The big road trip

 

13 days.

 

3125 kilometres.

 

About 200 litres of fuel.

 

4 state border crossings.

 

Too many great social occasions to count.

 

Several great new friends!

 

This is how one might summarise my trip which ended yesterday A good way to try out the "endurance factor" of my new car, and it was all smooth sailing, as you’d expect with the Toyota Corolla. Some of the highlights:

 

• Seeing my 5 year old nephew Reuben and 3 year old niece Jacqueline for several days (having been deprived of their company during their 6 month absence in Canada), as well as the rest of the immediate and extended family for various amounts of time. These kids are so delightful.
• Spending Mothers’ Day (most of it) actually with my mother and other family – this is a rare occasion these days.
• Taking in the movie "U2 3D" with my brother, sister in law, and friends Glennnnnnnnnnnn and Cam. Certainly something different as far as cinema goes. Looked like a replay of about half the concert I saw in Sydney in 2006 (only difference was the South American venues), so those who didn’t see the Vertigo tour would probably get more out of it. Very good 3D effects. Would like it to have gone longer.
• Seeing my lovely friend Mel for the first time in ages at Byron Bay for a couple of days, and meeting some of her flatmates and other friends who are all great people, and catching the end of an evening church service there last Sunday night.
• Getting re-inspired last Saturday in Byron to press on toward the 2nd attempt at learning hang gliding, thanks to much observance of gliders in the air, chatting with some instructors, convincing Mel she should fly tandem one day and having a conversation about it all with a guy who I’d just met, who is very keen, long into the night back at the house on Sunday. There will soon be a post at hanggliding.org all about this!

I was also returning to Mum and Dad’s home for the first time after my long and agonising stay there with my busted arm including the hospital stay that I was very happy to get out of alive. Happy to say this occasion was a much more pleasant one overall (though Christmas was pretty good when it occurred during my previous visit). Thanks to everyone I spent time with for making it such a memorable trip. Thanks too Mel for the Rick Pino CD 🙂