| Author | Message | ||
     Crusty |
Yes? No? Maybe? Sometimes I wonder if I’m a manic depressive. I go through extremes; from one pole to the opposite. Right now, it’s whether I should go to Australia, or whether I should stick to my original plan. I’ve come up with convincing arguments for both extremes. I have a plan in place for paying off my debt. If I stick to it, I won’t owe any money to Capital One on my credit card (at loan shark interest rates) by Spring and I’ll have the loan for the furnace paid off by early Summer. Then I’ll be able to save up a sizeable down payment for a new Roadster before Fall. It’s a very achievable plan. But then again, air fare to Brisbane is not that bad, right now. I could go and enjoy Summer for another couple of months and spend time visiting with Melia and the kids, and who knows, maybe Ron will even show his face. I could be in a T shirt for Christmas and sweat heavily on New Year’s Day. I’d have a dark sun tan when everybody here is looking pretty bleached. I could swim in the bath water warm South Pacific, and see the Southern Cross at night. And I might even get the ’79 Sportster running well enough to be able to ride it. The idea of going hit me yesterday and it hit me hard. For the last 24 hours, I’ve been debating the pros and cons of which I should do. Rational logic dictates that I should stay put and follow the plan. But the Tramp side of my nature has some convincing arguments as well. Every time I’ve listened to that side of my (probably schizophrenic) nature, I’ve had memorable adventures. I have a friend who stuck to a job he absolutely hated for years, so that he would have a pension and could enjoy retirement. While it worked, and he has a larger income than me, it’s taken him years to get over the mental anguish that job caused. I don’t want to end up like that. I once read an article about Barry Sheene, where he stated that he’d rather be saying he shouldn’t have done something than be wishing he had done it. I have enough regrets in my life. The real issue is whether I’ll regret not going more than if I do go. If I stay, I get my new Roadster sooner; if I go, I will hopefully have some memorable adventures. There was a song back in the ‘70s that I don’t know the title of or who sang it, but it started with the singer talking about driving along when he sees some little chickie hitch hiking. He pulls over, and when she gets in his car, he asks, where she’s going. She responds, “Seattle; where are you going?” And he replies, “Well, I was just going to the store for a pack of cigarettes, but I’ll drive you to Seattle, if you want.” That’s the kind of lifestyle I used to live, and so did my friends. Sometimes, I really miss it and all the adventures that come with it. Then again, it really would be nice to be riding my Gentleman’s Express to distant places before the end of this coming Summer, and having adventures on it. I’m not sure which way would be better, so I guess I’ll fall back on the old adage, “When you don’t know what to do, do nothing until it becomes clear” In the meantime, the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other are both yelling in my ears. I wonder what the Cherubs think? (Message edited by Crusty on October 29, 2019) | ||
| Ourdee |
Cherubs don't care. They are content to be bored or watch a train wreck. What silly creatures they are when it comes to the affairs of man. They do their attending on God. Man mean while has made them into winged chubby babies. It's his attempt to remove the ancient middle eastern ferociousness from them. Imagine an eagle winged lion or bull with a human face. I prefer to concentrate on the wheel in the middle of the wheel. Now I'm off on another mono wheel kick..... | ||
| Crusty |
I was talking about the cherubs on my bathroom wall. | ||
| Adrenaline_junkie |
Here we are folks. All tied up in the bottom of the ninth. Everybody is on the edge of their seat. There's the wind up and the pitch. The batter swings and WOW, he really got a piece of that one! It's going way, way deep. It may clear the center field fence. Wait, what was that? Ourdee exploded out of left field to snag it. We're headed for extra innings folks..... It helps if you are thinking Meatloaf. | ||
| Ourdee |
That is my wife and I's song. | ||
| 86129squids |
I never understood why a bank would call themselves the "Fifth Third Bank". We've got those around here. | ||
| Crusty |
Brad; you're really strange. | ||
| Crusty |
I'm going to Australia on November 20. I'll write more later. | ||
| Adrenaline_junkie |
Yay Crusty! | ||
| Ourdee |
 | ||
| 86129squids |
What?! No Snippets until Australia?! Crusticle, you're like a honey badger... he don't care! | ||
| Pwnzor |
 | ||
| Crusty |
On Your Mark… Today, I made up my mind to go to Australia. It wasn’t an easy decision to make. On the one hand, if I go, it will delay the amount of time it will take to pay off the plastic and therefore, get my new bike. I figure it will take me about three months longer. That means that I won’t have a new Roadster until a year from now. On the other hand, I’m feeling my age lately. When I went to see the moonbow, I wouldn’t get out of my warm sleeping bag at 10:00 at night to go see it. I was too tired and it was too cold out. That bothers me a lot more than I care to admit. So when I started thinking about returning to Australia, I was hit with the feeling that if I don’t go now, I may never get the chance again. I discussed it with a few friends who know me pretty well. I tried to present both sides of the argument equally in discussion. As I expected, neither side had concrete advantages over the other. Nobody had any magical advice to show me any new aspect. Most of the people I’ve talked to have been pretty positive about my going, though, and a few are jealous. This morning, I looked and finally found the Hawaiian Airlines site, but I couldn’t find the deal that set me off on this tangent. All I could find was flights that were much more expensive, and none of them had me spending much time in Hawaii. So I bit the bullet and started calling the “Cheap Air Fare” sites for their Unpublished Special Deals. What a joke. Most of the “Deals” were almost $100.00 more than the published prices. I finally found the best deal that was cheaper than all the rest, Published or Unpublished. It beat their lowest published price (which was cheaper than anybody else’s price) by a whopping $4.00! The good news is that I only have to make one stop each way in Los Angeles for a little over 5 hours. And there are only two planes each way. One from Cincinnati to LAX and one from LAX to Brisbane. The reverse for the return. The last time I flew to Brisbane, I flew from Boston to Washington, DC to San Francisco to LAX to Auckland, New Zealand to Brisbane. That was one of the most miserable flights I’ve ever been on in my life. I even got to pick my seats for the flights I’ll be on, and it only cost me 16 bucks extra! Only *Snuk*. I have an aisle seat for three of the flights and a window seat for the fourth. Last night, I started looking up the parts necessary to get the 79 Sportster up and running. I found all the clutch plates (new) and a set of fork legs on fleaBay for $75.00 (plus 35.00 shipping). Ronnie’s H-D listed a complete new carburetor for $116.00 (which I think is a ridiculously low price) and I was going to buy all of the above and bring them over in my luggage. However, when I talked to Melia this afternoon, she told me that the ’79 was sold. She had called the guy who was interested and told him I was going to come over with the parts to get it running, and then the price would go way up. So he jumped. He’s been stringing Melia along for the past couple of years hoping she’d drop the price, but once she told him I was coming, that convinced him to buy it now. So I guess I won’t be riding a Sportster around Queensland on this trip. That’s OK; I rode it in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania back in ’97. The next time I ride a Sportster in Australia, I’ll chalk off Queensland. For what it’s worth, I rode my Yamaha 900 up to Cairns, QLD from Byron Bay, NSW back in ’94. That’s where the Australian Cow Snippet came from. It’s hard to believe it’s been over 25 years since my first trip over. I’m wondering what adventures await me. Or will it be just a quiet couple of months in an extended summer? Or maybe I’ll meet an Australian lady who’ll sweep me off my feet? I doubt that latter, but you never know! | ||
| Adrenaline_junkie |
I hate to hear you won't have a Sportster but I think its great that you are going. If I could go someplace meet and warm, I'd skip winter too. Have fun buddy! (Message edited by Adrenaline Junkie on October 30, 2019) | ||
| Ourdee |
I'm glad you got it fingered out. I didn't want to tell you how to run your finances or live your life. When you can't make decisions, I'll have to consider getting a side hack to haul your butt around in. I am happy for you! | ||
| 86129squids |
   Take us there, friend. | ||
| 86129squids |
RD- I'd expect an optional mechanism to allow the monkey to drive. That'd be a sight. | ||
| 86129squids |
"If I could go someplace meet and warm, I'd skip winter too." Hunnhhhh? Whut? | ||
| Adrenaline_junkie |
Whoops. Neat and warm. Neat because I've never been there and they have kangaroos. | ||
| 04buell |
Mark me as one of the jealous friends!! I love to travel and we haven’t been able to get much of it in during the past 2 years. Have fun and make memories!! Carol | ||
| Court |
You chose wisely. | ||
| Pwnzor |
I'm excited about this trip | ||
| Crusty |
The Rain, the Cold and Other Things It started raining yesterday and it kept up until almost noon today. It varied in intensity; sometimes, it was a very light drizzle, but sometimes it freakin’ poured. I was happy to be inside, warm and dry. Once the rain quit, however, the wind picked up and the temperature plummeted. When I went out just before noon, it was fairly warm; I’d say upper 50s. Right now, at 3:30 PM, it’s 39 F (3.88 C) and dropping to 28 (-2.2 C) tonight. Between the rain and wind, there is a sh*tload of wet leaves on the ground and backstreets. I was very cautious on the bike. I had one accident this year; I don’t want or need another. The cold is piercing. Next spring, when the temp climbs up into the 40s, it will feel almost balmy. However, when the temps fall that low in the fall, it feels positively frigid. I did a good bit of prep work for the trip this morning. I got Cincinnati Bell to cut my Internet service while I’m gone. All I have to do is call them when I get back and they’ll turn it back on. That means they’ll only charge me $5.00/ month while I’m gone. I got my gas & electric & water changed to electronic (Paperless) billing. Now, I’ll be able to see and pay my bill from Australia. And I called my health insurance (Medicare Supplement) and made sure I have health insurance while I’m over there. Then I called my new PCP and got them to change my appointment for my physical. The old appointment was for two days after I’ll be heading out. I went by David’s shop and he told me that he has a carry-on bag I can use. The one I had went thataway after I came back from my last trip. My printer has taken a dump, so I’ll go over to his place and print out my ticket one of these days when he’s off from work. He’s feeling a bit jealous; he would love to go to Australia and hit all the amusement parks and ride the coasters there. I remember seeing one park that was huge on the way to Kristyn’s, when I was there in ’15. I’m a little bit bummed that the ’79 Ironhead got sold. I was getting psyched up about getting it running again. Now; it’s gone… sigh. Well, I can still pull some maintenance on the car (a Suzuki Swift), but it’s not like working on a motorcycle. The Swift gets almost as good gas mileage as a bike, though, so it will afford relatively cheap transportation. Aw hell! I’m going to have to get used to driving on the left again! It was tough to get used to that in ‘15. Even though I’d driven and ridden motorcycles in Australia the previous two times I’d been there and in Kenya, when I was there for five months, I had trouble getting back in the groove in 2015. I hope I get into it a lot quicker this time. I think I will, but I won’t know until I get there. Well; I’ve got 20 days to get everything together for this trip I think I’m up for the task. And if I forget something, then it’ll probably add to the story of an adventure. | ||
| Crusty |
I'm heading back to Australia in about 2-1/2 weeks. If you want to be on the Snippet mailing list please let me know. I will only send e-mails out to people who want them. Most (but not all) Snippets will be put on the forum, but there will be some that don't include motorcycles that won't be. Let me know and send me your e-mail address at: nmwprime*at*gmail*dot*com. (Message edited by Crusty on November 01, 2019) | ||
| Scrivo62 |
Hi Crusty, I know from your snippets that you do your research but its going to be stinking hot in Queensland this time of year 35C (95F)especially in Gatton/Fernvale. We have been in drought this spring and have had several bush fires in the district due to the hot weather and no rain. On the upside if you make it to one of our beaches the water temperature will be around 24C (75F)just swim in a patrolled area (life guards)as the surf and sharks can be potentially dangerous. On the down side fuel is frigging expensive $1.50AU litre or about $5.67AU for US gallon. I can highly recommend an awesome ride/drive from Gatton to Mt Glorious,Mt Mee, Kilcoy, Somerset Dam, Esk and back to Gatton. Takes about 5 hours round trip. I recently had a stop over in Hawaii in 2017 flying from Brisbane to Alaska. Hired a Harley and road around Oahu in about 6 hours. Awesome scenery and roads. Did my head in riding on opposite side of the road (Right)until I tagged behind a couple of bikers and just followed them. Hope you enjoy your travels in Queensland.  | ||
| H0gwash |
I'm so jealous but looking forward to interesting stories. Hope you have an adventure. | ||
| Pwnzor |
The 20 year old me lives vicariously through Crusty's tramping adventures. I'm very much looking forward to reading about this trip. | ||
| 86129squids |
Hey RoadCrust, see if you can check in with Graham before you go, maybe he can give you some ideas. | ||
| Tootal |
Crusty, those Suzuki's are pretty tough vehicles. My friend and I rebuilt his engine while it was in the car. Getting the pan off was the hardest part. It went from using first gear to get to his house to third! It was a Geo Tracker but it's the same thing. I'm looking forward to your adventures! Enjoy yourself! | ||
| 86129squids |
Someone in my neighborhood had a Geo Metro convertible... always wanted to grab one of those and cram a Wankel motor and drivetrain in it. Or a Yugo, they made drop-top versions of those too. And, what Matthew said. |
