FROM "OZ" (AUSTRALIA) TO "KANSAS" (USA) AND BACK
Well, the day I had been dreading had finally arrived - the day
We were to leave for our trip back to the U.S. It was not that I didn't want to visit family and friends, but I was not looking forward to the trip, and the weather and hassle of the east coast. The day of our departure was typical of all of our departures - total chaos.
Our new cat had woken me up in the middle of the night by climbing up our bedroom screen. It was then that I discovered that this cat would only use kitty litter. I told Dorothy I did not find any humor in having to get up at night to let the cat in to go to the bathroom.
I rushed downtown that morning to buy another tray to put litter in outside hoping that the cat would not pester the guy staying in our house. I found out later that it didn't work. Other complications of the day were Dorothy's friend wanting to use the shower, a luncheon (with members of the Australian-American Association, and a panic and "domestic" (as Aussies call an argument between spouses) over a broken suitcase needed for the trip. After much "discussion" a quick trip to town ended up in heavy straps to be used to keep the suitcase closed. Our friends George and Shirley Brown arrived to take us to the airport and Shirley and Dorothy had to quickly go over some items on a paper Shirley is writing and which Dorothy is editing. Finally, we left for the airport where we were sent off by several friends to ensure no last minute turnback.
For unknown reasons we ended up in the first class section, and, thankfully, after the earlier part of the day, had a relaxed flight to Adelaide and then on to Melbourne. On that flight Dorothy sat between two guys who had just spent three months in the middle of nowhere working on a pipeline and the three of them talked nonstop all the way to Melbourne. Even the stewardess was feeling a bit silly that afternoon and announced our arrival by starting off "Ladies and Gentlemen and bald-headed babies…”
An Australian friend of mine who used to live in Alice Springs met us in Melbourne and took us to our motel. He managed to find it even though he wasn't sure where it was. We spent an enjoyable evening chatting with him in our motel room. The next day we went back to the Melbourne airport and there thought of several reasons why we couldn't get on the plane, but did anyway and flew to Sydney and then on to L.A. The latter flight was a long 13 and 1/2 hours. The smoke from the guys in back of us bothered us a lot and some baby cried about every 15 minutes throughout the entire trip.
We landed at LAX and I threw a slight fit at the United counter when I was informed I had no tickets for the next flight. It turns out that the agent in Melbourne had given me boarding passes and put them in my folder and had not told me - the tickets were attached to them - I had to apologize. (Dorothy's note - Jack was in error - a first.) Of course, when we got on the plane we found we had been assigned to nonexistent seats.
We flew nonstop to Newark, got a rental car and I drove out onto roads where people were driving on the wrong side of the road. We reached Dorothy's parents' apartment without incident, on the way passing through a section of large lovely homes, all of which were decorated for Christmas, primarily with white candles and wreaths.
Since Dorothy and I had not bought any presents for the boys, we spent the next day shopping. One observation we made was that quite a few cars had Christmas wreaths attached to their grills. Also, it took me a minute to figure out what the term "grave covers" meant for others that don't know it is Christmas greens to place on graves. The following day we drove to my parents in Hagerstown and then returned to N.J. the following day in time for Christmas. My boys had a good time in Hagerstown playing pool with my father.
Back in New Jersey, we did more shopping and one day the boys and I went to a movie to give Dorothy time to wrap packages, which she put under our bed. Dorothy's parents live in a one-bedroom apartment and when we visit Dorothy and I use their bed and the boys sleep on single beds in the same room. Well, that night I awoke and heard a strange noise, like paper rattling. I looked over and discovered Toby was not in his bed. He was "sleeping" on the floor right beside our bed. When I asked him what he was doing he said he was hot in his bed and the light was coming in the window. It was only a couple of days later that I mentioned the paper rattling sound and the fact that Christmas presents just happened to be right beside of him. There was a complete denial of any knowledge or plan on his part…
Christmas day was very warm. We opened presents, had a very good dinner and went out that evening to see the Christmas lights. The next day we took the bus into New York City. We walked through Macy's, tried to go a big camera store, which was closed since it was Saturday and was owned by Orthodox Jews. We walked up Broadway to Times Square and down 42nd street to 5th Avenue. We saw a garbage truck that also had a Christmas wreath attached to its grill. We went in a number of camera stores (for Dwight's benefit), including one called "Toby's." The boys kept track of the number of horse drawn coaches, limousines and Porsches. After dragging Dwight out of the Nikon display store at Rockefeller Plaza, we ate at a very nice McDonalds under the Time/Life building. It was decorated in an Art Deco style, was popular with NYC policemen and had polite help at the counter. From there we walked past Radio City Music Hall (we did not even attempt to go a show - tickets are now $24 and there is not even a movie anymore), Rockefeller Center and saw people skating on the ice rink. We looked at Christmas displays in Saks and Lord & Taylors, walked back to the bus station and caught the bus back to N.J. There were homeless people all over the Port Authority (bus station) and panhandling was continual. The weather in New York was damp and the wind was blowing, so the cold got to me. I was glad to get on the bus. On the way out of the city, we saw a huge backup of traffic trying to get into the city through the Lincoln tunnel. I don't know what the cause was.
The next day we drove to Alexandria, Virginia, encountering a 6- mile backup to pay the toll on the Jersey turnpike. We moved in with the family across the street from our house and had a delightful two-week stay with them. The McDonalds made us feel right at home and treated us like family. I have always kidded Mrs. Mac that she is my second Mom especially when she is giving me constructive criticism about my yard work. Mr. "Mac" enjoyed sharing his thick slices of bologna with Toby, and Mrs. Mac said she' would heat up something for us whenever we wanted something to eat (or as she said - she would "nuke" it in the microwave). Mrs. Mac has diabetes and we all cringed at the sight of her sticking her finger and giving her shots so she always hid to do that. She did ask her doctor her fingers if she had to continue to stick her finger four times a day - they were all sore. He said she did. So she told him that the readings, she had to make on her blood were always lower when she borrowed one of her husband's fingers!
They have a dog named Gumdrop which hates the mailman and whose big treat of the day is ripping up the junk mail when-it is given to her. The boys enjoyed staying their stay there. Dwight nicknamed Mrs. Mac, "McGrandma." Toby spent a lot of time being a "couch potato" sitting in one of their recliners watching TV and snacking. One of the boys' favorite snacks was "nuked popcorn."
During the next two weeks we visited friends in the Washington area, went to the dentist, and shopped. The weather for the most part was very cold with some rain, sleet, and a 10-inch snowfall one day. 'We had a number of days with temperatures of 5-20 degrees F.
I moaned constantly about the cold. We visited one family who was in the middle of tearing up the floor of their foyer. It seems that the lady of the house found a 100-year schoolhouse that was being torn down, salvaged the oak floor, and brought it home for her foyer. She said if She couldn't restore an old house, she'd give a newer house a restored look. I asked what was the next step, but since I was making notes for this trip report, she declined to respond. Only a person with the capacity to raise five children who are less than 5 years apart and still gives every appearance of being a rational human being today would have the insight to come up with the idea for her foyer.
We also visited a family who had invited us to stay with them and fortunately had not accepted because shortly before Christmas their son had arrived home from college with a friend and apparently the friend was planning to stay indefinitely. Their son is extremely smart but a-bit strange and was going to this small college in Illinois which consists of 54 students and 7 professors and the course of study is the great books. I asked his mother how he found this college and she said he had found this pamphlet that said on the cover "Do you march to the tune of different drummer?" Dorothy and I exchanged glances across the dining room table because we feel there is a bit of that in Toby. A minute or so later, Toby glanced up from his plate and asked "What did you say was the name of that college?"
Other activities those two-week included Dorothy calling her horseback riding instructor and being invited to attend a lesson (clothes were provided) - 5 degree F temperature. We also checked on our house (it was a bit discouraging since three college boys are living there and anyone with teenagers or young men can imagine housekeeping is not their strong point). We did visit with our dog (he is being kept by the boys in our house) and took him for a number of car rides, which he always enjoyed. Dorothy had a great time visiting grocery stores looking for refunds. And we also mailed boxes back home - eventually we mailed 21 boxes back. Toby and Dwight also visited their former school and Dwight was impressed that he felt he was up to the level of the classes at St. Stephens.
On New Year's Day I flew to Rochester N.Y. to attend the wedding of the daughter of an old friend from my years in the Air Force. After the wedding I went home with he and his wife to spend a very enjoyable and quiet weekend with them. My compliments to Mary for having two meals, lasagna (which no one else in my house would eat), and spareribs (which are available but very small with little meat in Australia) that I have very rarely. I visited the factory where my friend Lanny works. The company reconditions railroad and subway cars and the walkthrough was very interesting. On Sunday, Lanny drove me back to Rochester to catch the plane and there was a huge traffic jam trying to get into the airport, thanks to a new traffic pattern that obviously is not working. I finally got out and walked to the terminal. I arrived in the middle of a snowstorm in Washington and after taking the subway from National Airport to within a mile or so of the McDonalds, I decided it would be safer for me to walk than to ask Dorothy to drive the rental car down to the station.
On Saturday, January 9th we drove to Hagerstown to attend my parents 50th wedding anniversary party. My brother and his wife had if arranged a party at the Sheraton with many of my parents friends. Everyone had a good time. On the way home to my parents, Dwight rode with my uncle in his Lincoln Continental. Dwight was very impressed; however, he reluctantly turned down an offer to drive it since he has never driven on the right-hand side of the road.
The next day we visited a former school teacher with whom I correspond regularly, another old friend (she and her husband have a menagerie consisting of three dogs, two cats and three goats - the latter being used to help keep down the scrub on their 12 acres), and my brother where we ate supper and enjoyed a relatively long visit for the first time in a good many years. The Redskins were in a playoff game during the day but the boys didn't want me to watch because there is a myth that I jinx them. It is only coincidental that the only time they have won a Super Bowl was when I was in Australia, and the fact that every time I walked into the room that day something went wrong for the 'Skins. The base in Australia now has a satellite dish to pick up TV and I have to decide whether to try and watch the Super Bowl this year.
(Monday, we left Hagerstown, and after a detour for me to conduct some quick business, returned to McGrandma's. The next day we met some friends in Washington for a good meal at a Greek restaurant.
The following day we were treated to lunch by a delightful lady who both boys were fortunate enough to have had for the third grade. We met her at her house in Old Town Alexandria and she took us to lunch several blocks away. It was a clear sunny day, but there was ice on the sidewalks and at one point some workers were pumping water out of a construction site and we had to step over the stream of water. I kidded Mrs. Taylor that the jaunt to the restaurant was like a little field trip.
We finally left Alexandria, and the Macs, on Thursday, January 14th and after detouring to visit a nice lady, whose house I roomed in during my college days, drove to visit some friends in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. We enjoyed our visit there and during the evening, at least Dwight and I had nerve enough to join Joe and his boys in their hot tub. I say nerve, because the hot tub is located outside and it was 7 degrees F that night. We ran the 10 feet from the house to the tub, through the snow, in only a bathing suit. It was quite pleasant in the tub, and after being convinced that it takes several minutes for the effects of the hot water to wear off, we all got out and rolled in the snow and jumped back in. (Not bad for an "old stick in the mud" as Dorothy calls me.)
We left the next day and after driving through Lancaster, the heart of the Amish country, and Valley Forge, the site of George Washington's winter encampment in 1777-78, we drove into Philadelphia. We stayed right downtown in a Holiday Inn and I guess the rates were low because of the time of year. That afternoon we visited the Franklin Institute Museum, which is basically a hands-on museum. Unfortunately we had to hurry through because it closed at 5, but the boys greatly enjoyed it. That evening we walked to Wannamaker’s, the huge department store. I was overwhelmed by the grand court in the middle of the store that was a large rectangular area that went to the roof of this 6 or 7-story building. A large pipe organ is installed on the upper floors and while we were there an organist was entertaining the shoppers. We saw a rather peculiar sight on our way to the department store. In the square in front of the Philadelphia City Hall is a 30-foot statue of a clothespin. I could not fathom why it would be there.
Later we walked to an apartment building about 6-7 long (at least they seemed long when we were freezing) blocks to visit some friends of Dorothy's. Dr. Cotter and his wife are very interesting people. Dr. Cotter was in charge of archeology in Philadelphia for many years, and has been an archeologist for many years arid has a wealth of stories, artifacts, and slides. He spent a lot of time talking to the boys and showing them things and then I asked to see some of his slides on China. Reluctantly, we finally left to return to the motel and Dr. Cotter took us back in his VW.
The next day we checked out of the motel early and drove over to the Cotters' apartment, dropped off our car and Dr. Cotter spent the morning showing us the historical buildings of Philadelphia, including Franklin Court, site of Ben Franklin's house. Dr. Cotter had been in charge of the archeological dig there some years ago.
He also took us to the museum at the University of PA where he lectures. Unfortunately, we did not have time to really look at the exhibits. We were kept hopping to keep up with Dr. Cotter while he gave us a quick tour and commentary. We rushed back to his apartment, were treated to lunch, and left for New Jersey. We drove through Princeton on the way to Dorothy's parents, and finally arrived there early evening.
The remaining time in the U.S. was spent doing more shopping, mailing more boxes, and packing suitcases. (I was supposed to say, that throughout this trip Dorothy spent many hours packing and repacking suitcases while I relaxed - I have no comment.) One day Dwight and Dorothy went into New York City so Dorothy could visit a long-time friend and Dwight could visit the camera store he had tried to go to before. There he learned the definition of "gray market goods." That is merchandise purchased in bulk overseas and sold at greatly reduced prices, but for which there is only a store guarantee - no manufacturer's guarantee. He declined to shop there.
Finally, the day came to return to Oz. Unlike the day we left for the states, it was relatively quiet and except for getting a bit lost on the way to the airport we arrived in what I though was plenty of time. However, Hertz, was slow in providing transportation from the rental car to the terminal and then we discovered that if you are flying international, that each piece of baggage being checked in is hand searched. That took a long time and so we didn't have a lot of time to kill at the airport. We boarded the plane that was supposed to take off at 6 p.m. Shortly thereafter; we were informed that there would be a delay of 25 minutes. I started to panic since originally there was only a 45-minute gap between landing in L.A. and taking off for Sydney. After doing some checking, the purser told me that there were 10 or 11 people on board that were to make that same connection and that they would expedite things in L.A. When we arrived there those of us for Sydney were allowed to disembark first and there were United personnel there to guide us to the departure gate. Minutes after settling in the doors were closed and the plane taxied out to take off.
That flight was slightly over 14 hours long but was better that the incoming flight. Although it was supposed to be fully booked I'd estimate that it was only about 30- 40% full so there was room to spread out. Neither Toby nor I were feeling all that well and he got sick a couple of times during the flight. We were supposed to overnight in Sydney, but when we were told that we would arrive earlier than expected in Sydney, and with the thought of dragging those 12 suitcases to a motel and back, as well as not feeling well, we decided to try and make the connection to the Alice flight the same day. We landed at Sydney on 7:05 a.m. and after picking up our bags, and clearing customs, I ran up to the Australian Airlines counter and asked if there were seats and time to make the flight to Alice. He said there were seats but that the flight left at 8:00 and was on time. It was then 7:42. The international and domestic terminals in Sydney are a fair distance apart and you have to take a bus or taxi between them. We ran outside and I frantically screamed for a taxi, threw our bags in and asked to be taken to the domestic terminal. After a casual drive there, we jumped out, and lugged our 12 bags up to the airlines counter. I asked to jump in front of someone, left the bags, got my boarding passes and literally ran to the gate. We were told there was no way our bags would get on the plane. We walked on the plane, sat down and they shut the door. After a brief delay on the runway we took off and arrived 3 hours later in Alice Springs, a record 25 hours from the time we got on the plane in Newark N.J. Our bags arrived safely the next day.
P.S. We arrived in Alice Springs at 9:35 a.m. At 10:00 a.m. the first earthquake to hit Australia in a long time (someone said over 20 years) occurred near Tennant Creek, about 300 miles north of Alice Springs in an area that is supposed to be one of the most geologically stable in the world. It was followed over the next day by three more quakes. We wondered whether it was related to our return.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Monday, August 1, 2011
Dec 1987: Xmas Missive
Dear
Ho! Ho! Ho! I realize it is getting close to Christmas, by looking at my calendar, but on the other hand the temperature reached 42 degrees C the other day (almost 108 degrees F), so it not easy to get into the proper mood. However, the social secretary, chief correspondent, family treasurer/accountant and boss (i.e. Dorothy) has asked me if I were going to write one of my Christmas letters this year (which means get to it), se here it is.
We will be leaving Alice Springs en December 19th to head back to the east coast of the U.S. for some R&R. I use that term R&R in the official sense (i.e., the govt. is paying for the transportation), since visiting the east coast of the U.S. (which has already had one major snowstorm), over the holidays (which are notorious for major traffic jams in the D.C. area), and traveling back and forth between Dorothy's parents in N.J., my parents in Hagerstown, and Alexandria is definitely not my idea of rest and relaxation. All that in addition to the long trip back and forth from here. So why are we doing it. Well, since it appears that we will be staying here until June 1989 (we originally planned to return in June 1988) we thought we should go visit our parents (and of course there are the grandchildren). In addition, my parents are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary in January and I felt like I should be there for that. There are, of course, things we can do at the same time that we can't do here - some shopping for items that are difficult if net impossible to get here. I have also gotten an additional five days in which to do some business in the Washington area, so altogether we will be on the east coast almost 5 weeks.
The funny thing is that we could use some rest and relaxation. As I have often said, for a small town out in the middle of nowhere, we can certainly keep busy here. Dorothy continues to have a ball at the newspaper, though she created a lot of waves some time age. A big-time event - fashion show, dinner, entertainment - called the Concours d'Elegance - was held here in town. The planning for this lasted a year and Dorothy even agreed to be en the committee. (The admission by the way was $65 per person.) In her review of the event she mentioned that some of the scenes (like the one featuring a nude on the hood of a car) were a bit "tacky." The organizers, modeling agencies and models were, of course, not amused. As it was, some people told Dorothy that she had been too easy. Well, the letters poured into the newspaper criticizing her article. One letter said the models were so upset that many were in tears and some vowed never to model in Alice Springs again. The editor just chuckled. Dorothy also gets to go to the metropolis of Tennant Creek (population 5,000) up the road (ever 300 miles) to the opening of an art show there. She traveled with two other ladies who took turns driving. The one lady was pretty good, driving at about 120 km/hour (about 75 mph) and pulled over to the left for on-coming traffic. Much of the road heading north is only about one lane wide and so each car has to move ever to the left (since you are driving on the left) with one wheel on the shoulder. The other lady averaged 140- 160 km/hour (87-99 mph) and drove in the middle of the read at all times. Anyway Dorothy survived and get to see Tennant Creek. I get the opinion that it wasn't worth driving 300 miles to see.
Toby is currently counting the days until we leave for the U.S. I think he is going to take it hard to leave his grandparents again. He really misses his friends and family there. On the other hand he enjoys being able to have friends over just about every day, something he couldn't do back home, and he is in a lot of activities here. He played soccer this past year and I imagine he will again when it resumes. He also was in a bowling league, and was the captain of the "B" Chess team at his school - they went undefeated in matches with other schools. He continues to take guitar lessons, though with a little pushing to get him to practice. Dwight is busy with his schoolwork, his girlfriend, and working part time in a camera shop; the priorities change from time to time. He is scheduled to take the S.A.T. tests in two weeks, so that will give us some idea of what his chances are of getting into a college of his choice. Which brings up that subj ect - he has sent for info to a number of colleges and several have responded - those include Duke, Cornell, and Stanford I asked him about the costs and he told me I could buy a new BMW (a cheap model) for the cost of each year at Stanford. I wonder where he thinks I am going to come up with the money.
Dwight and I have made a few trips out fossicking. We had some success digging for garnets. We had four faceted and three of them are being set in earrings and a necklace. We did not have any luck on the last trip to look for zircons. We won't go again probably until after our trip, and it starts to cool off a bit.
I remain active in the Australian American Association. We hosted another group of Smithsonian Associates who were in town for 24 hours, about a month ago. Upcoming events include Thanksgiving dinner, and a Christmas party. We are also working on very tentative plans to host the 1989 Federal Conference (of the 13 Divisions of the Association throughout Australia) here in Alice Springs. We have to put forth a proposal shortly to form the basis for the decision about where the 1989 conference will be held. The 1988 conference will be held in Canberra, and I hope to attend that one.
We have not made any recent trips anywhere, but we have had two interesting events in town. There was an international race of solar powered cars held here in Australia, from Darwin on the northern coast to Adelaide, on the southern coast, and the cars passed through Alice on their way to Adelaide. The GM entry (built at a cost of $6 million) won the race. The other event has been a series of launches of large research balloons by two groups, one Australian: and one American. We have made numerous trips out to the airport in the hopes of seeing launches, only to be disappointed in most cases due to cancellations because of high winds or other problems. Dorothy, Toby and I finally saw an Australian launch, but heard later that the payload crashed about 1/2 hour afterwards. That was the smaller balloon - only about 2-300 feet high. I was lucky enough to see one of the American launches and that balloon was about 700 feet high. All of the experiments are to study the supernova that occurred back in Feb. The Americans have two more balloons and we hope to see one of them launched.
I think that is about all of the news from down under. We hope that you have a good holiday and hope to hear from you.
Ho! Ho! Ho! I realize it is getting close to Christmas, by looking at my calendar, but on the other hand the temperature reached 42 degrees C the other day (almost 108 degrees F), so it not easy to get into the proper mood. However, the social secretary, chief correspondent, family treasurer/accountant and boss (i.e. Dorothy) has asked me if I were going to write one of my Christmas letters this year (which means get to it), se here it is.
We will be leaving Alice Springs en December 19th to head back to the east coast of the U.S. for some R&R. I use that term R&R in the official sense (i.e., the govt. is paying for the transportation), since visiting the east coast of the U.S. (which has already had one major snowstorm), over the holidays (which are notorious for major traffic jams in the D.C. area), and traveling back and forth between Dorothy's parents in N.J., my parents in Hagerstown, and Alexandria is definitely not my idea of rest and relaxation. All that in addition to the long trip back and forth from here. So why are we doing it. Well, since it appears that we will be staying here until June 1989 (we originally planned to return in June 1988) we thought we should go visit our parents (and of course there are the grandchildren). In addition, my parents are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary in January and I felt like I should be there for that. There are, of course, things we can do at the same time that we can't do here - some shopping for items that are difficult if net impossible to get here. I have also gotten an additional five days in which to do some business in the Washington area, so altogether we will be on the east coast almost 5 weeks.
The funny thing is that we could use some rest and relaxation. As I have often said, for a small town out in the middle of nowhere, we can certainly keep busy here. Dorothy continues to have a ball at the newspaper, though she created a lot of waves some time age. A big-time event - fashion show, dinner, entertainment - called the Concours d'Elegance - was held here in town. The planning for this lasted a year and Dorothy even agreed to be en the committee. (The admission by the way was $65 per person.) In her review of the event she mentioned that some of the scenes (like the one featuring a nude on the hood of a car) were a bit "tacky." The organizers, modeling agencies and models were, of course, not amused. As it was, some people told Dorothy that she had been too easy. Well, the letters poured into the newspaper criticizing her article. One letter said the models were so upset that many were in tears and some vowed never to model in Alice Springs again. The editor just chuckled. Dorothy also gets to go to the metropolis of Tennant Creek (population 5,000) up the road (ever 300 miles) to the opening of an art show there. She traveled with two other ladies who took turns driving. The one lady was pretty good, driving at about 120 km/hour (about 75 mph) and pulled over to the left for on-coming traffic. Much of the road heading north is only about one lane wide and so each car has to move ever to the left (since you are driving on the left) with one wheel on the shoulder. The other lady averaged 140- 160 km/hour (87-99 mph) and drove in the middle of the read at all times. Anyway Dorothy survived and get to see Tennant Creek. I get the opinion that it wasn't worth driving 300 miles to see.
Toby is currently counting the days until we leave for the U.S. I think he is going to take it hard to leave his grandparents again. He really misses his friends and family there. On the other hand he enjoys being able to have friends over just about every day, something he couldn't do back home, and he is in a lot of activities here. He played soccer this past year and I imagine he will again when it resumes. He also was in a bowling league, and was the captain of the "B" Chess team at his school - they went undefeated in matches with other schools. He continues to take guitar lessons, though with a little pushing to get him to practice. Dwight is busy with his schoolwork, his girlfriend, and working part time in a camera shop; the priorities change from time to time. He is scheduled to take the S.A.T. tests in two weeks, so that will give us some idea of what his chances are of getting into a college of his choice. Which brings up that subj ect - he has sent for info to a number of colleges and several have responded - those include Duke, Cornell, and Stanford I asked him about the costs and he told me I could buy a new BMW (a cheap model) for the cost of each year at Stanford. I wonder where he thinks I am going to come up with the money.
Dwight and I have made a few trips out fossicking. We had some success digging for garnets. We had four faceted and three of them are being set in earrings and a necklace. We did not have any luck on the last trip to look for zircons. We won't go again probably until after our trip, and it starts to cool off a bit.
I remain active in the Australian American Association. We hosted another group of Smithsonian Associates who were in town for 24 hours, about a month ago. Upcoming events include Thanksgiving dinner, and a Christmas party. We are also working on very tentative plans to host the 1989 Federal Conference (of the 13 Divisions of the Association throughout Australia) here in Alice Springs. We have to put forth a proposal shortly to form the basis for the decision about where the 1989 conference will be held. The 1988 conference will be held in Canberra, and I hope to attend that one.
We have not made any recent trips anywhere, but we have had two interesting events in town. There was an international race of solar powered cars held here in Australia, from Darwin on the northern coast to Adelaide, on the southern coast, and the cars passed through Alice on their way to Adelaide. The GM entry (built at a cost of $6 million) won the race. The other event has been a series of launches of large research balloons by two groups, one Australian: and one American. We have made numerous trips out to the airport in the hopes of seeing launches, only to be disappointed in most cases due to cancellations because of high winds or other problems. Dorothy, Toby and I finally saw an Australian launch, but heard later that the payload crashed about 1/2 hour afterwards. That was the smaller balloon - only about 2-300 feet high. I was lucky enough to see one of the American launches and that balloon was about 700 feet high. All of the experiments are to study the supernova that occurred back in Feb. The Americans have two more balloons and we hope to see one of them launched.
I think that is about all of the news from down under. We hope that you have a good holiday and hope to hear from you.
July 1987: Sydney to Brisbane
SYDNEY TO BRISBANE AND BACK - A GRIMM OUTING
CAST
Jack Grimm - trip organizer, driver, part-time navigator, scout, scapegoat and author
Dorothy Grimm - in charge of logistics (packing suitcases), safety officer (backseat driver) backup photographer, and main antagonist to the former character
Dwight Grimm - sixteen-year old son of Jack and Dorothy, primary navigator and photographer, and full-time teenage pain
Mike Marino - Dwight's friend on visit to Australia from U.S.
Toby Grimm - eleven-year old son of Jack and Dorothy and main antagonist to the two previous characters
Ross Irby – Dorothy’s friend, and former chief of staff of the Alice Springs’ newspaper
Tony and Dorothy Irby - Ross's parents
George and Shirley Brown - friends of Grimm’s and local artists in Alice Springs
LOCALE
Sydney, largest city in Australia and capital of the state of New South Wales (the area between Sydney and Brisbane), and Brisbane, capital of the state of Queensland.
DAY 1 - The signs were not good from the start. First we heard that Mike, who had been scheduled to arrive on Tuesday (the day after we arrived in Sydney), had been delayed a day, meaning we had to stay in Sydney until Wednesday. Next, the MAC flight (the USAF cargo plane) was not going to arrive in Alice Springs until almost 5 p.m. Finally, received a phone call from the Browns, who were to take us to the airport, that neither of their cars would start. I had to drive one of our cars to their house to jump-start George’s wagon. We finally took off from Alice about 5:30 and arrived in Sydney at about 9:00 p.m. (Sydney is 1/2 hour ahead of Alice). Budget Rental Car delivered a car to the air base and we left for Sydney - about 35 miles away. We did stop at the first open McDonalds for our first Big Macs, etc. in over a year. The drive in was a lot of fun. I was not sure exactly how to get to the motel where I had bookings, I saw more traffic than I see at any time in Alice and it was raining. Amazingly, we found the motel without much trouble and got to bed about midnight.
DAY 2 - We couldn’t stay another night at that motel because they were renovating and were booked up, so we had to move to another motel up the road. Other than the fact that there was no heat (they supplied an electric heater), the rollaway bed they provided sagged to the floor, a malfunctioning TV, and the visit by one of Dorothy’s friendly 2-inch cockroaches, it really wasn’t all that bad a motel.
We caught the bus in-town to look in the shops. We first went in an old building, the Queen Victoria Building, which has been fixed up and has five floors of shops. Fortunately, NSW has discovered the value of old buildings and has preserved many of their buildings from the late 18001s and early 1900's. We next went to one of the major department stores. As if the trauma of coming from the small town of Alice Springs to Sydney was not enough, we walked right into what must have been one of the biggest sales of the year. The boys and I calculated that people were coming down the escalator at a rate of 3500-4000 per hour. In that chaos, Dorothy managed to find a pair of shoes that were acceptable (to replace the worn out loafers she was then wearing). After a small problem with no place to sit in McDonalds and a fight on a Sydney street corner, we walked around the shopping area for several hours and then took the bus back to the motel. Later, I tried driving to an area in the eastern part of the city to find a restaurant. I got lost, but in the process found Ross's apartment building. We surprised him as he was preparing supper justifiably so since Ross has turned up at our place many times at mealtime. He drove us to the Kings Cross area (which I will describe later) for supper, then back to his place and I found my way back to the motel.
Day 3 - We got up early to get to the airport at 6:45 to meet Mike. He was nowhere to be seen for quite awhile, because the airline was attempting, without success to find his luggage. Since we had no idea when or if they would find it, we gave the airline Ross's name as a point of contact and hit the road. I drove across the Harbor Bridge in rush hour and headed north on the Pacific Highway. We eventually turned off the main road back to the Myall National Park on the coast (along a fairly good dirt road). We were not able to see the actual beach due to the plants and dunes between us and the water, but we stopped once and walked over the dunes to see the beach. The water was very blue - more so than along the east coast of the U.S. At one point from the road we saw a dingo walking along the dunes. I howled at the dingo: the dingo responded by stopping, turning toward us and standing there trying to figure out what we were doing. We also started seeing kookaburras, which we don't see around Alice, plus a dead kangaroo, and a multitude of black swans on one of the lakes. Eventually, we reached a point where a sign said it was hazardous to go any further (it turned out it was just because the road got rocky - something that would not stop most people in the Northern Territory, but the safety officer would not approve that route. So we turned onto a side road and ended up taking a car ferry across a small river to get back to the Pacific Highway. I have seen pictures of a ferry like that but never been on one. The guy did not have to pull it across, but it was only big enough to carry four cars or in the case of that trip three cars and one caravan (trailer). I found out that day that the fuel gauge on the car did not work (thankfully before I ran out of gas). Also the majority of the Pacific Highway is only two lanes wide (with some passing lanes on hills). Since the school kids were on holiday during that time ~ the roads were crowded so I was finally glad to stop for the night in a small town called Kempsey. We, stayed the night in the best motel of our trip and Mike called home to say he had arrived safely. When his parents asked him where he was he said, "Someplace in Australia."
Day 4 - We left Kempsey and drove to Bellingen. We ate lunch in Coffs Harbor, a tourist town, but there were no facilities on the beach itself. We saw some oldtimers (these guys were certainly not teenagers) out surfing. From there to Brisbane we saw many surfers. We drove on to Muriwillumbah, where we stayed for two nights with Ross's parents. Before reaching· there, we saw a beautiful area at Byron Bay, the eastern-most point in Australia. Just at the top of a hill, before descending into the low country around Byron Bay, we stopped at a lookout and from that point it was possible to see the town, the lighthouse on the point, and much of the surrounding area. We arrived at the perfect time, sunset, and as we stood there admiring the scene, the lighthouse light came on. Although we took photos, it was the type of scene that a movie camera was needed to do it justice.
Day 5 - The view in the morning from the Irby's house in the morning was great - green treed landscape first descending to a stream and then rising to a mountain in the distance. Dwight was up and out early in the morning to take pictures. We dropped the older boys off in Surfer's Paradise, a real beachside tourist area full of high rise motels and condominiums, shopping malls, etc, and a beautiful beach. Dwight and Mike enjoyed their day of playing the teenage scene: shopping (they bought "native" clothes with a Billabong label); wandering around and admiring the women, including some who were topless on the beach, and took a dip in the ocean even though it's the middle of winter in Australia (much of the northern area remains warm throughout the year. Dorothy, Toby and I went to an amusement park (Dreamworld - a poor imitation of Disneyworld, including a version of Country Bear Jamboree using koalas instead of bears and singing Australian songs. I had vowed that I would suffer in silence since I don't care for amusement parks since I am not big on standing in lines or rides. However, it was extremely difficult. The second ride was actually fun. It was a round platform seating six people surrounded by what looked like a big inner tube. The whole thing went around a water course of smallish rapids and at one point we hit the water just right and I got drenched. I had jeans on and they don't dry well. It was much later in the day before they were completely dry. The next ride was a small roller coaster type (two person car) (definitely not my type of ride) and we had to stand in line over an hour. The queues (lines) were entertained by a man playing an accordian and singing songs, including "Oklahoma" and "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again." Eventually, we drove back to Surfer's Paradise, picked up the boys and returned to the Irbys for the night.
Day 6 We drove into Brisbane primarily to allow Toby to visit a friend who used to live in Alice Springs. Since the friend was busy in the morning we first stopped in downtown Brisbane - after much to do. I wasn't anxious to fool with city traffic again and just wanted to drive through the city to the suburbs and find someplace to eat. Dorothy wanted to see the downtown area. We still didn't see much of the central part of Brisbane, but there did not appear to be any distinctive features. Just another fair sized city. We saw the site of Expo 88 which will run sometime next year. While we were having lunch at an outdoor cafe in a plaza there, Dorothy recognized an elderly man in a wheelchair beside of uS as a man we had met and she had interviewed in Alice Springs. He has taught at a number of colleges around the world and written a book on dreams. Also, I told the kids they could each pick out a magazine to read in the car, and in picking up an Australian camera magazine, Dwight discovered they had published a picture of his that he had submitted for a contest. Unfortunately, he didn't win any prizes, but at least his picture was published. I should mention that the federal elections were being held that day and we were accosted by a number of people asking us to vote for their candidates. After lunch we drove to the suburbs to find Toby's friend. Since I didn't know what the rest of us were going to do, I offered to take the boy and his brother along with us to see something. The mother suggested a wildlife sanctuary and we went there. It was a good visit - we arrived just as the baby koalas were being weighed. After walking around the park seeing the animals, everyone got to hold a koala, and then we spent a lot of time in the big open area where we were able to hand feed the kangaroos. After we left the sanctuary, we dropped off the Australian boys and headed out of Brisbane. On the way out of town we drove up to a lookout from where we were able to see most of Brisbane. We stopped for the night in Ipswitch. We ate in a very good small-chain restaurant, named Banjo's (after the Australian poet, Banjo Patterson). For a fast food place it was very good, including the best pork ribs I've had in Australia.
Day 7 We left Ipswitch and headed for the New England Highway. Because of its name and warnings I had received about the possibility of snow, I expected windy, mountainous roads. Although we did see a few mountains, the roads were primarily level, good two-lane roads with little traffic, so I was able to average 100 km/hr. We stopped in Glenn Innes, the center of a well known fossicking area. Dwight purchased a small shovel and sieve and we drove 13 km out of town to a small stream to look for sapphires. It was a fairly warm day, but too cold to do much in the water. We did find a number of very small (too small to cut) sapphires. I would be a good area to visit in warm weather. Eventually, we drove on to Armidale.
Day 8 It was cold and frosty in the morning. We read literature about the district and found a number of things to see to the east of town. We first tried to find an old gold-mining ghost town, but it appeared that the area is being worked again and we were not able to see the town as described. We did see a spectacular gorge back to the area of the ghost town. We did spend some time chasing some beautiful red birds around the small town by the mine so that Dwight could take some pictures. Then, we drove down a secondary road so that we could drive across the Styx River. I saw no boat, but at least we can all say that we have crossed the River Styx. Further along that road we turned off onto a dirt track that ran through the New England State Forest. It was not a great road and since Dorothy does not like dirt roads at all, things were a bit tense. We took a side track to drive down to a beautiful picnic spot (even supplied with tables) right along the Styx River. If we had thought to bring drinks, we could have stopped and had peanut butter sandwiches for lunch there. On the way out of the park, we finally had a kangaroo (actually a wallaby) hop across our path. Even though we have lived a total of three years in Australia, we have not seen very many kangaroos in the wild, so we still get excited when we do see some. We ended up at Point Lookout, from where it was possible to see for probably hundreds of kilometers, including clear to the coast. On returning to the car park from the lookout, we noticed a kangaroo longing on the grass. He didn't seem overly bothered by us so I suggested someone give him a piece of bread. He liked it and when Toby went into the car to get another piece, the 'roo almost went into the car with him. I wondered if he were either a pet of one of the rangers, or hung around the area (like the bears at some of our parks) waiting for a handout. After enticing him to move away from the car, we drove back to Armidale and then on to Tamworth for the night. This stop caused one of the biggest fights of the trip. There was very little traffic on the road and not many people in motels. I asked the motel we stayed in at Armidale to check on openings in Tamworth for me. He said at this time of the year and because there were so many motels in Tamworth, it really wasn't necessary. Besides, his computer was down. I could have insisted that he call but I didn't. Sure enough, there was a convention in Tamworth and most of the motels were full. We did find one, but Dorothy was not happy with it. (Please refer back to the next to last entry in the description for Jack in the II Cast") «Dorothy's comment _ the motel was right on the busiest intersection of two main roads in town and built right on the road (Roadway Inn - U.S. chain and interested in money and convenience, not in comfort of travelers) and trucks roared by all night. I slept with ear protectors on.»
Day 9 We left Tamworth for Sydney. Outside of Singleton we saw a nuclear power plant. Dorothy wanted to tour it but there were no signs about tours. We found out in Singleton that it was possible to tour but only certain times of the day and you are supposed to call ahead. Also at Singleton we turned off the main road to go see a museum at an army base. The museum turned out to be closed, despite what the tourist guide for Singleton said, but we did see a mob of kangaroos, by far the biggest group in the wild we had ever seen. We managed to arrive back in Sydney in rush hour and despite a couple of problems found Ross's apartment to pick up Mike's bag. Ross wasn't there so we left a note. We ended staying in a motel right on the main street of the Kings Cross area. This area is only several blocks long with a couple of short side streets, however it is the red-light district of Sydney. It is an interesting area. There are quality motels/hotels, restaurants and shops there mixed in with the seedier elements. We could stand at our motel window and watch. All of the action on the street. All of the boys behaved themselves, but enjoyed watching the activity on the street. Unfortunately, the Las Vegas-style nightclub was just on the other side of the wall of our room and the native drums were audible far into the night. Ross eventually showed up with Mike's bag and he immediately changed clothes. We went to dinner at The Rocks, an area somewhat similar to Georgetown in Washington. After dinner we walked around the docks to the Sydney Opera House. Dorothy wondered if the rats we saw were marsupial rats. (There is such a thing.) The Sydney Harbor Bridge is beautiful at night and one of those sights that stay with you forever. There is a lot of construction around the waterfront. Australia, and Sydney in particular are gearing up for the Bicentennial in 1988.
Day 10 We toured the Opera House and went to the Taronga Zoo, which is located across the harbor. We had done both things in 198J.. but enjoyed them and wanted to do them again, as well as show them to Mike. The view from the zoo is spectacular - you are able to see the entire central part of Sydney, including the Opera House and the Bridge. That evening the boys went swimming in the motel's indoor pool.
Day 11 We spent the day shopping. We bought a lens for one of Dorothy's old cameras so Toby can use it. The older boys spent the day on their own. Dorothy, Toby and I took the subway and bus to Bondi Beach and ate lunch on the grass overlooking the ocean. That was about it for the day.
Day 12 We went to Katoomba, which is in the Blue Mountains just to the west of Sydney. The boys were not happy about riding in the car again. This was something else we had done previously, enjoyed it and thought Mike should see it. We stopped at the lookout first and the older boys were not overly impressed - just more mountains. Then we drove to the other main tourist area and rode down the mountain on the cable railway that at one point has the steepest incline in the world. We walked a little ways down one of the tracks through the beautiful forest, to see the underground river and a falls. We took the train back up. (The city of Katoomba actually sits up on the mountain, the rail way runs part of the way. down into the valley.) After eating lunch at a K-Mart (yummy - meals in this family always result in an argument), we returned to Sydney.
Day 13 The older boys wanted to spend the day on their own again, so Dorothy, Toby and I went to a famous flea market in Paddington (a section in the eastern part of Sydney). It was a fascinating place. There were a lot of unique hand crafted goods, some junk some strange clothes, and some even stranger people. I didn't know there were still people around with spiked hair. We spent a long time there and we brought back a number of interesting items (not any of the weird people, though - we can find them here) Toby banged up his leg on some play equipment and was limping around for a bit, but it eventually got well enough for him to walk Okay.
The older boys had left a note at the motel saying they were going to eat dinner at The Rocks before they returned. Ross came over and we drove around for a bit looking at some parts of the city that Ross had not been in before. We ended up in another part of the harbor area where more new building is being done for additional shops/restaurants etc. in time for the Bicentennial. After we returned to the motel and ate dinner, Ross, Toby and Dorothy went to Luna Park, an amusement park across the harbor. I stayed behind at the motel since, as I said earlier, I am not big on amusement parks, and when the boys returned, I didn't want them out roaming around again. When they did return I asked how their day was and about their dinner and they told me but didn't say much else. I went out for a couple of minutes to get some cokes and the motel manager at the desk asked how the boys had enjoyed their tour. I wasn't sure what he was talking about and I guess I looked puzzled. He said that apparently they hadn't told me the whole story, with a grin. So, I asked them when I got back to the room. It turns out they called up a chauffeured limousine service and had them send a car around. They were hoping that they would send the stretched Mercedes, but all they got was a standard Rolls Royce. Apparently, the service called back to confirm the call was for real and the motel manager had to track the boys down, so he knew the car was coming. According to Dwight he got all excited and was waiting out in front of the motel for it. You do have to wonder how many times a Rolls comes into Kings Cross to pick up someone. The driver asked the boys where they wanted to go and they told him to just drive around and show them the city. Since they paid for it, I was never told what those three hours cost them. These are the same two kids who hired a limousine· to take them to the end of the year party in Alexandria when they were in the 9th grade. I could insert a lengthy editorial statement, but won't this narrative is too long already.
Day 14 Well I screwed up again. Dwight and Toby wanted to see if they could get in to see the big Rugby game of the day (Manly Sea Eagles). Dorothy said we better see if we could get tickets. I called a tourist information number and they were not a big help. It appeared the only way to check was to go the Oval. When we got there, people were already streaming in. It turns out there are three games: the under-23 IS, reserves, and the main game (which was to start at 3). It was then noon. To make a long story short, the boys and I got to see an afternoon of Rugby, while Dorothy walked from there to the Opera House which is a long ways and didn't get to see anything she had wanted to see that day. I was definitely in the doghouse. The main Rugby game was good, however, there was a record crowd (over 23,000) and the team we were for, won). We saw Ross for the last time that evening. He had quit his job and was leaving town the next morning, but still hadn't decided where he was going. He wants to come back to Alice Springs. However, for now he is spending some time in Muriwillumbah with his parents.
Day 15 We got up early to drive to Richmond. I had arranged for the airport shuttle bus to pick up Mike at the motel at 7. We left .at 6:30 and reached Richmond about 8. I checked to make sure the MAC flight was flying out and then we went looking for breakfast. We found a bakery, had a snack and returned the rental car. A guy there dropped us off at the base about 9 or so and the plane finally left about 11:45. We got into Alice about 2:30. The Browns, car had started and they were waiting for us (they had also been nice enough to pick up Mike when he arrived) and had dropped him off at our house.
CAST
Jack Grimm - trip organizer, driver, part-time navigator, scout, scapegoat and author
Dorothy Grimm - in charge of logistics (packing suitcases), safety officer (backseat driver) backup photographer, and main antagonist to the former character
Dwight Grimm - sixteen-year old son of Jack and Dorothy, primary navigator and photographer, and full-time teenage pain
Mike Marino - Dwight's friend on visit to Australia from U.S.
Toby Grimm - eleven-year old son of Jack and Dorothy and main antagonist to the two previous characters
Ross Irby – Dorothy’s friend, and former chief of staff of the Alice Springs’ newspaper
Tony and Dorothy Irby - Ross's parents
George and Shirley Brown - friends of Grimm’s and local artists in Alice Springs
LOCALE
Sydney, largest city in Australia and capital of the state of New South Wales (the area between Sydney and Brisbane), and Brisbane, capital of the state of Queensland.
DAY 1 - The signs were not good from the start. First we heard that Mike, who had been scheduled to arrive on Tuesday (the day after we arrived in Sydney), had been delayed a day, meaning we had to stay in Sydney until Wednesday. Next, the MAC flight (the USAF cargo plane) was not going to arrive in Alice Springs until almost 5 p.m. Finally, received a phone call from the Browns, who were to take us to the airport, that neither of their cars would start. I had to drive one of our cars to their house to jump-start George’s wagon. We finally took off from Alice about 5:30 and arrived in Sydney at about 9:00 p.m. (Sydney is 1/2 hour ahead of Alice). Budget Rental Car delivered a car to the air base and we left for Sydney - about 35 miles away. We did stop at the first open McDonalds for our first Big Macs, etc. in over a year. The drive in was a lot of fun. I was not sure exactly how to get to the motel where I had bookings, I saw more traffic than I see at any time in Alice and it was raining. Amazingly, we found the motel without much trouble and got to bed about midnight.
DAY 2 - We couldn’t stay another night at that motel because they were renovating and were booked up, so we had to move to another motel up the road. Other than the fact that there was no heat (they supplied an electric heater), the rollaway bed they provided sagged to the floor, a malfunctioning TV, and the visit by one of Dorothy’s friendly 2-inch cockroaches, it really wasn’t all that bad a motel.
We caught the bus in-town to look in the shops. We first went in an old building, the Queen Victoria Building, which has been fixed up and has five floors of shops. Fortunately, NSW has discovered the value of old buildings and has preserved many of their buildings from the late 18001s and early 1900's. We next went to one of the major department stores. As if the trauma of coming from the small town of Alice Springs to Sydney was not enough, we walked right into what must have been one of the biggest sales of the year. The boys and I calculated that people were coming down the escalator at a rate of 3500-4000 per hour. In that chaos, Dorothy managed to find a pair of shoes that were acceptable (to replace the worn out loafers she was then wearing). After a small problem with no place to sit in McDonalds and a fight on a Sydney street corner, we walked around the shopping area for several hours and then took the bus back to the motel. Later, I tried driving to an area in the eastern part of the city to find a restaurant. I got lost, but in the process found Ross's apartment building. We surprised him as he was preparing supper justifiably so since Ross has turned up at our place many times at mealtime. He drove us to the Kings Cross area (which I will describe later) for supper, then back to his place and I found my way back to the motel.
Day 3 - We got up early to get to the airport at 6:45 to meet Mike. He was nowhere to be seen for quite awhile, because the airline was attempting, without success to find his luggage. Since we had no idea when or if they would find it, we gave the airline Ross's name as a point of contact and hit the road. I drove across the Harbor Bridge in rush hour and headed north on the Pacific Highway. We eventually turned off the main road back to the Myall National Park on the coast (along a fairly good dirt road). We were not able to see the actual beach due to the plants and dunes between us and the water, but we stopped once and walked over the dunes to see the beach. The water was very blue - more so than along the east coast of the U.S. At one point from the road we saw a dingo walking along the dunes. I howled at the dingo: the dingo responded by stopping, turning toward us and standing there trying to figure out what we were doing. We also started seeing kookaburras, which we don't see around Alice, plus a dead kangaroo, and a multitude of black swans on one of the lakes. Eventually, we reached a point where a sign said it was hazardous to go any further (it turned out it was just because the road got rocky - something that would not stop most people in the Northern Territory, but the safety officer would not approve that route. So we turned onto a side road and ended up taking a car ferry across a small river to get back to the Pacific Highway. I have seen pictures of a ferry like that but never been on one. The guy did not have to pull it across, but it was only big enough to carry four cars or in the case of that trip three cars and one caravan (trailer). I found out that day that the fuel gauge on the car did not work (thankfully before I ran out of gas). Also the majority of the Pacific Highway is only two lanes wide (with some passing lanes on hills). Since the school kids were on holiday during that time ~ the roads were crowded so I was finally glad to stop for the night in a small town called Kempsey. We, stayed the night in the best motel of our trip and Mike called home to say he had arrived safely. When his parents asked him where he was he said, "Someplace in Australia."
Day 4 - We left Kempsey and drove to Bellingen. We ate lunch in Coffs Harbor, a tourist town, but there were no facilities on the beach itself. We saw some oldtimers (these guys were certainly not teenagers) out surfing. From there to Brisbane we saw many surfers. We drove on to Muriwillumbah, where we stayed for two nights with Ross's parents. Before reaching· there, we saw a beautiful area at Byron Bay, the eastern-most point in Australia. Just at the top of a hill, before descending into the low country around Byron Bay, we stopped at a lookout and from that point it was possible to see the town, the lighthouse on the point, and much of the surrounding area. We arrived at the perfect time, sunset, and as we stood there admiring the scene, the lighthouse light came on. Although we took photos, it was the type of scene that a movie camera was needed to do it justice.
Day 5 - The view in the morning from the Irby's house in the morning was great - green treed landscape first descending to a stream and then rising to a mountain in the distance. Dwight was up and out early in the morning to take pictures. We dropped the older boys off in Surfer's Paradise, a real beachside tourist area full of high rise motels and condominiums, shopping malls, etc, and a beautiful beach. Dwight and Mike enjoyed their day of playing the teenage scene: shopping (they bought "native" clothes with a Billabong label); wandering around and admiring the women, including some who were topless on the beach, and took a dip in the ocean even though it's the middle of winter in Australia (much of the northern area remains warm throughout the year. Dorothy, Toby and I went to an amusement park (Dreamworld - a poor imitation of Disneyworld, including a version of Country Bear Jamboree using koalas instead of bears and singing Australian songs. I had vowed that I would suffer in silence since I don't care for amusement parks since I am not big on standing in lines or rides. However, it was extremely difficult. The second ride was actually fun. It was a round platform seating six people surrounded by what looked like a big inner tube. The whole thing went around a water course of smallish rapids and at one point we hit the water just right and I got drenched. I had jeans on and they don't dry well. It was much later in the day before they were completely dry. The next ride was a small roller coaster type (two person car) (definitely not my type of ride) and we had to stand in line over an hour. The queues (lines) were entertained by a man playing an accordian and singing songs, including "Oklahoma" and "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again." Eventually, we drove back to Surfer's Paradise, picked up the boys and returned to the Irbys for the night.
Day 6 We drove into Brisbane primarily to allow Toby to visit a friend who used to live in Alice Springs. Since the friend was busy in the morning we first stopped in downtown Brisbane - after much to do. I wasn't anxious to fool with city traffic again and just wanted to drive through the city to the suburbs and find someplace to eat. Dorothy wanted to see the downtown area. We still didn't see much of the central part of Brisbane, but there did not appear to be any distinctive features. Just another fair sized city. We saw the site of Expo 88 which will run sometime next year. While we were having lunch at an outdoor cafe in a plaza there, Dorothy recognized an elderly man in a wheelchair beside of uS as a man we had met and she had interviewed in Alice Springs. He has taught at a number of colleges around the world and written a book on dreams. Also, I told the kids they could each pick out a magazine to read in the car, and in picking up an Australian camera magazine, Dwight discovered they had published a picture of his that he had submitted for a contest. Unfortunately, he didn't win any prizes, but at least his picture was published. I should mention that the federal elections were being held that day and we were accosted by a number of people asking us to vote for their candidates. After lunch we drove to the suburbs to find Toby's friend. Since I didn't know what the rest of us were going to do, I offered to take the boy and his brother along with us to see something. The mother suggested a wildlife sanctuary and we went there. It was a good visit - we arrived just as the baby koalas were being weighed. After walking around the park seeing the animals, everyone got to hold a koala, and then we spent a lot of time in the big open area where we were able to hand feed the kangaroos. After we left the sanctuary, we dropped off the Australian boys and headed out of Brisbane. On the way out of town we drove up to a lookout from where we were able to see most of Brisbane. We stopped for the night in Ipswitch. We ate in a very good small-chain restaurant, named Banjo's (after the Australian poet, Banjo Patterson). For a fast food place it was very good, including the best pork ribs I've had in Australia.
Day 7 We left Ipswitch and headed for the New England Highway. Because of its name and warnings I had received about the possibility of snow, I expected windy, mountainous roads. Although we did see a few mountains, the roads were primarily level, good two-lane roads with little traffic, so I was able to average 100 km/hr. We stopped in Glenn Innes, the center of a well known fossicking area. Dwight purchased a small shovel and sieve and we drove 13 km out of town to a small stream to look for sapphires. It was a fairly warm day, but too cold to do much in the water. We did find a number of very small (too small to cut) sapphires. I would be a good area to visit in warm weather. Eventually, we drove on to Armidale.
Day 8 It was cold and frosty in the morning. We read literature about the district and found a number of things to see to the east of town. We first tried to find an old gold-mining ghost town, but it appeared that the area is being worked again and we were not able to see the town as described. We did see a spectacular gorge back to the area of the ghost town. We did spend some time chasing some beautiful red birds around the small town by the mine so that Dwight could take some pictures. Then, we drove down a secondary road so that we could drive across the Styx River. I saw no boat, but at least we can all say that we have crossed the River Styx. Further along that road we turned off onto a dirt track that ran through the New England State Forest. It was not a great road and since Dorothy does not like dirt roads at all, things were a bit tense. We took a side track to drive down to a beautiful picnic spot (even supplied with tables) right along the Styx River. If we had thought to bring drinks, we could have stopped and had peanut butter sandwiches for lunch there. On the way out of the park, we finally had a kangaroo (actually a wallaby) hop across our path. Even though we have lived a total of three years in Australia, we have not seen very many kangaroos in the wild, so we still get excited when we do see some. We ended up at Point Lookout, from where it was possible to see for probably hundreds of kilometers, including clear to the coast. On returning to the car park from the lookout, we noticed a kangaroo longing on the grass. He didn't seem overly bothered by us so I suggested someone give him a piece of bread. He liked it and when Toby went into the car to get another piece, the 'roo almost went into the car with him. I wondered if he were either a pet of one of the rangers, or hung around the area (like the bears at some of our parks) waiting for a handout. After enticing him to move away from the car, we drove back to Armidale and then on to Tamworth for the night. This stop caused one of the biggest fights of the trip. There was very little traffic on the road and not many people in motels. I asked the motel we stayed in at Armidale to check on openings in Tamworth for me. He said at this time of the year and because there were so many motels in Tamworth, it really wasn't necessary. Besides, his computer was down. I could have insisted that he call but I didn't. Sure enough, there was a convention in Tamworth and most of the motels were full. We did find one, but Dorothy was not happy with it. (Please refer back to the next to last entry in the description for Jack in the II Cast") «Dorothy's comment _ the motel was right on the busiest intersection of two main roads in town and built right on the road (Roadway Inn - U.S. chain and interested in money and convenience, not in comfort of travelers) and trucks roared by all night. I slept with ear protectors on.»
Day 9 We left Tamworth for Sydney. Outside of Singleton we saw a nuclear power plant. Dorothy wanted to tour it but there were no signs about tours. We found out in Singleton that it was possible to tour but only certain times of the day and you are supposed to call ahead. Also at Singleton we turned off the main road to go see a museum at an army base. The museum turned out to be closed, despite what the tourist guide for Singleton said, but we did see a mob of kangaroos, by far the biggest group in the wild we had ever seen. We managed to arrive back in Sydney in rush hour and despite a couple of problems found Ross's apartment to pick up Mike's bag. Ross wasn't there so we left a note. We ended staying in a motel right on the main street of the Kings Cross area. This area is only several blocks long with a couple of short side streets, however it is the red-light district of Sydney. It is an interesting area. There are quality motels/hotels, restaurants and shops there mixed in with the seedier elements. We could stand at our motel window and watch. All of the action on the street. All of the boys behaved themselves, but enjoyed watching the activity on the street. Unfortunately, the Las Vegas-style nightclub was just on the other side of the wall of our room and the native drums were audible far into the night. Ross eventually showed up with Mike's bag and he immediately changed clothes. We went to dinner at The Rocks, an area somewhat similar to Georgetown in Washington. After dinner we walked around the docks to the Sydney Opera House. Dorothy wondered if the rats we saw were marsupial rats. (There is such a thing.) The Sydney Harbor Bridge is beautiful at night and one of those sights that stay with you forever. There is a lot of construction around the waterfront. Australia, and Sydney in particular are gearing up for the Bicentennial in 1988.
Day 10 We toured the Opera House and went to the Taronga Zoo, which is located across the harbor. We had done both things in 198J.. but enjoyed them and wanted to do them again, as well as show them to Mike. The view from the zoo is spectacular - you are able to see the entire central part of Sydney, including the Opera House and the Bridge. That evening the boys went swimming in the motel's indoor pool.
Day 11 We spent the day shopping. We bought a lens for one of Dorothy's old cameras so Toby can use it. The older boys spent the day on their own. Dorothy, Toby and I took the subway and bus to Bondi Beach and ate lunch on the grass overlooking the ocean. That was about it for the day.
Day 12 We went to Katoomba, which is in the Blue Mountains just to the west of Sydney. The boys were not happy about riding in the car again. This was something else we had done previously, enjoyed it and thought Mike should see it. We stopped at the lookout first and the older boys were not overly impressed - just more mountains. Then we drove to the other main tourist area and rode down the mountain on the cable railway that at one point has the steepest incline in the world. We walked a little ways down one of the tracks through the beautiful forest, to see the underground river and a falls. We took the train back up. (The city of Katoomba actually sits up on the mountain, the rail way runs part of the way. down into the valley.) After eating lunch at a K-Mart (yummy - meals in this family always result in an argument), we returned to Sydney.
Day 13 The older boys wanted to spend the day on their own again, so Dorothy, Toby and I went to a famous flea market in Paddington (a section in the eastern part of Sydney). It was a fascinating place. There were a lot of unique hand crafted goods, some junk some strange clothes, and some even stranger people. I didn't know there were still people around with spiked hair. We spent a long time there and we brought back a number of interesting items (not any of the weird people, though - we can find them here) Toby banged up his leg on some play equipment and was limping around for a bit, but it eventually got well enough for him to walk Okay.
The older boys had left a note at the motel saying they were going to eat dinner at The Rocks before they returned. Ross came over and we drove around for a bit looking at some parts of the city that Ross had not been in before. We ended up in another part of the harbor area where more new building is being done for additional shops/restaurants etc. in time for the Bicentennial. After we returned to the motel and ate dinner, Ross, Toby and Dorothy went to Luna Park, an amusement park across the harbor. I stayed behind at the motel since, as I said earlier, I am not big on amusement parks, and when the boys returned, I didn't want them out roaming around again. When they did return I asked how their day was and about their dinner and they told me but didn't say much else. I went out for a couple of minutes to get some cokes and the motel manager at the desk asked how the boys had enjoyed their tour. I wasn't sure what he was talking about and I guess I looked puzzled. He said that apparently they hadn't told me the whole story, with a grin. So, I asked them when I got back to the room. It turns out they called up a chauffeured limousine service and had them send a car around. They were hoping that they would send the stretched Mercedes, but all they got was a standard Rolls Royce. Apparently, the service called back to confirm the call was for real and the motel manager had to track the boys down, so he knew the car was coming. According to Dwight he got all excited and was waiting out in front of the motel for it. You do have to wonder how many times a Rolls comes into Kings Cross to pick up someone. The driver asked the boys where they wanted to go and they told him to just drive around and show them the city. Since they paid for it, I was never told what those three hours cost them. These are the same two kids who hired a limousine· to take them to the end of the year party in Alexandria when they were in the 9th grade. I could insert a lengthy editorial statement, but won't this narrative is too long already.
Day 14 Well I screwed up again. Dwight and Toby wanted to see if they could get in to see the big Rugby game of the day (Manly Sea Eagles). Dorothy said we better see if we could get tickets. I called a tourist information number and they were not a big help. It appeared the only way to check was to go the Oval. When we got there, people were already streaming in. It turns out there are three games: the under-23 IS, reserves, and the main game (which was to start at 3). It was then noon. To make a long story short, the boys and I got to see an afternoon of Rugby, while Dorothy walked from there to the Opera House which is a long ways and didn't get to see anything she had wanted to see that day. I was definitely in the doghouse. The main Rugby game was good, however, there was a record crowd (over 23,000) and the team we were for, won). We saw Ross for the last time that evening. He had quit his job and was leaving town the next morning, but still hadn't decided where he was going. He wants to come back to Alice Springs. However, for now he is spending some time in Muriwillumbah with his parents.
Day 15 We got up early to drive to Richmond. I had arranged for the airport shuttle bus to pick up Mike at the motel at 7. We left .at 6:30 and reached Richmond about 8. I checked to make sure the MAC flight was flying out and then we went looking for breakfast. We found a bakery, had a snack and returned the rental car. A guy there dropped us off at the base about 9 or so and the plane finally left about 11:45. We got into Alice about 2:30. The Browns, car had started and they were waiting for us (they had also been nice enough to pick up Mike when he arrived) and had dropped him off at our house.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
May 1987: Camel Cup
THE U.S. AMBASSADOR AND THE CAMEL CUP
This is a narrative of the Alice Springs visit by the U.S. Ambassador to Australia, the week of the Camel Cup. However, before I start let me set the scene.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
The Grimms - I think you will admit they are definitely "characters"
Mr. William Lane - U.S. Ambassador to Australia
Harry Arnold - Sergeant in the N.T. Police Force. President of the local chapter of the Australian-American Association, and local "character"
The Nevada Delegation - The wife of the Governor of Nevada, the Wife of President of the Virginia City Chamber of Commerce and five camel jockeys.
The American-Australian Association - an organization formed 50 years ago to foster good relations between the two countries. The local division is the newest of 13 divisions here in Australia and is just completing its first year.
LOCATIONS
Araluen - The Alice Springs Community Arts Center which includes a theatre, a bistro, art galleries and other assorted rooms.
The "Old Telegraph Station" - the original site of Alice Springs. A telegraph repeater station was built there alongside a waterhole in the dry Todd River bed. The buildings have been restored and the area is now a historic reserve and a favorite picnic area.
Virginia City, Nevada - a town of about 750 people about 25 miles from Reno. The town has been holding Camel Races since 1960 with crowds up to 80,000 on hand.
THE ALICE SPRINGS CAMEL CUP
A yearly event that is similar to a carnival/fair centered around a day of camel races culminating in the Camel Cup. In addition, there is the "Honeymoon Handicap" in which the jockeys have to race half way around the track and pick up their lady and race back to the finish line -sounds easy but the camels are not very cooperative. This year there was also a match race between Australians and Americans (more later) and a game of Camel polo that I did not see.
I would also like to set the scene by relating two events that led up to the weekend. Harry Arnold attended the Federal conference of our association (Australian-American Assoc.) in Adelaide last year and at that time Mr. Lane who is the patron of the Association and who spoke at the conference told Harry he would like to come to Alice Springs as our guest. Consequently we invited him to come up for the Camel Cup. In addition to being our guest, he was also an official the Camel Cup (which is run by the Lions Club).
Dwight has really become involved in photography and has won a prize in a local contest, and in another show, sold a large print to a couple from Sydney - thus becoming a professional. Just last week he received a letter from Time/Life and thinking it was junk mail I threw it at him, joking that they were probably offering him a job. It wasn't a job offer, but it did invite him to enter a contest for young photographers, with a. deadline of 1 June. The contest is not for the best photo, but the best photographers, so requires a minimum of six photos, either as separate items or with a story line. The subject(s) have to be about American Society. I don't know if it'll be seen that way by Time/Life, but Dwight is going to enter a series of shots about a day in the life of a U.S. Ambassador. And now on with the story ...
The Ambassador and his party were due to arrive on Friday, 15 May. The two weeks prior to his arrival the number in his party changed daily, from two to four to eight and finally back to two. Then, his plane developed mechanical difficulties at the last moment and there was some question whether he was going to use commercial air or not. Apparently at that late date there was little chance of getting on a commercial flight, so he came in his plane, but the plane could only fly at 12,000 feet which meant it had to refuel along the way. I was to meet Harry Arnold at the airport to greet the Ambassador when he arrived, so the whole day was spent guessing when he was actually going to arrive. I finally heard that he was arriving at 2:30, so I left work about 2 and headed for the airport. Since Dwight was going to try and get some photos, he and his mother were also there. It turned out that the chiefs of two American installations here in town also felt they needed to be there, and in fact made a point of being the first ones to greet the Ambassador when he got off the plane. I realize there is a matter of protocol, but this was supposed to be a personal visit by the Ambassador as a guest of the Australian-American Association, of which Harry is the president and I am the vice-president. For some naive reason, I figured we should have greeted him on his arrival.
As an aside, the an official of the Canberra chapter of the AAA (Australian-American Assoc.) rang Harry last week and asked if he could send some lottery tickets up to us on the plane oh Monday for us to sell. Harry told him sure, but why not drop them off at the U.S. Embassy and get the Ambassador to bring them along. I guess he must have thought Harry had gone around the bend, but apparently he bought the idea, because as soon as the Ambassador arrived he made a thing out of officially handing over the lottery tickets to Harry and even asked to have some pictures taken in front of him presenting them to Harry.
Dwight was rather obvious, as the only youngster there and the only one there who looked like a photographer. The Ambassador struck up a conversation with Dwight, who explained about the contest and told him his idea about "a day in the life of an Ambassador." The Ambassador apparently was struck by the idea and he and Dwight became quick friends - he specifically looked around for Dwight on certain occasions to make sure he was present to get some shots. But that was only the start of it - more later.
Harry took the Ambassador and his aid to the Sheraton and dropped them off. He was to visit another installation outside of town during the afternoon. Our next commitment was that evening when we had scheduled a dinner for him at Araluen. Guests at the dinner included ranking people from the two American installations here in Alice Springs, and the Australian installation that the Ambassador had visited during the afternoon, the mayor of Alice Springs, Commodore Johnson who is the administrator of the Northern Territory, and the Nevada delegation.
There is a segment of the population in Alice Springs, and elsewhere in Australia, who are opposed to the presence of the American base where I work here in town. It is alleged to make Alice Springs a nuclear target. Consequently, we have periodic protests calling for its closure. Also, the lease for the base is due to be renewed in October and thus the next several months will be especially sensitive. The peace group in town found out about the dinner at Araluen and had a group there to protest. The police were aware of the protest and had a large contingent (more than the peace group) there for security. The protesters were fairly well behaved, only making a few comments when the Ambassador walked in. Someone in the group sent in a letter later on and the Ambassador took the time to read it and then went outside to respond to it. The discussion apparently was fairly rational, but I am sure it didn't solve any problems.
The dinner went well. The food was good. Harry, who can drone on gave a nice, brief talk and the Ambassador gave a somewhat longer but well received speech. An ABC newsman/cameraman man with the Nevada group filmed some of the proceedings. (When he arrived in town his camera was. not working, but fortunately someone in town was able to fix it.) The film from the entire visit, including the Camel Cup was to be shown in Nevada, and supposedly some of it on Good Morning America. Before the dinner ended, I invited everyone to a barbeque the following night out bush in a river bed.
The following morning the AAA had a small champagne breakfast (chicken sandwiches, champagne and orange juice) for the entire U.S. contingent at the Old Telegraph Station. It was a delightful breakfast - the sandwiches were good, the weather a bit nippy, but beautiful and a large flock of galahs (a common variety of grey cockatoo with a pink stomach) joined us. Following breakfast, the coach (bus) took the U.S. delegation back to the Sheraton and then on to the Camel Cup. I might mention the bus - it is owned by a local touring service. The inside is decorated with curtains and hanging plants. It has a bathroom, a kitchen and a bookcase full of field guides and a scrabble game!
During the breakfast, Dwight, who had stopped by before going to work in the camera shop, mentioned to local protocol man that he hoped to get some good pictures of the Ambassador at the Camel Cup. The guy said, "No worries. I'll get you a press pass." Some people just fall into it.
The Ambassador had said he wanted to ride a camel, so one was made available for him and he rode in the grand parade around the race track which opened the festivities. Dwight followed him around the track and took umpteen pictures. The Nevada jockeys did not fare well in the races. They are used to racing in a straight line, not around a track, and someone said they sit differently on a camel -which is an interesting question - just how many ways are there to sit on a camel. They came in last in every race including the International Race, Consequently, the Australians won the 4-foot high trophy that the Nevada delegation brought with them. It will probably prove to be a costly win, since it almost obligates the Australians to send a delegation to the camel races in Virginia City this coming September to defend the trophy. The Ambassador took 'part in the presentation of awards, then he and the Nevada delegation were taken back to the Sheraton.
That evening, as planned, we had a barbeque about 15 km outside of town alongside a dry river bed. I had wanted it to be set up in the river bed, but the bank is a little steep there and at night it was difficult to see to step down, though later a lantern was set up to light the way down. In addition, the Tourist Commission paid to have a local showman some out to demonstrate bush food, and it may have been difficult for him to pull into the river bed. By the time I got there, a fire had been burning several-hours, with a huge iron plate lying concrete blocks over the fire. The Lions Club donated a bunch of steaks, and between those and the food the local people brought, I don't think anyone went hungry.
The bush tucker (food) show seemed to be a hit. The guy showed how to cook the small frogs you can find around in the ground - a species which lives in very dry climates by burrowing in the ground, sometimes for years. He also cooked some witchety grubs - a white grub, several inches long which lives in the ground under specific bushes in the outback. Aboriginals and some white people can eat them raw, but they are also cooked. Let it be recorded that Jack was the only Grimm who tried a small (approximately 1/2-3/4") piece of one. It is difficult to separate in your mind the idea that you are eating a grub and trying to objectively identify the taste, but the impression was that there was little taste. The guy putting on the the show also prepared damper (bread) and spotted dog (a type of cake) which are both prepared in covered pots covered by hot coals in the ground. While the show was very entertaining and the Nevada group seemed to enjoy it, the whole evening up to that point seemed to revolve around them rather that the original idea of the Ambassador being our guest at a barbeque.
This aspect became even clearer when the ABC cameraman broke out a guitar and started singing American western cowboy songs. I didn't mind except I had asked some of the members of the local folk group to come-out and sing Australian songs, I finally asked the guy from the Lions Club who was taking care of the Nevada group if he could tactfully give the folk singers a chance before they left. He said it was too late, he was taking the group back to the Sheraton then, and he did. He did not score any points with our group.
After the Nevada group and the Ambassador left, some of the rest of us went down into the river bed beside a fire we had had going all evening and the three people from the folk group sang for well over an hour. One of the guys even brought along copies of the words to
most of the songs they were singing and a lot of us sang along. Toby thought that was great since he is learning to play the guitar and listening to the people play the guitar raised his interest again. Sitting there under the stars beside a fire and a big gum tree, listening to Australian folk songs was the highlight of the weekend for me - it's too bad the other Americans weren't there to enjoy it as well. The cold finally started to catch up with us, so around midnight we called it a night.
The next morning, one of the American installations in town had arranged for the Nevada group and the Ambassador to have tea and scones at the train museum outside of town, on the way to the airport. Unfortunately, the breakfast at the Sheraton ran long, so the people from Nevada and the Ambassador, who had some business to conduct that morning all arrived very late. So there was very little time to sit down and relax. While he was there, the Ambassador donated $1000 to help restore one of the old trains and he specifically asked Dwight to take the photo of the presentation, and also asked that the picture be used in the newspaper article. It was, with Dwight's name as the photographer.
Finally, it was on to the airport and farewell to most of the group (some of the Nevada people stayed an extra day to attend the beerfest in town that evening). The Ambassador flew back to Canberra via commercial plane because of the problems with his own plane, which had been taken on to Perth for repairs. The Ambassador made sure that Dwight got some last picture carrying his bags and heading for the plane.
As for the professional photographer, stay tuned. The local protocol man came over to the house last night to select photos, approximately 50 in all, to send to the Chief Minister, Commodore Johnson the administrator of the Northern Territory, the Ambassador, etc., and his office will pick up the tab. He also said that since his office does not have a big budget, he may ask permission for Dwight to cover other visits by dignitaries to Alice Springs.
This is a narrative of the Alice Springs visit by the U.S. Ambassador to Australia, the week of the Camel Cup. However, before I start let me set the scene.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
The Grimms - I think you will admit they are definitely "characters"
Mr. William Lane - U.S. Ambassador to Australia
Harry Arnold - Sergeant in the N.T. Police Force. President of the local chapter of the Australian-American Association, and local "character"
The Nevada Delegation - The wife of the Governor of Nevada, the Wife of President of the Virginia City Chamber of Commerce and five camel jockeys.
The American-Australian Association - an organization formed 50 years ago to foster good relations between the two countries. The local division is the newest of 13 divisions here in Australia and is just completing its first year.
LOCATIONS
Araluen - The Alice Springs Community Arts Center which includes a theatre, a bistro, art galleries and other assorted rooms.
The "Old Telegraph Station" - the original site of Alice Springs. A telegraph repeater station was built there alongside a waterhole in the dry Todd River bed. The buildings have been restored and the area is now a historic reserve and a favorite picnic area.
Virginia City, Nevada - a town of about 750 people about 25 miles from Reno. The town has been holding Camel Races since 1960 with crowds up to 80,000 on hand.
THE ALICE SPRINGS CAMEL CUP
A yearly event that is similar to a carnival/fair centered around a day of camel races culminating in the Camel Cup. In addition, there is the "Honeymoon Handicap" in which the jockeys have to race half way around the track and pick up their lady and race back to the finish line -sounds easy but the camels are not very cooperative. This year there was also a match race between Australians and Americans (more later) and a game of Camel polo that I did not see.
I would also like to set the scene by relating two events that led up to the weekend. Harry Arnold attended the Federal conference of our association (Australian-American Assoc.) in Adelaide last year and at that time Mr. Lane who is the patron of the Association and who spoke at the conference told Harry he would like to come to Alice Springs as our guest. Consequently we invited him to come up for the Camel Cup. In addition to being our guest, he was also an official the Camel Cup (which is run by the Lions Club).
Dwight has really become involved in photography and has won a prize in a local contest, and in another show, sold a large print to a couple from Sydney - thus becoming a professional. Just last week he received a letter from Time/Life and thinking it was junk mail I threw it at him, joking that they were probably offering him a job. It wasn't a job offer, but it did invite him to enter a contest for young photographers, with a. deadline of 1 June. The contest is not for the best photo, but the best photographers, so requires a minimum of six photos, either as separate items or with a story line. The subject(s) have to be about American Society. I don't know if it'll be seen that way by Time/Life, but Dwight is going to enter a series of shots about a day in the life of a U.S. Ambassador. And now on with the story ...
The Ambassador and his party were due to arrive on Friday, 15 May. The two weeks prior to his arrival the number in his party changed daily, from two to four to eight and finally back to two. Then, his plane developed mechanical difficulties at the last moment and there was some question whether he was going to use commercial air or not. Apparently at that late date there was little chance of getting on a commercial flight, so he came in his plane, but the plane could only fly at 12,000 feet which meant it had to refuel along the way. I was to meet Harry Arnold at the airport to greet the Ambassador when he arrived, so the whole day was spent guessing when he was actually going to arrive. I finally heard that he was arriving at 2:30, so I left work about 2 and headed for the airport. Since Dwight was going to try and get some photos, he and his mother were also there. It turned out that the chiefs of two American installations here in town also felt they needed to be there, and in fact made a point of being the first ones to greet the Ambassador when he got off the plane. I realize there is a matter of protocol, but this was supposed to be a personal visit by the Ambassador as a guest of the Australian-American Association, of which Harry is the president and I am the vice-president. For some naive reason, I figured we should have greeted him on his arrival.
As an aside, the an official of the Canberra chapter of the AAA (Australian-American Assoc.) rang Harry last week and asked if he could send some lottery tickets up to us on the plane oh Monday for us to sell. Harry told him sure, but why not drop them off at the U.S. Embassy and get the Ambassador to bring them along. I guess he must have thought Harry had gone around the bend, but apparently he bought the idea, because as soon as the Ambassador arrived he made a thing out of officially handing over the lottery tickets to Harry and even asked to have some pictures taken in front of him presenting them to Harry.
Dwight was rather obvious, as the only youngster there and the only one there who looked like a photographer. The Ambassador struck up a conversation with Dwight, who explained about the contest and told him his idea about "a day in the life of an Ambassador." The Ambassador apparently was struck by the idea and he and Dwight became quick friends - he specifically looked around for Dwight on certain occasions to make sure he was present to get some shots. But that was only the start of it - more later.
Harry took the Ambassador and his aid to the Sheraton and dropped them off. He was to visit another installation outside of town during the afternoon. Our next commitment was that evening when we had scheduled a dinner for him at Araluen. Guests at the dinner included ranking people from the two American installations here in Alice Springs, and the Australian installation that the Ambassador had visited during the afternoon, the mayor of Alice Springs, Commodore Johnson who is the administrator of the Northern Territory, and the Nevada delegation.
There is a segment of the population in Alice Springs, and elsewhere in Australia, who are opposed to the presence of the American base where I work here in town. It is alleged to make Alice Springs a nuclear target. Consequently, we have periodic protests calling for its closure. Also, the lease for the base is due to be renewed in October and thus the next several months will be especially sensitive. The peace group in town found out about the dinner at Araluen and had a group there to protest. The police were aware of the protest and had a large contingent (more than the peace group) there for security. The protesters were fairly well behaved, only making a few comments when the Ambassador walked in. Someone in the group sent in a letter later on and the Ambassador took the time to read it and then went outside to respond to it. The discussion apparently was fairly rational, but I am sure it didn't solve any problems.
The dinner went well. The food was good. Harry, who can drone on gave a nice, brief talk and the Ambassador gave a somewhat longer but well received speech. An ABC newsman/cameraman man with the Nevada group filmed some of the proceedings. (When he arrived in town his camera was. not working, but fortunately someone in town was able to fix it.) The film from the entire visit, including the Camel Cup was to be shown in Nevada, and supposedly some of it on Good Morning America. Before the dinner ended, I invited everyone to a barbeque the following night out bush in a river bed.
The following morning the AAA had a small champagne breakfast (chicken sandwiches, champagne and orange juice) for the entire U.S. contingent at the Old Telegraph Station. It was a delightful breakfast - the sandwiches were good, the weather a bit nippy, but beautiful and a large flock of galahs (a common variety of grey cockatoo with a pink stomach) joined us. Following breakfast, the coach (bus) took the U.S. delegation back to the Sheraton and then on to the Camel Cup. I might mention the bus - it is owned by a local touring service. The inside is decorated with curtains and hanging plants. It has a bathroom, a kitchen and a bookcase full of field guides and a scrabble game!
During the breakfast, Dwight, who had stopped by before going to work in the camera shop, mentioned to local protocol man that he hoped to get some good pictures of the Ambassador at the Camel Cup. The guy said, "No worries. I'll get you a press pass." Some people just fall into it.
The Ambassador had said he wanted to ride a camel, so one was made available for him and he rode in the grand parade around the race track which opened the festivities. Dwight followed him around the track and took umpteen pictures. The Nevada jockeys did not fare well in the races. They are used to racing in a straight line, not around a track, and someone said they sit differently on a camel -which is an interesting question - just how many ways are there to sit on a camel. They came in last in every race including the International Race, Consequently, the Australians won the 4-foot high trophy that the Nevada delegation brought with them. It will probably prove to be a costly win, since it almost obligates the Australians to send a delegation to the camel races in Virginia City this coming September to defend the trophy. The Ambassador took 'part in the presentation of awards, then he and the Nevada delegation were taken back to the Sheraton.
That evening, as planned, we had a barbeque about 15 km outside of town alongside a dry river bed. I had wanted it to be set up in the river bed, but the bank is a little steep there and at night it was difficult to see to step down, though later a lantern was set up to light the way down. In addition, the Tourist Commission paid to have a local showman some out to demonstrate bush food, and it may have been difficult for him to pull into the river bed. By the time I got there, a fire had been burning several-hours, with a huge iron plate lying concrete blocks over the fire. The Lions Club donated a bunch of steaks, and between those and the food the local people brought, I don't think anyone went hungry.
The bush tucker (food) show seemed to be a hit. The guy showed how to cook the small frogs you can find around in the ground - a species which lives in very dry climates by burrowing in the ground, sometimes for years. He also cooked some witchety grubs - a white grub, several inches long which lives in the ground under specific bushes in the outback. Aboriginals and some white people can eat them raw, but they are also cooked. Let it be recorded that Jack was the only Grimm who tried a small (approximately 1/2-3/4") piece of one. It is difficult to separate in your mind the idea that you are eating a grub and trying to objectively identify the taste, but the impression was that there was little taste. The guy putting on the the show also prepared damper (bread) and spotted dog (a type of cake) which are both prepared in covered pots covered by hot coals in the ground. While the show was very entertaining and the Nevada group seemed to enjoy it, the whole evening up to that point seemed to revolve around them rather that the original idea of the Ambassador being our guest at a barbeque.
This aspect became even clearer when the ABC cameraman broke out a guitar and started singing American western cowboy songs. I didn't mind except I had asked some of the members of the local folk group to come-out and sing Australian songs, I finally asked the guy from the Lions Club who was taking care of the Nevada group if he could tactfully give the folk singers a chance before they left. He said it was too late, he was taking the group back to the Sheraton then, and he did. He did not score any points with our group.
After the Nevada group and the Ambassador left, some of the rest of us went down into the river bed beside a fire we had had going all evening and the three people from the folk group sang for well over an hour. One of the guys even brought along copies of the words to
most of the songs they were singing and a lot of us sang along. Toby thought that was great since he is learning to play the guitar and listening to the people play the guitar raised his interest again. Sitting there under the stars beside a fire and a big gum tree, listening to Australian folk songs was the highlight of the weekend for me - it's too bad the other Americans weren't there to enjoy it as well. The cold finally started to catch up with us, so around midnight we called it a night.
The next morning, one of the American installations in town had arranged for the Nevada group and the Ambassador to have tea and scones at the train museum outside of town, on the way to the airport. Unfortunately, the breakfast at the Sheraton ran long, so the people from Nevada and the Ambassador, who had some business to conduct that morning all arrived very late. So there was very little time to sit down and relax. While he was there, the Ambassador donated $1000 to help restore one of the old trains and he specifically asked Dwight to take the photo of the presentation, and also asked that the picture be used in the newspaper article. It was, with Dwight's name as the photographer.
Finally, it was on to the airport and farewell to most of the group (some of the Nevada people stayed an extra day to attend the beerfest in town that evening). The Ambassador flew back to Canberra via commercial plane because of the problems with his own plane, which had been taken on to Perth for repairs. The Ambassador made sure that Dwight got some last picture carrying his bags and heading for the plane.
As for the professional photographer, stay tuned. The local protocol man came over to the house last night to select photos, approximately 50 in all, to send to the Chief Minister, Commodore Johnson the administrator of the Northern Territory, the Ambassador, etc., and his office will pick up the tab. He also said that since his office does not have a big budget, he may ask permission for Dwight to cover other visits by dignitaries to Alice Springs.
April 1987: Alice Springs
We are moving into winter here in the Southern Hemisphere, and although we don't expect any snow, we have had some chilly nights already - when I say chilly I mean high 40's-low 50's F. Yesterday and today we even had some rain - the first in a long time. It is actually a pleasant change to see a bit of rain and gray skies -it breaks up the monotony of those beautiful sunny days with an incredibly blue sky that we take for granted in Alice Springs.
With the cool weather, some activities fall off (I believe the town pool closes this weekend) and other activities pick up. For instance the world-renown Camel Cup is coming up the weekend of May 16-17. The Australian-American Association is getting its act together to host the U.S. Ambassador, William Lane, here in town that weekend. We have scheduled a dinner for him Friday night, a champagne breakfast at the Old Telegraph Station (a historical reserve which is also a favorite place for picnics and barbeques for Alice Springs residents) on Saturday morning and a barbeque outside of town in a dry creek bed Saturday evening. In the interim he will be an official guest at the Camel Cup on Saturday afternoon. In case you are wondering about the barbeque in the dry creek bed, it is a great place to have a barbeque. You can just dig a hole in the sand, pull some dry wood from under one of the trees nearby over for the fire and throw a metal plate over the pit to cook on. Since you are in the creek bed there is no worry about starting a bush fire. There are a number of places you can do this not far from town, but far enough from the lights of the city that if you just walk a short ways from the fire you have an excellent view of the southern night sky, and if you have never seen it there is no way to describe it. One night out of town to see the unpolluted night sky with the Milky Way stretched out across the entire sky makes the entire trip here worthwhile. But I am digressing ...
A number of significant events have occurred in Dwight's life. His mother finally gave in and allowed him to drive her car by himself. He took his girlfriend to dinner and a movie (in the same building, the Community Arts Center, which has a Bistro), which is located a whole 7 blocks from our house. I kidded Dwight that he had to call when he arrived, but his mother wasn't kidding when she told him to. He called and I said, "Grimm's Wreckers" Dwight did not think that was funny. Anyway, I had to ask him if he had locked the car and turned off the lights. I am glad Dorothy was not my mother.
Dwight has also won second prize for one of his photographs in a Territory-wide contest and in another contest which just ended, we haven't heard who the winners were, but Dwight sold one of his photos to a couple from Sydney. So, now he qualifies as a professional photographer.
Toby has quite a few activities still going on - guitar lessons one day a week at school, bowling on Sunday evenings, French lessons and computer classes (after school) as part of the extension, or advanced classes he attends part time, and Sunday school. He is also the Captain of the "B" chess team of his school and they just had their first match against another school and did very well. He is justifiably proud that he is not only the only sixth grader on the team, but captain of the B team.
There are times when we don't see Dorothy for long periods of time. The weekend before last, the Australian National Folk Festival was held here in Alice Springs and Dorothy almost lived down on the grounds where it was held. The activities ran almost full time from 9 a.m. until well into the night Friday-Sunday. Then, she put in a lot of hours at the office typing up the articles about the Festival. I keep wondering if she is so busy now writing articles for a paper that is only published twice a week, how she is going to manage if and when they start publishing five days a week, as planned.
It appears that we are finally going to get out of Alice Springs. We are tentatively planning to fly on the Air Force plane (which flies into and out of Alice every Monday) to the RAAF base outside of Sydney in July. There we will rent a car and drive up into the northern part of New South Wells and perhaps all the way to Brisbane and back to Sydney to return here on the Air Force plane again. (I had thought about flying commercially out of Brisbane until I found out it would cost almost $1000). Anyway, I have put in for leave and if it approved I will start to plan the trip in detail. I am looking forward to it - we have been here in Alice for almost a year without leaving.
Well, I can't think of anything else fit to print so I will end my part of this letter and turn it over to Dorothy.
With the cool weather, some activities fall off (I believe the town pool closes this weekend) and other activities pick up. For instance the world-renown Camel Cup is coming up the weekend of May 16-17. The Australian-American Association is getting its act together to host the U.S. Ambassador, William Lane, here in town that weekend. We have scheduled a dinner for him Friday night, a champagne breakfast at the Old Telegraph Station (a historical reserve which is also a favorite place for picnics and barbeques for Alice Springs residents) on Saturday morning and a barbeque outside of town in a dry creek bed Saturday evening. In the interim he will be an official guest at the Camel Cup on Saturday afternoon. In case you are wondering about the barbeque in the dry creek bed, it is a great place to have a barbeque. You can just dig a hole in the sand, pull some dry wood from under one of the trees nearby over for the fire and throw a metal plate over the pit to cook on. Since you are in the creek bed there is no worry about starting a bush fire. There are a number of places you can do this not far from town, but far enough from the lights of the city that if you just walk a short ways from the fire you have an excellent view of the southern night sky, and if you have never seen it there is no way to describe it. One night out of town to see the unpolluted night sky with the Milky Way stretched out across the entire sky makes the entire trip here worthwhile. But I am digressing ...
A number of significant events have occurred in Dwight's life. His mother finally gave in and allowed him to drive her car by himself. He took his girlfriend to dinner and a movie (in the same building, the Community Arts Center, which has a Bistro), which is located a whole 7 blocks from our house. I kidded Dwight that he had to call when he arrived, but his mother wasn't kidding when she told him to. He called and I said, "Grimm's Wreckers" Dwight did not think that was funny. Anyway, I had to ask him if he had locked the car and turned off the lights. I am glad Dorothy was not my mother.
Dwight has also won second prize for one of his photographs in a Territory-wide contest and in another contest which just ended, we haven't heard who the winners were, but Dwight sold one of his photos to a couple from Sydney. So, now he qualifies as a professional photographer.
Toby has quite a few activities still going on - guitar lessons one day a week at school, bowling on Sunday evenings, French lessons and computer classes (after school) as part of the extension, or advanced classes he attends part time, and Sunday school. He is also the Captain of the "B" chess team of his school and they just had their first match against another school and did very well. He is justifiably proud that he is not only the only sixth grader on the team, but captain of the B team.
There are times when we don't see Dorothy for long periods of time. The weekend before last, the Australian National Folk Festival was held here in Alice Springs and Dorothy almost lived down on the grounds where it was held. The activities ran almost full time from 9 a.m. until well into the night Friday-Sunday. Then, she put in a lot of hours at the office typing up the articles about the Festival. I keep wondering if she is so busy now writing articles for a paper that is only published twice a week, how she is going to manage if and when they start publishing five days a week, as planned.
It appears that we are finally going to get out of Alice Springs. We are tentatively planning to fly on the Air Force plane (which flies into and out of Alice every Monday) to the RAAF base outside of Sydney in July. There we will rent a car and drive up into the northern part of New South Wells and perhaps all the way to Brisbane and back to Sydney to return here on the Air Force plane again. (I had thought about flying commercially out of Brisbane until I found out it would cost almost $1000). Anyway, I have put in for leave and if it approved I will start to plan the trip in detail. I am looking forward to it - we have been here in Alice for almost a year without leaving.
Well, I can't think of anything else fit to print so I will end my part of this letter and turn it over to Dorothy.
March 1987: Alice Springs
I'll try and bring you up to date on the Grimm adventures in the outback. Following the summer school holidays, which ended at the end of January, Dwight entered the llth grade and Toby started the sixth. Dwight actually is putting in some work and-according to him is learning something. He has two math courses that he says are not easy, economics that is his favorite (he sees himself as Alex P. Keaton in Family Ties), chemistry and technical drawing, which he appears to like. At this point, he has changed his mind about school and says that he does not really want to come home to finish at St. Stephens, but would prefer to stay here at least an extra six months to finish high school here. Discussions on that subject continue in the Grimm household and further episodes will no doubt be forthcoming - stayed tuned.
He is also working part time in the Alice Springs Camera Shop on Saturday mornings, if for no other reason to finance his passion for photography. He used the money he made during the summer to purchase a really good camera and is known all over town for his enthusiasm. Several of his pictures have been used in the newspaper. Dwight turned 16 in February and got his learners permit to drive. His mother started to teach him to drive, but for a number of reasons (nerves or lack thereof, as well the fact that the Datsun 210 is left hand drive) caused her to seek the aid of a professional driving instruction school - driver's ed is available in school, but you have to sacrifice a regular subject and Dwight wasn't willing. He finally passed his test to get a "provisional" license (the same as a regular license with some restrictions.) He got it last Friday afternoon and by the time I got home from work he and his mother were already at each other about him taking over the car. I love to start the weekend off with a good argument!
Anyway, things have calmed down for now and we will make an effort to see that he is allowed to get some experience before venturing out by himself. Dwight is still dating the same girl (Katherine O’Donoghue) he has been seeing for about the last six months and at one point in the scene last week Dorothy was encouraging him to get married and leave. Fortunately, I think, Dwight has more sense - though if I had a cute sexy girlfriend like Katherine when I was his age, I may have been tempted.
Toby appears to like school and is doing well. He was upset at the start of the term that many of his friends were in another class but has gotten over it. He is still taking guitar lessons, though with somewhat less enthusiasm. We are having one minor problem in that the teacher; he has doesn't like guitars with steel strings (versus nylon or whatever) and for a while wouldn't let him use his own guitar. We ignored her and last week he was able to use his own guitar. I am waiting to see what she says today. Toby was the only sixth grader to be selected for the school chess team (all the rest are 7th graders). Toby turned 11 about two weeks ago and asked if he could have some kids sleep over last weekend. I told him it was okay, but didn't realize the full extent of his plans. The party ran from 2 p.m. Saturday until almost 2 p.m. Sunday and involved seven 10 and 11-year old boys! We had hot dogs and sloppy joes (which are unknown to Australians) for supper and chocolate doughnuts and "junk" American cereal for breakfast. We rented a number of videos to keep them from tearing the house apart, and I took them bowling for a while, an experience I have vowed I will not repeat. I must admit I lost my patience Sunday morning when they woke me up at 6:30 a.m. (all yelling at once). I threatened to call all of their parents right then to come get them! That worked for about 10 minutes.
Dorothy keeps busy at work. She is always rushing out of the house, more times than not with camera in hand to take her own photos, to cover some event. She is well known in town and people, more and more, are requesting her by name to cover some event. The newspaper, which only publishes twice a week, currently, is making plans to go to a five-day schedule in the not too distant future. I believe they have already contracted to have a new building, all their own, built-for this expansion. It will be interesting to see how things will change.
I have also been busy. The Australian-American Association has become involved in more things. We hosted a group of Smithsonian Associates who were on a tour of Australia and who spent 24 hours here in Alice Springs. A group of about 10 of us met them at the airport and really impressed them. No one had met them anywhere else. We rode with them on their bus to a nice little restaurant outside of town and had lunch there. Then, we rode back to town with them and the bus dropped them off at the Casino, where they were staying, and I went home. That evening we had a barbeque for them at the Old Telegraph Station and it was really a nice evening. The weather was just right and we had a lady who is a member of our association and runs a couple of restaurants in town cater the food and it was very good. We also had a park ranger give them about an hour tour of the Telegraph Station and surrounding park area. Finally, and for me the highlight of the evening, was the participation of several members of the local astronomical society. A couple of members brought their large telescopes out and set them up and the first thing they showed us was the super nova (exploding star) that became visible here in the southern hemisphere not long ago. I may have missed Halley's Comet, but the last super nova observed was almost 400 years ago. Anyway, the people with the telescopes were really very patient and showed us a lot of sights in the sky - I could have stayed there for a long time, but we finally had to leave since the park closes at 9.
The Australian-American Association has also officially invited the U.S. Ambassador to Australia to be our guest here the weekend of the annual Alice Springs Camel Cup (a day of camel races), May 15-17. We are now getting ready for that. I made the mistake of attending a meeting for parents of kids who are in the talented and gifted program here (Toby is involved). A friend nominated me for secretary of the organization and I couldn’t think of an excuse. One of the first assignments I had was to write a letter to the Minister of Education of the Northern Territory asking, once again for an additional teacher for this program - there is one teacher now who works a couple of hours a week with these kids in grades 4-7. There are no provisions for younger kids and they are dropped after grade 7. I can see 'that this organization may keep me busy. Otherwise all of our regular activities continue (camera club, writing group, etc). We, at least the kids and I, watch quite a few videos, but haven't seen anything really memorable lately. The Community Arts Center is also running movies most weekends now and we have seen a number of films there, as well as some plays. Dorothy got quite involved with the cast from the last play that was quite controversial - about Aboriginal land rights. She even gave them a ride in her "left-hand drive" Datsun. Many Australians are intrigued by that feature.
We still have not been anywhere outside the immediate Alice Springs area, nor have any plans. I asked Dorothy about going over the short school break in April, but she explained that that was the week of the National Folk Festival here in Alice Springs. My God, we wouldn't want to miss that and, of course, no one but her could cover it for the newspaper - it's tough to be indispensible.
Well, I think that is about all I have. I am sure Dorothy will have something to add to this, so I will leave room for her comments.
He is also working part time in the Alice Springs Camera Shop on Saturday mornings, if for no other reason to finance his passion for photography. He used the money he made during the summer to purchase a really good camera and is known all over town for his enthusiasm. Several of his pictures have been used in the newspaper. Dwight turned 16 in February and got his learners permit to drive. His mother started to teach him to drive, but for a number of reasons (nerves or lack thereof, as well the fact that the Datsun 210 is left hand drive) caused her to seek the aid of a professional driving instruction school - driver's ed is available in school, but you have to sacrifice a regular subject and Dwight wasn't willing. He finally passed his test to get a "provisional" license (the same as a regular license with some restrictions.) He got it last Friday afternoon and by the time I got home from work he and his mother were already at each other about him taking over the car. I love to start the weekend off with a good argument!
Anyway, things have calmed down for now and we will make an effort to see that he is allowed to get some experience before venturing out by himself. Dwight is still dating the same girl (Katherine O’Donoghue) he has been seeing for about the last six months and at one point in the scene last week Dorothy was encouraging him to get married and leave. Fortunately, I think, Dwight has more sense - though if I had a cute sexy girlfriend like Katherine when I was his age, I may have been tempted.
Toby appears to like school and is doing well. He was upset at the start of the term that many of his friends were in another class but has gotten over it. He is still taking guitar lessons, though with somewhat less enthusiasm. We are having one minor problem in that the teacher; he has doesn't like guitars with steel strings (versus nylon or whatever) and for a while wouldn't let him use his own guitar. We ignored her and last week he was able to use his own guitar. I am waiting to see what she says today. Toby was the only sixth grader to be selected for the school chess team (all the rest are 7th graders). Toby turned 11 about two weeks ago and asked if he could have some kids sleep over last weekend. I told him it was okay, but didn't realize the full extent of his plans. The party ran from 2 p.m. Saturday until almost 2 p.m. Sunday and involved seven 10 and 11-year old boys! We had hot dogs and sloppy joes (which are unknown to Australians) for supper and chocolate doughnuts and "junk" American cereal for breakfast. We rented a number of videos to keep them from tearing the house apart, and I took them bowling for a while, an experience I have vowed I will not repeat. I must admit I lost my patience Sunday morning when they woke me up at 6:30 a.m. (all yelling at once). I threatened to call all of their parents right then to come get them! That worked for about 10 minutes.
Dorothy keeps busy at work. She is always rushing out of the house, more times than not with camera in hand to take her own photos, to cover some event. She is well known in town and people, more and more, are requesting her by name to cover some event. The newspaper, which only publishes twice a week, currently, is making plans to go to a five-day schedule in the not too distant future. I believe they have already contracted to have a new building, all their own, built-for this expansion. It will be interesting to see how things will change.
I have also been busy. The Australian-American Association has become involved in more things. We hosted a group of Smithsonian Associates who were on a tour of Australia and who spent 24 hours here in Alice Springs. A group of about 10 of us met them at the airport and really impressed them. No one had met them anywhere else. We rode with them on their bus to a nice little restaurant outside of town and had lunch there. Then, we rode back to town with them and the bus dropped them off at the Casino, where they were staying, and I went home. That evening we had a barbeque for them at the Old Telegraph Station and it was really a nice evening. The weather was just right and we had a lady who is a member of our association and runs a couple of restaurants in town cater the food and it was very good. We also had a park ranger give them about an hour tour of the Telegraph Station and surrounding park area. Finally, and for me the highlight of the evening, was the participation of several members of the local astronomical society. A couple of members brought their large telescopes out and set them up and the first thing they showed us was the super nova (exploding star) that became visible here in the southern hemisphere not long ago. I may have missed Halley's Comet, but the last super nova observed was almost 400 years ago. Anyway, the people with the telescopes were really very patient and showed us a lot of sights in the sky - I could have stayed there for a long time, but we finally had to leave since the park closes at 9.
The Australian-American Association has also officially invited the U.S. Ambassador to Australia to be our guest here the weekend of the annual Alice Springs Camel Cup (a day of camel races), May 15-17. We are now getting ready for that. I made the mistake of attending a meeting for parents of kids who are in the talented and gifted program here (Toby is involved). A friend nominated me for secretary of the organization and I couldn’t think of an excuse. One of the first assignments I had was to write a letter to the Minister of Education of the Northern Territory asking, once again for an additional teacher for this program - there is one teacher now who works a couple of hours a week with these kids in grades 4-7. There are no provisions for younger kids and they are dropped after grade 7. I can see 'that this organization may keep me busy. Otherwise all of our regular activities continue (camera club, writing group, etc). We, at least the kids and I, watch quite a few videos, but haven't seen anything really memorable lately. The Community Arts Center is also running movies most weekends now and we have seen a number of films there, as well as some plays. Dorothy got quite involved with the cast from the last play that was quite controversial - about Aboriginal land rights. She even gave them a ride in her "left-hand drive" Datsun. Many Australians are intrigued by that feature.
We still have not been anywhere outside the immediate Alice Springs area, nor have any plans. I asked Dorothy about going over the short school break in April, but she explained that that was the week of the National Folk Festival here in Alice Springs. My God, we wouldn't want to miss that and, of course, no one but her could cover it for the newspaper - it's tough to be indispensible.
Well, I think that is about all I have. I am sure Dorothy will have something to add to this, so I will leave room for her comments.
September 1986: Bush Trip
(* Editor's Note: I consider this the first true Grimm Report. While notes were taken and written records filed previous to this account, the spirit of the Grimm Trip Report starts here)
I had promised Dwight that if we returned to Australia we would buy a 4-wheel drive and go out bush so that he could, look for rocks (a pastime called "fossicking" here. I have to admit that I was not actually looking forward to, the time that I would actually undertake the first venture, since I am not and never have been an outdoors type, nor am I mechanically inclined in case of trouble. So I was more than a little apprehensive about our first trip, and as it turned out -rightfully so - it turned into a disaster, though it could have been worse.
Dwight has been planning trips every since we arrived and eventually talked our friend, Ronnie, into going with him, taking our van, while I kept her Old English Sheep dogs. Dorothy said she would keep the dogs and I could go along. I still hadn't, decided, when Ronnie got sick and the doctor told her she could not go that weekend. I didn't want to disappoint Dwight so I said I would take him, I prepared the van, and in doing so found the spare tire was no-good, so bought a new tire and figured I was in good shape. I also put some gas in the extra tank that is in the van and that is when the trouble started. I wasn't even sure the tank was working properly and I thought the valve was in the off position. It wasn't, so about an hour after I brought it home from the service station, I tried to restart it and it wouldn't start. After trying for several minutes, I found gas leaking onto the ground. So I guess that the gas from the extra tank was pushing more gas than necessary into the engine, flooding it. I turned the valve off and figured that after the extra gas evaporated it would start again. More on that later. Dwight did a pretty good job of rounding up the necessary supplies, with the help of Ronnie. Our base here has camping supplies and she had reserved a lantern, sleeping bag, an iron cooking plate and some gas cans, which we ended up not using. Dwight planned, the remaining supplies, including the food. I guess by now it is clear that Dorothy and Toby were not going to make this trip. Dorothy doesn't trust my driving out bush, and Toby is not that interested.
We planned to leave as soon as I got home from work on Friday, so by the time I got here, Dwight had the van pretty well packed. I went to start the van and it still wouldn’t start, which gave me an uneasy feeling, but I figured if I got it started, it would sort itself out. I did eventually get it started and we left. We drove north for about 70km, then turned east, still on a sealed road (not really macadam, more oil and gravel and basically one lane wide) for another 70km. At that point we turned back a dirt road (past Mud Tank Bore – bores or water holes are key landmarks here) for about 10 km to the zircon fields. There were about six other groups camped there so I didn't feel too isolated, figuring if something went wrong I could get help.
It was dark by the time we arrived, so the first test was to pitch the tent by the light of the lantern and cook a meal. I got the tent up by myself while Dwight scouted for some firewood, which wasn't that easy. Since a lot of people camp there, there was not a lot of wood close by, but we eventually found some and got a fire started. You have to realize that I was never a scout and never camped in the "wilds" in my life. The only camping I have ever done was in organized camping sites in Europe, which have everything from stores to indoor facilities, so this was a challenge for me. We survived that evening and went to bed. Dwight slept in a sleeping bag on top of the van. I tried sleeping in the tent, but shortly after going to bed, the wind began to blow and even though I made the tent as tight as I could, it still "rattled" so I finally gave up and moved into the van for the remainder of the night.
The next morning, Dwight got up and started the fire and cooked breakfast. He made "jaffles" which are a sort of toasted sandwich made using a jaffle iron (a hinged long-handled implement you stick in the fire). They weren't all that bad. We spent several hours after breakfast, digging for zircons. We found some, but none that are of any real value. The temperature wasn't too bad, but the flies were terrible. There were always a half dozen or more buzzing around your head. We left the zircon fields and drove back to the "main" road - the sealed one on which you do see an occasional car - and drove another 24 km to the east, and shortly before our destination, some garnet fields just off the highway, the road turned to dirt. The other thing to mention is that this is considered a major road in this area and is called the "Plenty Highway." We spent about an hour and a half looking for garnets. Dwight found some very small ones; I found none. We ate lunch and then headed to the place that Dwight was most anxious to get to. This was the area I was a bit nervous about. It was some distance off the main road and not visited as much as the first place we had gone to. We turned off the main road and headed back dirt road. It wasn't a rough road - I never had to go into 4-wheel drive.
The only tricky part was a dry river bed. Dry river beds are a usual hazard here in the outback, because the bottom is loose sand and so it is easy to get bogged in them. One interesting feature we had to negotiate was a mob of cattle that we literally had to plow our way through - they wouldn't move. We continued on back that road for 23 km until Dwight spotted the area where he wanted to stop, I had to drive about 200 meters cross country through a fairly open area to the base of a hill topped by a beautiful column of quartz. It was a remarkable chunk of quartz and pieces of it lay scattered all over the hillside. We parked the van and walked across to it and up onto the hill. Dwight really wanted to go on to the next hill which was the location of a different type of quartz known as smoky quartz - it is a dark brown opaque rock which I believe is only worth something for specimen value I unlike zircon and garnet which can be faceted for jewelry.
After Dwight wandered off, I started to look around and noticed all of the many types of wildflowers on the hill, and. then gazed off into the distance and realized we were in a really beautiful area, surrounded by mountains in the distance, with wide open I fields close by, also full of wildflowers. I also noticed that I could pull the van closer to the hill so I would be able to be close to a supply of rocks to build an enclosure for a campfire later, so I walked back to the van to move it and also to get the camera. Dwight joined me about that time to get some more gear out of the van. That was when the fun started. The car wouldn't start. I readily admit that I was in a state of panic. I am not a mechanic, and I knew we were in an isolated area - we had not seen another car on that road. I told Dwight he could go back to the hill to look for rocks and I would stay and try and start the car I told him that I was sorry, but I was too nervous about this situation and if I got the car started I thought we should leave. About 25 minutes later, the car finally started after I played with the carburetor and kept trying to start it. We started back to the main road, and although I did not relax, I did breathe a sigh of relief.
However, it was relatively short lived. About 7-8 km up the road I had a sinking feeling that I had a flat tire. I stopped and asked Dwight to check. He jumped out and looked at me and said, "You have two flat tires." Although I didn't doubt him, I couldn't believe this was happening, so I jumped out and checked. Well, I had several choices - we could walk the estimated 15 km back to the main road, I could put the one spare I had on for one of the tires, but I didn't want to turn off the engine to do it and didn't think it was a good idea to change it with the engine running. Instead I ran on the tires, knowing I would ruin them, but figuring I could get us closer to the main road, before they fell apart. I got to within about 2-3 km before I knew I couldn't go any further. You can imagine what the tires looked like.
Dwight said he would go out to the road and try and flag someone down. I couldn't think of any better idea so after he left, I figured I would go ahead and take the wheels off so I could give them to whoever came, to take back to Alice Springs. This was one of those times when you wonder what else can go wrong. The lugs were rusty and two of the 6 snapped off while I was trying to get them off. I got the spare on the back and had no trouble getting the front tire off and left the van on the jack. I was almost finished when a carload of people pulled up with Dwight, They were going on in to Alice Springs and offered to take Dwight and the wheels with them, I have to admit by this time I was in a mild state of shock and didn't even get their names.I told Dwight that I knew it was too late to ask Dorothy to come back out that night and besides she may have trouble finding tires, so I would stay with the van overnight and she could come out the next day.
The car, with Dwight and tires, left me at 4 p.m Saturday afternoon. After they left, I just sat in my lawn chair and fought off the flies. I was really too depressed to read the book I had brought with me. It was like I had taken a course and when it got to exam time, I flunked. My first bush trip and I had screwed it up royally. I figured I would never hear the end of it, including the money it would cost to buy two new tires. As it got darker, I had to make a couple of decisions. Should I set up the tent? I decided I wasn't up to sleeping out there by myself in a tent, I would feel safer (I don't know from what) inside the car. I did start a campfire, but decided it was too much trouble to cook the steaks that we had brought for supper that evening ,and besides, by that time I had started to worry about Dwight, and I didn't feel up to eating. I worried that the two couples were trustworthy - reason said that since there were two couples and they had brought Dwight back to me to pick up the tires that they were OK. The other thought was that the Northern Territory roads are not the safest and I had no idea how good driver the guy was, except that they had traveled all the way up here from Melbourne, through some very desolate country, so guess they were OK in that respect, as well. Dwight told me later that they drove about 140km/hour (over 80 mph) on the way back. Leaving me for a moment, Dwight arrived back in town about 5:30 and as expected there was some question about getting tires on the weekend. They (he and his mother) were unable to find any that night, but located some the next morning at a Shell service station.
I guess the attendants got -a good laugh at the condition of the tires. Meanwhile, that evening, Dorothy was covering a big social event in town - a 4-hour fashion show and she and the photographer from the paper talked to a lot of people about finding tires. At the same time, Ronnie was calling all over town trying to find some help. I was sure the big news in town that night. I was, however, unaware of what was happening, and after the daylight faded, and I was even more alone with myself, my worse fears began to surface - not about myself, but whether Dwight was OK. I got some sleep throughout the night, but I was a nervous wreck by the following day.
Although Dorothy had located tires, she was afraid to drive her Datsun the 200 km to deliver them. To be honest, the car does not ride well. I think both front tires need to be replaced, Dwight called up a good friend of mine who volunteered to bring he and the tires out to me and brought his family with him to make it an outing. (After dropping the tires off he and his family had a barbecue at a place just off of the main road.) They arrived about noon. Although I had reasoned with myself that it probably would be noon or thereabouts before someone got out, I was starting to get a bit frantic, again not about my situation, but because I still didn't know if Dwight was safe. I had not seen another soul since the people had left me Saturday afternoon. No one came back that road from the time we drove onto it, so I'm glad we didn't wait for help to come in that manner.
Needless to say, I was very glad to see Dwight when the car arrived, We put one of the new tires on the front, and I started the car. Ironically, it started immediately. At that point, my friend Jeff, thought one of the other tires looked low also. It turned out it was only a couple of pounds low, so it must have been the way the car was sitting. However, I now had to worry about the wheel with two missing lugs, whether another tire was low, whether the car would restart if I had to stop it for some reason, and. whether the gas would indeed flow out of the extra tank because there was not enough gas in the main tank to get us back to town. Especially because of the missing lugs, I did not drive very fast back to town only about 60—70 km/hr so it took almost 3 hours. But we arrived, back in-town safely. Dorothy was glad to see us, and didn't even give me a hard time about my ruining two tires. I have to admit that I am not anxious to go back out bush, but if someone with-another vehicle, asks us to go with them I will consider it - but no more--trips with just one car.
I had promised Dwight that if we returned to Australia we would buy a 4-wheel drive and go out bush so that he could, look for rocks (a pastime called "fossicking" here. I have to admit that I was not actually looking forward to, the time that I would actually undertake the first venture, since I am not and never have been an outdoors type, nor am I mechanically inclined in case of trouble. So I was more than a little apprehensive about our first trip, and as it turned out -rightfully so - it turned into a disaster, though it could have been worse.
Dwight has been planning trips every since we arrived and eventually talked our friend, Ronnie, into going with him, taking our van, while I kept her Old English Sheep dogs. Dorothy said she would keep the dogs and I could go along. I still hadn't, decided, when Ronnie got sick and the doctor told her she could not go that weekend. I didn't want to disappoint Dwight so I said I would take him, I prepared the van, and in doing so found the spare tire was no-good, so bought a new tire and figured I was in good shape. I also put some gas in the extra tank that is in the van and that is when the trouble started. I wasn't even sure the tank was working properly and I thought the valve was in the off position. It wasn't, so about an hour after I brought it home from the service station, I tried to restart it and it wouldn't start. After trying for several minutes, I found gas leaking onto the ground. So I guess that the gas from the extra tank was pushing more gas than necessary into the engine, flooding it. I turned the valve off and figured that after the extra gas evaporated it would start again. More on that later. Dwight did a pretty good job of rounding up the necessary supplies, with the help of Ronnie. Our base here has camping supplies and she had reserved a lantern, sleeping bag, an iron cooking plate and some gas cans, which we ended up not using. Dwight planned, the remaining supplies, including the food. I guess by now it is clear that Dorothy and Toby were not going to make this trip. Dorothy doesn't trust my driving out bush, and Toby is not that interested.
We planned to leave as soon as I got home from work on Friday, so by the time I got here, Dwight had the van pretty well packed. I went to start the van and it still wouldn’t start, which gave me an uneasy feeling, but I figured if I got it started, it would sort itself out. I did eventually get it started and we left. We drove north for about 70km, then turned east, still on a sealed road (not really macadam, more oil and gravel and basically one lane wide) for another 70km. At that point we turned back a dirt road (past Mud Tank Bore – bores or water holes are key landmarks here) for about 10 km to the zircon fields. There were about six other groups camped there so I didn't feel too isolated, figuring if something went wrong I could get help.
It was dark by the time we arrived, so the first test was to pitch the tent by the light of the lantern and cook a meal. I got the tent up by myself while Dwight scouted for some firewood, which wasn't that easy. Since a lot of people camp there, there was not a lot of wood close by, but we eventually found some and got a fire started. You have to realize that I was never a scout and never camped in the "wilds" in my life. The only camping I have ever done was in organized camping sites in Europe, which have everything from stores to indoor facilities, so this was a challenge for me. We survived that evening and went to bed. Dwight slept in a sleeping bag on top of the van. I tried sleeping in the tent, but shortly after going to bed, the wind began to blow and even though I made the tent as tight as I could, it still "rattled" so I finally gave up and moved into the van for the remainder of the night.
The next morning, Dwight got up and started the fire and cooked breakfast. He made "jaffles" which are a sort of toasted sandwich made using a jaffle iron (a hinged long-handled implement you stick in the fire). They weren't all that bad. We spent several hours after breakfast, digging for zircons. We found some, but none that are of any real value. The temperature wasn't too bad, but the flies were terrible. There were always a half dozen or more buzzing around your head. We left the zircon fields and drove back to the "main" road - the sealed one on which you do see an occasional car - and drove another 24 km to the east, and shortly before our destination, some garnet fields just off the highway, the road turned to dirt. The other thing to mention is that this is considered a major road in this area and is called the "Plenty Highway." We spent about an hour and a half looking for garnets. Dwight found some very small ones; I found none. We ate lunch and then headed to the place that Dwight was most anxious to get to. This was the area I was a bit nervous about. It was some distance off the main road and not visited as much as the first place we had gone to. We turned off the main road and headed back dirt road. It wasn't a rough road - I never had to go into 4-wheel drive.
The only tricky part was a dry river bed. Dry river beds are a usual hazard here in the outback, because the bottom is loose sand and so it is easy to get bogged in them. One interesting feature we had to negotiate was a mob of cattle that we literally had to plow our way through - they wouldn't move. We continued on back that road for 23 km until Dwight spotted the area where he wanted to stop, I had to drive about 200 meters cross country through a fairly open area to the base of a hill topped by a beautiful column of quartz. It was a remarkable chunk of quartz and pieces of it lay scattered all over the hillside. We parked the van and walked across to it and up onto the hill. Dwight really wanted to go on to the next hill which was the location of a different type of quartz known as smoky quartz - it is a dark brown opaque rock which I believe is only worth something for specimen value I unlike zircon and garnet which can be faceted for jewelry.
After Dwight wandered off, I started to look around and noticed all of the many types of wildflowers on the hill, and. then gazed off into the distance and realized we were in a really beautiful area, surrounded by mountains in the distance, with wide open I fields close by, also full of wildflowers. I also noticed that I could pull the van closer to the hill so I would be able to be close to a supply of rocks to build an enclosure for a campfire later, so I walked back to the van to move it and also to get the camera. Dwight joined me about that time to get some more gear out of the van. That was when the fun started. The car wouldn't start. I readily admit that I was in a state of panic. I am not a mechanic, and I knew we were in an isolated area - we had not seen another car on that road. I told Dwight he could go back to the hill to look for rocks and I would stay and try and start the car I told him that I was sorry, but I was too nervous about this situation and if I got the car started I thought we should leave. About 25 minutes later, the car finally started after I played with the carburetor and kept trying to start it. We started back to the main road, and although I did not relax, I did breathe a sigh of relief.
However, it was relatively short lived. About 7-8 km up the road I had a sinking feeling that I had a flat tire. I stopped and asked Dwight to check. He jumped out and looked at me and said, "You have two flat tires." Although I didn't doubt him, I couldn't believe this was happening, so I jumped out and checked. Well, I had several choices - we could walk the estimated 15 km back to the main road, I could put the one spare I had on for one of the tires, but I didn't want to turn off the engine to do it and didn't think it was a good idea to change it with the engine running. Instead I ran on the tires, knowing I would ruin them, but figuring I could get us closer to the main road, before they fell apart. I got to within about 2-3 km before I knew I couldn't go any further. You can imagine what the tires looked like.
Dwight said he would go out to the road and try and flag someone down. I couldn't think of any better idea so after he left, I figured I would go ahead and take the wheels off so I could give them to whoever came, to take back to Alice Springs. This was one of those times when you wonder what else can go wrong. The lugs were rusty and two of the 6 snapped off while I was trying to get them off. I got the spare on the back and had no trouble getting the front tire off and left the van on the jack. I was almost finished when a carload of people pulled up with Dwight, They were going on in to Alice Springs and offered to take Dwight and the wheels with them, I have to admit by this time I was in a mild state of shock and didn't even get their names.I told Dwight that I knew it was too late to ask Dorothy to come back out that night and besides she may have trouble finding tires, so I would stay with the van overnight and she could come out the next day.
The car, with Dwight and tires, left me at 4 p.m Saturday afternoon. After they left, I just sat in my lawn chair and fought off the flies. I was really too depressed to read the book I had brought with me. It was like I had taken a course and when it got to exam time, I flunked. My first bush trip and I had screwed it up royally. I figured I would never hear the end of it, including the money it would cost to buy two new tires. As it got darker, I had to make a couple of decisions. Should I set up the tent? I decided I wasn't up to sleeping out there by myself in a tent, I would feel safer (I don't know from what) inside the car. I did start a campfire, but decided it was too much trouble to cook the steaks that we had brought for supper that evening ,and besides, by that time I had started to worry about Dwight, and I didn't feel up to eating. I worried that the two couples were trustworthy - reason said that since there were two couples and they had brought Dwight back to me to pick up the tires that they were OK. The other thought was that the Northern Territory roads are not the safest and I had no idea how good driver the guy was, except that they had traveled all the way up here from Melbourne, through some very desolate country, so guess they were OK in that respect, as well. Dwight told me later that they drove about 140km/hour (over 80 mph) on the way back. Leaving me for a moment, Dwight arrived back in town about 5:30 and as expected there was some question about getting tires on the weekend. They (he and his mother) were unable to find any that night, but located some the next morning at a Shell service station.
I guess the attendants got -a good laugh at the condition of the tires. Meanwhile, that evening, Dorothy was covering a big social event in town - a 4-hour fashion show and she and the photographer from the paper talked to a lot of people about finding tires. At the same time, Ronnie was calling all over town trying to find some help. I was sure the big news in town that night. I was, however, unaware of what was happening, and after the daylight faded, and I was even more alone with myself, my worse fears began to surface - not about myself, but whether Dwight was OK. I got some sleep throughout the night, but I was a nervous wreck by the following day.
Although Dorothy had located tires, she was afraid to drive her Datsun the 200 km to deliver them. To be honest, the car does not ride well. I think both front tires need to be replaced, Dwight called up a good friend of mine who volunteered to bring he and the tires out to me and brought his family with him to make it an outing. (After dropping the tires off he and his family had a barbecue at a place just off of the main road.) They arrived about noon. Although I had reasoned with myself that it probably would be noon or thereabouts before someone got out, I was starting to get a bit frantic, again not about my situation, but because I still didn't know if Dwight was safe. I had not seen another soul since the people had left me Saturday afternoon. No one came back that road from the time we drove onto it, so I'm glad we didn't wait for help to come in that manner.
Needless to say, I was very glad to see Dwight when the car arrived, We put one of the new tires on the front, and I started the car. Ironically, it started immediately. At that point, my friend Jeff, thought one of the other tires looked low also. It turned out it was only a couple of pounds low, so it must have been the way the car was sitting. However, I now had to worry about the wheel with two missing lugs, whether another tire was low, whether the car would restart if I had to stop it for some reason, and. whether the gas would indeed flow out of the extra tank because there was not enough gas in the main tank to get us back to town. Especially because of the missing lugs, I did not drive very fast back to town only about 60—70 km/hr so it took almost 3 hours. But we arrived, back in-town safely. Dorothy was glad to see us, and didn't even give me a hard time about my ruining two tires. I have to admit that I am not anxious to go back out bush, but if someone with-another vehicle, asks us to go with them I will consider it - but no more--trips with just one car.
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