PROLOGUE
15 April
In June of 2001, Motorcycle Bob attended the Rotary International
Convention in San Antonio, TX. During the convention, the idea of an
Australian ride germinated. And as always happens with Bob, volunteers
offered to join him.
During the past 6 months Bob, Walter, Bill, and Jon have each been
working on the logistics of the Australia Ride. Bob's motorcycle, with
sidecar, is currently in an ocean-going freight container heading to
Brisbane. The team is now gathering all that they need to bring.
Items like tools, GPS receivers, cameras, voltage converters,
and some good paperback books for the 14+ hour flight.
The team will arrive in Brisbane on April 26th and will have four days to
acclimate to the time change and get the motorcycles ready for the start of
the trip. Bill and Walter will join Bob on motorcycles, and Jon will
drive the sag wagon (with all of the tools, repair parts and luggage).
29 April
We are in Brisbane! The flight was long, and uneventful. Bob,
Jon and Walter met up in Sacramento, CA and flew down to Los Angeles where
they were joined by Bill for the long flight over the Pacific. Bob and Jon were
smiled upon by the seat assignment gods -- they were
seats in business class, while Bill and Walter had to sit in economy class.
The flight arrived in Brisbane around 8:30 in the morning. Buy the
time we cleared immigration and customs, and took a taxi to the hotel it was
10:00. Since there were no rooms available until 3:00pm. we decided to
take the CityCat up the Brisbane River. The CityCat is a fleet of
catamaran passenger boats that take passengers between various locations on
the river, which can be faster than going by car or bus.
Sunday was also a day of exploring Brisbane, in the rain.
Monday morning Bob and Walter spent about an hour on the phone (we have
an Australian mobile phone) trying to locate Bob's motorcycle. Bob and Bill
then went to Morgan & Wacker, the Brisbane BMW (and Buell and Harley)
dealer. Walter and Jon went to an internet cafe to get car rental
prices. Everyone met at the Brisbane Rotary Club meeting where Bob
give a short presentation about our ride, and the status of eradicating
polio from the world.
Rotary Club of Brisbane
30 April
"I love it when a plan comes together" -- Hannibal Smith, from the
TV series The A-Team. This statement sums up how we felt at the
end of the day. At 8:00am Jon and Walter went to pick up the support
vehicle, a Toyota "high top caravan" The rental rate is less than the
rate for a car that would hold all of the luggage. Walter's rented BMW
was delivered to the hotel on schedule at 10:00am. By this time we
knew that Bob's motorcycle was in customs and would be delivered to Morgan &
Wacker in the early afternoon. While Bob and Walter were waiting for
Bob's BMW, Bill and Jon went to pick up some signs for the sides of
the van. Phil Gresham a member of the Rotary Club of Brisbane is the
owner of FotoFast digifoto and donated the signs. Meanwhile,
Bob's BMW was received at Morgan & Wacker mid-afternoon, and Bob and Walter
went down to inspect it. With everything in place, we went to
Brisbane's Chinatown for and early dinner.
Tomorrow we start the ride.
