Apparently it was very quiet, usually it is much busier??? anyway, continued on, went to Kyogle and then took Lions Road over the QLD border.  I have heard people rave about this road but I thought the road was shit but it was very pretty.  It improved over the border where the road makes the rollercoasterdown the coast look pathetic.  Into Boonah for some lunch then through Beaudesert and onto the Mt Lindsay Highway.  Nice bit of road, shame about the traffic.  Finally got around the two cars I was stuck behind and it was very nice then :o) 

Then through Woodenbong and down one of the bumpiest roads I have ever been on to Tabulam and up the Bruxner to Tenterfield.  It wasnt as exciting as I had thought it was going to be!  Ah well.  From Tenterfield slabbed it up to Warwick where it rained and rained and my left mirror fell off.

Sunday morning the gear is all still wet ah well.  I can’t remember where I went then, somewhere for breakfast then up to some waterfall but it was raining and the roads were kinda slippery so turned around and headed south hoping the weather would clear up a bit.  Back into Grafton then down the Grafton/Ebor road.  It was much better than I remembered!  Had an enjoyable run through here, stopped at Ebor to don the wet weather gear again as it was very black ahead and glad I did, it bucketed down!  Rolled into Armidale for the night, spread just about everything I had with me out to dry and off to the pub for dinner (I can’t remember what the pub was called but it was great food!)

Monday morning dawned grey and miserable and I headed south down the New England.  I was thinking of going and checking out the Bylong Valley Way that I understand is now sealed all the way but with the shite weather I thought nahhhh.  I was then gonna go the way I had come, Putty/Bells Line/Oberon but i remember a stretch of rather slippery roadworks (in the dry! itwas just like clay) on the way into Black Springs so thought nah… just ended up slabbing it which was the biggest mistake ever!  I don’t like to split or ride down the emergenccy lane but after pulling over twice to let the 9 cool down I did just ride up the emergency lane, the F3 was a carpark!  Never again on a long weekend!

Got back into Canberra around 5pm and straight to coffee to give Tess and Stevo a big hug cuz I missed them so much over the weekend - they would have loved some of those roads!

Tara QLD 4/5 April 2009

Richard had suggested a get together for dinner, the location was set at Tara QLD, some 1070km from home according to Google maps… I had that weekend free so why not?

Had Friday off work due to stupid fucking Telstra (have I evern mentioned that I HATE Telstra) so got on the road and rode through to Goondiwindi. Went via some roads I hadn’t done before, Wellington to Gulgong then the Black Stump way up to near Gunnedah, got a bit lost trying to figure out which turn to Manilla wasn’t dirt lol but eventually got on the right road, up to Warialda then through North Star and onto Goondiwindi. Was a biggish day. Met Thommo at maccas and overnighted at a motel somewhere.

Saturday morning was hot. bloody qld. sticky. Thommo says “it’s a bit tropical” and I say I’m gonna die. Anyway we rode the huge 140km… I say rode… bounced would be more accurate lol… so we bounced the 140km to Tara, my left mirror was in an interesting position after all the bumps! Got to the pub first but before long the others all started rolling in. Spent the arvo sitting outside, finally a cool breeze blew in and I wasn’t gonna die from the stickiness anymore. Dinner was awesome, rissoles were fantastic :o) Bed pretty early.

Sunday got up I dunno, 6am? Chucked my stuff in my bag and hit the road. Thommo escorted me back to QLD (to make sure I left the state I think…) then it was just straight down the Newell. I think I caused manslaughter to a family of ducks, and I still feel realy awful about that :o( barrelling down the highway, the sun is shining, I’m rocking out to whatever was on my mp3 player at the time and I see *something* on the road ahead… WTF? FAAAARKKKK it’s DUCKS! A mother duck with about 10 ducklings!! I braked and swerved but the mother duck flew away and half the babies fell over flapping their wings and looking all pathetic. There were cars not all that far behind me (not visible but I had not long ago done some overtaking) so I just have visions of these 10 little squished ducklings :o(. I hope the mother came back and saved them…

Between Narrabri and Coonabarabran a HWP passed me going the other way and I was not entirely sure what speed I was doing… got a bad case of the paranoids, checking my mirrors heaps so ended up pulling up at a rest area for a smoke break before heading into Coonabarabran for fuel but no smoke, straight back on the road. Started to get a little tired by Gilgandra so stopped at the Caltex roadhouse and got a sausage roll and a gogo juice. Was sitting outside enjoying said sausage roll and gogo juice when a lady came and sat down with me and we started talking about life the universe and everything so actually spent about an hour there… ooops.

Into Dubbo for fuel, then Parkes, Forbes (the 9 turned 70,000km just outta Forbes!) Grenfell then Young where I stopped to change visors and put on a jumper as it was getting COLD! Rolled through Wombat and Harden at last it was properly dark so my headlights were doing something. Caught up to a Bdouble coming into Binalong and was behind him for a while til a car behind me went past us both so I just tucked in behind him.

Stopped at Yass for fuel then home, got in about 8:00pm.