Here I am almost ready to head off on my adventure last Wednesday week. Little did I know what a drowned rat I would be by the end of this day! I thought I’d include a few more pictures of my trip as well as links to some videos that I took while on the road that I have now had a chance to upload to YouTube. Suffice it to say that I ain’t no Cecil b de Mille (more like Cecil b de Mildew, as someone remarked) but I hope you enjoy my efforts.
As most of you know I love playing this game when I go out to eat or for coffee. The game is to try and remember a road racer from my past who used to race with this number. This one is easy, it is Bill McCulloch’s number and it was very appropriate since he now lives in Queensland and this was my first night in that state. Actually, there is a funny story to this picture. When I published it on Facebook, one of my friends remarked that the lady in the background of the picture probably didn’t appreciate me including her in the shot. I did notice her there before I took the photo but she was blurred into the background so I figured it wouldn’t be an issue. Seconds after I took this shot, in the Withcott Hotel on the Warrego Highway, someone poked me on the shoulder from behind and said, “Hi, Phil.” I nearly had another heart attack and I turned around to see the father of one of the boys who was going to be racing on the weekend at the MotoStars event. What are your chances of being recognised 1000 kms from home? Anyway, Mark explained that they were just having dinner and pointed to the table on the other side of the room where the lady in the photo was sitting. It was now obvious that the lady was Sally, his wife! Needless to say, they came over to my table with their son, James, and we had a very pleasant dinner while discussing what was wrong with the world and how we would fix it if we were given the opportunity.
Did I mention country-sized helpings? On the Saturday morning I headed from the track back towards Toowoomba to Withcott again to have some breakfast. The pub didn’t do brekkie but the nice lady inside said that there was a cafe behind the servo so I went there. The “Ooh La Latte Cafe” was certainly a revelation. I didn’t feel like anything hot so I enquired about their muesli, yogurt and fruit offering, specifically its size. You see, I’ve been caught before where cafes offer this dish but in a tiny bowl whose contents is barely enough to save the life of a starving sparrow, so I asked before confirming the order what sized bowl it was served in. “Oh, a reasonable size,” the lady behind the counter said. THIS is their version of a “reasonably sized” bowl. HUGE! Was it yummy? Oh, yeah. Did I manage to struggle all the way through it? Eventually, yes.
Sunday morning was considerably colder so I took my breakfast indoors. This is the view out the front window of the Ooh La Latte Cafe.
Toowoomba Go Kart Club’s track at Greer Park, down on the “flat” along the Warrego Highway, is a fine facility, well set up and fast. at 880 m long it has two long straights, one 176 m long and one 126 m long so a lap goes by real quickly. It also satisfies my essential criteria for a race track in that it has considerable elevation changes.
For this meeting, involving Juniors, the chicane in the main straight was used.
You know that it’s a serious race meeting when one of the Junior Coaches and Pit Gate Marshall is a former IDM and EWC top-flight competitor 🙂
As the head honcho of MotoStars, ace rider, Damian Cudlin, has the right to cut some laps during practice on the Saturday. This is the front tyre of his little Kawasaki 250 road bike. I have to tell you that watching him ride the wheels off that little thing is a truly scary experience.
The Hub Cafe, in the main street of Canungra, is one of my favourites. I’ve been having coffee there for more than 30 years and it never fails to impress.
It’s also hard not to be impressed with the scenery at Lenny and Pauline’s place at Broke. Here’s the sunset over their main dam.
And here’s their rapidly increasing family of runner ducks. Sorry about the blurry, it was very late in the afternoon and the phone was really struggling with the light.
Back-pedalling just a few days, here I am at Jimboomba, jamming with Will at his place and enjoying the company of his baby parrot. Needless to say, a couple of Jimmy Buffett Songs were sung in honour of the occasion. I’ve been a parrot head since 1973. 🙂
The following are links to some of the videos I took. The titles are self-explanatory.
Aerobatics over the Lockyer Valley…
Here’s the gang jamming at the Sphinx Rock Cafe. After taking the video I joined in. The unofficial leader of this loose aggregation of musos is the gentleman in the red baseball hat and overalls at the end of the table. He looks like he has just stepped out a movie about the Deep South of the USA and he looks like he should be called “Jethro” or ” Clint”. In fact, his name is Gareth!
Finally here is a tiny video of the fog rainbow at Lenny’s place. VERY amateur but I hope it gives you some idea. Incidentally, here’s a wiki link if you’d like to find out more about this strange phenomenon.
This morning has been one of those ones when I wake up in the wee small hours with an idea for a blog entry and I have to get up and write. It’s now 0430 and I’m heading back to bed. Night, all.