September 1991
THE 1991 GRIMM FAMILY VACATION
When Dorothy's mother told her that she was coming to visit us in Australia, Dorothy thought it would be a good idea for us to show her some of the country. Since Dorothy's mother's name is Adelaide, Dorothy said she had to see the city of Adelaide, which was the jumping off point for the "1991 Grimm family vacation." Dwight spent his summer vacation here, so was lucky enough (?) to share in the excitement. The plan then, was for all five of us to fly to Adelaide, rent a car and drive to Sydney. There, Dwight and Adelaide would leave to return to the U.S.
i Since we have visited a number of these sites before and since I
don't want to bore you with too many details, I will in some cases
summarize our visit to a particular city.
Before I start, I'd like to comment on the perpetual problem that I have trying to find somewhere for my family to eat when we are on the road outside of the U.S. Dorothy doesn't eat Italian, Mexican, or many other spicy or highly flavored foods. Toby will eat Italian and Mexican foods, but nothing else exotic, nor standard beef, or pork dishes. Dwight doesn't like seafood. (Adelaide was no problem - she always found something to eat.) Add to that, Australia has very few "family" type restaurants which have an extensive menu with something for everyone. Also, in the smaller towns, there are usually no fast food restaurants, and if you arrive too late, you may find nothing open. Taking all of that into account, you can imagine all of the problems I face trying to find somewhere to eat each day -I won't bore you with the dramatics.
We left Alice Springs Friday, September 6th. For some reason, Dwight had a business class ticket - typical. Since we'd been to Adelaide before, I had no problem finding the flat (owned by the U.S. govt, which we can rent). That evening we made arrangements with a friend of Toby's to meet us the next day and spend the weekend with us, and Dwight went off to spend the night with some friends. We spent Saturday shopping - Dorothy's main objective was to go into the new department store with a roller coaster on the top floor. The building is a complex containing the department store and shops which surround a court which is as high as the building (6 floors). On the top floor are rides, arcades, a Lego store with an incredible collection of large Lego-build displays (some of which are built with over 100,000 pieces of Lego), and, yes, a small roller coaster that runs over the court.
We also visited Glenelg, a shopping area on the coast, went to a book sale I found advertised in the paper, a flea market (do I have to mention all of the comic shops and book exchanged that we visited on this trip? - No, OK, I will tell you that except for the first evening and the day the boys went skiing that Toby managed to buy some comics every day on the trip). We also went to the Adelaide
*-5%fc^ *-** .Wf * r-
Botanic Gardens, which we had not been in before. I wanted to see the
building with the simulated rain forest containing native, Australian
plants from the Australian rain forests which are also disappearing
along with others in the world. All in all I think Adelaide was
pleased to finally see the city that she had heard about in geography
class many years ago.
We left Adelaide Monday morning and drove northeast through the Barossa valley, an area settled by Germans and now the most famous wine growing area in Australia. I took a back road in order to get to a lookout of the area and it was worth the effort, but in doing so, I missed a picturesque town with a lot of churches and German influence which we had visited on a previous trip. We stopped at one well-known winery and look at the displays there (including one showing all the different size wine bottles). - A piece of trivia - there are larger sizes of wine bottles, even past the 'magnum.' Some of the names are: jeroboam, rehoboam, balthazar, melchior, methuselah, and nebuchadnezzar. I am not kidding, but I don't know if the large sizes are actually used currently.
Leaving the Barossa Valley, we spent two days driving through the Riverland area, much of which follows the Murray River. During those two days we stopped to visit a former classmate of Dwight's, stopped in a town called Monash to see a large intricate playground with all sorts of equipment most of which was more suitable for adults, stopped for the night in Mildura, where we saw the world's longest bar (91 meters - just under 300 feet), and stopped the second night in Echuca, where a friend of mine who lives in Melbourne met us for drinks and dinner. Both Mildura, and Echuca, as well as Swan Hill, which lies between, are all old port towns which used to be used by paddlewheel boats. Some remain to provide rides/tours, but as far as I know, none actually carry freight anymore. The drive through the Riverland was not real exciting, although it was very green from recent rains. We saw lots of sheep, some cattle, some horses, and many sulphur-crested white cockatoos. (I was at least impressed by the birds because we don't see them here - just the gray and pink galahs and black cockatoos).
From Echuca we drove east, eventually over some winding mountainous roads over a fairly high mountain. It was foggy on top, but we were able to get glimpses of a beautiful lush green valley below, where the town of Mt. Beauty lay. A friend of mine, and her daughter both live there and they kindly offered to put us up -Dorothy, Adelaide and myself at Rosemary's, and the kids at her daughter's. I don't know what the elevation of Mt. Beauty is, but it was cold, and within an hours drive up another mountain is the Falls Creek Ski Resort. It is a beautiful area, with many colorful birds, and we finally saw some wild kangaroos. Despite the impression you may have gotten from TV and ads, kangaroos are not bounding all over the place. We have rarely seen kangaroos in the wilds. I believe there are places that you can routinely see them if you are driving at sunset or at night, but they don't move around a lot during the day, and certainly not that much in the Alice area.
The longer we stay here, the harder it is to deal with cold weather, so at least some of us (OK - so I complained a lot on this trip) minded the cold, and living in a house with no central heat was difficult, but we survived. Dorothy and the boys left at 7:45 Thursday morning by bus to go up to the ski area. Dorothy was determined to say she has skied in both hemispheres. On the hour bus ride up the mountain, they saw one field where there were 40 or more kangaroos, and Dwight said he saw a lyrebird just off the road.
They arrived at the ski area about 9 a.m., and left about 5:30. The weather was outstanding with fresh snow and warm sunny weather. The top of the mountain was lovely (Dorothy’s comment). Dwight skied almost the entire time, Toby did not quit until about an hour or so prior to leaving. Dorothy was another story. According to Dwight she almost wiped out the Grimm line. While trying to get on a ski lift, she fell, knocking both boys down, who then got trapped under the chair of the ski lift. The entire line had to be stopped while the boys were extracted. Dorothy finally made it to the top of the slope and managed to get off the lift gracefully. I'm not sure if the description of Dorothy's subsequent actions, qualify as "skiing." She skied, walked, skied, fell, skied, rolled, ran into a fence, etc.. This slope was named the Wombat Ramble, and it sounds like Dorothy tried to emulate the name. The boys were nice enough to help their mother (taking shifts for the hour it took her to descend one slope) before going off to ski in other areas. Toby tried one that he soon found too steep and had to walk back up, Dwight took one slope that led him to another area from which he couldn't figure out how to get back to check on Dorothy. He eventually caught up with her three hours later. After Dorothy (completed?) her one run she spent most of the rest of the day in a shelter watching the boys' tennis shoes (there were no lockers). She did try skiing along a road for awhile (I did not tell her to go play in the traffic), and encountered an interesting elderly bush walker. They returned to town exhausted, but in good spirits (except that Toby had a headache probably due to the sun glare and not due to the lack of his daily comic input).
While they were skiing, Rosemary, Adelaide and I toured the valley and drove part of the way up the mountain to have lunch at a small village. It was a beautiful day and fantastic scenery (especially for those of us who live in the dry outback).
The next day (Friday) we journeyed on to Canberra. By coincidence, the motel I had booked was beside a golf course and also right beside the motel where Toby had stayed while in Canberra for a bowling tournament. Dwight managed to the play the 'back nine' (which actually consisted of ten holes! of the golf course - the first golf course other that Alice Springs on which he has ever played. On Saturday, Dorothy, Adelaide, and our friend Ronnie, who lives in Canberra and works in the office of one of the government Ministers, went to the National Art Gallery. Meanwhile, the boys and I went to the National Science and Technology Center which is one of those new marvelous 'hands-on' museums. We spent three hours trying many of the 120 interactive exhibits.
3
1 f !• t
On Sunday, Dorothy, Adelaide and I drove to the Tidbinbulla tracking facility about 25 miles south of Canberra. This station is part of the worldwide Deep Space Network and was involved with Voyager during its tour of the outer planets. I was impressed by the large dish (230 feet) they have there and also a smaller dish which had been moved from a nearby facility and which had been the receiving antenna which intercepted Neil Armstrong's words when he stepped on the moon.
Meanwhile, we had dropped off the boys at Ronnie's and she took them to the National Aquarium where they took an hour and a half course in fly-fishing. They thought that was pretty neat (even during some showers). Afterward they were able to fish in the stocked pond there, but the fish are older and wiser (having probably been caught numerous times). The instructor said newer, dumber fish were due the following week. Since they were still fishing when we returned to Tidbinbulla, we picked up Ronnie and visited the National Film and Sound Archives. It was OK, but would mean more to an Australian. We then went to the new Parliament House and Ronnie got us passes to get into the non-public areas. We sat in on talks by tour guides in the House of Representatives and the Senate and then took the elevator to the roof. The most unusual feature of this building is that the roof over the central portion slopes down to ground level and is covered in lush green grass (as the guide said, probably the best cared for lawn in Australia).
The only other items of interest was a flower festival at a park on the lake which basically cuts Canberra in half, a drive through the area with the majority of the embassies, and the Lodge (the prime minister's residence) and a drive up to and elevator to the top of the Telecom (the Australian version of AT&T) tower on a hill overlooking Canberra, which provides some great views of the city and surrounding area. We also visited the bowling alley where Toby had participated in the Australian National Junior Ten-Pin Bowling Championships.
Finally it was on to Sydney and traffic that caused me great distress. Fortunately, we stayed at a motel in Kings Cross which allows easy access to the subway and hence most of the town - so I didn't have to drive for several days. Kings Cross is a very interesting place with lots of activity, numerous restaurants, and a real cross section of humanity, including strip shows and prostitutes. We have always stayed in the Cross when we are in Sydney, but I was a bit apprehensive about staying there with Dorothy's mother. But Dorothy said since her mother was used to New York, she was sure that the Cross wouldn't phase her. The boys were introduced to this type of environment early (at 5 and 10, respectively, when we stayed in Pig Alle in Paris in 1981 on our way to Australia the first time).
Dorothy and her mother did quite a bit on their own - touring the Opera House (where I joined them one day to see a play), going to the National Art Gallery (Dwight joined them to see a collection of (missing from transcript)
Our last day in Sydney we drove to several flea markets close to the motel, then to a comic shop out in one of the*western suburbs, then on to a giant Sunday market, stopped on the way back to the motel for one last meal at one of the Sizzler (same as in the U.S.) restaurants. I took a long detour back to the motel so I wouldn't have to go through city driving again.
For a change, there was no trauma getting to the airport, dropping off the rental car and having plenty of time to make the plane. The trip was uneventful and we arrived in Alice to an overcast sky and later even some thunder and a bit of rain. All was well at my house - our friend Chris had survived with the animals, and vice versa.
Dwight hopes to get a summer job in the U.S. next year. If so, this really may have been the last of the famous Grimm family trips. Only time will tell. There is a chance (although Dorothy is threatening me not to participate) that three of us will drive across the country in January to drop my Buick off with Dwight. So stayed tuned . . .
Monday, March 26, 2012
June 1991: Alice Springs
GRIMMS' STAY IN AUSTRALIA EXTENDED
OUTBACK REPORTS TO CONTINUE
Yes folks, my request for a new tour has formally been approved. It only took six months (your tax dollars are at work creating many layers of bureaucracy through which paperwork must pass). So, unless you specifically ask to be taken off of distribution, you will continue to receive these reports from time to time (hopefully not before you have finished reading the previous one)
The government pays for the whole family to come home to the U.S.for 60 days between tours (called a turnaround). I had planned to take the trip in June-July while Toby had a month's break from school. However, since it took so long to get approval, I'm going to ask if we can now put it off until December-January.
I'll pick up the Grimm adventures prior to the trip to Perth that Dorothy and I took in March. (If you did not receive my Perth trip report copies are still available - please let us know how many copies you'd like.)
Just before our trip, Dorothy went on a promotional trip to Ayers Rock. The invitation went to the paper, and apparently no one else wanted it because Dorothy ended up with it. Until recently only Ansett Airlines had the route from Alice Springs to Ayers Rock; but with deregulation of the airlines, Australian Airlines just began covering the route as well. This has caused problems at the Ayers Rock airport since both airlines make the flight at approximately the same time (don't ask me why) and the airport had problems handling both aircraft at the same time.
Dorothy enjoyed her stay at the Rock - since this was a promotional flight (including the CEO of Australian Airlines), the transportation, accommodations and food were all paid for. She did not climb the Rock, but took advantage of the newest tourist attraction - a ride on a Harley Davidson (pictures are available). She also went on a sunset flight over the Rock and the Olgas (a formation of about 40 rocks, at least one of which is 1800 feet high - higher than Ayers Rock - but much smaller around). She was not impressed, however, by the fact that the two small planes carrying the members of the group were flying almost wingtip-to-wingtip at one point. You would think these tour operators would have learned their lesson when similar fooling around by balloon pilots two years ago ended in a disaster killing 13 people.
The group came back to Alice Springs on a bus and then the next day were invited to take hot air balloon rides. So Dorothy got her second free balloon ride. Since there was little wind the pilot took it up to 7000 feet looking for some wind to move them. Prior to the ascent Dorothy took some spectacular photos of a bush sunrise (thanks to some rare clouds). We had the picture blown up into a good sized print - more about that later.
I won't begin to attempt to explain all of the deficiencies of the newspaper staff. However, with no experience, I believe I could do a better job of running it. Anyway, for their own reasons, the management decided not to run the article Dorothy had written about her trip to Ayers Rock. You'd think after accepting the invitation they would have felt obligated to give the Airlines some free publicity. Dorothy was a bit upset, to put it mildly. She found a way to subtly strike back. Every year the newspaper sponsors an art competition - the Advocate Art Award. Since the winner is by popular vote even Advocate employees may enter. Dorothy had two entries. She got her bush sunrise framed and entered it with a price tag of $150 (every item has to be available for sale). Someone bought it much to her amazement and delight. The other exhibit elicited a lot of comments, although, unfortunately, it did not win. She had a lot of photos she'd taken on the trip to the Rock and asked me if I had any ideas about how to display them. After some thought, I suggested getting an old suitcase and taping them all over it. As an afterthought I said maybe the suitcase could be open and have things in it which she would have taken along.
The first order of business was to acquire a suitable suitcase. Sure enough, at a lawn sale one morning we found an old beat-up suitcase - priced at $2. I offered the lady $1 and although she parted with it, she gave me a detailed account of where all it had been and walked to the car with us, as if she couldn't let it go. We put empty film canisters, a camera case, a flynet (outback flies are plentiful and persistent), a hat, sweatshirt, sneakers, and all the promotional material she picked up on the trip. The, we taped photos all over it. Unfortunately, the editor of the newspaper didn't show up - he had more important things to do than show up to an event which the newspaper was sponsoring. But many of the staff members were there and thought it was a riot (understanding the joke). They put on a real show standing around it laughing and finally enticed Dorothy into putting on some of the gear for photos. The Advocate photographer took many photos (copies are available). I don't know if the Editor ever got the message or not but it doesn't matter - he's been replaced by a new editor. The new guy has assured Dorothy she can continue to cover community arts.
Recently Dorothy rode with a teacher who makes home visits to kids on stations that don't come into town for school. The mother turned out to be the daughter of an American who had once been chief of our facility. The lady had grown up in Fairfax County - not far from where Dorothy had grown up, so they had a nice chat.
On to Toby - He's still heavily into comics and ten-pin bowling. He tried out for the Northern Territory ten-pin team for the National Titles in Canberra in July. (To digress - for those of you who came in late: Australia is about the same size as the continental U.S. but only has six states [Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, West Australia and Tasmania] and two territories [Northern Territory and the Australian Capital
Territory, similar to Washington D.C.].)
Toby didn't get selected for the team but is an alternate so he is training with the team. This includes: conditioning (physical training), lessons, lectures, and even a trip to Darwin to train with the Darwin members of the team. Most of the airfare for the 1000-mile flight was paid for by the N.T. government. I think it's nice the kids got to go to Darwin, but it irritates me that the N.T. govt, seems of have plenty of money to sponsor sporting events and subsidize some 5-star hotels at the same time it is closing schools, cutting teacher positions and other "non-essentials."
Toby enjoyed his trip to Darwin, especially when they took the kids to a Mall to get the team uniforms and by coincidence a comic shop was in the same mall. Toby added a few to his collection.
Although he didn't make the team, I told Toby he could go to the National Titles and compete on his own. It'll be a busy time. Dwight arrives for his summer vacation June 26th, the same day Toby leaves for Canberra. Then Dorothy's mother is coming for a visit, arriving in Alice Springs August 28th. We'll all probably go down south for her to do some sightseeing and put her and Dwight on the plane back to the U.S. sometime in September.
Dwight is doing OK, although he had a mishap several weeks ago. Someone hit him in the eye with a water balloon and the doctors were concerned enough to put him in the hospital for five days. The eye seems to be OK. He finishes class June 14th and will leave California to come here. However, he's taking a slight detour. A friend of his and the friend's family were going to come to Australia this summer and Dwight was going to show them around. However, they decided it was too far so are going to rent a condominium in Hawaii for 10 days and have invited Dwight to come stay with them. So it won't cost him much to stay. Some people have all the luck.
As for me, I'm just my old normal conservative self. I don't understand why Toby calls me weird (doesn't everyone run up and down the fenceline so his dog - on the other side - can chase him?). The school Toby goes to has boarding students (kids whose parents live on stations or in small towns). The last couple of long weekends Toby has invited a boarder for the weekend. The first time he did this he asked me to please act normal. I may have been able to _ maintain some sense of decorum but my friend Pat Elvins, local * artist and eccentric, chose that evening to come visit and our normalcy broke down. Pat is a vegetarian, lives in a trailer with two cats and no running water, and works at a thrift shop - all of this despite the fact she is a good artist. I always give her peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (what else do you feed a vegetarian when you're having a ham sandwich?). Pat was driving a different car - her previous car had been stolen by some Aborigines who then totaled it - the car was not insured. On her way home that night the headlights in her current car went out so she returned to spend the night.
5
On one hand Toby says I'm weird - on the other boring. Recently he commented on the excitement in the house: "Wow, how exciting, Dad. You spend your time working on the stamp collection, cataloging your books (which I recently completed - about 1000 currently) and for real excitement sorting refund trash for Mum."
He's right — that's about it except for our weekly lawn sale circuit. The Americans brought the idea of lawn sales to town and now there are from about 10 to almost 30 most Saturday mornings. They start between 7 and 8 and you might as well not go after 9:30 -all the good stuff is gone. We have taken a number of people with us but they can't keep up our pace. In order to get to all of them in the shortest possible time we move quickly through - hitting all of them in 1-2 hours. So what do we buy - most of the 1000 books and a lot of Toby's comics. (My prize book was written by Henry Stanley, who found Livingston, of African myths and printed in 1893, for which I paid 5 cents). I have also bought three wooden shaft Australian-made golf clubs in the original bag ($10), two 1943 insulators used on the Alice Springs telegraph line (.50 each), old pieces of china I find interesting (.20-$l), the 1987 Australian stamp collection worth $50 - for $10, a few antique bottles, and a wind-up tin train made in Great Britain (complete with track and buildings) for $5. We found a bowling ball bag recently that holds two bowling balls (I didn't realize until recently that ten-pin bowlers use different types of bowling balls - Toby has two and was carrying them in individual bags). There was a bowling ball in the bag and I told the guy selling it, whom I knew, that I only wanted the bag. He said the ball went with the bag, so at a later lawn sale I dropped off the ball with another guy I knew who said he'd try and sell it for me. - Although we may go for weeks without finding anything, it's fun seeing the different yards and seeing people we know. (Dorothy picks up tidbits of information related to town events along the way.)
Well, I guess that is enough to bore you with for now so I'll close. I'm sure I'll have enough information for another report after the events of June-Sep. Stay tuned...
OUTBACK REPORTS TO CONTINUE
Yes folks, my request for a new tour has formally been approved. It only took six months (your tax dollars are at work creating many layers of bureaucracy through which paperwork must pass). So, unless you specifically ask to be taken off of distribution, you will continue to receive these reports from time to time (hopefully not before you have finished reading the previous one)
The government pays for the whole family to come home to the U.S.for 60 days between tours (called a turnaround). I had planned to take the trip in June-July while Toby had a month's break from school. However, since it took so long to get approval, I'm going to ask if we can now put it off until December-January.
I'll pick up the Grimm adventures prior to the trip to Perth that Dorothy and I took in March. (If you did not receive my Perth trip report copies are still available - please let us know how many copies you'd like.)
Just before our trip, Dorothy went on a promotional trip to Ayers Rock. The invitation went to the paper, and apparently no one else wanted it because Dorothy ended up with it. Until recently only Ansett Airlines had the route from Alice Springs to Ayers Rock; but with deregulation of the airlines, Australian Airlines just began covering the route as well. This has caused problems at the Ayers Rock airport since both airlines make the flight at approximately the same time (don't ask me why) and the airport had problems handling both aircraft at the same time.
Dorothy enjoyed her stay at the Rock - since this was a promotional flight (including the CEO of Australian Airlines), the transportation, accommodations and food were all paid for. She did not climb the Rock, but took advantage of the newest tourist attraction - a ride on a Harley Davidson (pictures are available). She also went on a sunset flight over the Rock and the Olgas (a formation of about 40 rocks, at least one of which is 1800 feet high - higher than Ayers Rock - but much smaller around). She was not impressed, however, by the fact that the two small planes carrying the members of the group were flying almost wingtip-to-wingtip at one point. You would think these tour operators would have learned their lesson when similar fooling around by balloon pilots two years ago ended in a disaster killing 13 people.
The group came back to Alice Springs on a bus and then the next day were invited to take hot air balloon rides. So Dorothy got her second free balloon ride. Since there was little wind the pilot took it up to 7000 feet looking for some wind to move them. Prior to the ascent Dorothy took some spectacular photos of a bush sunrise (thanks to some rare clouds). We had the picture blown up into a good sized print - more about that later.
I won't begin to attempt to explain all of the deficiencies of the newspaper staff. However, with no experience, I believe I could do a better job of running it. Anyway, for their own reasons, the management decided not to run the article Dorothy had written about her trip to Ayers Rock. You'd think after accepting the invitation they would have felt obligated to give the Airlines some free publicity. Dorothy was a bit upset, to put it mildly. She found a way to subtly strike back. Every year the newspaper sponsors an art competition - the Advocate Art Award. Since the winner is by popular vote even Advocate employees may enter. Dorothy had two entries. She got her bush sunrise framed and entered it with a price tag of $150 (every item has to be available for sale). Someone bought it much to her amazement and delight. The other exhibit elicited a lot of comments, although, unfortunately, it did not win. She had a lot of photos she'd taken on the trip to the Rock and asked me if I had any ideas about how to display them. After some thought, I suggested getting an old suitcase and taping them all over it. As an afterthought I said maybe the suitcase could be open and have things in it which she would have taken along.
The first order of business was to acquire a suitable suitcase. Sure enough, at a lawn sale one morning we found an old beat-up suitcase - priced at $2. I offered the lady $1 and although she parted with it, she gave me a detailed account of where all it had been and walked to the car with us, as if she couldn't let it go. We put empty film canisters, a camera case, a flynet (outback flies are plentiful and persistent), a hat, sweatshirt, sneakers, and all the promotional material she picked up on the trip. The, we taped photos all over it. Unfortunately, the editor of the newspaper didn't show up - he had more important things to do than show up to an event which the newspaper was sponsoring. But many of the staff members were there and thought it was a riot (understanding the joke). They put on a real show standing around it laughing and finally enticed Dorothy into putting on some of the gear for photos. The Advocate photographer took many photos (copies are available). I don't know if the Editor ever got the message or not but it doesn't matter - he's been replaced by a new editor. The new guy has assured Dorothy she can continue to cover community arts.
Recently Dorothy rode with a teacher who makes home visits to kids on stations that don't come into town for school. The mother turned out to be the daughter of an American who had once been chief of our facility. The lady had grown up in Fairfax County - not far from where Dorothy had grown up, so they had a nice chat.
On to Toby - He's still heavily into comics and ten-pin bowling. He tried out for the Northern Territory ten-pin team for the National Titles in Canberra in July. (To digress - for those of you who came in late: Australia is about the same size as the continental U.S. but only has six states [Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, West Australia and Tasmania] and two territories [Northern Territory and the Australian Capital
Territory, similar to Washington D.C.].)
Toby didn't get selected for the team but is an alternate so he is training with the team. This includes: conditioning (physical training), lessons, lectures, and even a trip to Darwin to train with the Darwin members of the team. Most of the airfare for the 1000-mile flight was paid for by the N.T. government. I think it's nice the kids got to go to Darwin, but it irritates me that the N.T. govt, seems of have plenty of money to sponsor sporting events and subsidize some 5-star hotels at the same time it is closing schools, cutting teacher positions and other "non-essentials."
Toby enjoyed his trip to Darwin, especially when they took the kids to a Mall to get the team uniforms and by coincidence a comic shop was in the same mall. Toby added a few to his collection.
Although he didn't make the team, I told Toby he could go to the National Titles and compete on his own. It'll be a busy time. Dwight arrives for his summer vacation June 26th, the same day Toby leaves for Canberra. Then Dorothy's mother is coming for a visit, arriving in Alice Springs August 28th. We'll all probably go down south for her to do some sightseeing and put her and Dwight on the plane back to the U.S. sometime in September.
Dwight is doing OK, although he had a mishap several weeks ago. Someone hit him in the eye with a water balloon and the doctors were concerned enough to put him in the hospital for five days. The eye seems to be OK. He finishes class June 14th and will leave California to come here. However, he's taking a slight detour. A friend of his and the friend's family were going to come to Australia this summer and Dwight was going to show them around. However, they decided it was too far so are going to rent a condominium in Hawaii for 10 days and have invited Dwight to come stay with them. So it won't cost him much to stay. Some people have all the luck.
As for me, I'm just my old normal conservative self. I don't understand why Toby calls me weird (doesn't everyone run up and down the fenceline so his dog - on the other side - can chase him?). The school Toby goes to has boarding students (kids whose parents live on stations or in small towns). The last couple of long weekends Toby has invited a boarder for the weekend. The first time he did this he asked me to please act normal. I may have been able to _ maintain some sense of decorum but my friend Pat Elvins, local * artist and eccentric, chose that evening to come visit and our normalcy broke down. Pat is a vegetarian, lives in a trailer with two cats and no running water, and works at a thrift shop - all of this despite the fact she is a good artist. I always give her peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (what else do you feed a vegetarian when you're having a ham sandwich?). Pat was driving a different car - her previous car had been stolen by some Aborigines who then totaled it - the car was not insured. On her way home that night the headlights in her current car went out so she returned to spend the night.
5
On one hand Toby says I'm weird - on the other boring. Recently he commented on the excitement in the house: "Wow, how exciting, Dad. You spend your time working on the stamp collection, cataloging your books (which I recently completed - about 1000 currently) and for real excitement sorting refund trash for Mum."
He's right — that's about it except for our weekly lawn sale circuit. The Americans brought the idea of lawn sales to town and now there are from about 10 to almost 30 most Saturday mornings. They start between 7 and 8 and you might as well not go after 9:30 -all the good stuff is gone. We have taken a number of people with us but they can't keep up our pace. In order to get to all of them in the shortest possible time we move quickly through - hitting all of them in 1-2 hours. So what do we buy - most of the 1000 books and a lot of Toby's comics. (My prize book was written by Henry Stanley, who found Livingston, of African myths and printed in 1893, for which I paid 5 cents). I have also bought three wooden shaft Australian-made golf clubs in the original bag ($10), two 1943 insulators used on the Alice Springs telegraph line (.50 each), old pieces of china I find interesting (.20-$l), the 1987 Australian stamp collection worth $50 - for $10, a few antique bottles, and a wind-up tin train made in Great Britain (complete with track and buildings) for $5. We found a bowling ball bag recently that holds two bowling balls (I didn't realize until recently that ten-pin bowlers use different types of bowling balls - Toby has two and was carrying them in individual bags). There was a bowling ball in the bag and I told the guy selling it, whom I knew, that I only wanted the bag. He said the ball went with the bag, so at a later lawn sale I dropped off the ball with another guy I knew who said he'd try and sell it for me. - Although we may go for weeks without finding anything, it's fun seeing the different yards and seeing people we know. (Dorothy picks up tidbits of information related to town events along the way.)
Well, I guess that is enough to bore you with for now so I'll close. I'm sure I'll have enough information for another report after the events of June-Sep. Stay tuned...
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
March 1991: Swan Song
Before you breathe a sigh of relief that this is to be my last trip report, forget it. Dorothy and I took a 10-day trip to Perth in March and the city is on the banks of the Swan River (so-named because of the number of black swans which were on the river when it was discovered).
Our 3-hour flight to Perth on 7 March was relatively uneventful. By coincidence I sat next to an Australian I work with. He was on his way to a reunion with his military buddies. It struck me that those types of reunions may be more prevalent here since high schools (or secondary colleges as they are called) don't have the hoopla associated with graduation that we do, and hence don't seem to have high school reunions the way we do (at least not here in Alice).
The plane was a smallish jet (holding about 100 passengers) and the pamphlet on-board said that with a maximum load (which it appeared to have) the range was 2400 km. I figured the distance between Perth and Alice Springs was not much less than that (I figured out yesterday that it is actually a little less than 2000 km). However, I wondered at the time, how much allowance that gave the plane and thought maybe the reason the flight was in the evening was so the plane could make a direct approach into Perth.
It was almost 11 o'clock when we arrived at the motel and the laid-back attitude of the owners meant that there was a note on the office door saying our room was number 9 on the first floor and the key was in the door. I forgot the Australian method of numbering floors and walked all around looking for number 9 until I remembered the first floor is actually the second floor (the first being the ground floor).
Friday morning we headed for the Fremantle Markets. Fremantle is a separate city, but sort of like a suburb of Perth (although it is older than Perth), is a port city, and was the site of the running of the 1987 America's Cup Race (after Australia won the cup in 1983). A huge effort was made to spruce up the town for the Cup and it shows. Although it is still a port city, the city center is very nice with lots of shops, and the older buildings were all fixed up. We went to the markets (a flea market in an old building - found nothing), then walked down by the docks past the yard that played a major role in monitoring the regulations during the Cup, and walked past a building right on the point of land from which there is a good view of the harbor area. And guess what is in that building, a McDonalds, or course. I'd hate to think what they must have paid for that site. We walked around some of the older buildings dating back to the 1830's in the area where people first landed on the west coast of Australia.
To digress a moment - we feel we are isolated in Alice Springs, but even though Perth is larger than Alice, and there are some small towns within a reasonable driving distance, it is still further fro any other major city than Alice Springs is.
We walked around downtown Fremantle, looked for someplace to eat and finally ate mediocre sandwiches from a small cafe, after which we walked one street over to find wall-to-wall eateries which had anything you can imagine - oh well. Also saw a nice little miniature golf course, inside a building with shops surrounding it -would be great for occupying the kids while you do a bit of shopping. We managed to find some comics for Toby in a couple of shops, then visited a neat museum and art gallery in an old lunatic asylum. The museum had an extensive display of artifacts from various shipwrecks. It seemed like everywhere we went in the Perth area there were displays of this type. I don't know if it was the area near Perth or the Indian Ocean in general.
We drove into Perth and into the large Kings Park on a hill overlooking much of Perth. We did not do much walking except to climb a lookout tower. After all the walking I had done earlier, it was all I could do to climb up. We stopped at a bookstore and then returned to the motel. Rest - forget it. Back out to find a restaurant - first choice had a line out the door (one of the few family-type restaurants) onto another after which we went to the Burswood Casino.
The Casino was very impressive after our little one in Alice Springs. Whereas we have 2-4 Blackjack tables in operation with $2 and $5 minimum bets, they had 15-20 tables with $5, $10 and $25 minimum bets. Where we have 1-2 roulette tables active, they had at least 5. The only other things Alice has (besides slot machines) is a wheel, two-up (an Australian game using two coins), and Keno. The Perth Casino also had them, as well as baccarat, mini-dice, and craps. The other big difference was in the type of slot machines.
To digress again - for those of you who don't frequent gambling establishments, let me tell you about the revolution in slot machines. The old machines with handles you pull are almost a thing of the past. There are a few left in the Alice Casino, but most slot machines today have a button you push instead - quicker to work -takes money faster. Also instead of paying each time, you get credits marked up (you can cash in the credits whenever you want, but you are more apt to use them that way.) In addition, besides the old style (both with arms and buttons) with the five wheels which rotate, the new generation of slot machines are video types on which you can play draw poker. The Alice Springs Casino has both types. The Perth Casino has gone to all video types on which you can play draw poker, Blackjack and Keno. In addition to accumulating your credits you can also get a credit card to put into a slot on the machine which will allow you to keep playing without worrying about actually putting the money in. I'd like to think you can only play until your account is depleted and not allow you to go into debt. Anyway, Dorothy was not impressed there were no "old" type slot machines.
The Casino is part of a complex which also contains a 5-star resort hotel and a convention center. With shops and restaurants there as well you could stay there and never see anything else in Perth. The hotel was impressive in that it contained 10 floors with the roof of the foyer descending from the tenth floor to ground level in a long arc resulting in a huge foyer. We didn't stay in the Casino long, we walked around awed by the place wondering who could afford to stay there (probably Japanese tourists) and finally went back to our 1-star motel.
Saturday, we went to a flea market in Perth and then went to the central business district where we walked around for hours window shopping. We visited a couple of comic shops and the Post Office, which had a mail box out in -front which talked to you if you get close to it. There are several street malls, with numerous arcades running between them - I believe we were in each one - finally Dorothy allowed me to crawl back to the car. We drove north to some of the beach areas, visited one neat area which even had boardwalks (most beach resorts in Australia don't have boardwalks). After stopping to eat at the family restaurant (arriving at 5:10) which we couldn't get in the night before, we returned to the motel.
Sunday we spent the morning going to flea markets. The highlight was Dorothy finding a book written in 1928 by the Australian mystery writer whose books I collect. These books are extremely hard to find so even though it was not in good shape I was very happy with it. We drove into Perth, stopped at a very pretty flower garden which had a small lake with water lilies and ducks including a couple of black swans (the symbol of Western Australia).
Visiting that park gave me the idea of going to the zoo. The Perth Zoo is very scenic with lots of plants, but is not overly impressive as far as what animals are there or how they are displayed. That evening we went to the movies ("Postcards from the Edge") in Fremantle, ate dinner and returned to the motel.
Dorothy wanted me to be sure and add that I had a street index of Perth (in book form) which helped me immensely to get around the city, but I drove constantly with the book in my lap - trying to only look at it at stoplights. (Dorothy doesn't do well as a navigator.)
Monday we left the city and headed south to a very scenic area. We ate lunch at a snack bar on a beach in a small town on the coast and made a spectacle of ourselves feeding bread to the seagulls. Since I am known in various circles as an agitator I get a kick out of throwing bread right into a large group of seagulls and hear them all fussing at each other over it. We drove on, past an area known as Toby Inlet (but couldn't see it due to trees between the road and the ocean, and up to a point where a lighthouse stands. We didn't buy tickets to go see it (we can be cheap), but drove off on a side road to a beautiful bay where people were fishing. A large sailing boat (possibly some type of training vessel) road at anchor in the bay providing some good material for photos. Nearby we went through a rather extensive limestone cave - something neither of us had done before. The area is known for its line of caves all along the coast. We had a nice chat with some of the employees working in the cave.
The area is also known for its vineyards and we randomly selected one to go in. It is relatively new and undeveloped for tourists (there were two chairs and a refrigerator in a shed). The amazing part was that when we told the lady we were from Alice Springs she mentioned someone she knows here and we know their son very well (and Dorothy had met the parents). The lady let us sample three white wines and a red. I am not a connoisseur, but I enjoyed all of them, and thought the Cabernet was especially good. We didn't buy any for fear of trying to carry them home (good thing after we found our bags were stuffed on the way home). We stayed in a small town called Margaret River for the night at a Quality Inn which fortunately had videos on their TV's since nothing was open in the evening.
Tuesday we drove south to the tip of the peninsula where we saw another lighthouse and more spectacular scenery, then headed north, passing through some beautiful wooded areas, including a karri forest. Kari is a type of gum tree. They are tall straight trees with red wood, reminiscent of the California redwoods. We stopped to take some pictures of the karri forest and I picked up a 2-foot piece of branch laying on the ground, as a souvenir. We stopped for lunch at the same beach where we had eaten the day before and once again put on a show for the other people by feeding the seagulls (including holding bread in the air and having them fly up to take it).
Further up the road Dorothy expressed interest in seeing the harbor area of a town called Bunbury and that chance decision resulted in the highlight of our trip to Western Australia. We stopped at the town's Information Bureau and in looking at the pamphlets found one about the dolphins of Bunbury. There is a town 800 km north of Perth famous for the dolphins which come into shore to interact with humans. We decided not to drive that far since the area between Perth and Shark Bay is supposedly not that exciting. It turns out that Bunbury has been trying the same thing only for about a year and has not advertised it very far because they are not really organized for large groups of tourists and for monitoring the situation to protect the dolphins. We drove to that part of the beach where the dolphins appear and were fortunate that two happened to be there at the time. Since we had shorts on we were reluctant to go very far into the water, but I couldn't stand it and went to the car and changed into my bathing suit. I waded out until the water was just over my waist, and as I waited patiently (unusual for me), the dolphins swam within 4-5 feet of me. I wish that like some other people I had a mask and snorkel so I could have gone under water. I saw one lady do it and one dolphin came up and looked at her head on. Nevertheless, it was a thrill to get that close. The tourist literature says that you can actually touch the dolphins at Shark Bay, but the Dolphin Watchers group at Bunbury ask that you not attempt to touch them.
We returned to Perth, to the same motel but had to change rooms when our refrigerator went on the blink and I could smell rubber (insulation) burning. Most Australian motels have small refrigerators and this motel has a complete kitchenette in the rooms.
Wednesday we did more shopping for comic books (these were for Toby's Birthday on March 17th). We went to the Western Australian Museum and went to the movies in Fremantle to see "Green Card." Thursday we went to the Western Australia Art Gallery and finished looking through the Museum. I was very impressed with a work of art involving three poles in a triangle with a wire from each being used to suspend a rock about a foot off the floor - a number of rocks were thus suspended to form a circle. Dorothy and I also got a laugh out of an exhibit in which a guy and his family had travelled 4000-km and he took photos along the way and had mounted all of these photos in five long (about 30-feet in length) strips. Gee, maybe I should start sending a photo album with my reports (just kidding). The other thing we were intrigued with was an exhibit simulating an elevator in which you went inside while noises and scenes were flashed on the sides. Since Thursday is late night shopping in Australia (the stores all close at five even on Friday due to the higher rates they have to pay staff in the evening) we walked through numerous malls in various suburbs around Perth.
We were fortunate that we didn't go into Perth Friday morning -the farmers used trucks to block up all of the main roads into town to bring their plight to the attention of the rest of the populace. To digress again - it is unfortunate that the U.S. is dumping wheat on world markets at low prices - it really is hurting the Australian farmers and as the recent activities in the Gulf showed, Australia is one of our strongest allies - they made the decision to sent ships the day after the U.S. said it was sending forces to Saudi Arabia.
Instead of going into Perth on Friday we went back to Fremantle,
visited a boat museum, went up to the top of the Port Authority building to get a good view of the area, ate at McDonalds and went to another movie "Dances with Wolves." I didn't expect it to run 3 hours so was a nervous when the time my parking ticket ran out came and went - but I didn't get a ticket. We ate on the way back to the motel and I figured I could relax for the evening. Forget it - Dorothy asked me to go back out to another movie, which we did. "Awakening" had the best acting of any of the movies we saw on the
trip.
While walking through one of the malls on Thursday night, I noticed a sign in a bookstore about buying a copy of a book in order to get it autographed. Since it was by an author I have recently discovered and like, I asked if he were going to appear in the store. The clerk said not, but thought he was going to be in another of their stores and gave me the phone number of their main store. I called the main store Friday morning and the lady there said this author, Pat Tilley, was to appear on Monday. I told her I had really wanted to meet him, but I was leaving on Sunday. She took pity on me and told me he was arriving in Perth Friday afternoon, and was staying at the Esplanade Hotel in Fremantle. I tried reaching him Friday evening, but he wasn't in, so I called Saturday morning. He was not offended that I called. I explained I had read his early books and had wanted to meet him and asked if he were appearing anywhere on Saturday. He wasn't. My next question was, "I don't suppose there is any chance you are passing through Alice Springs?" By golly, he wanted to see Ayers Rock (it turns out he is an Englishman) and was going to fly in and out of Alice to the Rock. I made plans to meet him on the following Thursday at the Alice Springs airport.
After talking to Mr. Tilley, we drove north of Perth to some flew markets and to Undersea World. It is not nearly impressive as Marineland, but they do have something called a touch pool where you may actually touch some non-dangerous marine life. We stopped at a shopping center (I wanted to pick up a couple of Pat Tilleys books that I was missing - I am going to ask him to autograph all eight of his that I have.) and then to a miniature golf course in a botanical garden. The actual holes were not very impressive, but the setting was great - circular areas with 3-4 holes each and the areas surrounded by trees, flowers, and shrubs, with fish ponds and fountains. Once, while we were waiting for people in front of us to play we played a little field hockey on the grassy area. Our kids would have been very embarrassed had they been there. On the way back to the motel we stopped at a lake where most of Perth's black swans reside today and took our lives in our hands feeding them bread. They are big and aggressive and there were many of them, so I spent a lot of time backing up. After dinner, we went back downtown to a Baskin Robbins we had found on an earlier trip into Perth and had a last hot-fudge sundae. There is no place in Alice to get hot fudge sundaes and certainly no Baskin Robbins.
Our plane left at 6:45 a.m. Sunday morning to return to Alice so it was an easy drive to the airport - very little traffic; no problem dropping off the car (remembered to drop the keys in the slot at the counter)- and an uneventful trip home. Our friend Chris was there to pick us up (Toby was bowling) and the house was still standing and the dog and cat were still alive, after Toby and Chris looking after themselves, the house and the animals for 10 days.
Our 3-hour flight to Perth on 7 March was relatively uneventful. By coincidence I sat next to an Australian I work with. He was on his way to a reunion with his military buddies. It struck me that those types of reunions may be more prevalent here since high schools (or secondary colleges as they are called) don't have the hoopla associated with graduation that we do, and hence don't seem to have high school reunions the way we do (at least not here in Alice).
The plane was a smallish jet (holding about 100 passengers) and the pamphlet on-board said that with a maximum load (which it appeared to have) the range was 2400 km. I figured the distance between Perth and Alice Springs was not much less than that (I figured out yesterday that it is actually a little less than 2000 km). However, I wondered at the time, how much allowance that gave the plane and thought maybe the reason the flight was in the evening was so the plane could make a direct approach into Perth.
It was almost 11 o'clock when we arrived at the motel and the laid-back attitude of the owners meant that there was a note on the office door saying our room was number 9 on the first floor and the key was in the door. I forgot the Australian method of numbering floors and walked all around looking for number 9 until I remembered the first floor is actually the second floor (the first being the ground floor).
Friday morning we headed for the Fremantle Markets. Fremantle is a separate city, but sort of like a suburb of Perth (although it is older than Perth), is a port city, and was the site of the running of the 1987 America's Cup Race (after Australia won the cup in 1983). A huge effort was made to spruce up the town for the Cup and it shows. Although it is still a port city, the city center is very nice with lots of shops, and the older buildings were all fixed up. We went to the markets (a flea market in an old building - found nothing), then walked down by the docks past the yard that played a major role in monitoring the regulations during the Cup, and walked past a building right on the point of land from which there is a good view of the harbor area. And guess what is in that building, a McDonalds, or course. I'd hate to think what they must have paid for that site. We walked around some of the older buildings dating back to the 1830's in the area where people first landed on the west coast of Australia.
To digress a moment - we feel we are isolated in Alice Springs, but even though Perth is larger than Alice, and there are some small towns within a reasonable driving distance, it is still further fro any other major city than Alice Springs is.
We walked around downtown Fremantle, looked for someplace to eat and finally ate mediocre sandwiches from a small cafe, after which we walked one street over to find wall-to-wall eateries which had anything you can imagine - oh well. Also saw a nice little miniature golf course, inside a building with shops surrounding it -would be great for occupying the kids while you do a bit of shopping. We managed to find some comics for Toby in a couple of shops, then visited a neat museum and art gallery in an old lunatic asylum. The museum had an extensive display of artifacts from various shipwrecks. It seemed like everywhere we went in the Perth area there were displays of this type. I don't know if it was the area near Perth or the Indian Ocean in general.
We drove into Perth and into the large Kings Park on a hill overlooking much of Perth. We did not do much walking except to climb a lookout tower. After all the walking I had done earlier, it was all I could do to climb up. We stopped at a bookstore and then returned to the motel. Rest - forget it. Back out to find a restaurant - first choice had a line out the door (one of the few family-type restaurants) onto another after which we went to the Burswood Casino.
The Casino was very impressive after our little one in Alice Springs. Whereas we have 2-4 Blackjack tables in operation with $2 and $5 minimum bets, they had 15-20 tables with $5, $10 and $25 minimum bets. Where we have 1-2 roulette tables active, they had at least 5. The only other things Alice has (besides slot machines) is a wheel, two-up (an Australian game using two coins), and Keno. The Perth Casino also had them, as well as baccarat, mini-dice, and craps. The other big difference was in the type of slot machines.
To digress again - for those of you who don't frequent gambling establishments, let me tell you about the revolution in slot machines. The old machines with handles you pull are almost a thing of the past. There are a few left in the Alice Casino, but most slot machines today have a button you push instead - quicker to work -takes money faster. Also instead of paying each time, you get credits marked up (you can cash in the credits whenever you want, but you are more apt to use them that way.) In addition, besides the old style (both with arms and buttons) with the five wheels which rotate, the new generation of slot machines are video types on which you can play draw poker. The Alice Springs Casino has both types. The Perth Casino has gone to all video types on which you can play draw poker, Blackjack and Keno. In addition to accumulating your credits you can also get a credit card to put into a slot on the machine which will allow you to keep playing without worrying about actually putting the money in. I'd like to think you can only play until your account is depleted and not allow you to go into debt. Anyway, Dorothy was not impressed there were no "old" type slot machines.
The Casino is part of a complex which also contains a 5-star resort hotel and a convention center. With shops and restaurants there as well you could stay there and never see anything else in Perth. The hotel was impressive in that it contained 10 floors with the roof of the foyer descending from the tenth floor to ground level in a long arc resulting in a huge foyer. We didn't stay in the Casino long, we walked around awed by the place wondering who could afford to stay there (probably Japanese tourists) and finally went back to our 1-star motel.
Saturday, we went to a flea market in Perth and then went to the central business district where we walked around for hours window shopping. We visited a couple of comic shops and the Post Office, which had a mail box out in -front which talked to you if you get close to it. There are several street malls, with numerous arcades running between them - I believe we were in each one - finally Dorothy allowed me to crawl back to the car. We drove north to some of the beach areas, visited one neat area which even had boardwalks (most beach resorts in Australia don't have boardwalks). After stopping to eat at the family restaurant (arriving at 5:10) which we couldn't get in the night before, we returned to the motel.
Sunday we spent the morning going to flea markets. The highlight was Dorothy finding a book written in 1928 by the Australian mystery writer whose books I collect. These books are extremely hard to find so even though it was not in good shape I was very happy with it. We drove into Perth, stopped at a very pretty flower garden which had a small lake with water lilies and ducks including a couple of black swans (the symbol of Western Australia).
Visiting that park gave me the idea of going to the zoo. The Perth Zoo is very scenic with lots of plants, but is not overly impressive as far as what animals are there or how they are displayed. That evening we went to the movies ("Postcards from the Edge") in Fremantle, ate dinner and returned to the motel.
Dorothy wanted me to be sure and add that I had a street index of Perth (in book form) which helped me immensely to get around the city, but I drove constantly with the book in my lap - trying to only look at it at stoplights. (Dorothy doesn't do well as a navigator.)
Monday we left the city and headed south to a very scenic area. We ate lunch at a snack bar on a beach in a small town on the coast and made a spectacle of ourselves feeding bread to the seagulls. Since I am known in various circles as an agitator I get a kick out of throwing bread right into a large group of seagulls and hear them all fussing at each other over it. We drove on, past an area known as Toby Inlet (but couldn't see it due to trees between the road and the ocean, and up to a point where a lighthouse stands. We didn't buy tickets to go see it (we can be cheap), but drove off on a side road to a beautiful bay where people were fishing. A large sailing boat (possibly some type of training vessel) road at anchor in the bay providing some good material for photos. Nearby we went through a rather extensive limestone cave - something neither of us had done before. The area is known for its line of caves all along the coast. We had a nice chat with some of the employees working in the cave.
The area is also known for its vineyards and we randomly selected one to go in. It is relatively new and undeveloped for tourists (there were two chairs and a refrigerator in a shed). The amazing part was that when we told the lady we were from Alice Springs she mentioned someone she knows here and we know their son very well (and Dorothy had met the parents). The lady let us sample three white wines and a red. I am not a connoisseur, but I enjoyed all of them, and thought the Cabernet was especially good. We didn't buy any for fear of trying to carry them home (good thing after we found our bags were stuffed on the way home). We stayed in a small town called Margaret River for the night at a Quality Inn which fortunately had videos on their TV's since nothing was open in the evening.
Tuesday we drove south to the tip of the peninsula where we saw another lighthouse and more spectacular scenery, then headed north, passing through some beautiful wooded areas, including a karri forest. Kari is a type of gum tree. They are tall straight trees with red wood, reminiscent of the California redwoods. We stopped to take some pictures of the karri forest and I picked up a 2-foot piece of branch laying on the ground, as a souvenir. We stopped for lunch at the same beach where we had eaten the day before and once again put on a show for the other people by feeding the seagulls (including holding bread in the air and having them fly up to take it).
Further up the road Dorothy expressed interest in seeing the harbor area of a town called Bunbury and that chance decision resulted in the highlight of our trip to Western Australia. We stopped at the town's Information Bureau and in looking at the pamphlets found one about the dolphins of Bunbury. There is a town 800 km north of Perth famous for the dolphins which come into shore to interact with humans. We decided not to drive that far since the area between Perth and Shark Bay is supposedly not that exciting. It turns out that Bunbury has been trying the same thing only for about a year and has not advertised it very far because they are not really organized for large groups of tourists and for monitoring the situation to protect the dolphins. We drove to that part of the beach where the dolphins appear and were fortunate that two happened to be there at the time. Since we had shorts on we were reluctant to go very far into the water, but I couldn't stand it and went to the car and changed into my bathing suit. I waded out until the water was just over my waist, and as I waited patiently (unusual for me), the dolphins swam within 4-5 feet of me. I wish that like some other people I had a mask and snorkel so I could have gone under water. I saw one lady do it and one dolphin came up and looked at her head on. Nevertheless, it was a thrill to get that close. The tourist literature says that you can actually touch the dolphins at Shark Bay, but the Dolphin Watchers group at Bunbury ask that you not attempt to touch them.
We returned to Perth, to the same motel but had to change rooms when our refrigerator went on the blink and I could smell rubber (insulation) burning. Most Australian motels have small refrigerators and this motel has a complete kitchenette in the rooms.
Wednesday we did more shopping for comic books (these were for Toby's Birthday on March 17th). We went to the Western Australian Museum and went to the movies in Fremantle to see "Green Card." Thursday we went to the Western Australia Art Gallery and finished looking through the Museum. I was very impressed with a work of art involving three poles in a triangle with a wire from each being used to suspend a rock about a foot off the floor - a number of rocks were thus suspended to form a circle. Dorothy and I also got a laugh out of an exhibit in which a guy and his family had travelled 4000-km and he took photos along the way and had mounted all of these photos in five long (about 30-feet in length) strips. Gee, maybe I should start sending a photo album with my reports (just kidding). The other thing we were intrigued with was an exhibit simulating an elevator in which you went inside while noises and scenes were flashed on the sides. Since Thursday is late night shopping in Australia (the stores all close at five even on Friday due to the higher rates they have to pay staff in the evening) we walked through numerous malls in various suburbs around Perth.
We were fortunate that we didn't go into Perth Friday morning -the farmers used trucks to block up all of the main roads into town to bring their plight to the attention of the rest of the populace. To digress again - it is unfortunate that the U.S. is dumping wheat on world markets at low prices - it really is hurting the Australian farmers and as the recent activities in the Gulf showed, Australia is one of our strongest allies - they made the decision to sent ships the day after the U.S. said it was sending forces to Saudi Arabia.
Instead of going into Perth on Friday we went back to Fremantle,
visited a boat museum, went up to the top of the Port Authority building to get a good view of the area, ate at McDonalds and went to another movie "Dances with Wolves." I didn't expect it to run 3 hours so was a nervous when the time my parking ticket ran out came and went - but I didn't get a ticket. We ate on the way back to the motel and I figured I could relax for the evening. Forget it - Dorothy asked me to go back out to another movie, which we did. "Awakening" had the best acting of any of the movies we saw on the
trip.
While walking through one of the malls on Thursday night, I noticed a sign in a bookstore about buying a copy of a book in order to get it autographed. Since it was by an author I have recently discovered and like, I asked if he were going to appear in the store. The clerk said not, but thought he was going to be in another of their stores and gave me the phone number of their main store. I called the main store Friday morning and the lady there said this author, Pat Tilley, was to appear on Monday. I told her I had really wanted to meet him, but I was leaving on Sunday. She took pity on me and told me he was arriving in Perth Friday afternoon, and was staying at the Esplanade Hotel in Fremantle. I tried reaching him Friday evening, but he wasn't in, so I called Saturday morning. He was not offended that I called. I explained I had read his early books and had wanted to meet him and asked if he were appearing anywhere on Saturday. He wasn't. My next question was, "I don't suppose there is any chance you are passing through Alice Springs?" By golly, he wanted to see Ayers Rock (it turns out he is an Englishman) and was going to fly in and out of Alice to the Rock. I made plans to meet him on the following Thursday at the Alice Springs airport.
After talking to Mr. Tilley, we drove north of Perth to some flew markets and to Undersea World. It is not nearly impressive as Marineland, but they do have something called a touch pool where you may actually touch some non-dangerous marine life. We stopped at a shopping center (I wanted to pick up a couple of Pat Tilleys books that I was missing - I am going to ask him to autograph all eight of his that I have.) and then to a miniature golf course in a botanical garden. The actual holes were not very impressive, but the setting was great - circular areas with 3-4 holes each and the areas surrounded by trees, flowers, and shrubs, with fish ponds and fountains. Once, while we were waiting for people in front of us to play we played a little field hockey on the grassy area. Our kids would have been very embarrassed had they been there. On the way back to the motel we stopped at a lake where most of Perth's black swans reside today and took our lives in our hands feeding them bread. They are big and aggressive and there were many of them, so I spent a lot of time backing up. After dinner, we went back downtown to a Baskin Robbins we had found on an earlier trip into Perth and had a last hot-fudge sundae. There is no place in Alice to get hot fudge sundaes and certainly no Baskin Robbins.
Our plane left at 6:45 a.m. Sunday morning to return to Alice so it was an easy drive to the airport - very little traffic; no problem dropping off the car (remembered to drop the keys in the slot at the counter)- and an uneventful trip home. Our friend Chris was there to pick us up (Toby was bowling) and the house was still standing and the dog and cat were still alive, after Toby and Chris looking after themselves, the house and the animals for 10 days.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
January 1991: Comic Quest
THE GREAT COMIC BOOK QUEST
This is a trip report with a difference in that it recounts a trip by Dorothy and Toby to the U.S. based on their adventures as described to me upon their return. Note, I have interspersed their story with a few tales of my own of events in Alice Springs during their absence.
After an uneventful flight (first class) from Alice Springs to Sydney, and a 45-minute wait for the courtesy bus, Dorothy and Toby arrived at the hotel where they would spend the night. (If you can't make connections the same day, the airline pays for your overnight accommodation.) They were very impressed by the hotel - a first class resort hotel with two swimming pools (one heated, one inside), water slide in one, spa, sauna, gym, tennis court, and elaborately decorated restaurants (one which looked like a ship). The room was impressive as it consisted of three sections, and was equipped with two TV's, three phones, including one in the bathroom, and a veranda. As soon as they checked in, they caught a bus downtown to try and get to a comic shop before it closed. Thanks to the bus stopping at literally every stop (except the one at which they should have gotten off) the shop was closed. But, Toby found a couple of other places to buy comics (the purpose of -this entire trip was to purchase comics). After eating at McDonalds, they looked for the bus to return to the hotel only to find that particular bus was no longer running. They had to resort to another bus followed by a cab ride back to the hotel.
The next morning (Friday) Toby enjoyed the facilities at the hotel. Dorothy wondered how many "executives" worked out in the morning on the variety of treadmills so they could indulge themselves in the evening. Toby did find places in the area to purchase a few more comics and then risked life and limb crossing the street to please his mother who wanted some photos of the beach (the hotel was at a place called Brighton Beach, located on the famous Botany Bay (where Europeans first landed in Australia). Toby managed to re-cross the street in time to catch the bus to the airport. On the way across the Pacific, the plane flew over New Caledonia (it's not often you see land when flying over the Pacific).
After a flight of 12 1/2 hours, the plane landed in L.A. (It took an additional 11 hours for them to finally reach my friend Roy’s house in San Francisco due to problems which will be recounted.) The itinerary the travel agent had provided was wrong and Dorothy called me from Sydney to give me the correct flight number and arrival time in S.F. I called my friend and left a message which he got.
So far, so good, however, that flight was canceled due to bad weather on the east coast throwing arrival times out of wack on the west coast causing planes to stack up over S.F. Dorothy and Toby only found out after walking all the way from the United International terminal to the United Domestic terminal, where they were told they were now on an American flight, the terminal being back by the International one. After they finally got on the plane and taxied out, the plane turned around and went to a hangar where it sat for an hour before finally taking off.
Meanwhile, my friend, Roy, headed for the airport only to find the flight had been canceled. Since the airlines won't give out information on individuals, Roy had no idea when they would arrive so went back to work. Unfortunately, Dorothy didn't have his correct work number so had to call his house and leave a message on his answering machine. This resulted in a tape on Roy's answering machine as summarized below:
Message 1: Roy, This is Dorothy. I'm at the airport. What's happening?
Message 2: Roy, This is Jack checking to see if the gang arrived. I have to go out - will call back.
Message 3: Roy, This is Dwight checking to see if the others arrived and details for tomorrow (Roy was to also pick up Dwight the following day).
Message 4: Roy, This is Dorothy with Message #2. I'm still at the airport.
Message 5: Roy, This is Dorothy with Message #3. I'm still at the airport.
It took Roy four hours to get the messages and go back to the airport. Meanwhile, Dorothy remained calm and read a book, while Toby found some comics to read and arcade games to play. (This was the first instance in which Toby was glad I was not along since I would probably have been having a heart attack.) Roy was in the process of listening to the rest of the tape detailed above when I called the second time and he was laughing about having most of the Grimm family on his answering machine.
Saturday, Roy kindly dropped Dorothy and Toby off at a comic shop and said he'd return. Toby purchased a few comics and then they ate Bologna sandwiches, Hostess cupcakes and A&W root beer (all "luxuries" we don't have in Australia) on a street corner. Roy picked them up (a bit late which according to Toby would have been my second heart attack) and back to the airport to pick up Dwight. His flight was an hour late so Toby and Roy killed the time playing video games. Dwight came swaggering off the plane in cowboy boots! After all the years of harassing Toby who never wore anything but cowboy boots until the last year, Dwight gave in to current fashion (or is it to make him taller?).
That night Roy had a house full with Dwight and his roommate Tom (the dorms didn't open until the next day), Dorothy and Toby sleeping all over his house. He had to borrow blankets from friends.
Sunday - no plans - eventually dropped boys at dorm and visited a flea market where Toby bought comics. Toby slept at the dorm.
Monday - Roy dropped Dorothy at Stanford, only after starting once, returning to his house to pick something up he forgot and then stopping to give his car a quick wash. Toby, Dorothy and Dwight spent the day together. They caught a bus to and from the Stanford Mall (where Dorothy bought Dwight some Christmas presents other than the lawn sale purchases we had previously sent to him). They had supper with Roy, who then took them to the airport for the night flight to the east coast.
Dorothy and Toby arrived at J.F.K. airport Tuesday morning and since the temperature was 20 degrees F., and they didn't have heavy clothes they were freezing. The bus into the city was slow arriving and altogether it took about three hours to reach Dorothy's mother's apartment in New Jersey. Toby went to a comic shop that had actually put coupons in a local publication, and of course they all stopped at a few grocery stores (where no doubt, Dorothy collected some refund offers).
Wednesday the weather was terrible - snow, ice, rain. But our intrepid travelers managed to get to a mall, a Neiman Marcus Discount store and of course some comic shops.
Thursday Toby read comics.
The gang awoke to snow on Friday morning and had to go find boots before their trip to New York City for their principal reason for the entire trip - a huge Comic Book Convention. They arrived in the city early, ate at Kentucky Fried Chicken and attended the convention (in the Penn hotel) from 1 until 8 o'clock when they finally caught a bus back to near the apartment. They walked up a hill in the snow with Toby carrying (in his estimation) 20 pounds of comics.
Saturday - back to the convention arriving after it opened, and staying from 11:30 until 6, shopping and listening to lectures. Sunday - more shopping centers, bought a few comics, ate in A&W restaurant.
INTERLUDE
Meanwhile - back on the home front I was using this unsupervised time to thoroughly clean house from top to bottom. I won't discuss the details of this operation since other people in my family will be reading this - if you have ever been in our house at home - use your imagination.
Monday - went into New York City and caught the train to Washington. Arrived at 2 p.m. and were picked up by Mr. McArtor -the father of the wife of Dorothy's brother and whom we met when we rented a house from the McArtors when we were first married. The McArtors kindly offered to put Dorothy and Toby up after our good friend Mrs. McDonald had a heart attack prior to their arrival.
After arriving, Mr. McArtor drove Dorothy up to our house to pick up our car (the same Buick which has been parked there since 1986). It failed inspection and had to be left to get new brakes. No comics that day. Tuesday - picked up car - no comics.
Wednesday - War broke out in the Gulf. Visited friends (one of whom, a doctor, was glued to CNN coverage and said he would always remember Dorothy was there when they heard the news). Visited five comic book shops, with Toby purchasing a large number of comics.
INTERLUDE
Meanwhile we were getting rare weather in Alice Springs -cloudy, drizzle, rain, humid etc. This meant that the grass was going crazy turning green, growing and even filling in some of the bare spaces. I was glad because I figured it would take Dorothy's mind off the changes to the interior of the house. However, I was mowing every 3 days or so. In addition at 2 a.m. one morning the cat was fussing because the little wooden flap that I have for her to go in and out of the house had swollen up and wouldn't open. I had to get up, toss her out and then go out to the shed in the rain to find some type of tool to shave the edge of the flap so she wouldn't wake me up because she couldn't get bade in.
Thursday - caught train to North Carolina to visit Dorothy's brother. There were no seats for the first 25 miles, so they sat on their suitcases in the aisle. (Another instance in which Toby was sure I would not have been amused.) They were an hour late arriving in Raleigh where Dwight (Dorothy's brother) picked them up. It took an hour to drive to Dwight's home in Hillsborough.
Friday, Dwight took the day off work and took the gang to Chapel Hill where Toby only found one shop selling comics. Dorothy, however, found a thrift shop and purchased a few items. That afternoon and evening Toby and Dwight had a good time pulling out all of Dwight's electric trains and setting them up in the hallway, along with a large collection of toys to create a village.
Saturday morning some of the party watched cartoons (interrupted by war news). Everyone was moving by lunch time and Dwight, Toby and Dorothy went to visit comic shops in Durham and purchases some much sought after items. Sunday, Dorothy and Toby caught the train (an hour late) back to Alexandria - they had seats the whole way this time. That evening they visited some friends (the son was a classmate of Toby's). No comics.
INTERLUDE
Why do people own pets? The night after the one I had to get up to let the cat out because of the rain, she woke me up again (2 a.m.). I heard her and thought maybe she was having more trouble with the flap. I checked and the flap was fine - back to bed. All of a sudden there is a commotion - she's running all over the bedroom. I immediately figured out she was chasing something, but didn't think I wanted to know what. She finally jumped on something in my bathroom, but at night and without putting the light and my glasses on I didn't know what. The next morning I found a dead mouse on my bathroom floor - obviously the cat didn't want to play with it in the wet grass and brought it inside to play with.
Monday was Martin Luther King's birthday, which should have made it easy to find people at home, but Dorothy rang a number with no success. They ate lunch at Chuck E. Cheeses, visited the McDonalds, and did some shopping, but no comics. Tuesday they went shopping at Crystal City, a shopping area along one of the subway lines. Found a comic shop there! Wednesday - visited friends, got our poor old car a wash, and went to the bank (no doubt Dorothy needed more money for additional comics as Toby bought just a few more "rare" ones in Arlington - editor's note).
Thursday - took train back to New York. Toby complained about carrying luggage the 8 blocks from the train station to the bus station so they took the subway. (He doesn't remember me carrying him and luggage in Europe in 1981.) Toby's shopping that day included both comic shops and sporting goods store where he picked up the new, heavier, bowling ball purchased earlier in the trip.
Friday - comic shops, Dorothy to NYC to visit a long-time friend. Saturday - Mailed 10 boxes home, Dorothy, Toby and Dorothy's mother all to NYC. Went to the Trump Tower, Rockerfeller Center ate in the underground McDonalds near Radio City, went to Washington Square and two more comic shops.
Sunday - took bus to JFK Airport at 8:30, plane left at noon for L.A. where they had to endure a layover of almost 7 hours. Dorothy wanted to go out and walk around. Toby wanted to sit in the bar and watch the Super Bowl. The plane finally left at 9:45 p.m. tot Sydney. They had another layover there (about 4 hours) before flying on to Alice Springs, via Melbourne. They were fortunate to get out of Sydney. Later that day, the refuelers went on strike grounding most aircraft on the east coast.
So, after visiting 14 comic shops (not counting the Convention and numerous non-comic shops which carried comics) in two countries and five states on 18 of the 24 days of the trip, Toby mailed home an undisclosed number of comics (in addition to those he carried with him to read on the plane). Fortunately, he does have storage space -about the only thing his parents gave him for Christmas was a well used 4-drawer filing cabinet which someone gave me. It was a battleship gray except for the rust spots and I attached a bow and a sign that said "It's the thought that counts." After sanding and painting it looks very good and the drawers are in good shape. Toby was pleased with it. I don't think his recent purchases will fill it up (I hope), but I'm sure he will keep working to fill it. Since there is a good possibility that Toby and I will be visiting the U.S. this summer, I'd imagine we may visit a few comic shops then. I hope they will have replenished their stock by then, or do I?
This is a trip report with a difference in that it recounts a trip by Dorothy and Toby to the U.S. based on their adventures as described to me upon their return. Note, I have interspersed their story with a few tales of my own of events in Alice Springs during their absence.
After an uneventful flight (first class) from Alice Springs to Sydney, and a 45-minute wait for the courtesy bus, Dorothy and Toby arrived at the hotel where they would spend the night. (If you can't make connections the same day, the airline pays for your overnight accommodation.) They were very impressed by the hotel - a first class resort hotel with two swimming pools (one heated, one inside), water slide in one, spa, sauna, gym, tennis court, and elaborately decorated restaurants (one which looked like a ship). The room was impressive as it consisted of three sections, and was equipped with two TV's, three phones, including one in the bathroom, and a veranda. As soon as they checked in, they caught a bus downtown to try and get to a comic shop before it closed. Thanks to the bus stopping at literally every stop (except the one at which they should have gotten off) the shop was closed. But, Toby found a couple of other places to buy comics (the purpose of -this entire trip was to purchase comics). After eating at McDonalds, they looked for the bus to return to the hotel only to find that particular bus was no longer running. They had to resort to another bus followed by a cab ride back to the hotel.
The next morning (Friday) Toby enjoyed the facilities at the hotel. Dorothy wondered how many "executives" worked out in the morning on the variety of treadmills so they could indulge themselves in the evening. Toby did find places in the area to purchase a few more comics and then risked life and limb crossing the street to please his mother who wanted some photos of the beach (the hotel was at a place called Brighton Beach, located on the famous Botany Bay (where Europeans first landed in Australia). Toby managed to re-cross the street in time to catch the bus to the airport. On the way across the Pacific, the plane flew over New Caledonia (it's not often you see land when flying over the Pacific).
After a flight of 12 1/2 hours, the plane landed in L.A. (It took an additional 11 hours for them to finally reach my friend Roy’s house in San Francisco due to problems which will be recounted.) The itinerary the travel agent had provided was wrong and Dorothy called me from Sydney to give me the correct flight number and arrival time in S.F. I called my friend and left a message which he got.
So far, so good, however, that flight was canceled due to bad weather on the east coast throwing arrival times out of wack on the west coast causing planes to stack up over S.F. Dorothy and Toby only found out after walking all the way from the United International terminal to the United Domestic terminal, where they were told they were now on an American flight, the terminal being back by the International one. After they finally got on the plane and taxied out, the plane turned around and went to a hangar where it sat for an hour before finally taking off.
Meanwhile, my friend, Roy, headed for the airport only to find the flight had been canceled. Since the airlines won't give out information on individuals, Roy had no idea when they would arrive so went back to work. Unfortunately, Dorothy didn't have his correct work number so had to call his house and leave a message on his answering machine. This resulted in a tape on Roy's answering machine as summarized below:
Message 1: Roy, This is Dorothy. I'm at the airport. What's happening?
Message 2: Roy, This is Jack checking to see if the gang arrived. I have to go out - will call back.
Message 3: Roy, This is Dwight checking to see if the others arrived and details for tomorrow (Roy was to also pick up Dwight the following day).
Message 4: Roy, This is Dorothy with Message #2. I'm still at the airport.
Message 5: Roy, This is Dorothy with Message #3. I'm still at the airport.
It took Roy four hours to get the messages and go back to the airport. Meanwhile, Dorothy remained calm and read a book, while Toby found some comics to read and arcade games to play. (This was the first instance in which Toby was glad I was not along since I would probably have been having a heart attack.) Roy was in the process of listening to the rest of the tape detailed above when I called the second time and he was laughing about having most of the Grimm family on his answering machine.
Saturday, Roy kindly dropped Dorothy and Toby off at a comic shop and said he'd return. Toby purchased a few comics and then they ate Bologna sandwiches, Hostess cupcakes and A&W root beer (all "luxuries" we don't have in Australia) on a street corner. Roy picked them up (a bit late which according to Toby would have been my second heart attack) and back to the airport to pick up Dwight. His flight was an hour late so Toby and Roy killed the time playing video games. Dwight came swaggering off the plane in cowboy boots! After all the years of harassing Toby who never wore anything but cowboy boots until the last year, Dwight gave in to current fashion (or is it to make him taller?).
That night Roy had a house full with Dwight and his roommate Tom (the dorms didn't open until the next day), Dorothy and Toby sleeping all over his house. He had to borrow blankets from friends.
Sunday - no plans - eventually dropped boys at dorm and visited a flea market where Toby bought comics. Toby slept at the dorm.
Monday - Roy dropped Dorothy at Stanford, only after starting once, returning to his house to pick something up he forgot and then stopping to give his car a quick wash. Toby, Dorothy and Dwight spent the day together. They caught a bus to and from the Stanford Mall (where Dorothy bought Dwight some Christmas presents other than the lawn sale purchases we had previously sent to him). They had supper with Roy, who then took them to the airport for the night flight to the east coast.
Dorothy and Toby arrived at J.F.K. airport Tuesday morning and since the temperature was 20 degrees F., and they didn't have heavy clothes they were freezing. The bus into the city was slow arriving and altogether it took about three hours to reach Dorothy's mother's apartment in New Jersey. Toby went to a comic shop that had actually put coupons in a local publication, and of course they all stopped at a few grocery stores (where no doubt, Dorothy collected some refund offers).
Wednesday the weather was terrible - snow, ice, rain. But our intrepid travelers managed to get to a mall, a Neiman Marcus Discount store and of course some comic shops.
Thursday Toby read comics.
The gang awoke to snow on Friday morning and had to go find boots before their trip to New York City for their principal reason for the entire trip - a huge Comic Book Convention. They arrived in the city early, ate at Kentucky Fried Chicken and attended the convention (in the Penn hotel) from 1 until 8 o'clock when they finally caught a bus back to near the apartment. They walked up a hill in the snow with Toby carrying (in his estimation) 20 pounds of comics.
Saturday - back to the convention arriving after it opened, and staying from 11:30 until 6, shopping and listening to lectures. Sunday - more shopping centers, bought a few comics, ate in A&W restaurant.
INTERLUDE
Meanwhile - back on the home front I was using this unsupervised time to thoroughly clean house from top to bottom. I won't discuss the details of this operation since other people in my family will be reading this - if you have ever been in our house at home - use your imagination.
Monday - went into New York City and caught the train to Washington. Arrived at 2 p.m. and were picked up by Mr. McArtor -the father of the wife of Dorothy's brother and whom we met when we rented a house from the McArtors when we were first married. The McArtors kindly offered to put Dorothy and Toby up after our good friend Mrs. McDonald had a heart attack prior to their arrival.
After arriving, Mr. McArtor drove Dorothy up to our house to pick up our car (the same Buick which has been parked there since 1986). It failed inspection and had to be left to get new brakes. No comics that day. Tuesday - picked up car - no comics.
Wednesday - War broke out in the Gulf. Visited friends (one of whom, a doctor, was glued to CNN coverage and said he would always remember Dorothy was there when they heard the news). Visited five comic book shops, with Toby purchasing a large number of comics.
INTERLUDE
Meanwhile we were getting rare weather in Alice Springs -cloudy, drizzle, rain, humid etc. This meant that the grass was going crazy turning green, growing and even filling in some of the bare spaces. I was glad because I figured it would take Dorothy's mind off the changes to the interior of the house. However, I was mowing every 3 days or so. In addition at 2 a.m. one morning the cat was fussing because the little wooden flap that I have for her to go in and out of the house had swollen up and wouldn't open. I had to get up, toss her out and then go out to the shed in the rain to find some type of tool to shave the edge of the flap so she wouldn't wake me up because she couldn't get bade in.
Thursday - caught train to North Carolina to visit Dorothy's brother. There were no seats for the first 25 miles, so they sat on their suitcases in the aisle. (Another instance in which Toby was sure I would not have been amused.) They were an hour late arriving in Raleigh where Dwight (Dorothy's brother) picked them up. It took an hour to drive to Dwight's home in Hillsborough.
Friday, Dwight took the day off work and took the gang to Chapel Hill where Toby only found one shop selling comics. Dorothy, however, found a thrift shop and purchased a few items. That afternoon and evening Toby and Dwight had a good time pulling out all of Dwight's electric trains and setting them up in the hallway, along with a large collection of toys to create a village.
Saturday morning some of the party watched cartoons (interrupted by war news). Everyone was moving by lunch time and Dwight, Toby and Dorothy went to visit comic shops in Durham and purchases some much sought after items. Sunday, Dorothy and Toby caught the train (an hour late) back to Alexandria - they had seats the whole way this time. That evening they visited some friends (the son was a classmate of Toby's). No comics.
INTERLUDE
Why do people own pets? The night after the one I had to get up to let the cat out because of the rain, she woke me up again (2 a.m.). I heard her and thought maybe she was having more trouble with the flap. I checked and the flap was fine - back to bed. All of a sudden there is a commotion - she's running all over the bedroom. I immediately figured out she was chasing something, but didn't think I wanted to know what. She finally jumped on something in my bathroom, but at night and without putting the light and my glasses on I didn't know what. The next morning I found a dead mouse on my bathroom floor - obviously the cat didn't want to play with it in the wet grass and brought it inside to play with.
Monday was Martin Luther King's birthday, which should have made it easy to find people at home, but Dorothy rang a number with no success. They ate lunch at Chuck E. Cheeses, visited the McDonalds, and did some shopping, but no comics. Tuesday they went shopping at Crystal City, a shopping area along one of the subway lines. Found a comic shop there! Wednesday - visited friends, got our poor old car a wash, and went to the bank (no doubt Dorothy needed more money for additional comics as Toby bought just a few more "rare" ones in Arlington - editor's note).
Thursday - took train back to New York. Toby complained about carrying luggage the 8 blocks from the train station to the bus station so they took the subway. (He doesn't remember me carrying him and luggage in Europe in 1981.) Toby's shopping that day included both comic shops and sporting goods store where he picked up the new, heavier, bowling ball purchased earlier in the trip.
Friday - comic shops, Dorothy to NYC to visit a long-time friend. Saturday - Mailed 10 boxes home, Dorothy, Toby and Dorothy's mother all to NYC. Went to the Trump Tower, Rockerfeller Center ate in the underground McDonalds near Radio City, went to Washington Square and two more comic shops.
Sunday - took bus to JFK Airport at 8:30, plane left at noon for L.A. where they had to endure a layover of almost 7 hours. Dorothy wanted to go out and walk around. Toby wanted to sit in the bar and watch the Super Bowl. The plane finally left at 9:45 p.m. tot Sydney. They had another layover there (about 4 hours) before flying on to Alice Springs, via Melbourne. They were fortunate to get out of Sydney. Later that day, the refuelers went on strike grounding most aircraft on the east coast.
So, after visiting 14 comic shops (not counting the Convention and numerous non-comic shops which carried comics) in two countries and five states on 18 of the 24 days of the trip, Toby mailed home an undisclosed number of comics (in addition to those he carried with him to read on the plane). Fortunately, he does have storage space -about the only thing his parents gave him for Christmas was a well used 4-drawer filing cabinet which someone gave me. It was a battleship gray except for the rust spots and I attached a bow and a sign that said "It's the thought that counts." After sanding and painting it looks very good and the drawers are in good shape. Toby was pleased with it. I don't think his recent purchases will fill it up (I hope), but I'm sure he will keep working to fill it. Since there is a good possibility that Toby and I will be visiting the U.S. this summer, I'd imagine we may visit a few comic shops then. I hope they will have replenished their stock by then, or do I?
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
December 1990: Xmas Wrap Up from Alice
Yes, folks, it's that long awaited yearly Grimm Christmas letter - prized by all. I imagine years from now collections of these letters will be auctioned off at one of the world's great auction houses. On the other hand, you may find them so boring that you don't bother to read them. Oh well, I'm only doing as instructed - "Yes dear, I'm writing the Christmas letter."
It hasn't been all that exciting a year and most of you will have received other Grimm tales this year, so I won't go into great detail. Other than our trip home last Christmas, our only other vacation was one week in Adelaide in April. I enjoyed seeing an old friend and his family who moved from Alice two years ago. We also saw a friend of Toby's who moved to Adelaide~ visited a poet whom we had met here in Alice, did some shopping and went to Kangaroo Island where we saw some Australian wildlife. It was a nice break, but too short. As I have said before, Alice is nice, but when you are 1000 miles from anywhere you need to get away occasionally.
Dwight came home for his summer break and found a lot of work her. He worked a good many hours at the newspaper, managed a clothing store for quite a few weeks and also worked on call for a photographer in town. One week he spent a lot of time on assignment at the Sheraton photographing some of the senior Sheraton VIPs from al over the country. He even got a fully paid trip to Ayers Rock’s down, plane back) accommodations and incredible meals down there to photograph this group. He grumbled a bit about how many hours he was working (and there were a number of weeks when he had some work all seven days), but he had a few weeks of no work before he left and he soon got bored. He did get to play some golf with a friend and I even went out with them once. It was good he found all of that work and since Australia pays well for part time work, he was able to make quite a bit of money (and saved most of it). He's about finished the first term of the sophomore year and I think was suffering the sophomore slump (if there is such a thing). But he says he's found ways to break out of it (including looking into getting back into ice hockey - which he hasn't played for 10 years). He went to the home of the grandparents of a friend for Thanksgiving and is going with his roommate to Mexico when he visits his aunts at Christmas. Dorothy asked him to fly home, but he declined saying it was too far and too expensive for only three weeks.
Dorothy grumbles about the mob at the newspaper - and most of her complaints appear to be justified (from what I can tell). However, she continues to put a lot of hours in and is appreciated by all of the arts and crafts and musically oriented people in town and the people connected with the schools. Much to my dismay at times (especially when she'S late for a meal or when people call at all times of the day or night) she doesn't say no to any request to cover an event. Even though the Advocate has two photographers, Dorothy takes many pictures to go with the stories she is covering. Once in three consecutive issues of the newspaper, she had 50 photos. A number of her pictures have been on the front page of the paper. Not bad for a non-professional.
Dorothy was also contacted by a national crafts magazine to do an article on crafts in Alice Springs. She not only wrote an article but took her own color photos as well and the article and pictures appeared in the magazine in September. The Arts and Crafts people both here and in Darwin were delighted.
Toby's interests haven't changed this year. He's still very much interested in table tennis, tenpin bowling, and of course comics. I don't even want to know how many comics he currently has, but it must be over 4000. They are organized and even catalogued to a certain extent. He has a list of those issues he's missing and has sent the list to his grandparents. Since there are over 3500 he's looking for (though not completely realistically since Batman *1 and other issues worth thousands of dollars are listed) - I would have liked to have heard the reaction on receiving the lists. I can't criticize too much since I collect books, although I'm very particular about buying any now - there's too many in the house.
Toby is currently involved in practices for a school play that will finally be performed the end of November (the practices have been going of for months.) Speaking of the play, Dorothy and I recently took the 45-minute nurse in how to usher at the Araluen Arts Center. So now that we are on their roster, we can usher for shows and we will each usher one night for the school play. The usher system is that any group who uses the theatre at Araluen either has to pay $30 per usher or supply their own. Those people who do usher don't get paid but can work for a group or give their credits to one of the music or art groups so they aren't charged.
The ushering - whenever I do it - is really the only thing I am currently involved in. Our local Australian-American Association decided to call it quits. Since the pilots' strike last year, there has only been one of the American tour groups come though which we used to host. Since that was our principal pastime, people began to lose interest. Also, quite a few left town and we couldn't recruit any new members so we folded our tents. I also decided for a number of reasons to drop out of the writer's group (Fellowship of Australian writers). So I guess other than the occasion ushering job, I'll play hermit.
We had some visitors from the U.S. a month ago. I believe they liked Central Australia, although I'm always curious how people will react to the isolation. Anyway, their visit prompted one funny incident and one rather amazing act on the part of Dorothy, the city girl. The morning after they arrived Jim and Martha got up before us and went out for a walk, according to Martha's son, Mike, who was also here. Well, they were gone a long time and I asked Dorothy if I should go to look for them. She asked me which direction I would go and since I really didn't know I gave up that idea. As I was sitting at the dining room table looking out of the window I saw a police van pull up in front of our house. Guess who got out. They had walked a long ways and finally had no idea how to get back to our house so when a police van drove past, Martha flagged it down. In her very southern accent she explained to the officers that they were tourists. "No kidding, lady," was the reply. She asked if they could give them a ride to their friends' house. It turned out they were only three blocks away but the police complied - probably to give them a new "tourist story."
Now to Dorothy's amazing act. We had originally bought a 4-wheel drive van with the idea of going back (and taking visitors) to a spot we really liked our first tour, called Palm valley - about 85 miles from Alice. However it soon became evident that my van was not a true bush vehicle because it rides fairly low. So, we never went back and I would have been apprehensive about trying. However, Dorothy had been there recently during one of her trips to a nearby Aboriginal community and found that the road was improved. So this lady, who screams at me as soon as the van's wheels touch a dirt road when I'm driving, took her friends over the dirt, rock-strewn 13-mile road from the main road to Palm valley. I was concerned about my van. But I'm glad to say, people and vehicle all survived. Martha though it was truly the end of the world, but I assured her that 85 miles from Alice, at a tourist attraction is not the end of the world.
The one interesting event that occurred recently in town was a visit by the Darwin Symphony Orchestra. The group itself was not the best, but they chose to perform on a specially constructed stage in the dry Todd riverbed on the grounds of the Old Telegraph Station, a national park. It was held at night (a necessity at this time of the year when daytime temperatures are usually over 100 degrees F). The audience sat on the river bank with the orchestra sitting on the stage in front of a large hill containing many of the red rocks which mark this area. The lighting lit the orchestra and enough of the hill to create a rather spectacular scene.
Dorothy and Toby are going to the U.S. for a visit in January. I declined since I figure one way or the other I'll be returning in the June-August time period next year and two trips a year are too many). They'll stop and visit Dwight at Stanford and then reach the east coast in time for the big 3-day comic convention in New York City. Dorothy took Toby to it last year (only one day) and got hooked. She is looking forward to it as much as Toby. Incidentally they'll visit relatives and friends on the east coast.
My current tour runs out in August next year. I formally applied for a new tour and hope to hear in the next month whether I will be granted another 2-year tour. We all hope so. Wish us luck.
Well, I guess that brings me to the end of the 1990 Christmas letter. We hope that everyone has a great Christmas and wonderful New Year.
It hasn't been all that exciting a year and most of you will have received other Grimm tales this year, so I won't go into great detail. Other than our trip home last Christmas, our only other vacation was one week in Adelaide in April. I enjoyed seeing an old friend and his family who moved from Alice two years ago. We also saw a friend of Toby's who moved to Adelaide~ visited a poet whom we had met here in Alice, did some shopping and went to Kangaroo Island where we saw some Australian wildlife. It was a nice break, but too short. As I have said before, Alice is nice, but when you are 1000 miles from anywhere you need to get away occasionally.
Dwight came home for his summer break and found a lot of work her. He worked a good many hours at the newspaper, managed a clothing store for quite a few weeks and also worked on call for a photographer in town. One week he spent a lot of time on assignment at the Sheraton photographing some of the senior Sheraton VIPs from al over the country. He even got a fully paid trip to Ayers Rock’s down, plane back) accommodations and incredible meals down there to photograph this group. He grumbled a bit about how many hours he was working (and there were a number of weeks when he had some work all seven days), but he had a few weeks of no work before he left and he soon got bored. He did get to play some golf with a friend and I even went out with them once. It was good he found all of that work and since Australia pays well for part time work, he was able to make quite a bit of money (and saved most of it). He's about finished the first term of the sophomore year and I think was suffering the sophomore slump (if there is such a thing). But he says he's found ways to break out of it (including looking into getting back into ice hockey - which he hasn't played for 10 years). He went to the home of the grandparents of a friend for Thanksgiving and is going with his roommate to Mexico when he visits his aunts at Christmas. Dorothy asked him to fly home, but he declined saying it was too far and too expensive for only three weeks.
Dorothy grumbles about the mob at the newspaper - and most of her complaints appear to be justified (from what I can tell). However, she continues to put a lot of hours in and is appreciated by all of the arts and crafts and musically oriented people in town and the people connected with the schools. Much to my dismay at times (especially when she'S late for a meal or when people call at all times of the day or night) she doesn't say no to any request to cover an event. Even though the Advocate has two photographers, Dorothy takes many pictures to go with the stories she is covering. Once in three consecutive issues of the newspaper, she had 50 photos. A number of her pictures have been on the front page of the paper. Not bad for a non-professional.
Dorothy was also contacted by a national crafts magazine to do an article on crafts in Alice Springs. She not only wrote an article but took her own color photos as well and the article and pictures appeared in the magazine in September. The Arts and Crafts people both here and in Darwin were delighted.
Toby's interests haven't changed this year. He's still very much interested in table tennis, tenpin bowling, and of course comics. I don't even want to know how many comics he currently has, but it must be over 4000. They are organized and even catalogued to a certain extent. He has a list of those issues he's missing and has sent the list to his grandparents. Since there are over 3500 he's looking for (though not completely realistically since Batman *1 and other issues worth thousands of dollars are listed) - I would have liked to have heard the reaction on receiving the lists. I can't criticize too much since I collect books, although I'm very particular about buying any now - there's too many in the house.
Toby is currently involved in practices for a school play that will finally be performed the end of November (the practices have been going of for months.) Speaking of the play, Dorothy and I recently took the 45-minute nurse in how to usher at the Araluen Arts Center. So now that we are on their roster, we can usher for shows and we will each usher one night for the school play. The usher system is that any group who uses the theatre at Araluen either has to pay $30 per usher or supply their own. Those people who do usher don't get paid but can work for a group or give their credits to one of the music or art groups so they aren't charged.
The ushering - whenever I do it - is really the only thing I am currently involved in. Our local Australian-American Association decided to call it quits. Since the pilots' strike last year, there has only been one of the American tour groups come though which we used to host. Since that was our principal pastime, people began to lose interest. Also, quite a few left town and we couldn't recruit any new members so we folded our tents. I also decided for a number of reasons to drop out of the writer's group (Fellowship of Australian writers). So I guess other than the occasion ushering job, I'll play hermit.
We had some visitors from the U.S. a month ago. I believe they liked Central Australia, although I'm always curious how people will react to the isolation. Anyway, their visit prompted one funny incident and one rather amazing act on the part of Dorothy, the city girl. The morning after they arrived Jim and Martha got up before us and went out for a walk, according to Martha's son, Mike, who was also here. Well, they were gone a long time and I asked Dorothy if I should go to look for them. She asked me which direction I would go and since I really didn't know I gave up that idea. As I was sitting at the dining room table looking out of the window I saw a police van pull up in front of our house. Guess who got out. They had walked a long ways and finally had no idea how to get back to our house so when a police van drove past, Martha flagged it down. In her very southern accent she explained to the officers that they were tourists. "No kidding, lady," was the reply. She asked if they could give them a ride to their friends' house. It turned out they were only three blocks away but the police complied - probably to give them a new "tourist story."
Now to Dorothy's amazing act. We had originally bought a 4-wheel drive van with the idea of going back (and taking visitors) to a spot we really liked our first tour, called Palm valley - about 85 miles from Alice. However it soon became evident that my van was not a true bush vehicle because it rides fairly low. So, we never went back and I would have been apprehensive about trying. However, Dorothy had been there recently during one of her trips to a nearby Aboriginal community and found that the road was improved. So this lady, who screams at me as soon as the van's wheels touch a dirt road when I'm driving, took her friends over the dirt, rock-strewn 13-mile road from the main road to Palm valley. I was concerned about my van. But I'm glad to say, people and vehicle all survived. Martha though it was truly the end of the world, but I assured her that 85 miles from Alice, at a tourist attraction is not the end of the world.
The one interesting event that occurred recently in town was a visit by the Darwin Symphony Orchestra. The group itself was not the best, but they chose to perform on a specially constructed stage in the dry Todd riverbed on the grounds of the Old Telegraph Station, a national park. It was held at night (a necessity at this time of the year when daytime temperatures are usually over 100 degrees F). The audience sat on the river bank with the orchestra sitting on the stage in front of a large hill containing many of the red rocks which mark this area. The lighting lit the orchestra and enough of the hill to create a rather spectacular scene.
Dorothy and Toby are going to the U.S. for a visit in January. I declined since I figure one way or the other I'll be returning in the June-August time period next year and two trips a year are too many). They'll stop and visit Dwight at Stanford and then reach the east coast in time for the big 3-day comic convention in New York City. Dorothy took Toby to it last year (only one day) and got hooked. She is looking forward to it as much as Toby. Incidentally they'll visit relatives and friends on the east coast.
My current tour runs out in August next year. I formally applied for a new tour and hope to hear in the next month whether I will be granted another 2-year tour. We all hope so. Wish us luck.
Well, I guess that brings me to the end of the 1990 Christmas letter. We hope that everyone has a great Christmas and wonderful New Year.
July 1990: 'Roos & Didgeridoos
Dorothy thought it might be time for me to bring forth another of my world famous reports on those strange beings - the Grimms and their adventures in the land of 'roos and didgeridoos. (Hey, that rhymes.)
I'd imagine most of you have gotten the trip report for our travels to the big city (Adelaide) in April, so I'll pick up the tale from there. I can't remember May, but then I can't remember what happened last week so I just placed a call to Lois Lane at her office. «I sometimes refer to Dorothy as Lois Lane, who was/is a reporter friend of Superman - Dorothy doesn't mind but retorts with "you sure aren't Clark Kent" - Superman's disguise)). She reminded me of a number of things - not necessarily in chronological order.
We all spent a lot of time one week at the Araluen Arts Centre for the annual Eisteddfod (a competitive festival of the arts).
Toby sang in three different choirs during the week. I really enjoy the Eisteddfod because the community has an incredible number of musically talented people ranging from the very young to people even older than me. If you enjoy music it's a real treat. There is everything from piano soloists, to rock bands, serious choral groups to a group of teachers from Toby's school dressed up in funny outfits and singing humorous songs. I commented to them that I shouldn't be surprised if there were a number of kids withdrawn after parents saw the types of people who were teaching their children. The Eisteddfod ran for 5 and a half days and only one adjudicator graded every entry. The event culminated in a concert on Saturday night in which the best performers from the entire week did a number, and the concert was sold out.
I finally went fossicking again - after a long lapse - and actually found some small zircons which I had faceted. That was enough to get me interested again. As soon as I get the chance I want to go again, maybe with Dwight.
A national craft magazine was looking for someone to do an article for them on crafts in Alice Springs and were given Dorothy's name. She not only wrote the article, but took her own color pictures as well and sent the article and pictures off to the magazine. I believe the article is to be in the September issue of the magazine. She is excited about it and I think it is neat. Dorothy still gets invited to attend a lot of activities in town (I comment that she occasionally makes a guest appearance at home) and once in a blue moon even invites me along. I often complain that it must be nice to get to go out to dinner - I never get to. However, I won't do that again for a while. I was invited to accompany Dorothy to the "turnover" (installation of new officers) dinner of the Lioness club. I can't begin to tell you how exciting it was. I will gladly forego the free meal for anymore such excitement. The one nice touch was that they presented Dorothy with a certificate of appreciation for all of the work that she had done for them by covering many of their activities. It is nice to know that people in town appreciate how hard Dorothy works for the community - unfortunately the sorry excuse for a staff at the newspaper doesn't. Once recently after she spent eleven hours putting together the community arts page, the management pulled the entire page because they needed the space (probably for more sports)
and didn't tell her. She didn't know it until the edition came out. To give you an example of the importance of sports - in a paper of about 30 pages (more or less), one page a week is devoted to community arts, six in each issue (two a week) to sports. Needless to say Dorothy was not happy and I think management is still reminded of it. That occurred on a Friday and on Monday all sorts of disasters struck the paper - computers went down for most of the day and pictures sent up to Darwin, where the paper is printed, were lost. Dorothy told them that some of her Aboriginal friends had used their influence with the spirits.
Fortunately, she did not invite me to go along to a couple of recent "male revues" which she reluctantly ‘covered" recently.
Speaking of Aboriginals, Dorothy knows quite a few of them, and has visited various of the areas outside of town on a number of occasions. Sometime back two of the senior elders were murdered in one of the communities - about 75 miles from town. Of course it was big news and there was a lot of discussion about it at the paper Dorothy didn't tell the staff until afterwards, but she went to the funeral for the two men and wrote a very nice article about it in the paper.
Dorothy has also done a number of things for the writer's group in town (the Fellowship of Australian Writers), including doing critiques of some of their writings. Recently the organization decided to collect a number of their stories and publish them, and they asked Dorothy to "launch" their book (formally present it to the public). The president of the local chapter wanted a lot of publicity and called every radio station in town, one of which interviewed Dorothy live. The launching was held at the library and was attended by 15 or 20 people. Dorothy gave a nice speech and at the end tossed (launched) the book to the librarian. I don't think any of the writers present were offended.
Another movie was recently shot in town. The title is "Until the End of the world" (now why did they pick Alice springs for a movie of that title?). It starred Sam Neil, William Hurt, Jeanne Moreau, and several aboriginal stars - Ernie Dingo (Crocodile Dundee), David Gulpillil (Storm Boy) and Justine Saunders (Fringe Dweller~). None of us got on the set, but Dorothy photographed a benefit concert, at which several of the stars showed up (Sam Neil even played the electric organ). She also had a number of dealings with Ernie Dingo. And all of us went to a local video shop (along with about 300 other people) to see the announcement of the kids who won the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Contest. Oh, and William Hurt made a guest appearance (I've suspected he is a bit weird, but showing up at that event in the outback of Australia should raise of few eyebrows even among the strange mob in Hollywood.) Toby and Dwight both got his autograph and he mentioned to Toby that he had a boyhood friend named Toby.
This was the fifth movie filmed in Alice Springs in the last four or five years: "Last Frontier" with Linda Evans; "Evil Angels" ("A Cry in the Dark" in the U.S.) starring Meryle Streep; "Quigly Down Under" with Tom Selleck; "Naked under Capricorn" with some English stars, and this one. Yessir folks, to get right up close to your favorite movie star - come to Alice Springs.
Dorothy wanted me to mention that while she was in town, Justine Saunders directed a play, called Sheerluck Holmes, for one of the high schools and Toby sang in a group which stood offstage mainly because they weren't all students at that school.
I have mentioned Dwight a couple of times - that is because he is here ("home") for the summer. We know he is home because: A. there is one less car available for use (affecting me as the "third" driver); B. our grocery bills are up significantly (due in part to one of Dwight's friends, Chris, who sort of lives at our place now); C. the big increase in laundry (how many sets of clothes tan you go through in one day?); D. there are often noises in the middle of the night that weren't there before (a voice out of the dark at.3 a.m. saying "Did Dwight come home?" - "Oh, please dear, let me jump up in the cold" - it's winter here - "and go check," I answer.); and E. I am washing a lot more dishes.
Dwight left San Francisco on June 14th, after a good year at Stanford, flew to L.A., where his plane left 5 hours late for Sydney. Fortunately, he called us so we didn't worry, but I knew he would miss his connection in Sydney for a direct flight to Alice and assumed he would have to spend the night in Sydney. However, the airlines put him on a flight through Melbourne and then on to Alice, arriving here at 4 p.m. That was Saturday, June 16th. He rested the next day, and caught up with friends, looked for a job Monday, had his first job (for the newspaper) that night, went for instructions on another job on Tuesday, and started work the next day and has only had one entire day off since. He worked several weeks full time in a clothing store (as manager since he was the only employee) and so far two weeks full time at the newspaper. In addition, he occasionally has assignments for the paper in the evening, taking "social pics" and covers sports on the weekend for them. He may start to have some free days soon, although a guy who owns a photographic studio in town wants him to fill in for him while he is away over the next month. So, Dwight may have more work, and I believe later on there is another full week at the newspaper. He should have enough money for incidental expenses at Stanford next year.
Toby just finished a month's vacation. He didn't do much except spend a lot of time with his mates. He did spend one day sorting his comic collection in the master bedroom. I came home from work and opened the door to the bedroom and gasped. Every square foot of flat space - floor, bed, dressers was covered with stacks of comics. Needless to say, I told him they would have to be returned to one of the numerous filing cabinets that he has for them before bedtime. I won't tell you how many he has except to say there are probably enough to start a used comic shop. Toby also spent a lot of time on the tennis courts, playing computer games, and watching videos on his vacation.
Toby's return to school resulted in a slightly embarrassing situation for his parents. He received the results of his exams shortly after the end of the term and we didn't tell him - they were quite good. I have to explain - when Toby was three he told me one day that he had helped the baby sitter clean up her house. I asked what he had done and he said he had swept the kitchen floor. The he asked for a reward. I asked what type of reward - figuring 25 or 50 cents. He immediately named a Star Wars toy that cost $15. So you have to be careful discussing "rewards" with Toby. Also we are on him all the time because of this casual approach to doing homework. So, we knew we were in for trouble when these grades came home and were so good. I didn't realize Dorothy had never told him about them, but the first day back at school he mentioned that he had never seen the grades and one of the teachers tore the office apart trying to find a copy of them and apparently never did. I had to call the teacher, who fortunately is la lot like Toby and apparently really likes him, and confess that we had not told Toby. I told him about the incident when Toby was three and he said "This lad is no fool." As Dorothy and I keep saying - how many more years until he goes off to university?
So what have I been doing exciting? Ha! The most exciting thing is trying to organize the family stamp collection, which involves thousands of stamps which have not been organized for about 10 years or so. On top of the stamps we have, someone in the stamp club left town and left bags and bags of stamps (big grocery size plastic bags) and Dorothy periodically brings several home for me to go through looking for some we don't have. I feel I have a never-ending task.
For my birthday, Dwight and his friend Chris decided to treat me to Mexican meal - prepared by themselves. There were four courses the first of which was nachos, which we started eating at 6:45. Those were followed by tacos, enchiladas (Old EI Paso brand), and finally, quesadillas, which we finished at 9:30. It actually wasn't a bad meal. Toby traded in four used comics at a used book store for a free book for me (last of the big time spenders) and Dorothy bought me two tickets to a performance of the Australian youth Orchestra (I asked her along - she wasn't enthusiastic but went and did not grump.)
I have been very busy at work filling in for my boss wh6 has been in the u.s. for two months (on home leave between tours) and doing my own job as well. He should be back at work next week and I am sure looking forward to that. I think as soon as he settles in I may take off a few days to spend some time with Dwight.
Our dog, Snickers, is still driving me crazy, Between running up and down along the side fence barking at the neighbor's dog, or along the front fence chasing anything that moves, and trying to get over my chicken wire addition to the low fence, the dog never stops. He is not vicious, but loves to herd anything - so he allows people to come into the yard, but tries to stop them from leaving so they will play with him. But the constant source of amusement for us is his attempt to get the cat to play by jumping up and down all around her until she (who is about 1/5 his size) gets tired of his antics and goes after him. Since he has seen her climb a tree to get away from him, he figures he can do the same, but he hasn't mastered it yet - he is not an especially bright dog.
Well, I have rambled on long enough and I have to get back to work, so I will stop here.
April 1990: Adelaide / Kangaroo Island
Well, we finally took another trip within Australia. Every since my best friend moved to Adelaide in January 1989 I have wanted to go visit him, and finally talked Dorothy into going during the week that the schools had a week's vacation.
We left Alice Springs Saturday afternoon, April 7th, and although the flight was uneventful, it didn't take long before the first incident. On the approach into Adelaide, the stewardess announced that they could make arrangements for car rental. I had made my own arrangements but suddenly realized that I had forgotten my driver's license. Let me explain - during the warm months in Alice I wear "Stubbies" - Australian shorts. They are quite short with only one small pocket on the back and one smaller pocket on the front. There is no space for a wallet, so I carry my driver's license in my van. This incident wouldn't have been so bad, except that I forgot both my Australian and U.S. driver’s licenses on our trip back to the U.S. less than four months ago. Needless to say, Dorothy was not amused. But as they say here, “No worries, Mate!" The rental car agent never asked for it.
We drove (rather I drove) to the flat where we were staying. The U.S. govt. rents flats in Adelaide for a variety of reasons. Years ago the only air route to Alice was through Adelaide, so when you moved here, most people had to stay overnight in Adelaide. Also, even today, if someone has a medical problem that needs treatment in Adelaide they are sent there and may use, or whoever accompanies them, may use the flats. If you are in Adelaide just for vacation and they are open, you may reserve one. There is a charge for them, but they are quite cheap compared to motels.
After settling in we went out to eat at (guess where McDonalds, of course). We had seen one downtown, but it happened to be on the busiest street in Adelaide on a Saturday night, and after driving around looking for a parking space, we gave up, returned to the flat, looked up McDonalds in the yellow pages and went to the next closest one. Since Dorothy is not a big McDonalds fan all of this effort to find one did not overly impress her.
When we were getting ready the next morning to drive to my friend's house, Toby went to get his cowboy boots out of the suitcase only to discover that I had mistakenly packed two left boots. We reached my friend's house mid-morning. Jeff and his family live in a nice older home set in a hilly secluded area about 15 miles south of the city center. The yard is about 1/3 of an acre and is covered with trees and shrubs. A winding path leads down a hill to a bench at the back of the property from where you can't see the house. There's no grass to mow. Since Jeff's wife wasn't home from work yet, he took us for a ride to the highest point in the area from where you can see all of Adelaide, then, after stopping at a restaurant which some of Jeff's friends manage (only to discover they weren't there) we ate lunch and then stopped at several flea markets in the area. We returned to Jeff's house, visited with Jackie for a while and returned to town to go see the movie The Hunt For Red october. Dwight had seen it and was so impressed that he sent his poor old father who has a son going to Stanford, 10 Australian dollars to see it. We all enjoyed it.
The next morning we went back to the airport to fly to Kangaroo Island. The roads are so bad· on the island that the rental car companies on the mainland won't let their cars be taken over (by ferry), so we flew over, returning one rental car in Adelaide and picking up another one on the island. The car I picked up there looked like a well-worn reject from the mainland, but it is understandable. The majority of the roads are dirt/gravel and the accident rate is supposedly very high. Maximum speed is supposed to be about 35-40 mph. I survived three days without going off the road. I wasn't so lucky when I rented the car, though. The lady asked for a license. I explained my predicament. No problem - she just wrote on the rental agreement, "Mr. Grimm assures me he has an N.T. driver's license," and sent me on my way (after a long spiel about the things to see and do on the island and admonitions about the roads - 65 cars had gone off the roads just this year so far).
That day we mainly spent wandering around Kingscote, the largest town on the island with a population of about 1400 (if you are looking for shopping malls, this is not the place to come.) We did drive to a beach and in the afternoon went to a boat ramp where a guy shows up every day at 4 p.m. to feed the birds. The seagulls and pelicans recognize his truck and are flying into the bed of the truck even before he stops. Toby stopped wading in the water long enough to feed some fish to the pelicans.
That night we tried to find some of the fairy penguins that nest allover the island. These small penguins (about a foot high) spend all day in the water and come onto land late in the evening to nest in the rocks and caves on the island. We did not have any luck seeing any.
We got up early Tuesday to take an all day trip down to the National Park at the other end of the island - the island is about 90 miles long. I asked the ranger at the park if it was possible to see some platypus and she said some had been sighted in a portion of the river that starts in the park. After driving about 10 miles down another dirt road, we walked a mile or so back through the woods to the river, but failed to see any platypus. We did see several kangaroos on the way to that spot. Then we drove to a place called Admiral's Arch. From the parking lot there, we walked past a lighthouse and downhill over a rough walk. Just before the walk or track turned to go on down behind the hill it was possible to stand and see many New Zealand fur seals sunning themselves on rocks at the base of the cliff and on a small island a short ways off the coast - plus some playing in the waves. We continued on down the track and rounding the bend carne on the phenomena which resulted in the name "Admiral's Arch." Under the hill that we had just walked down was a huge hole that had been worn away - the top an arch with rock formations resembling stalactites hanging down and the opening framed a beautiful scene on the other side of a portion of rocky coastline with crashing waves. It was pretty spectacular.
We next drove to another location in the park called the Remarkable Rocks, which are a group of granite boulders set on top of a hill right beside the water and the elements have worn them away into very odd shapes. We left the park and started back to Kingscote.
As I was driving down the road I saw an animal in the road and braked fairly hard which demonstrated the condition of the roads my front wheels ended up in the soft dirt on the shoulder, but thank goodness I was able to get back on the road. The animal turned out to be an echidna, a spiny anteater (the spines are similar but shorter to those of a porcupine). It was the first time we had seen one in the wild. Later, we stopped at a farm that had a colony of koalas in gum trees on their property. This is a good example of the lack of commercialization on the island yet. There is no charge, only a box tacked up on a tree for donations. We saw 10 koalas. We stopped at some caves, but missed the guided tours by about 3 minutes so continued on to Seal Beach. Park rangers are there to talk about the rare Australian sea lions, which are lying allover the beach, and to protect the sea lions. The ranger said they are not there to protect humans. There are hundreds of sea lions allover the beach and even over the sand dunes in among the plants. Visitors are not allowed in the dunes or within 10 feet of the sea lions, and the ranger said that their policy is only to keep humans from harming the them. They do not interfere with the sea lions even if they are injured. Our last stop of the day was at a marsh which is supposed to be a haven for many birds, but that day there were not many there, so we soon left and headed back to town.
That evening thanks to Toby's persistence, we saw a number of fairy penguins in the rocks by the water right in front of our motel. It is a wonder how those little awkward-looking animals manage to climb those rocks. They didn't show up until about 10:30 or so, so I guess we were ~here too early the day before.
The last day on the island, we drove to a place called American River, so called because the American ship the Independence was built there (I wondered how many Americans knew that). It is a beautiful place but not much is happening there - I figure the population is probably a couple of hundred. We drove on to the· other town, Peneshaw which is a bit larger than American River, but smaller than Kingscote. We were walking around looking at the half dozen shops when we bumped into some other Americans from Alice Springs. The man and his son were going fishing on a boat that afternoon from a wharf in American River. The boat trip was only four hours, returning before our plane left, it was inexpensive, and included use of fishing gear and bait. I declined going since our trip to the Great Barrier reef years ago when I got deathly seasick. But I was able to get Toby on and he thoroughly enjoyed himself - he knew the American boy who went so he had a friend and he caught the biggest fish of the day - something called a Blue Devil - about a foot long with a blue tinge to it, plus two Whitings. I probably could have gone since the boat never actually went out to the sea and the water in the bay (American River is more of a bay) was calm.
While Toby was gone, Dorothy and I drove over to a place where Gypsum-is loaded onto boats. On the dirt road back to the place, I blew a tire and ruined it, so with only the spare on the car we decided not to go anywhere else. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around American River, and finally resorted to sitting on the wharf for about an hour and a half where I took a nap in the back seat, Dorothy wrote letters and we both took turns feeding bread to seagulls. It was loads of fun. We flew back to Adelaide that evening- and once again the car rental agent didn't ask me for a driver's license.
Thursday we walked from the flat downtown and spent the morning and part of the afternoon shopping in the mall area - primarily we visited comic shops (see the last U.S. trip report), and a couple of stamp stores. We walked back to the flat and then drove out to a suburb looking for more comic shops. Toby found comics that day, but I did not find a lampshade that some friends had asked me to look for, or a wedding present for some other friends.
That niqht we visited a guy whom we had met in Alice Springs when he was here to read poetry. Geoff Goodfellow is a rugged individual who visits prisons reading poetry and teaching inmates how to write. I found out when he was here that he had visited and stayed with Ken Kesey when he visited the U.S. I've been interested in Kesey since I first read his renowned novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo'S Nest," and then a partial biography on him in a book called the "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test." Someone in the U.S. made a video documentary on Kesey, but according to Geoff, President Reagan had used his influence to make sure it wouldn't be shown on TV in the U.S. because of the emphasis on drugs (only because Kesey bad a long history of using various hallucinogenic drugs). Anyway, Geoff had a copy of the tape and offered to show it to us if we came to Adelaide. Geoff's wife, Sally, had prepared a delicious curry which Dorothy and I enjoyed. (Toby ate some plain rice, and a few molecules of curry, but was rescued by some delicious apple pie for dessert). Between having a nice chat with Geoff and Sally and seeing the video, it was an enjoyable evening.
Since Australia closes down for Good Friday, we were at loose ends the next day until we were to go back to Jeff and Jackie's for a barbecue. We drove over along the ocean and stopped in a suburb and walked around for a while - a few small shops were open. Finally, we went to Hawthorndene, where Jeff lives, and by coincidence, where a friend of Toby's also lives. Elizabeth is a real character and we all like her (as long as I don't have to raise her). I know Toby misses her - they were good friends until she left Alice Springs in December 1988 - but they have kept in touch. We took Elizabeth along to the barbecue. Although Jeff was a bit disorganized as usual, it was a good meal and nice evening.
The next morning we went to an arts and crafts fair at the Show Grounds. Fortunately, we got there early, found a place to park and were near the front of the line when it opened. The place was soon mobbed and even when we left an hour later, there was still a line to get in. We soon found out why - nothing else was open. The stores in Adelaide closed down for four days over Easter. None of us were impressed since we had looked forward to doing more shopping We drove south quite a ways to see if a mall in the suburbs had opened - no such luck - and to a wine, food, music and art fair at
a winery way out in the county. I took so many turns to get there that I was beginning to wonder if I should have dropped bread crumbs to find my way back. It was not all that exciting and we drove back to the city, stopping at any little shop we found open, and also stopped to say hello to the parents of some other friends here in town.
We had made arrangements to meet Elizabeth at the mall at 5:30, after which we ate, went back to the flat for awhile, then returned to the mall to meet Jeff and Jackie. The four adults went to the movies to see "Driving Miss Daisy" while the two teenagers (both of whom said they wouldn't be caught coming from a "G" rated movie) went to see "Tango and Cash." Jeff took Elizabeth home and we returned to the flat.
On Easter Sunday, I returned the rental car unscratched and we had an uneventful flight home to Alice Springs.
We left Alice Springs Saturday afternoon, April 7th, and although the flight was uneventful, it didn't take long before the first incident. On the approach into Adelaide, the stewardess announced that they could make arrangements for car rental. I had made my own arrangements but suddenly realized that I had forgotten my driver's license. Let me explain - during the warm months in Alice I wear "Stubbies" - Australian shorts. They are quite short with only one small pocket on the back and one smaller pocket on the front. There is no space for a wallet, so I carry my driver's license in my van. This incident wouldn't have been so bad, except that I forgot both my Australian and U.S. driver’s licenses on our trip back to the U.S. less than four months ago. Needless to say, Dorothy was not amused. But as they say here, “No worries, Mate!" The rental car agent never asked for it.
We drove (rather I drove) to the flat where we were staying. The U.S. govt. rents flats in Adelaide for a variety of reasons. Years ago the only air route to Alice was through Adelaide, so when you moved here, most people had to stay overnight in Adelaide. Also, even today, if someone has a medical problem that needs treatment in Adelaide they are sent there and may use, or whoever accompanies them, may use the flats. If you are in Adelaide just for vacation and they are open, you may reserve one. There is a charge for them, but they are quite cheap compared to motels.
After settling in we went out to eat at (guess where McDonalds, of course). We had seen one downtown, but it happened to be on the busiest street in Adelaide on a Saturday night, and after driving around looking for a parking space, we gave up, returned to the flat, looked up McDonalds in the yellow pages and went to the next closest one. Since Dorothy is not a big McDonalds fan all of this effort to find one did not overly impress her.
When we were getting ready the next morning to drive to my friend's house, Toby went to get his cowboy boots out of the suitcase only to discover that I had mistakenly packed two left boots. We reached my friend's house mid-morning. Jeff and his family live in a nice older home set in a hilly secluded area about 15 miles south of the city center. The yard is about 1/3 of an acre and is covered with trees and shrubs. A winding path leads down a hill to a bench at the back of the property from where you can't see the house. There's no grass to mow. Since Jeff's wife wasn't home from work yet, he took us for a ride to the highest point in the area from where you can see all of Adelaide, then, after stopping at a restaurant which some of Jeff's friends manage (only to discover they weren't there) we ate lunch and then stopped at several flea markets in the area. We returned to Jeff's house, visited with Jackie for a while and returned to town to go see the movie The Hunt For Red october. Dwight had seen it and was so impressed that he sent his poor old father who has a son going to Stanford, 10 Australian dollars to see it. We all enjoyed it.
The next morning we went back to the airport to fly to Kangaroo Island. The roads are so bad· on the island that the rental car companies on the mainland won't let their cars be taken over (by ferry), so we flew over, returning one rental car in Adelaide and picking up another one on the island. The car I picked up there looked like a well-worn reject from the mainland, but it is understandable. The majority of the roads are dirt/gravel and the accident rate is supposedly very high. Maximum speed is supposed to be about 35-40 mph. I survived three days without going off the road. I wasn't so lucky when I rented the car, though. The lady asked for a license. I explained my predicament. No problem - she just wrote on the rental agreement, "Mr. Grimm assures me he has an N.T. driver's license," and sent me on my way (after a long spiel about the things to see and do on the island and admonitions about the roads - 65 cars had gone off the roads just this year so far).
That day we mainly spent wandering around Kingscote, the largest town on the island with a population of about 1400 (if you are looking for shopping malls, this is not the place to come.) We did drive to a beach and in the afternoon went to a boat ramp where a guy shows up every day at 4 p.m. to feed the birds. The seagulls and pelicans recognize his truck and are flying into the bed of the truck even before he stops. Toby stopped wading in the water long enough to feed some fish to the pelicans.
That night we tried to find some of the fairy penguins that nest allover the island. These small penguins (about a foot high) spend all day in the water and come onto land late in the evening to nest in the rocks and caves on the island. We did not have any luck seeing any.
We got up early Tuesday to take an all day trip down to the National Park at the other end of the island - the island is about 90 miles long. I asked the ranger at the park if it was possible to see some platypus and she said some had been sighted in a portion of the river that starts in the park. After driving about 10 miles down another dirt road, we walked a mile or so back through the woods to the river, but failed to see any platypus. We did see several kangaroos on the way to that spot. Then we drove to a place called Admiral's Arch. From the parking lot there, we walked past a lighthouse and downhill over a rough walk. Just before the walk or track turned to go on down behind the hill it was possible to stand and see many New Zealand fur seals sunning themselves on rocks at the base of the cliff and on a small island a short ways off the coast - plus some playing in the waves. We continued on down the track and rounding the bend carne on the phenomena which resulted in the name "Admiral's Arch." Under the hill that we had just walked down was a huge hole that had been worn away - the top an arch with rock formations resembling stalactites hanging down and the opening framed a beautiful scene on the other side of a portion of rocky coastline with crashing waves. It was pretty spectacular.
We next drove to another location in the park called the Remarkable Rocks, which are a group of granite boulders set on top of a hill right beside the water and the elements have worn them away into very odd shapes. We left the park and started back to Kingscote.
As I was driving down the road I saw an animal in the road and braked fairly hard which demonstrated the condition of the roads my front wheels ended up in the soft dirt on the shoulder, but thank goodness I was able to get back on the road. The animal turned out to be an echidna, a spiny anteater (the spines are similar but shorter to those of a porcupine). It was the first time we had seen one in the wild. Later, we stopped at a farm that had a colony of koalas in gum trees on their property. This is a good example of the lack of commercialization on the island yet. There is no charge, only a box tacked up on a tree for donations. We saw 10 koalas. We stopped at some caves, but missed the guided tours by about 3 minutes so continued on to Seal Beach. Park rangers are there to talk about the rare Australian sea lions, which are lying allover the beach, and to protect the sea lions. The ranger said they are not there to protect humans. There are hundreds of sea lions allover the beach and even over the sand dunes in among the plants. Visitors are not allowed in the dunes or within 10 feet of the sea lions, and the ranger said that their policy is only to keep humans from harming the them. They do not interfere with the sea lions even if they are injured. Our last stop of the day was at a marsh which is supposed to be a haven for many birds, but that day there were not many there, so we soon left and headed back to town.
That evening thanks to Toby's persistence, we saw a number of fairy penguins in the rocks by the water right in front of our motel. It is a wonder how those little awkward-looking animals manage to climb those rocks. They didn't show up until about 10:30 or so, so I guess we were ~here too early the day before.
The last day on the island, we drove to a place called American River, so called because the American ship the Independence was built there (I wondered how many Americans knew that). It is a beautiful place but not much is happening there - I figure the population is probably a couple of hundred. We drove on to the· other town, Peneshaw which is a bit larger than American River, but smaller than Kingscote. We were walking around looking at the half dozen shops when we bumped into some other Americans from Alice Springs. The man and his son were going fishing on a boat that afternoon from a wharf in American River. The boat trip was only four hours, returning before our plane left, it was inexpensive, and included use of fishing gear and bait. I declined going since our trip to the Great Barrier reef years ago when I got deathly seasick. But I was able to get Toby on and he thoroughly enjoyed himself - he knew the American boy who went so he had a friend and he caught the biggest fish of the day - something called a Blue Devil - about a foot long with a blue tinge to it, plus two Whitings. I probably could have gone since the boat never actually went out to the sea and the water in the bay (American River is more of a bay) was calm.
While Toby was gone, Dorothy and I drove over to a place where Gypsum-is loaded onto boats. On the dirt road back to the place, I blew a tire and ruined it, so with only the spare on the car we decided not to go anywhere else. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around American River, and finally resorted to sitting on the wharf for about an hour and a half where I took a nap in the back seat, Dorothy wrote letters and we both took turns feeding bread to seagulls. It was loads of fun. We flew back to Adelaide that evening- and once again the car rental agent didn't ask me for a driver's license.
Thursday we walked from the flat downtown and spent the morning and part of the afternoon shopping in the mall area - primarily we visited comic shops (see the last U.S. trip report), and a couple of stamp stores. We walked back to the flat and then drove out to a suburb looking for more comic shops. Toby found comics that day, but I did not find a lampshade that some friends had asked me to look for, or a wedding present for some other friends.
That niqht we visited a guy whom we had met in Alice Springs when he was here to read poetry. Geoff Goodfellow is a rugged individual who visits prisons reading poetry and teaching inmates how to write. I found out when he was here that he had visited and stayed with Ken Kesey when he visited the U.S. I've been interested in Kesey since I first read his renowned novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo'S Nest," and then a partial biography on him in a book called the "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test." Someone in the U.S. made a video documentary on Kesey, but according to Geoff, President Reagan had used his influence to make sure it wouldn't be shown on TV in the U.S. because of the emphasis on drugs (only because Kesey bad a long history of using various hallucinogenic drugs). Anyway, Geoff had a copy of the tape and offered to show it to us if we came to Adelaide. Geoff's wife, Sally, had prepared a delicious curry which Dorothy and I enjoyed. (Toby ate some plain rice, and a few molecules of curry, but was rescued by some delicious apple pie for dessert). Between having a nice chat with Geoff and Sally and seeing the video, it was an enjoyable evening.
Since Australia closes down for Good Friday, we were at loose ends the next day until we were to go back to Jeff and Jackie's for a barbecue. We drove over along the ocean and stopped in a suburb and walked around for a while - a few small shops were open. Finally, we went to Hawthorndene, where Jeff lives, and by coincidence, where a friend of Toby's also lives. Elizabeth is a real character and we all like her (as long as I don't have to raise her). I know Toby misses her - they were good friends until she left Alice Springs in December 1988 - but they have kept in touch. We took Elizabeth along to the barbecue. Although Jeff was a bit disorganized as usual, it was a good meal and nice evening.
The next morning we went to an arts and crafts fair at the Show Grounds. Fortunately, we got there early, found a place to park and were near the front of the line when it opened. The place was soon mobbed and even when we left an hour later, there was still a line to get in. We soon found out why - nothing else was open. The stores in Adelaide closed down for four days over Easter. None of us were impressed since we had looked forward to doing more shopping We drove south quite a ways to see if a mall in the suburbs had opened - no such luck - and to a wine, food, music and art fair at
a winery way out in the county. I took so many turns to get there that I was beginning to wonder if I should have dropped bread crumbs to find my way back. It was not all that exciting and we drove back to the city, stopping at any little shop we found open, and also stopped to say hello to the parents of some other friends here in town.
We had made arrangements to meet Elizabeth at the mall at 5:30, after which we ate, went back to the flat for awhile, then returned to the mall to meet Jeff and Jackie. The four adults went to the movies to see "Driving Miss Daisy" while the two teenagers (both of whom said they wouldn't be caught coming from a "G" rated movie) went to see "Tango and Cash." Jeff took Elizabeth home and we returned to the flat.
On Easter Sunday, I returned the rental car unscratched and we had an uneventful flight home to Alice Springs.
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