Days 139 to 145 - Wednesday 17th August to Tuesday 23rd August
Enjoying ourselves at Southport - Week 3.
- Weather: Another cool night, it was 12.5° at 5:00am and it reached 21.9° at 12:00pm. Clear sunny, cloudless sky, but cloudy during the arvo.
- Wind: 10 - 35kph NE.
Back to our normal day, laying in bed watching 'Sunrise' and then I turned into Cycleman and rode off to the seaway beacon. The ocean was rougher than yesterday.
As the wind was blowing from the right direction, I managed to take some more pictures of the catamaran moored off the Seaworld it is
Ocean Spirit 11 which is a dive boat out of Cairns, so I don't know why it is moored at Southport. More investigation is needed.
Luke was coming over about luchtime to finish installing some software on my laptop, but rang while I was riding, as it may rain at anytime, I had to go to his place. So I did. Stayed a couple of hours and he finished rebuilding my laptop. Back at camp, Marg had been busy making paper flowers for the birthday party.
We got ready for our 34th Anniversary dinner, and headed to the Southport Worker's Club, Marg had joined about a week ago, so while I joined she went straight to the pokies. It costs $5 each per year and you get $2 off per meal and your drinks are cheaper, so after a couple of dinners, you have recouped your membership fees. We are now members of the Southport Worker's Club. After joining I wandered through the 250 pokies where Marg was and walked past another 50 pokies in another area, there are at least 2 bars, a TAB area and it was very nice. Dinner started at 5:30pm, you guessed it, we were there at 5:30pm for dinner and still not the first. Bugger. At the pokies, we both lost, I lost $6 and Marg didn't win. For dinner, Marg had a lamb shank and I had the Roast of the Day (Pork), both meals were very YUMMA. We will give the Southport Sharks Club a miss and stay with this club. We like it better.
Ocean Spirit 11 - A dive boat from Cairns.
The Surfer's taxi is back.
We only managed a few drops from that.
- Weather: Another cool night, it was 12.5° at 5:00am and it reached 21.9° at 12:00pm. Clear sunny, cloudless sky, but cloudy during the arvo.
- Wind: 10 - 35kph NE.
Not quite our normal day, I didn't go riding, as we have been helping Jodi prepare for her daughter's birthday this Saturday. In the morning, we were off to Bunnings to buy some bits and pieces, then back to Aussie Fair for some more shopping.
I dropped Marg off back at camp, then I headed into Harry Hema HQ in Eight Mile Plains to get Harry sorted out, he has developed a 'bug'. We only use Harry in Ozi Explorer mode which is bloody great, and still works, it just needs some manual intervention by Marg. His 'bug' is as we travel west to east or east to west, Harry automatically changed to the next zone map, BUT this change can take more than 10 minutes to complete, the track is still being displayed against a blank screen, looks weird. Finally, Harry displayed a 'fatal' error and Marg turned him off and on and manually selected the required zone map and away he went, quite happy. BUT as we are stopping at Southport until 25th Sept, I decided to take Harry to see his maker and Rob the technician was very helpful, he fixed Harry's bug and also updated his software and loaded the latest Australia Map and also upgrade the Route 66 software, which is more than capably handled by our Tom, so I wasn't too concerned about the Route 66 software, but as I was there I thought get whatever I can. Rob spent a good 40 minutes teaching me how Harry works with his new software. This is the downside of buying online, they is no human to show you how the product works, but Rob solved that. Harry and I left 'his maker' very happy and as there was no charge, I was more than happy.
About 5pm, we went over to Jodi and Lukes to deliver all the birthday 'stuff'. So Saturday is looking very good. It is a 5 year olds birthday with a fairy theme. I am desperately trying to find a 'Tinker Bell' costume to fit me. If I find one, I will definitely stand out at the party.
No photos were taken today.
- Weather: Another cool night, it was 12.5° at 5:00am and it reached 21.9° at 12:00pm. Clear sunny, cloudless sky, but cloudy during the arvo./li>
- Wind: 10 - 35kph NE.
Back to our normal day, laying in bed watching 'Sunrise' and then I turned into Cycleman and rode off to the seaway beacon. The ocean was beautiful and calm today. I sat on the rocks at the beacon and watched a prawn boat (Lady Jocelyn) approach the seaway. It was such a lovely day, just watching the water and scenery.
Marg had a hair appointment at 1:30pm, so I dropped her off at our 'new' club at 11am, then I went over to Aussie Fair to buy myself some lunch. I spent
the afternoon, doing some washing and just buggering about at camp. Marg arrived back about 4pm, and looks lovely, as usual. Tonight, we are watching TV.
Just a nice, quiet day.
Tomorrow, we are off to the 5yo 'Fairy' birthday. I am absolutely devastated, I couldn't find a 'Tinker Bell' costume, so I will be the odd man out tomorrow.
Lady Jocelyn (prawn boat) coming back to dock.
How beautiful is it?
That bike is seen everywhere.
- Weather: Another cool night, it was 13.5° at 5:00am and it reached 20.2° at 12:00pm. Cloudy in the morning with sunny patches then it rained in the hills.
- Wind: gusts upto 60kph S.
No riding today, as it is our step grand daughter's 5th birthday in Lismore about 140kms from here. We drove over to pick up Luke and take him with us, but when we arrived he had decided to ride his motorbike, against his mum and dad's advice that it may rain. He wouldn't change his mind, but he did give us a change of clothes to take for him. We left Luke's at 9:16am and we followed behind him, while Marg take photos of Luke in action.
We stopped at the service centre south of Tweed and then stopped at a rest area just before Bangalow. We turned off the Pacific hwy at the Bangalow turnout heading for Lismore. Right on queue, it started bucketing down and needless to say, Luke got absolutely drenched, I had to turn on the wipers and heater as I was a tad cool. Luke doesn't have wet weather gear, so he was wet to the bone. Anyway, we dropped our speed and drove and rode to the new conditions, we arrived at Lismore about 11:20am. Meet the birthday girl and all the relations, helped finish the final touches and waited for the 5 other little fairies to arrive. It
was my first 5 year old female birthday party and I didn't know that little girls can squeal as loud as they did. The party lasted for 3 hours and by the time their parents arrived to pick up their children, I think, everyone had had enough. The kids were so buggered that they were bursting into tears at the drop of a hat.
By about 4pm, Luke, Marg and I set off back to the Gold Coast. Luke was in his dry clothes and the sun was out, so we headed off. By the time we reached Tweed Heads, guess what, poor Lukey was drowned again, we managed to get back to Lukey's home without any instances, which is always good. While Marg and I unpacked the mighty Navara of all Lukey's junk, Lukey went straight to the shower. We arrived back at camp after a lovely day and both of us were buggered, so into bed very early.
Lukey and Karl (Kawasaki ZX-6R).
Lukey and Karl (Kawasaki ZX-6R).
Lukey heading towards Tweed Heads along the Freeway.
Lukey and Karl (Kawasaki ZX-6R).
I got him coming out of the Service Centre.
The Beasts - Karl and the mighty Navara.
The reason we went to Lismore.
Marg getting in on the action.
Miss Bossy Boots - sorry, that's Marg.
Marg in control. The joys of being a prep teacher.
Marg's left them alone. No wonder they look happy.
The End - after the clean up.
- Weather: Absolutely shithouse. wet, wet and more wet. 22.4mm in 5.5 hours.
- Wind: gusts upto 76kph S.
No riding today, you must be joking.
Notice the change in my easy going nature, it's amazing when it rains it really gets you down.
It started raining at 3:30am and consequently, we were awake at 3:30am, the rain on the roof was quite loud at times. Well, it is wet with water everywhere, our right hand slide out does leak, but I have a workaround, I stuff a towel near the slideout and it works rather well.
We had a coffee appointment with Keith and Lucy, who we met 3 years ago and they live near Benowa, at 11am. It was great to catch up with them, while we were there, the women decided that they 'must have' a particular pair of shoes, so keith and I drove them to Harbourtown. After purchasing the shoes, we said our goodbyes and we headed over to Lukes to pick up his car battery which has finally died. So while Luke is at work tomorrow, 'good ole' dad will go and get a new battery.
While we were doing all this activity, it was still raining, so eventually when we arrived back at camp, I pulled down our awning as the wind was due to increase and it did. We had another quiet night, inside.
No photos were taken today.
- Weather: Still absolutely shithouse. wet, wet and more wet. Only 26.4mm fell today.
- Wind: gusts upto 80kph S. It is a tad windy.
No riding today, you must be joking.
Another awful night, very difficult trying to sleep with all the noise of the heavy rain. We are now feeling tired.
It rains most of the time, with heavy rain squalls coming across with some nice gusts thrown in, then it stops and the sun comes out and just when you are feeling confident that it is clearing, the next rain squall comes and the process begins all over again.
While it is raining, I did my dad duty and went out and bought Luke a new battery and delivered to his home. He will be happy. To try and remain sane, when I got back to camp, I took Marg over to Aussie Fair for a few hours of browsing and finished with a nice coffee, while watching the rain squalls come over from the Southport Marina direction. That took most of the afternoon.
Luke rang about dinner time, he was home and the battery is in and working like a charm, so we are all happy.
We had another quiet night, inside.
No photos were taken today.
- Weather: Still absolutely shithouse. wet, wet and more wet. 30.8mm fell today. We have had 79.6mm since 4am Sunday morning.
- Wind: gusts upto 93kph S.
No riding today.
Another awful night, very difficult trying to sleep with all the noise of the heavy rain. We are still feeling tired. Marg had a nanna nap this afternoon.
It rains most of the time, with heavy rain squalls coming across with some nice gusts thrown in, then it stops and the sun comes out and just when you are feeling confident that it is clearing, the next rain squall comes and the process begins all over again.
During the night, the van was rocking and I had nothing to do with that, it was the wind gusts. We did have a major loss overnight, our blue plastic bucket blew away. I was devastated, thank God, some wonderful person found it and the bucket is now back with us, with a large bit of iron stone weighing it down. We got the iron stone from Tom Price. We are not short of rocks to stop the buckets blowing away.
While it was raining, we drove to Westfield Helensvale, sometimes the traffic was doing only 25kph, it was fun. At Helensvale, we did some shopping and then spent the afternoon in the van. We would like the rain to stop and for the sun to come out, but the forecast is still for the same weather for the next 2 days.
We plan for another quiet night, inside.
No photos were taken today.
- Weather: A mild night with not much rain, it was 14.6° at 3:00am and it reached 20.9° at 12:15pm. it hasn't rained since 12;15am this morning. Well only light drizzle.
- Wind: 20kph with gusts upto 61kph S.
We had our best night's sleep in the past week, because when it rained it was only light and consequently, didn't make much noise on the roof. It is also mild, I didn't use my sleepingbag last night, I went back to two blankets. that worked well.
Still no riding due to the increment weather.
This morning I had to meet Luke at the Bridgestone dealer, as he was getting 4 new tyres for his Clubby. I arrived at 9;25am and he was already there. I spoke to Shane the manager about my tyres, they are having trouble getting them, so Shane said he would have a final answer when we return to pick up Luke's car. So I drove Luke home and then returned to our camp. While I was making lunch, Luke rang to say that his car is ready, so I picked Luke up and went back to the tyre shop. Luke paid for his tyres and Shane dropped the price even further, so we were both very happy. While there, Shane had found 4 tyres for the mighty Navara, but said that they are as scarce as a hen's teeth and if I go up a size from 255/70 to the popular 265/70, then there are heaps of tyres to choose from. So I did. I am booked in on Friday at 8:30am for 4 x Bridgestone Dueler 265/70R x 16 LT tyres.
During the afternoon, Marg and I drove over to Centro Southport for a coffee and to do some food shopping.
The rain has sort of stopped for the moment, but the forecast is still for some showers and sunny patches for the next couple of days.
We plan for another quiet night, inside.
No photos were taken today.
