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Once in a while we'll get an email along the lines of, "Hey! What happened to the Bluetooth Arcade Controller? I couldn't find it on your website or your store." After answering a few of these recently, we decided to make a blog post about it here.
The Bluetooth Arcade Controller (BTAC) was the core component of a neat little project called "Coffee Table MAME Console" in Make Magazine vol 28, that let you build your own arcade-style control panel, and connect it to your computer or Raspberry Pi using a wireless Bluetooth connection.
The world of hobbyist-grade embedded bluetooth keyboard interfaces has advanced greatly in the past couple years since we created the BTAC kit, and it's no-longer the best solution, in our opinion. We'd suggest trying Adafruit's new Bluefruit EZ-Key product, which is better in every way (except for number of button inputs) than the BTAC. Plus it's only $19.95.
They even have some great tutorial documentation on how to get started with it.
If you need more than 12 inputs, you can connect the Bluefruit module to an Arduino Mega or other microcontroller and use the RX/TX connections to send ASCII characters to the bluetooth module, which will then transmit that character as a keypress to the computer. You can even do raw USB HID keyboard or mouse reports to properly handle up to six concurrent keypresses.
Also, you can re-map the default 12 inputs using an FTDI cable and a processing sketch.
At the end of the day, we suggest going with the Bluefruit EZ-Key, as it's cheaper, more flexible, and all-around better than our Bluetooth Arcade Controller was.
2014 Retrospective
Wayne and Layne is a two person electronics company in Minneapolis. We design and sell electronic kits and projects for kids and adults, beginners and experts. Most of our products are sold online, but some of our products are sold in retail stores across the world!
So far, we've given away all our designs. This is so you can learn how we put it together, but we believe so much in giving the designs away that we're willing to let you do anything with our designs–even to make your own kits for sale. We ask that if you use our designs, you give away your modifications too. (A link and some credit would be nice too!) This is called open source hardware.
We also do design work for other people, like Kickstarters and museum exhibits. Most of this work isn't open source, but it helps fund our open source work. (We also explicitly reserve the right to release new products that are not open source.)
It might not look like it from our blog, shame shame, but 2014 has been an amazing year for Wayne and Layne! We finished a lot of awesome projects with clients, got an office, put a bunch of cool tools in it, worked on new products, and improved a lot of things behind-the-scenes. On top of that, we worked on open source software like Kicad that everyone can use for free, and your purchases of our products helps us volunteer!
You can follow us here, on Twitter at @wayneandlayne, and Adam and Matthew both have Twitter accounts: @adamwwolf and @mbeckler.
We have an office!
Up until April or so, all of Wayne and Layne was at Adam or Matthew's apartments, and we'd meet with clients at coffee shops or hackerspaces. This worked great when Wayne and Layne was just starting out, but now that we're more established, we were outgrowing the space we could carve out of our apartments. It also meant we had to buy twice as much of everything, or ship things around and it seemed like we never had what we needed where we needed it. Now that Matthew and Adam both live in Minneapolis, this seemed like a waste. This came to a head when Adam had to clear out his Wayne and Layne office to turn it into a nursery. (!!!) We tried storing all our inventory in a storage unit, continuing to work from our apartments, but after a month, we decided to look for an office. We looked at some online listings, then put the call out on Twitter, and it didn't take long before we found a great spot.
We have some space in Minneapolis that isn't fancy but
- has a great landlord
- is on good bus lines
- we can afford
- is across from a Chinese place that serves xiao long bao
so really, we can't ask for more!
We have some awesome equipment in our office!
In our new space, we have a pick and place machine, reflow oven, hot air station, stereo microscope souped up for assembly, as well as a laser cutter, an Othermill, and a reliable 3D printer! We also have less fancy equipment, like a shipping station with label printer, laser printer, scale, and barcode scanner. We don't plan on doing large manufacturing runs in our space, but we've definitely leveled up on the prototyping we can do in-house!
We finished our work on the Choosatron!
The Choosatron is a little interactive fiction gaming device funded on Kickstarter. Jerry brought us in before the Kickstarter launched to help with the PCB layout and to help design for manufacturing. It's just about ready to ship, and it's turned out even better than we expected.
We made more museum exhibits!
We continued our partnership with a local museum exhibit design company, and helped with lots of new exhibits. Our exhibits this year are all over the US, including right here at the Minnesota State Fair! We had our hand in quite a few of the exhibits you see in the Energy Building. With the museum exhibits, we began to see some patterns in our "one-off" designs, and are investigating how to turn some of those into products. We have some exciting news about our partnership, but can't reveal it yet. (You can see examples of our museum work at http://www.wayneandlayne.com/exhibits/)
We invented new wearable visual effects with Dessa!
We did a pair of projects with Dessa! We had talked previously on a project that fell through due to scheduling issues with overseas suppliers. This year, she came to us with some rough ideas of wearable visual effects she wanted for a show. (One idea was a still from a cartoon.) We completely blew it out of the water! Everyone was really impressed (including us) by how awesome they turned out. More details here!
We presented at Maker Faire NY!
We were unable to make it to Maker Faire SF this year–Adam was too close to becoming a new dad that his wife couldn't fly and he couldn't risk being away, but we did make it to Maker Faire NYC in September. We gave two presentations, one on Lego and Arduino robotics, and another on low-cost pick-and-place machines where we announced our Kicad-to-TM240A converter program.
We supported open source software, like Kicad!
We often write patches for bugs we find in the software we use. We have a one or two line patch in Jenkins, for example. We don't really keep track of those.
However, in 2014, there were some changes to the Kicad leadership, and we've been much more involved since then. We have been spending *lots of hours* since September working on getting usable Mac builds coming out of a continuous integration server. There is a Kicad dev team priority of an official "stable" release on Windows, OS X, and Linux. We've got team buy-in on a real feature freeze before stable release–it's going to be slick, folks! Combined with the amazing work that CERN is doing, like the push-and-shove router, OpenGL acceleration, and the upcoming RF improvements, we are extremely excited to see what Kicad looks like at the end of 2015!
Some of the stuff we did is completely behind the scenes, for example:
We redid all our internal infrastructure.
We completely revamped almost all of our internal infrastructure. This doesn't mean a lot to you, but we have an easier time getting the right stuff done that we need to in order to be successful. Our revamp also dramatically increases our disaster recoverability. After we did this, we had a 1TB SSD containing ten virtual machines completely die without warning, and we were back up and running within an hour or two! (With no website interruption, I might add!)
This was by no means a complete list of our work this year, just the highlights.
Quick ones:
- Adam wrote two chapters for an upcoming book, "Maker Pro": an interview with Emile Petrone of Tindie, and an essay about the Blinky Grid and Blinky POV retail launch.
- We taught a weeklong class at Leonardo's Basement to teenagers on Minecraft and digital logic. We built things in Minecraft with Redstone, and in real life with breadboards, LEDs and switches, and 7400 logic chips.
- We taught a half-day class on working with EL wire at Leonardo's Basement.
- Adam went to PyCon for the first time, and started a "Python + Embedded" room.
- We're on an advisory board for an unannounced project that you'll definitely hear about in 2015!
What's coming up?
We don't like to announce our stuff too far ahead of time, but we're far enough along in some projects that we'll let them slip out here:
- New Bricktronics hardware and software
We did a lot of Bricktronics work this year. We have new Bricktronics (our LEGO Mindstorms + Arduino line) products ready to be released. They're waiting on the other cool Bricktronics thing we did this year, which was to revamp the software support and make it even more beginner friendly, while opening up some more options for more advanced programmers. This new software support relies on some features of the Arduino IDE which are not available in the official builds, but is coming soon.
- A stable, usable OS X Kicad release
- More products, and a new product line
We're excited to get back to our roots with new products!
- More museum exhibits
- A new website
- A new shipping backend
This is probably boring to you, but it means means more accurate (cheaper) shipping, order status notifications, and your order will go from ordered to shipped even faster!
That's about all–I have a brand-new Othermill to play with when I'm done with this post.
Happy hacking, folks!
blink(1) is an open source hardware USB RGB LED indicator by ThingM. I wrote a plugin "Run After Tests" for IntelliJ-based IDEs like PyCharm and CLion so it can display the status of your tests as different colors.
The blink(1) has a variety of control mechanisms, including a command-line tool, blink1-tool. It's as open source as things come, really, and it's by Mike Kuniavsky and Tod E. Kurt. I've talked with Tod a few times–we were stationed in the Maker Shed next to each other at a few Bay Area Maker Faires, so when I saw a tweet where someone got blink(1) working with a Ruby IDE to indicate test status, I decided to extend the blink(1) ecosystem and write a plugin for my favorite IDEs.
While I still write a lot of code in vim, if I'm not in vim, I'm in PyCharm or CLion. PyCharm and CLion are tools by JetBrains, and are based upon the IntelliJ IDE. IntelliJ is written in Java, something I don't particularly enjoy working with, but it's a testament to how great PyCharm and CLion are that they don't trigger my Java allergy.
Today, I spent a little more than an hour, opened some docs, and wrote an IntelliJ plugin "Run After Tests" for automatically running arbitrary commands after a test suite completes, with one configuration for when all the tests pass, and a second configuration for one when some of the tests fail. It seems to work for me.
I can see this being used a few different ways–including with blink1-tool so I can see the status of my tests at a glance!
I have posted the project and a binary release, and I'd appreciate some feedback. I would like to submit it to the JetBrains Plugin Repository, but I want to make sure the tool works for other folks first.
After writing the plugin and testing it, I purchased two blink(1)s. As soon as they arrive, I'll update the post with the two commands you'll need to get this working with a blink(1).
In the summer of 2014, Wayne and Layne purchased a Pick-and-Place machine, specifically the Neoden TM-240A. After doing a few small prototype production runs, we decided to create a presentation at the 2014 World Maker Faire in NYC, to share the tips and tricks we've learned about working with this PnP machine, as well as an honest analysis of its capabilities, strengths, and limitations. You can also download our slides (PDF). The PDF slides don't include the embedded video, but that video has been posted to YouTube.
The Pick-and-Place machine needs to know where to place each part, and we have created some software to help convert the PCB design data from our favorite ECAD tool, KiCad, into the proper file format needed for these PnP machines. The documentation for this software is below. We hope that it's useful for your needs.
tm2x0 is a Python package for working with Neoden TM220A and TM240A pick and place machines.
It currently has a script for generating a .CSV input file for the PnP from a KiCad .pos file, using an interactive command-line menu.
It was developed by Adam Wolf and Matthew Beckler of Wayne and Layne, LLC, with no affiliation with Neoden other than we own one of their machines.
tm2x0 is a Python module. You should be able to install it through pip or however you normally install Python modules.
Let us know if you have problems.
Steve over at Big Mess O' Wires wrote up a nice review of our Blinky POV kit. A few excerpts are below, you can read the whole thing at the Big Mess O' Wires blog post.
My oldest daughter Alice has an occasional interest in electronics, and as her dad I try to encourage her without becoming too annoying. We've done some past projects like Snap Circuits experiments, building a Drawdio pen, and constructing an animated Halloween LED display. Recently we had a chance to build a Blinky POV from Wayne and Lane. Or more accurately I should say she had a chance to build it, since my role was limited to talking her through the steps and taking photos. It's impressive what an 11-year-old can do with a soldering iron!
The main reason I selected Wayne and Lane's Blinky POV instead of another similar one was the novel method used to program it. Instead of a PIC programmer, a serial connection, or some other conventional interface, it uses a pair of photo sensors to program new messages using flashes of light. Go to the Blinky Programmer web page, design some pixel or text-based messages, and click "go". A clever bit of javascript flashes two squares on the screen, and when the Blinky POV is held near these flashing squares, it reprograms the stored messages in about 30-60 seconds. In our experience this method was very reliable, and much less hassle than dealing with virtual serial ports or other wired interfaces. And it actually made programming fun – like magic! The web page interface is surprisingly versatile, too. You can design pixel art or text messages, adjust the scrolling speed, switch between multiple stored messages, and define what should happen at the end of each message.
This is starting to sound like a Wayne and Lane commercial, so I should probably add that I have no affiliation with them other than being a satisfied customer. If there's a young builder in your life who might enjoy a simple but fun-filled electronics project, give Blinky POV a try.
Read more: http://www.bigmessowires.com/2014/01/12/building-the-blinky-pov/
Xander at Bot Bench wrote up a nice review of our Bricktronics Breakout Boards:
These adapters would definitely be indispensable if you're planning to do any kind of tinkering with your Arduino and whatever NXT peripherals you had in mind.
I had a lot of fun putting them together and they plugged into the breadboard very easily and sat very snugly afterwards. They're very reasonably priced at just $4 a piece. They come with the required 82K Ohm resistor, which you will need for the pull-up.
Read more: http://botbench.com/blog/2014/01/12/bricktronics-breakout-board/
MobileWill posted a great review of our Blinky POV SMT kit!
The Blinky POV SMT is similar to the Blinky GRID but it only has one row of LEDs. By waving the Blinky in the air you can see the design/text due to the effect of persistence of vision. This happens because your retina sees the image slightly longer than it is being displayed. Read more about persistence of vision.
Last Thursday I came home and there it was, waiting for me to rip it open! Since I was leaving for a weekend trip, I decided I would assemble it that night so I could show it off. So at 10:30pm I got started.
Read more: MobileWill: Blinky POV SMT
New Bricktronics Updates!
Today at the Bay Area Maker Faire, we are announcing a couple of cool new projects we've been working on with the Bricktronics Kits.
1. Bricktronics Megashield – Build robots and contraptions! Experiment with mechatronics using Arduino and LEGO Mindstorms NXT! Our latest kit, the Bricktronics Megashield, to connect up to and to an Arduino Mega. Works with the standard LEGO NXT motors and the touch, ultrasonic, and color sensors. Uses the same easy-to-use software interface as the original Bricktronics Shield, but supports more motors and supports all types of sensors on all ports.
The Megashield is available for purchase at the Maker Faire this weekend, and is now available for purchase from the Wayne and Layne store!
2. Project codename "Trifrost" – We created a small python web framework for connecting local serial devices (such as an Arduino) to Linux computers (such as the RaspberryPi and the BeagleBone) to get real-time web dashboards and interactivity. This is still a work in progress, and we have tons of ideas for extending and enhancing it, so stay tuned.
3. Bricktronics + RaspberryPi = Awesome! – The Raspberry Pi and other low-cost embedded Linux single-board computers are all the rage these days! We combined an Arduino with Shields, and connected them to a RasberryPi, to create a high-power interactive robotics platform. Using a WiFi adapter and a tablet computer, you can use the touchscreen to wirelessly interact with the motors and sensors.
We also created a mobile robot platform, using a LEGO tank platform, an Arduino with Bricktronics Shield, and a Raspberry Pi. Again using the WiFi network connection and a tablet, you can wirelessly drive the tank and read the sensor values.
Once we get more hardware information about the upcoming LEGO Mindstorms EV, we'll be working on a single-board solution for bringing the power of embedded Linux to LEGO Mindstorms electronics.
For more information about any of these cool projects, subscribe to our RSS feed, or check back in the future for more info.
Note: Wayne and Layne, LLC and our products are not connected to or endorsed by the LEGO Group. LEGO, Mindstorms, and NXT are trademarks of the LEGO Group.
At Wayne & Layne, we design a lot of circuit boards. During the request-for-quote (RFQ) process for getting a PCB fabricated, the outside dimensions of the PCB are an important driver of the overall per-unit price. As part of the W&L "prepare PCB for RFQ" process, we have a little script that uses the PCB's board outline Gerber file to determine the dimensions of the PCB's bounding box.
Pass in the filename of the PCB "board outline" Gerber file, and it will print out the dimensions in both the original units (decimills for Gerbers exported from Kicad) as well as inches (again, assuming decimills). It does this by analyzing all the lines of the gerber file, and determining the minimum and maximum in both x and y directions. The script is based on a little chunk of code written by @laen on Twitter (who makes no claim to the code, and also runs the most excellent OSH Park PCB service). We're releasing this script into the Public Domain, use it however you like.
#!/usr/bin/env python # Gerber query script # Usage: ./gerber_query.py board_edges.gbr # Written by Matthew Beckler for Wayne and Layne, LLC # Based on a script from @laen # Released into the Public Domain. Have fun def main(): import sys if len(sys.argv) < 2: print "Usage: %s gerberfile" % sys.argv[0] sys.exit() import re filename = sys.argv[1] xmin = None xmax = None ymin = None ymax = None for line in file(filename): results = re.search("^X([\d-]+)Y([\d-]+)", line.strip()) if results: x = int(results.group(1)) y = int(results.group(2)) xmin = min(xmin, x) if xmin else x xmax = max(xmax, x) if xmax else x ymin = min(ymin, y) if ymin else y ymax = max(ymax, y) if ymax else y print "Board dimensions:" w = xmax - xmin h = ymax - ymin w_in = w / 10000.0 h_in = h / 10000.0 w_mm = w_in * 25.4 h_mm = h_in * 25.4 print " (%d, %d) original units" % (w, h) print " (%.4f, %.4f) inches" % (w_in, h_in) print " (%.4f, %.4f) mm" % (w_mm, h_mm) if __name__ == "__main__": main()
Kicad Tutorial: Gerber file generation
This is part of a series of short tutorials on advanced topics of using Kicad, the favorite schematic/PCB design software here at Wayne and Layne.
Once you've finished working on your PCB and are ready to send it off for fabrication, one step remains: "Plotting" the PCB design to Gerber files. The Gerber file format is a very old format with its roots in the 1960s, and is used to completely describe a single layer of a PCB design. You need to generate one gerber file per layer of your PCB design (Copper, SolderMask, and SilkScreen, for both the top and bottom sides, plus the PCB Edges layer). The information about where the holes are drilled, and what size the hole should be, are stored in a separate file with a different format, called the Excellon format, named after the market leader in CNC drilling machines during the 1980s.
To generate the gerber and drill files for production, click on the Plot toolbar button in PCBNEW. It is located in the top toolbar and looks like a printer with a "P" overlaid. This brings up the plot dialog box. (Click to enlarge image.)
Here, ensure that the "Plot format" is "Gerber". Leave the "Output directory" field blank, and it will default to saving the files into the project directory. Make sure you check all the layers you want to send to production. If you didn't use back-side silkscreen, or don't want to use any back-side silkscreen (some places charge extra for that), you can un-check the B.SilkS layer. The other checkmark boxes are the defaults, but ensure that "Exclude PCB edge layer from other layers" and "Use proper filename extensions" are checked. Press "Plot" to generate the files, one per layer. You will see output in the "Messages:" box at the bottom. When that is finished, click "Generate Drill File" to bring up the next dialog box. (Click to enlarge image.)
Again, leave the "Output directory" text field empty. The settings here are very important, especially the Drill Units (Inches), Zeros Format (Suppress leading zeros), and Options (Minimal header). You absolutely must check "Minimal header" and un-check "Mirror Y-Axis". Since we aren't making a drill map, the "Drill Map File Format" option doesn't matter. Click the "Drill File" button to generate the drill file. Then press "Close" and "Close".
Now you can zip up the generated gerber/drill files and send them off for fabrication. At Wayne and Layne, we really like the prototype PCB fabrication services from OSH Park. They describe themselves as
This is a community printed circuit board (PCB) order. We take designs from lots of people, put them all together on a panel and then order the panel from a fab. Since we're all splitting the panel setup cost, this lets us make circuit boards inexpensively.
This service grew out of the DorkbotPDX PCB Order run by @laen and now comprises of a two-layer panel every other day, a four-layer panel every three weeks and a periodic two-layer medium run service for people needing more than 150 square inches of board.
They have very inexpensive rates, decent production time, and very high-quality output. Plus, the gold and purple boards just look very nice! Here are the details about pricing and design rules (minimum clearance and trace width, minimum hole size, etc).
Other tutorials in this series:


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Gov: Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect Seriously Hurt But Stable
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick says the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings is in serious but stable condition and likely can't communicate yet.
Boston Police: Dzhokar Tsarnaev, Second Boston Bombing Suspect Captured
Law enforcement official: Bombing suspect captured
Capitals Streak Ends At 8 – NHL Roundup For April 19th
UNDATED (AP) —Rick Nash had a goal and assist in the first period, and Ryan Callahan had a pair of assists as the New York Rangers hung on to eighth place in the Eastern Conference with a 6-1 victory over the Florida Panthers
Boston Marathon Manhunt Timeline
Key moments related to the search for the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, based on reports from the Middlesex County district attorney, Massachusetts State Police, and Boston police.
Rockies Win 6th Straight – MLB Roundup For April 19th
UNDATED (AP) — Knuckleballer R.A. Dickey hurled six shutout innings before leaving with soreness in his neck and back, Rajai (RAH'-jy) Davis had two hits and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Chicago White Sox 3-1
FBI Release Photos, Video of Boston Bombing Suspects
The FBI has released photos of two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings and is asking for the public's help in identifying them.
Red Sox Win Five Straight – MLB Roundup For April 18th
UNDATED (AP) — Converted closer Alfredo Aceves coasted through five innings, Mike Napoli (NAP'-oh-lee) and Daniel Nava drove in two runs apiece and the Boston Red Sox struck quickly against Justin Masterson and beat the Cleveland Indians 6-3 for their fifth straight win
Penguins Close In On Top Seed – NHL Roundup For April 18th
UNDATED (AP) — Brenden Morrow scored two goals for the second straight game and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Montreal Canadiens 6-4 to move closer to clinching the top seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs
Nuggets Secure Three Seed – NBA Roundup For April 18th
UNDATED (AP) — The NBA playoffs will open Saturday with New York hosting Boston, and Chicago visiting Brooklyn. Defending champion and top-seeded Miami hosts Milwaukee on Sunday, and the Hawks visit the Indiana Pacers
FBI Arrests Man Suspected of Sending Ricin Poison to Obama
A man in Mississippi has been arrested and accused of sending letters with suspected ricin poison to President Barack Obama and other leaders.
U.S. Senate Rejects Expansion of Firearm Background Checks
The Senate has rejected a bipartisan effort to expand federal background checks to more firearms buyers in a crucial showdown over gun control.
Conflicting Reports of Arrest Made In Boston Marathon Bombing
A law enforcement official is reporting that the Boston Marathon bomb suspect in custody, expected in federal court.

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Limited-time feature
37 year old woman | Sacramento, CA, USA | Seeking men 29-40 within 50 miles
Active within 24 hours
Are you my other me?
Randomness... I spent half of my childhood surrounded by mountains in Colorado and the other half on the coast of Southern California. I made my way to Northern California for college (approximately a million years ago) and feel at home here. I LOVE my family, friends, the L.A. Dodgers, rainy days, vegetables, really good beer, old houses, music, being outdoors, and shoes (although I'm barefoot more often than not). I've been a vegetarian since I was six, although I ate meat for a year in college and have secret BACON tastings on occasion! I don't have cable...or any channels...just Netflix and MLB.com. I'm a super friendly, trustworthy, compassionate, funny chick that will do anything for a friend. I love being serious and then goofy, calm and quiet and then craaaazy, busy and then lazy and I absolutely love making people happy! I'm a social worker currently working with developmentally disabled individuals. I could use someone who can help me smile and relax at the end of a stressful day! I love my work but long for balance in life! Being with family and friends, road trips, bbq's, a fun night on the town, exploring new things and relaxing at home give me this balance....and you? A few of the magical things I'm looking for. YOU are fun, loving, tolerant, honest, playful, supportive, trustworthy, funky, embrace culture, love nature, appreciate art and theater, love music, respectful, consistent, silly, a hugger, love kids, helpful, enjoy drives without a destination, balanced, dig exploring and learning....for starters!
Camping , Coffee and conversation , Cooking , Dining out , Gardening/Landscaping , Movies/Videos , Museums and art , Music and concerts , Exploring new areas , Nightclubs/Dancing , Performing arts , Travel/Sightseeing , Volunteering , Watching sports
I have Cats
I have a midget cat, named Sister, that fetches hair ties. Seriously, she does.
Rivers, lakes, and oceans always attract me. I once convinced the company I worked for to fly me and a co-worker to Ohio to drive a short bus (yes, I said short bus) they had purchased, back to Cali. We took the southern route. Exploring is fun!
University of California, Davis, Davis, CA
I LOVE music of all kinds....except screaming, really loud stuff that I can't understand. Some favs...REM, Bon Iver, Neko Case, Ben Howard, The Gyuto Monks of Tibet, John Cruz, Ozzy, Itzhak Perlman, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and muuuuch more
Music. Movies. Galleries. Theater. Water. Trees. Baseball games. Playing around town. Family and friends. BBQs. Being outside. Camping. Cooking funky meals. Creating funky things. Being funky.
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
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|What she is looking for
|5'11" (180cms)
|5'11" (180cms) to 6'8" (203cms)
|Body type:
|About average
|No preference
|No preference
|Light brown
|No preference
|No Way
|No preference
|Social Drinker
|No preference
|Other profession
|No preference
I'm a social worker. My clients ROCK!!!
|$35,001 to $50,000
|No preference
|Never Married
|Never Married, Widow / Widower, Currently Separated, Divorced
|Have kids:
|Yes, and they sometimes live at home, No, Yes, and they live away from home, Yes, and they live at home
|Wants kids:
|Definitely, Someday
|White / Caucasian
|No preference
I'm of European mixins....Hungarian, Polish, German, yada yada yada!
|Spiritual but not religious
|No preference
Is love a religion? Religion fascinates me but I don't cling to any specific belief. I occasionally go to non-denominational-type churches/temples....if this scares you, it'll never work!
|No preference
|Graduate degree
|Some college, Bachelors degree, Graduate degree, PhD / Post Doctoral
MSW transforming into an LCSW!


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Benefits Of Using Games While Teaching Math
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There is a large value of using games in the classroom that remains untouched by the vast majority of teachers. Games can be used in cooperation with the learning of elementary mathematics to extend the learning of the students by an amazing amount! In addition, there are both advantages for the student, and advantages for the teacher.
The Advantages Of Math Games
The 2 main advantages for the student are that they will be learning while they are playing (which will facilitate engagement in the material), and that games will teach to a more diverse group of learning styles than simple pencil-paper calculations. Many teachers can attest to the fact that engagement plays one of the largest roles in the students understanding the information; however, those same teachers can attest to seeing hundreds of students dozing off when they are simply writing down equations on the chalkboard for 45 minutes! Mathematical games will facilitate the student engagement that will ultimately be a dominant factor in them understanding the information.
One of the main advantages for the teachers is that they get a chance to connect with the students on a same-level playing field, rather than the regular dominant playing field. I believe that a teacher will be able to connect with the students on a different level when the teacher takes out a few mathematical games and manages to participate in those games with the students. It will build rapport with the students because they will be enjoying what they are learning.
Three Examples Of Math Games
The three examples that I consider to be the most beneficial to student engagement and learning would definitely be an online mathematical game entitled Balloon Invaders (http://www.mathplayground.com/), Multiplication Bingo, and Team Tag Multiply! These three mathematical games teach the multiplication skill, and allow the students to be engaged in the learning process. All three of these games will keep students engaged because they are challenging, and provide the students with the opportunity to get better at them as they play them more! This competition, and room for improvement will definitely allow the students to be engaged in learning elementary level mathematics.


text:
Learn more about Go Dog Hen Ball Dog Toy:
Manufacturer: Sherpa Pet Group
Mfg Part#: 770759
Sku: 213018795
See more in Pet Toys
|This rooster ball dog toy with chew guard technology which is a proprietary manufacturing process that adds a super tough, durable liner to every toy. The Chew Guard lining was specially engineered to withstand the daily rigors of a dogs play. Dogs are tough but Chew Guard is tougher. All seams are double stitched and reinforced as well. Chew Guard Technology toys should stand up to your toughest chewers.
Customer Reviews of Go Dog Hen Ball Dog Toy
Couldn't stand up7/9/2012
I normally buy this line of products for my bullies because they stand up well to their extreme chewing, so I was disappointed that they had this Hen torn apart within a matter of minutes...maybe they changed manufacturers who aren't doing as thourough a job with the stitching?...or maybe this particular toy was defective...they still have fun chewing on and flinging around the shell, but the stuffing and squeaker are long gone...


text:
What interested me even more than the headlines was his little riff on the projection of American hegemony.
Well, the low body mass index (BMI) hegemony appears to be coming to an end.
The BRICS Bank looks, for all its founding rhetoric, like a platform for Chinese hegemony instead.
1560s, from Greek hegemonia "leadership, a leading the way, a going first;" also "the authority or sovereignty of one city-state over a number of others," as Athens in Attica, Thebes in Boeotia; from hegemon "leader," from hegeisthai "to lead," perhaps originally "to track down," from PIE *sag-eyo-, from root *sag- "to seek out, track down, trace" (see seek). Originally of predominance of one city state or another in Greek history; in reference to modern situations from 1860, at first of Prussia in relation to other German states.


text: With the upcoming Michael Bay TMNT movie I wanted to know who is your favorite ninja turtle? My personal favorite would have to be Leonardo, he wears blue, wields duel katanas, and is the leader of the group! Personally though I just think he's a bad ass. Did anyone else see the TMNT movie released back in 2007? I thought it was an alright movie. Tell me though what you thought about the movie and who your favorite of the group is!


text:
Anyone remember using DarnUI for Fallout 3? (http://forums.bethso...howtopic=984736) One of my most favourite and inspiring mods. An essential for me to play, you know? I know that the Fallout: New Vegas game is young and mod development is working as fast as it can, but, does anyone have any information about this awesome mod in New Vegas?
If your wandering, I tried the MTUI mod for New Vegas, got it straight away. But I don't like it really..
So yeah if anyone has any info on its development please, do tell!
Darnified UI for New Vegas?
Started by Strobelight , Oct 26 2010 02:08 AM
19 replies to this topic
Posted 26 October 2010 - 02:08 AM
Posted 26 October 2010 - 02:14 AM
Last time I looked over there it was being tested, it's being made anyway.
Posted 26 October 2010 - 04:53 AM
Posted 26 October 2010 - 12:14 PM
Last time I looked over there it was being tested, it's being made anyway.
Thankyou very much, maybe I should've looked a little harder, again thanks bunch i'd have never found it without the help.
Posted 05 February 2011 - 11:04 AM
It ruined my game...
Posted 05 February 2011 - 12:45 PM
Try the newest one here: http://forums.bethso...__hl__darnified and make sure you have the latest version of NVSE.
Posted 26 August 2011 - 01:40 AM
It ruined my game...
nice one
btw, i love your motha' ****in' sig.
Posted 02 September 2011 - 03:42 AM
i gave it a run did everything the right way even editing the ini and still ctd but if i dont edit the ini it works fine with a big mess on the game screen
Posted 04 September 2011 - 03:55 AM
I have had no problem with it makes my screen great running project nevada also and no problems
Posted 04 September 2011 - 05:47 PM
I am using DarnUI just fine, while it doesnt list it, the unified HUD project will work with Darn, just run it you have project nevada too.


text:
We wouldn't have known what to do without you, really. You were with us from Iowa and New Hampshire to Pennsylvania and Indiana, at two dozen debates and inside umpteen FEC reports, through superdelegates and a supersized nomination season.
We suppose you were coming to Denver anyway, your ticket reserved by history, purchased by the media, and punched by a former president.
Now you're coming to your biggest stage yet. Welcome, Clinton-Obama Drama -- enjoy your stay.
Maybe it was better for the Obama campaign to invite you inside, since you would have made an ugly scene outside. Surely Sen. Barack Obama can afford to be gracious, even to you, since he'll leave Denver with the only prize that counts.
But the decision to include Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in a roll-call vote at the Democratic National Convention ensures that the nominee's showcase event will be about something more than the nominee himself: A number approaching half of the delegates in the hall could cast a ballot for a candidate who is not Obama.
(And, before we continue: Did Obama get what he wanted by having his first joint appearance with Sen. John McCain focus on the topic of religion?)
(Did Republicans get the pictures they were waiting for when Obama finally took his shirt off to go bodysurfing in Hawaii Thursday?)
Three of the four convention nights could very well be dominated by Clinton storylines (arrival, then back-to-back speech nights, and the Wednesday roll call itself), with so much of the fun stuff -- not to mention the party's lingering divisions -- playing out in the open.
Savvy and gracious gesture that soothes tensions and unites the party while giving Clinton's supporters something productive to cheer about? Or unnecessary and dangerous capitulation that only underscores questions about whether Obama is ready to lead? (If he can't control his own convention . . . )
*As in so much in this race, might this be for two people named Clinton to determine?)
"With Mrs. Clinton scheduled to deliver a prime-time speech in Denver, a state-by-state roll call vote increases her time in the convention spotlight," Jeff Zeleny writes in The New York Times. "The former rivals never spoke directly about the matter, but advisers said Mr. Obama encouraged Mrs. Clinton to agree to place her name into nomination as a nod to the historic nature of her candidacy."
Or maybe it wasn't all Obama's call: "Democratic sources said Clinton, who has been grappling with the best way to get her supporters on board, has been mindful of being seen as a poor loser like Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., in 1980," ABC's Kate Snow, Jake Tapper, and Jennifer Parker report. "Finally this week, Clinton officials said they wanted Clinton's name to be in nomination. Obama personally had let his staff know that was fine with him, Democratic sources said."
What will the show look like (and how will it be described to viewers back home)?


text:
2015-03-17 10:24:32
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What do commercial managers need to know about strategy?
Business strategy, as an educational subject, is over a century old if one were to count the years it had been called 'business policy' (Rumelt et al, 1995). Along with finance, accounting and marketing it has become a 'mastery discourse' in management studies (Hoskin et al., 2006) and access to it a de facto requirement of managerial elites (Clegg, 2004). The strategic management 'education industry' is based upon the expectation that as the direction of successful companies is so important to western civilisation (Rumelt et al, 1995), society will demand managers versed in the latest techniques of direction, therefore more effective to their organisations/civilisations benefit. This expectation produces weighty textbooks which materialise the research and opinion of knowledge entrepreneurs as they codify the important practice of strategy. Typically, in trying to present as much of the totality of the discourse as the writers think relevant, they present much the same content. Educational programmes in strategy then take this as the starting point.
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RBS 6 Nations: Sir Clive Woodward backs England for title
Posted: February 10, 2014|
Sir Clive Woodward has backed England to clinch the RBS 6 Nations title following their victory over Scotland.
Having lost their Championship opener to France, Stuart Lancaster's men put their Chariot back on track with a one-sided victory in a Murrayfield mud-bath.
England resume their campaign against unbeaten Ireland and Woodward reckons the winner of the Twickenham showdown will top the table.
And he has tipped England to end Ireland's unbeaten start, with home advantage a decisive factor.
Related content
He said: "If England beat Ireland, they'll go on and win the title.
"England at home should have the firepower to get over the line. If it was at Lansdowne Road, Ireland would be favourites. but England, at Twickenham, will win.
"I was really impressed with their victory over Scotland. We have all been there and lost when we have had the better team.
"It was a case of going up there and doing a job and coming home. The conditions were awful, you saw the state of the pitch, but they did a really good job.
"They will be very pleased and can now focus on Ireland, which will be a totally different game in terms of the challenge."
Ireland warmed up for the clash with an impressive victory over Wales – the reigning champions' worst Six Nations defeat during Warren Gatland's tenure.
The hosts literally blew Wales off the park with a pragmatic performance built upon power, intensity and the boot of Jonny Sexton.
And Woodward reckons it was testament to the impact of new coach Joe Schmidt.
He said: "Sometimes you have to take off your hat to the coach and that was a masterclass from Joe Schmidt. The way Ireland played just strangled Wales to death.
"Wales had no answers and Warren Gatland was brilliant in defeat after the match basically saying they got thumped, smashed, out-thought, out-played and just have to go out and perform in their next game."
The Six Nations has been plagued by poor conditions to date, none more so than England's showdown with Scotland which was played upon a worm-infested mud bath.
But Woodward reckons the Championship will burst into life in the Anglo-Irish 'title decider'.
He added: "It will be a humdinger, there will be a lot of rugby played and a real classic.
"England have a young, promising team that we are all excited about where as Ireland have a far more experienced team with the likes of Paul O'Connell and Brian O'Driscoll. It's a brilliant match up."


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Beastly Adventurer
Joined: Dec 2003
Location: Hawkesbury NSW Australia
Oddometer: 2,213
Soft to the core! And proud of it...
About NINE MONTHS ago a general plan was hatched to do an outback adventure for a week in western NSW (New South Wales) and eastern SA (South Australia). Winter is cold, but there is no way Id be riding out west in summer. Winter is also the time when most of us were available due to our own and our kids sporting and other commitments.
After some changes to dates because the original clashed for someone who can only have holidays during school holidays (do I feel envious or sorry for him??).
Expressions of interest were sent out to like minded riders who I thought would be able to put up with a week of me in the bush. There were lots of yeah maybe if the stars and planets align and I wish bandied about. But at the end of the day only four rock solid bloody oath Ill be in that answers came in.
The three musketeers were off again on another ride!
Shane owning a VOR changes a man.
Bucky owning a Tenere changed this man
Me Ive always been different
We have been riding together for about 20 years. Though these days one of us pilots a 4wd, not that theres anything wrong with that. But that helps us out too as we can live better on the road than we might otherwise do.
The other two on our trip are
Tractor Hard KORE Guru of the interwebs and carrier of what ever tool you need.
Fred (son of Shane) apprentice human, official trip photographer and all round good young bloke! When he gets on two wheels I see him becoming and even better bloke. Fred likes the Googles, he uses them to verify the information given to him by the old blokes on the trip.
Fred loves the Rock Star glasses, but not as much as the girlies at his school! Shane tells me that Fred has a six pack and the girlies love a six pack on a 15yo boy!
There was lots of toing and froing. In the end there were THREE distinct groups who would all meet at Cameron Corner on Sunday the 29 June, 2014 for a beer and a meal before heading off to Arkaroola, Yunta, Broken Hill, Silverton, White Cliffs, Tilpa, Louth and finally finishing up in Bourke.
GROUP ONE Tractor
HARD to the core. He was riding from the Newcastle area to Bourke to meet group three. Tractor left home on Thursday morning. Tractor was carrying a SPOT tracker so we could watch him as he made his way from coffee house to pub across the country.
Mr Hard Kore (thats how all the popular kids spell it these days apparently) ran into some of his own problems along the way. Including issues with his side stand and some MAJOR frost on his first night hard coring it.
Mr Fix its shop.
Hard Core camp 1
Hard Kore assures me that the white stuff on his seat is not talcum powder for his cheeks but frost!
On his second night he went all limp and holed up in a pub at Coonamble or Coonabloodybarrabran or some town whose name started with a C and had two Os in it. My spy pics showed he was manly drying out his tent in his room while he sat by the fire in the Ladies Lounge warming his tootsies.
My wife was rather concerned with this lack of progress when we last spoke on Friday night. She claimed hed never catch us or we wouldnt be leaving on time on Saturday. From the comfort of the soft core time and continuum traveller Bucky and I decided that the dead line would be 1pm in Bourke. If Mr Hard as nails wasnt in town by then he cold chase our dust until he caught up I mean who rides 1000km to get to the start of a ride? Thats just nonsense!
GROUP TWO Shane and Fred
If itll fit in well take it. Shane left home on Thursday morning with his six month old Hilux with more batteries and gadgets than the Apollo moon landing. He was good enough to carry the beer, food and extra baggage for the bike boys.
Note the VOR sticker on the top of the esky!
We nicknamed his truck the Kamaz after those Paris Dakar trucks that chase motorbikes down
Shane also had some type of tracker set up in his truck. This meant that Bucky and I could sit back and watch these blokes as they ventured off on their holiday while we remained going about our daily business and itching to get going ourselves.
Shane and Freddo did a lap into south western QLD and down into SA before meeting us at the corner on Sunday afternoon.
Nocundra pub
Moomba gas fields
There's no flies on our Fred!
Shane also went to Inamincka, but we don't talk about that. He's going to take FOREVER to get over it, he's so scarred he's openly stated he'll never go back... and that's a long time!
GROUP THREE Bucky and JTB
Soft to the core and proud of it! Due to other commitments we couldnt leave until lunchtime Friday. I was leaving from the western suburbs of Sydney and Bucky from Newcastle. We trailered our bikes to Dubbo where we met and transferred Buckys gear to my car and trailer.
Marc COMA doesnt ride to the start line, neither should we!
A mate of mine (Gonz) kindly allowed us to leave Buckys vehicle at his place while we trundled on to Bourke and spent a week riding around the country side. Thanks Gonz! It was cool in Dubbo. What else would a soft core adventurer do but turn up the heater and pull into a fast food joint for a fast meal!
We left Dubbo and headed north west, through Glen McGRATH country and on to Nyngan. Not much happening in Nyngan so we set sail along the 200km of straight bitumen that is the Mitchell Highway to Bourke. The closer we got to Bourke the more roos we saw. I knocked it back to 60kph and we cruised into Bourke and my mate Chinners place. My mate Chinner had a huge shed that we unloaded the bikes in and then stored my trailer and Prado in while we were gallivanting about the country side. Thanks Chinner!
Chinner was also kind enough to put us up for the night. Bucky was given the Chinner King bed visitors room and I was given the double bed visitors room. To top that off Chinner handed out some free beer and we watched a bit of the tele with those blokes who ride around in circles on the tar at stupid speeds. After turning down the air con a tad we went to bed.
"Motorcyclist are always going to be frowned a pond..." an inmate in the AUS group
jtb screwed with this post 07-11-2014 at 10:48 PM
Beastly Adventurer
Joined: Dec 2003
Location: Hawkesbury NSW Australia
Oddometer: 2,213
We got up at the civil hour of 9am or so, had a hot shower and took the grand tour of Bourke. We had a lovely pie for breakfast while sipping a latte at the Bourke Bakery. We did the tourist thing and had a look around before ambling back to Chinner's house to get ready.
North Bourke Bridge
Port of Bourke Wharf on the Darling
Trucks are bigger out west
Chinner suggest that as we were taking a big ride that arvo we shouldn't do so on an empty stomach. While I was doing something inane in the shed with my bike I hear the "loud pipes save lives" exhaust note from a KTM640ADV out the front. He made it on time! Groups one and three are now united. Off to what used to be the Bourke Rissole but is now some type of lunch venue. I saw the crumbed lamb cutlets on the menu and chose them as did Bucky. Every day of the trip I must have heard Bucky mention how good the crumbed lamb cutlets were in Bourke! He loved them.
Lunch over it was time to get back to Chinner's, gear up and mount up.
Finally I throw my leg over the bike, GPS on? Check. UHF on? Check. Bag and pannier lids secure? Check. I fire the Ten up and soon enough we're away on the trip I always dreamed of doing. Thirty seconds down the road and Mr Hard KORE tells us he needs fuel… ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh kayyyyyyyyyyyyyy.
Hard KORE pulls into the BP. I spot a few local lads hanging around outside the servo. I've spent enough time in the bush to know that I shouldn't pull up where they are. I go down the road 50m and pull over. I look in my mirrors and there's city boy Bucky surrounded by traditional owners. I laugh to self and fish around for the camera. While I'm doing that one appears from no where, across the street and asks if my black Tenere is a "Katie Emmmmm". I know that if you engage your gone so I replied "Yep" and he's off to talk to Bucky. By the time I get to Bucky he's convinced that Bucky's white Tenere is a DRZ! The group then proceeds to push, pull, touch, tilt and tamper with anything they can. Lesson learned Bucky.
Now that KORE has filled up we're off! 50km of bitumen starts our ride… I HATE bitumen. The only thing it's good for is driving cars down it to take your trailer to the good riding spots. While I'm getting along I notice two things. Firstly there is a strong westerly wind blowing and secondly I haven't put my ear plugs in. So I stopped and rectified the ear plug issue and got going.
Soon enough we hit the dirt. It's poo, sandy and corrugated. I found the best line on the other side of the road right at the edge of the formed road. We struggled along on 100kph where we could.
Big sky country out here!
Eventually I came up behind what, from the dust, I thought was a truck. As I suit there wondering how long we'd have to wait to be able to get around it… BOOM! A two trailer road train blasts out of the first trucks dust heading towards Bourke. I had just enough time to yell to the boys over the UHF to get off the road as there was a road train coming at them at pace. I ducked off the road and waited for the dust to settle.
Then I hear Bucky in a distressed state saying he's stuck under the bike. We've been riding together for a long time and I've never heard him sound so panicked. I raced back to find him pinned awkwardly under the bike, leg and knee twisted and head lower than his body over the edge. It took KORE and I to both lift the bike enough for Bucky to get his leg out. As Bucky sat in the dirt next to his bike he spied me taking the camera out and made the most miraculous recovery since Jesus himself roamed the earth two thousand years ago.
Bucky limps about for bit, then he gets back on the bike and we endure the rest of the road into Wanaaring. As we hit the tar in Wanaaring we come up behind the truck we were behind earlier as he stopped to drop his dust, we blasted past him.
One of the boys used to work for the government. When you do that, people know people who know people. This ends up with us staying here…
The vacancy sign is always lit.
And on this occasion the shop was shut.
So we unpacked in the secure parking area
Bucky felt the serenity... or was that the security?
The man who works for the government, let's call him "B." was most hospitable! He had bought a heap of meat and salad, stocked the fridge with a selection of beer and best still, had pre purchased us some fuel so we didn't have to wait for the local servo to open before we left town!
Some of B's golden ale… Bucky looks worn out from the excitement!
Bucky cooked up a storm on B.'s BBQ and we sat around telling tall tales until at least 9pm (told you we were soft core). Then I was shown to my suite…
I really don't know why they say this adventure riding stuff has to be hard. Cold beer, warm and comfortable beds and BBQ's… what's wrong with that picture in between rides?
Bucky tells me a woman's work is never done…
Bucky even slept in the old cells out the back. He probably took a few pics, but they're somewhere out on the Strez track, but we'll get to that in good time.
Thanks to B! I'm wondering why it took so long to get into this adventure riding stuff? When we do our trail/enduro get togethers we sleep in shearing sheds! How good is this adventure riding stuff?
The end of DAY ONE.
More coming after I download some photo's and write some more wordage.
"Motorcyclist are always going to be frowned a pond..." an inmate in the AUS group
jtb screwed with this post 07-10-2014 at 03:43 AM
Beastly Adventurer
Joined: Dec 2003
Location: Hawkesbury NSW Australia
Oddometer: 2,213
So we're up bright and early and leave Wanaaring just as the sun is breaching the horizon.
The main drag, Wanaaring during peak hour.
The sun chased us west
Mmmmmmmmmm… red dirt
It was cold, down around 1 or 2 deg Celsius I guess. But that didn't take into account the wind chill. I hadn't got hold of a pair of winter weight gloves and was riding in my Fox motocross gloves and pants. I had thermals on underneath, but was still cold. I had a fluro green rainsuit in my panniers and cracked that out. For the rest of the trip I ran three layers on my bottom half every day. Each morning I'd put the rain jacket on but usually take it off by lunch time and have my enduro jacket as the outer layer on my top half.
Somewhere in the middle of no where in particular
More middle of no where
Finally Tibooburra turned up… straight to the servo.
Tibooburra while still very remote has a few more amenities than Wanaaring
B. even showed up for a coffee! When he asked how the ride was I told him I was bloody cold… he made a point of telling me how comfortable it was in the Pajero cab with the air con set to 21 deg c! Bastard.
Had the WORST meal of the trip in Tibooburra. If you are in town do NOT go for the lamb and gravy roll from the store across the road from the single storey pub. It sounded great, mentally I was comparing it to one I have here in Sydney… It was a hot dog bun with something they claimed was lamb and meat, and who puts cheese on a lamb roll (for any US cousins reading this, we don't use cheese as a condiment over here).
Soon enough it was time to get going so we could hit Cameron Corner with time to set up camp in the daylight and hopefully meet Shane and Freddo before the sun went down. Mentally I had Tibooburra to Cameron Corner as a 240km trip. In actual fact it's about 140km, bad blue, but a positive one. We ended up with more fuel and time at the end of the day.
We headed north on the Silver City Highway (dirt road) before hanging a left and entering the Surt National Park and generally heading west to Cameron Corner where NSW, SA and QLD state borders meet in the red sand.
My fluro rainsuit in action!
Hard KORE was still having drama's with his side stand and was having to put the stand down on the left and then get off the bike on the right hand side…
Stones every where, slippery bastards to ride on.
Close up of the same stones
Toona Gate Road turnoff
The landscape changed continually from black soil, to red sand to clay, to small stones, white sand… an amazing part of the world.
About 30km from the corner we came across this dry lake. It was home to millions of flys.
Lake is up behind those trees
That clown in the green suit is everywhere! I used all the safety colours, my neck warmer was fluro orange from the $2 run out bin at one of the bigger camping chains… BARGAIN and safe!
My ignorance showed at the gate which is the border between South Australia and New South Wales. The other two blokes who hadn't been there before were chasing their camera's for pics. I'd been there four or five times before and it was just an obstacle between me and our destination. In fact I didn't even walk up to the post at the corner this time. Sad case of been there done that. But I don't begrudge them their want to take pics… it was EXACTLY what I did when I first layed eyes on the place.
I'll get the gate boys…
Anytime you're ready…
Bucky was loving it… I was impressed. This was the same bloke who told me less than 12 months ago he wasn't really interested in exploring outback NSW as there was just lots of nothing to look at. I think I can safely say he's changed his views.
On clearing the gate we reach our destination… photo taken by Hard KORE from South Australia of the Corner Store/pub in Queensland having literally just crossed the SA/NSW border.
Hard KORE at the corner!
I rode up to the pub while the boys got their photo's to look for Shane. He found me… walked out of the pub with a freshly cracked and cold beer. CHEERS! Finally here again, fifteen years after we last did it together. Both having been back since.
We decided to set up camp before it got dark. This'll do nicely! No fire needed as we were eating at the pub. We'd just walk from Queensland to South Australia and jump in our swags!
That'd be me in the fluro work top! Can't beat the swag, three buckles roll it out get in. I had sheets and blankets and even a real pillow from home. Couldn't carry it on the bike. Just as well I'm soft core and have a great mate who is happy to drag it around for me.
Why the place exists.
Shane or Freddo got very artistic
The tuning fork machine that got me here and around our whole loop with zero problems, all I did was put fuel in, check air, oil and water and tension the chain every second day as the chain was new for the ride and was stretching a little.
We are the little group on the right. When we set up there was NO ONE to the left of the pic. Within ten minutes of us setting up they came from everywhere with caravans and roof tents and more lights than a major city. You come all the way out here and have to camp on top of everyone else????
Just on dark we wander back over to the pub…
Freddo wishing he had Googles around to help him verify what the old blokes were saying around the table
Couple of these while we waited for dinner time
Then I ordered the Scotch Filet for just $30… you'd pay more in Sydney for less of a feed than this. THIS WAS THE BEST PURCHASED MEAL OF THE TRIP!!! We didn't purchase many due to our on tour chef Shane's abilities in the kitchen.
While eating this shirt was highlighted to me. I have spoken with most of them on the interwebs and even ridden with one or two of them. Small world.
And that was our night before we walked to South Australia and went to bed. Luckily the "campers" had a street light set up and we didn't need any torches to get back to where we belonged. Watched the gazillion stars for a bit before tucking my head down into the swag due to the cold.
Another day on the road tomorrow!
"Motorcyclist are always going to be frowned a pond..." an inmate in the AUS group
jtb screwed with this post 07-10-2014 at 03:43 AM
Joined: Dec 2005
Location: valley of the sunstroke, AZ
Oddometer: 3,361
That scotch filet is the perfect example of dollar differences in our countries.... $30 for a plate is considered on the higher end for average folks and wont have chips....
Nice ride BTW
Beastly Adventurer
Joined: Dec 2003
Location: Hawkesbury NSW Australia
Oddometer: 2,213
2 Spot, you're right. Personally I wouldn't normally pay that, but the meal with four sausages instead of the steak was $22, $8 very well spent! Fuel at Cameron Corner was $2 a litre or $7.57 for a US Gallon... about 25% more than we pay most days in Sydney.
I'll get the story finished later today I hope.
"Motorcyclist are always going to be frowned a pond..." an inmate in the AUS group
Dirt n00b
Joined: Jun 2012
Location: Boise, ID
Oddometer: 87
Great so far !
Chasing the horizon, one road at a time.
Alvord or Bust
Beastly Adventurer
Joined: Dec 2003
Location: Hawkesbury NSW Australia
Oddometer: 2,213
Thanks BB.
It's school holidays down here and the wife has flown to QLD to visit her sister so I've been looking after the kidlets. Hope to get another day up, at least, today.
"Motorcyclist are always going to be frowned a pond..." an inmate in the AUS group
Beastly Adventurer
Joined: Dec 2003
Location: Hawkesbury NSW Australia
Oddometer: 2,213
DAY 3 - Cameron Corner to Arkaroola
Finally we were altogether and the excitement showed, we were up at very dark o'clock. Not so sure of caravanning neighbours would have been all that happy with our early departure. Mind you we weren't the first vehicles to leave that morning. We watched as a group of about four or five four wheel drives left. When they got to the main track two turned left to head east into NSW, the other two turned right and stopped. Maybe they weren't together after all? Thirty seconds or so the two left turners must have changed their mind… 'cause they came back and joined their mates and headed west towards the Strzelecki Track! We had a bit of a chuckle about that one.
View to the east from our camp
There was a little ice on my rear bag this morning… but it'd be worse in a day or two.
About to move out
We headed west with me up front… Fred, the teams official photographer, was in the passenger seat and in the better bits was able to snap a few shots of me mobile, towards the Strzelecki.
There were a few (four to be exact) bad bull dust holes that were identified by red flags in them. I saw them, called them on the UHF for the blokes following on two and four wheels. Some of the dunes had really steep faces on them, I stayed left when cresting and generally didn't have too many drama's. Excepting for one dune where I crested at about 80kph, I was standing. All good front went into a bull dust hole and banged hard when it hit the far end… next thing I know is that I performing a "stoppie" without the use of the brake going down the road at 80kph! It was the only "scare self" moment I had during the whole 2200km of the trip. Next I hear Shane on the UHF, he was behind me and saw the whole event unfold "You blokes better watch that next dune, John's just had a moment!" it didn't help that he was pissing himself laughing… no photo's or anything! I'd just like to thank who ever invented gyroscopic force, because it wasn't my skill that kept me upright.
So I continue west and come around this corner…
… suddenly the pink line on the GPS turns left. Bugger! I didn't see that turn? I go back and find this…
Bugger me! That wasn't in the plan. It was a very new sign. I know blokes that have been that way to get to the Strzelecki and then south.
We have a discussion. You can't go on private property. When we get to where the track intersects with the Strzelecki Track we find a copy of the sign at that end too.
While we waited for Shane to catch up we had a blow and a look at the Strz Track
The track coming out of Lindon station onto the Strz… look ed really interesting too!
Something was growing where it had no right to
Bucky and I discuss the meaning of life in the middle of the track
Shane caught up and we helped ourselves to lunch from the tailgate selection
Fred whacked up the HF aerial
And Shane did a bit of CQ'ing on the travellers net
Fred did some maintenance on the canopy retaining bolts which had loosened off a bit with the corrugations
Bucky's pony waiting to be given it's head…
I have to say I was very impressed with the low speeds the road trains travelled at on the dirt, mind you the Strzelecki was, without doubt, THE WORST road we travelled on during the trip.
Soon enough we had the aerial down and the luncheon stuff packed away and we were off southbound. The Strzelecki is one of those iconic roads in outback Australia that I had heard about as a kid, far too many decades ago. It would appear that I wasn't the only one who heard about it because it looked like many others had been this way
As "tracks" go this was freeway wide.
There was one section of tar in the 150km section we travelled with this sign at the end
No shit Sherlock! Maybe it was for those who camped there the previous night and forgot about the crappy road they travelled?
My view of the view
That bloody white Hilux that was stalking us
Not long after this photo I follow the pink line to the Mt Hopeless turnoff. I see Bucky and Hard KORE parked up where the red arrow is.
There were two bikes just moving off from them as I approached, one fellow on a black Tenere like mine and another on a DR650?? I think…
Anywho, doesn't matter as I decided I'd just keep moving. Shane stopped with Bucky and I moved to the gate (bottom centre of the above pic), I got on the radio and told Shane I'd keep moving and leave the gate open. Could he ask HK or Bucky to make sure they shut the gate? I zoom off. This is where things started to change on this trip…
Around every corner and over every crest the view just got better and better until we set up camp that night! Not only was the view good the track and it's condition made it one to be ridden, not just droned down like the Strz Track we had just left. No words I could utter about trhis track and afternoon would go anywhere near describing it. I know I wasn't dreaming it because we were all experiencing the same thing in our respective helmets/cabin.
They coming? There were some comms issues with Bucky and Hard KORE, so we had to revert to old school… count the bikes and keep going.
Hard KORE being Hard KORE
Bucky loving it… yet to be hit with the bad news.
Why do they tell you how bad it can be AFTER you've finished?
Finally we pull up at this intersection which is the turn off to Arkaroola. I'm told Bucky's bad news… "You what?"… "You lost your mobile phone back at the intersection of the Strzelecki Track?"… "Fark!"…
Bucky looking for his phone… Fred finds it humorous that it's over 150km to where it was last seen.
Turns out Bucky had it out (using it as his camera, just like I was). When the other bikes turned up he thinks he may have put it on his rear bag to chat. Then as they pulled away Shane and I turned up and basically just kept moving. In his haste to put his helmet back on and catch up with us and Hard KORE he just plain forgot.
So if you're around the intersection of the Strzelecki Track and the Mt Hopeless turn off to Arkaroola please have a look around for Bucky's HTC One XL that looks just like this:
He'd be very appreciative if it was returned to him… apparently his computer nerdness rating is zero out of ten. He had EVERY photo he had ever taken still on the phone and they hadn't been backed up elsewhere, even I can do that Bucky!
But he took it all rather well and we proceeded into Arkaroola. My earlier comment "Around every corner and over every crest the view just got better and better until we set up camp that night! Not only was the view good the track and it's condition made it one to be ridden, not just droned down like the Strz Track…" still held!
Up this way
Hard KORE on the juice
The views from the servo at Arkaroola…
The following are taken in the camp ground
The moment Fred realised the snorer had placed his tent closer to the neighbouring camp than ours!
I remember the whole mountain being this colour…
The colour doesn't look as spectacular in this one.
Everybody was feeling the serenity
That night Shane knocked up some steak, train smash and a pasta concoction. It was washed down with a few beers. Arkaroola campsite also had a shower block that we utilised. If you only used the hot tap and could survive on a trickle you had a shower. But I have to say it made me feel like a million dollars, especially after a change of clobber.
A great day on the bike, which ended up in a spectacular camp site. There was no timber around so we for went the fire tonight, but a bush camp was to be had tomorrow night and that meant a fire!
More soonish.
"Motorcyclist are always going to be frowned a pond..." an inmate in the AUS group
jtb screwed with this post 07-10-2014 at 03:44 AM
Joined: Jan 2007
Location: Australia
Oddometer: 20
"The Snorer"
A point of clarification. There were two snorers in the team.
I was just the best of the two
Some say it is the journey not the destination.
I say as long as the destination is a Pub, both count.
(KTM 640 Adv)
Beastly Adventurer
Joined: Dec 2003
Location: Hawkesbury NSW Australia
Oddometer: 2,213
I mentioned no names... wasn't going to either.
"Motorcyclist are always going to be frowned a pond..." an inmate in the AUS group
Beastly Adventurer
Joined: Dec 2003
Location: Hawkesbury NSW Australia
Oddometer: 2,213
Day 4 arkaroola to yunta
Day 4
Overnight it was really cool! Probably the coolest night of all those while we were away.
Hard KORE had been throwing the talcum powder around… not really. I can confirm that this was in fact frost.
My swag had ice on it to…
Freddo didn't really want to come out of the bat swag (he likes sleeping upside down i.e. head lower than his feet)
The prior evening I had seen the phone box up near the shower block. I grabbed some coinage and up to ring the cook as I hadn't spoken to her since we left Tibooburra. Go in and no coin slot! WTF??? A pay phone that doesn't accept coins! Telstra (maybe Telecom???) cards only. I last had one of those about 12 or 14 years ago… so here's some living history:
We had spoken the night before about making today a "get up and go when we are ready day" as we only planned to ride down to be within 50km of Yunta. So we did exactly that… I think we left about 11am, after we refuelled and re-aired (thanks Fred!).
We stopped on the way out for the traditional owners to admire Bucky's Tenere
Even though we rode in on these very same roads less than 24hours earlier they looked very different in the midday light as opposed to the sunset light yesterday. I'll repeat myself "Around every corner and over every crest the view just got better and better until we set up camp that night!"
Great pic this one Hard KORE!
And that was Arkaroola! I'll be going back for sure. Still haven't seen the Flinders Ranges but the Gammon Ranges go off!
So we get to the road where we turned off yesterday afternoon, instead of turning left and heading back to Bucky's phone we turn right go 200m before turning left to head south to Yunta and our overnight camp. Only problem was one of our number didn't turn left and continued west towards Copley on the Copley Road. There was some chatter on the UHF about a car coming toward us by Hard KORE or Bucky… at some stage the vehicle that had two pairs of eyes realised that they weren't on the same track as the rest of us. The navigator in the Kamaz had fallen asleep on the job! It took a good 15-20mins to have them tag onto the back of the bunch… don't know where they would have ended up if we didn't have the UHF's!
This is where I waited for the Kamaz
Still can't see Shane's dust
Shane's over there in those hills somewhere
Given our late start this morning we agreed to stop for fruit and anything else that was easily obtainable over the tailgate. Nothing like apples and oranges in the middle of the serenity! This was our lunch stop location
The rest of the day was spent racing the sun, while we were heading south towards Yunta. About 60km north of Yunta I came across a very well timbered area, close to the road. Knowing that we would be trying to get an early start in the morning I wanted to minimise the number of kay's we'd do before we pulled up at Yunta to refuel before the drag across the 200km of bitumen from Yunta to Broken Hill. Surely there'd be more timbered areas further south? This couldn't be the only one?
Soon enough it thinned out and it was back to the open country. Just as I made the decision to take up the next good spot I found we came across these ruins.
Apparently remnants of a mine and its facilities from days gone by. I didn't stop, I was on a mission. KORE and Bucky had a bit of a brief look. I rolled on a bit further and found what appeared to be a promising creek line. Rode off the road for a closer look, no timber and very visible from the road. Went about 500m up the road and did the same thing along the same creek. This time I found it! I don't mind saying I have a bit of a knack for finding good bush camps…
KORE, Bucky and I started collecting firewood. One of them suggested that we shouldn't do too much in case Shane didn't like the camping spot! What? Fark Shane! He'll be camping here. To reinforce that we lit the fire in a good spot and continued getting the wood in.
Nice photo of camp KORE! The road was up the hill behind KORE when he took this pic, about 200m.
Soon enough Shane turned up wondering if I'd just gone onto Yunta to camp beside the highway? No way Jose'! Turns out though he was happy enough to camp here!
The road wound its way left to right from the trees above Shane's windscreen all the way to the right, the other side of the crest of the hill. Nobody knew we were there. Just how I like it.
Good times!
It really doesn't get any better than this!
Bucky feeling the serenity
These tenting blokes don't know what they're missing having something between them and the sky out here at night!
Fred! Fred! Put down the Coca! You've obviously had far too much, especially as it's nearly your bedtime…
Then the sunset started (OBVIOUSLY NOT IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER... but you get the drift.)
You can never have too much reflective tape around the fire!
We had some really hard S.A. timber we burnt tonight. It burnt slow and hot! It was so good Shane dragged it around for the next two days in readiness for our next bush camp up near White Cliffs somewhere. But we also left a nice pile of it there because it was so slow burning, so if you're in the area make sure you camp there!
"Motorcyclist are always going to be frowned a pond..." an inmate in the AUS group
jtb screwed with this post 07-11-2014 at 03:39 PM
Beastly Adventurer
Joined: Dec 2003
Location: Hawkesbury NSW Australia
Oddometer: 2,213
Day five
Woke up to a cracking morning! It was VERY brisk…
Ice on the rear bag again
And the swag, though I have to say it looked more like the rear bag ice in real life…
We were just over 1000km from the east coast and our homes but we did notice that the sun took until about 8am to come up over the flat horizon each day.
Note the frost in the gully over Hard KORE's tent!
So we had a snappy breakfast, decamped and were soon on our way. We all got back onto the road and got going. Shane was about 30 seconds too late or too early and was fronted by a woman in a Hilux about what he had been doing... turns out the property is owned by some huge company and she was somebody or others wife. He told her there was no badness happening, that it was getting dark and they needed to camp up. Eventually she was happy enough with the explanation and let him go about his business.
Waiting for Shane after his "talking to"…
We came around a bend to be confronted by a line of fog in front of a small range, it was awesome in the soft morning light. But it was freezing to ride through!
Hard KORE dives in at the deep end, he shows no fear!
Fred got me going in at the deep end too!
And before too long we hit Yunta. It has a brand new BP servo/roadhouse that wasn't there when I was last here about ten years or so ago. Fuel prices were around what we paid in Sydney! So was the nationality of the bloke behind the counter.
My phone was going off the dial receiving and sending texts that I had created an sent to mates as I went along boasting about where I was and what we were doing. We made the required phone calls to home and got moving on the WORST type of road there is on an adventure ride. BITUMEN. It was a 200km two hour drone east from Yunta to Broken Hill. I hate riding on tar! Tar is for vehicles towing trailers full of dirt bikes to the dirt. I had looked at other options but in the interest of covering more dirt elsewhere it was the best option.
Stopped at Manna Hill for a few pics of the old railway station… my old man used to work on the railways as a station master, so I've seen a few railway stations in my time. But in NSW I have never seen one where the platform is at ground level.
As we went through Cockburn (pronounced Coburn thankyou very much… the C & K are silent) I see Shane has pulled up? Bugger. Wonder what's wrong?
NOTHING! He had a bit of aerial envy…
I saw he had the camera out as I rolled in… so I stood up. Don't all adventure riders ride while standing? It was about now I wished I had a spare tyre to hang off the bike as well… that would be really hard core!
Fred was really loving it… well he was on the inside! He doesn't like to give too much away.
What little there is of Cockburn and we are back in NSW with 50km of black stuff until Broken Hill!
Passed a heap of goats on the highway at Thackaringa, they couldn't have cared less about the passing traffic.
As soon as I go into town I pulled over to have a stretch. As I'm taking off my helmet, the very next vehicle that approaches pulls over and yells something out to me??? I pull my ear plugs out and he wants to know if I'm OK and can he do anything for me? I thanked him and he went about his business… what a nice bloke! We'd covered heaps of dirt roads and when stopped we'd barely get a wave out of some passers by, let alone anyone even remotely looking like stopping to ask after our welfare. But in the city of Broken Hill the first car stops???? Thanks mate, I hope karma is good to you and someone looks after you in the future!
First stop in Broken Hill is Bells Milk Bar! For the last 200km I'd been thinking about that strawberry milkshake! When I was living out here over ten years ago I'd brought a relative into town and took him to Bells for a milkshake. He still talks about that milk shake today!
Hard KORE going hard at the selection
Bucky trying to be Hard KORE and Fred loving it as usual!
Other fluro wearers love a milkshake too!
The old school flooring
The local paper, the Barrier Daily Truth hasn't changed.
And there we have, ladies and gentlemen, the best milkshake I have ever had in NSW!
I even bought a bottle of their syrup to take home for that relative of mine, he was very impressed!
Parking opposite Bells
For those who may be going there in future you can find Bells Milk Bar at 160 Patton St, Broken Hill. It's over in the south on the way to the RFDS museum/shop so make sure you call in. I have NOTHING to do with the business, I just love their product! But not as much as Shane who had the milkshake AND the spider!
After that Shane took us over to the bakery that used to be called "Macs oven foods" you can find that at 191 Zebina Street, Broken Hill for his standard Cornish pastie! No pics, I was too slow.
Old mine site on Menindee Road, Broken Hill.
Took the boys out to the RFDS museum as well, can't come to Broken Hill and not see that!
On the way back from the RFDS museum Fred was delighted to spot a real life postie also wearing fluro!
We then made our way over to the Westside plaza to restock the liquid refreshments. And then it was out to Penrose Park at Silverton to grab a camp site.
Hard KORE hydrates in preparation for his trip to the Silverton pub.
The boys whacked up their tents in no time flat and headed over to the pub… I'd been there before and we had no phone coverage with Shane or Fitzy, who was due from Dubbo at any time.
They had to walk across Umberumberka Creek
They found the pub
And do what you do at pubs…
As well as checking out the local talent!
Hard KORE was heard to exclaim "That's why they have donkey food for sale at the bar!"
They also got some snaps of Silverton
Meanwhile I wandered around the park having a gander at the facilities…
Old artillery piece in the park.
The cricket oval
The AWESOME camp kitchen
Jug, toaster, microwave, fridge, BBQ and gas stove/cooktop AND hot water from the tap to wash up! So civilised!
And a train…
Built in 1893!
Shane turned up just before dark and we set up camp… throw swags on ground. Shane proceeded to cook up spaghetti bolognaise that he'd cooked from scratch. I went for a shower and got stuck waiting behind two families worth of kidlets. But I can say the wait was worth it. This was the shower of the trip. Scalding hot, hot water and water pressure that would take skin off. Feeling like a gazillion dollars I walked back to camp to find Fitzy setting up his camp trailer! We knocked that over and went over to the camp kitchen for an awesome feed (again).
We talked some poo around the LED lights on Shane's truck awning and went to bed. Another heavy day in front of us.
"Motorcyclist are always going to be frowned a pond..." an inmate in the AUS group
jtb screwed with this post 07-11-2014 at 10:17 PM
Beastly Adventurer
Joined: Dec 2003
Location: Hawkesbury NSW Australia
Oddometer: 2,213
Day 6
We were up reasonably early, but again not in too much of a rush as we wanted to get somewhere just the other side of White Cliffs.
The start of another fine day in the saddle
Fitzy's Taj Ma Hal on wheels
Note the snorers camp over the back there?
Shane gave Fitzy the breaking dawn tour of Silverton, by all accounts he loved it. But what's not to love about the place?
With a quick run out to the Mundi Mundi plain lookout.
This is the hill mad Max drove down an killed the bloke on the bike's boyfriend (or something like that, it' been a while since I've seen it)
The night before we had told Fitzy of the great milk shakes we had the day earlier at Bells. Guess what? He easily convinced us to visit again. But first I needed air, panniers don't help to make this an easy task! Checkout old mates set up on the truck behind Bucky!
It was shut until 10am (CST) so that meant our departure would be delayed 30mins or so as we had 10am (EST on our watches). But how could you leave and ride all day knowing you'd missed a Bells Milk Shake for 30 minutes of your time? We'll wait while Hard CORE makes up his mind between the Malteser and the Jaffa!
Fitzy needed fuel, Shane would go with him and the bikes would head off for the White Cliffs turn off on the Silver City Highway heading towards Tibooburra.
We made it here in reasonable time, the four wheelers were no where to be seen.
Some wag had placed this near the corner
After taking the pic's I looked closely at my phone and saw that I still had service. Shane's UHF antenna had given up the ghost and he couldn't fix it. So the phone would be the only comm's we'd have… and he even answered!
Somehow the four wheelers had time travelled from the servo and were now AHEAD OF US! Shane had got to the intersection and assumed, wrongly, that we had not stuck to the plan (of waiting for them). So he threw the plan out the window and proceeded. Turned out they had literally just got off the tar onto the dirt about 10km down the road… they'd wait and throw the sausages on for a sausage sanga lunch stop.
There was a line up for lunch
Black is the new black!
Fitzy wields the tongs!
It's the simple things in life, like a sausage sambo on the side of the track, that make a man really happy!
The postie is back!
Fitzy on the move, too fast for the camera man!
How can you not love riding out here?
Pulled up here to search for some wood for tonight…
Tons of wood up the creek!
The landscape continued to change as he rode further north east.
By the way there was only tar around some of the cattle grids, certainly no long sections of tar today! Great news!
Postie on the prowl
Bucky and KORE got into White Cliffs a fair way ahead of the four wheelers and I, as we had stopped and searched for tonights fire wood earlier.
The last 40 or 50km into White Cliffs was awesome and I managed to put some distance between myself and the four wheelers in this section.
Soon enough White Cliffs came into view on the horizon.
Mmmmmmmmmm… red dirt to the horizon!
White Cliffs!
White Cliffs up close
Bucky and Hard KORE had found themselves a nice position on the veranda of the pub. Bad thing was they hadn't watered the iron horses before they watered themselves!
It was chaos that day it White Cliffs. The delivery truck was in town and every man and his dog was in the store/servo wanting their order. Delivery truck on the left
Not much in White Cliffs above the ground. But there is a fair bit under ground, including a motel!
Bucky has been trying to become more like Hard KORE… he
re he lives on the edge by riding from the pub to the servo without a helmet!
The Kamaz was showing some dirt
It was time to get the hell out of town before we lost daylight. I headed out and came across to clumps of trees 2-300m off the road. Perfect as we'd get at this time of day.
Circling the wagons
Swag set up and ready to go
Bucky moved in just over the way
Hard KORE didn't like the hard ground… by the way KORE, don't need no pegs on a swag!
Fred gets snapping
Why would you stay in pubs or motels?
Hard KORE and his apprentice rehydrated on beer, made from beer.
The sun finally settled down behind the horizon.
Rest of the evening we spent around the fire. For dinner tonight the chef (Shane) knocked up curried chicken and rice… you hard core baked beans from a can mob don't know what you're missing out on.
"Motorcyclist are always going to be frowned a pond..." an inmate in the AUS group
jtb screwed with this post 07-11-2014 at 10:19 PM
Beastly Adventurer
Joined: Dec 2003
Location: Hawkesbury NSW Australia
Oddometer: 2,213
Day 7
The view from my swag to the east.
Once again there was ice on the swag
Bucky's machine facing the day ahead
Hard KORE
Decamping… sadly Fitzy had received a direction from the Minsiter to return home TODAY, come hell or high water.
Fitzy and Shane heading for the road. Fitzy turned left and went back into White Cliffs to follow the black snake home. It was a short time Fitzy, I think you enjoyed it and got a taste for it. I'm certain you'll be back for the next one!
Once again the terrain was constantly changing as we made our way to Tilpa.
Bucky back on the black soil
Hard KORE on the black soil
Shane on black soil
Back to red sandy soil
TILPA pub! To be honest, was a little let down by this.
Certainly not much here!
The Darling River was way down
Bucky knocked over a pie for breakfast, he liked the look of the Irish bar staff too
Some history
Bridge over the river Darling. Tilpa.
Beware of kids on the road!
Bucky back on the west Louth Road
And gone in a flash of black soil dust!
Hard KORE goes off the grid!
So many signs for one cattle grid…
Don't see too many fences out here
This is where I noticed my wire whip aerial had gone walkabout. Well it had broken off right at the base. Despite it being spring mounted it could take no more.
Have to say that the run on the west Tilpa Louth Road was very smooth and fast! Loved that bit of road, and it was only just over an hour run between the two. Shane went the east road and reported it to also be a good smooth run.
Bridge over the Darling at Louth!
Downstream from the bridge
Upstream from the bridge
Outside "Shindy's Inn" (Louth pub), very clean, neat and tidy with helpful and happy staff behind the bar!
An hours run tomorrow back to the car in Bourke
The old Post Office
Looking towards the pub from outside the old Post Office.
View across the bridge towards the west road
War memorial in park across from the pub
Found this shower block across the road from the pub, very clean and tidy, scalding hot hot water
Available for use for the princely sum of a donation to the RFDS at the pub. The pub also had showers for use at $5 a pop. I gave my $5 to the RFDS. The other lads report that the shower at the pub was also very good.
Louth Public School
I had a rather spirited run from Tilpa to Louth and fuel consumption wasn't anywhere within my mind. It was though when I rolled up to the pub at Louth and saw this…
Nice bar lady let me spit chips for a bit, before telling me that a further 20m down the road was a new pump! Ooops.
Soon enough Shane and Freddo turned up. We relaxed a bit before moving down to the free river camping area and claiming a spot.
This'll do me.
The sky always impressed me with how blue it was! I was actually trying to photograph the bird but that didn't work out for me.
Fred enjoys the view
The view
This is why we ride all the way out here
Cocky's in a paddock
Many moons ago the founding father of Louth lost his first wife. While married to his second wife he built a super expensive monument to his first wife. Apparently it was designed so that on the date of her death the setting sun shines off the monument straight onto the front door of the homestead (no longer there). We got a bit of sun, but the only clouds in the sky were in front of the setting sun. But you get the idea
Cocky's on the communication tower
Walking back to camp
Tonight for dinner Shane knocked up some Chile Con Carne! It was awesome! Bucky ruined his by putting hot sauce on it. On the bottle the hotness rating was shown as 15/10! He was warned…
After dinner it got even better! He had been dragging a camp oven around for a week, we hadn't used it. Shane said it was for cooking scones. Cooking scones? Have you got jam and cream? Yep. Real cream? Yep. What are we waiting for? So he just knocked together a batch of scones. His first use of the camp oven was pretty bloody good.
Camping in the bush doesn't get any better…
Bucky and Hard KORE went up to the pub. Shane, Fred and I talked poo around the fire before jumping into the swags. The last day was in front of us.
"Motorcyclist are always going to be frowned a pond..." an inmate in the AUS group
jtb screwed with this post 07-11-2014 at 10:20 PM
Beastly Adventurer
Joined: Dec 2003
Location: Hawkesbury NSW Australia
Oddometer: 2,213
Day 8
Up before the sun one last time. We didn't have breakfast as it was only a short sprint of 99km up to Bourke and Chinners place where we left the truck. The plan was to cook our bacon and eggs on Chinners BBQ.
With a bit of light on the subject
The view as we headed north east into the rising sun and into Bourke
Bucky gives the final thumbs up for the trip
Where we came from
Where we are going
Kamaz pulling up
From here it was a short run into Chinners. Bucky and I loaded our bikes on the trailer and managed to have a shower and change while Shane and Fred knocked up an awesome feed. Chinner who treats his body as a temple didn't partake. I to treat my body like a temple. The temple of doom!
Soon enough it was time to leave and we endured the four hour drive back to Dubbo where Bucky and I unloaded his bike from my trailer and onto his. We thanked Gonz for looking after Bucky's trailer and car. I think Gonz is thinking about getting back into the Adventure Riding game… if you do Gonz, you can ride with us anytime.
Thanks to Gonz and Chinner for looking after our gear/vehicles while we were away!
Thanks also to Shane, Freddo, Bucky, Hard KORE, Fitzy and his daughter Tara for a great trip! Bucky has updated his phone to a new SONY experia that he tells me is water and dust proof! He didn't mention anything about being loss proof though!
Already mentally planning the next one. Hope that all the same crew is available! Thanks men and Tara.
"Motorcyclist are always going to be frowned a pond..." an inmate in the AUS group
jtb screwed with this post 07-11-2014 at 10:47 PM
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