A big hello to over 2,500 subscribers to our
RoadNews Newsletter. We are in Australia and after a
couple weeks of adjustment time we are back on the road we love so much. You
know which road- The
road that has no end of course.
We have a new section of our web site for our 12 month
tour of Australia. This page will have the latest news and pictures so
do not forget to update your bookmarks/favorites.
Singapore was our last stop in Asia. This is a world
famous shopping destination and we joined right in. We picked up some
lenses for our camera, a new case for our laptop, binoculars and an Australian wildlife identification book for Cindie.
She plans on turning our Australia trip into a big safari.
Flying with bicycles is my least favorite task in our
nomadic lives. Large boxes have to be found and transported back to
wherever we are staying. Disassembling and putting a bike into
a small card board box and then having it thrown around by baggage handlers seems
dangerously unhealthy for something we depend on for our daily survival.
It is probably not as bad as I am making it out to be but we all have that
one thing we hate to do (pet peeve) and boxing and flying with bikes is
mine. I an happy to report that our bikes made it to a new continent
unharmed and the airline even forgot to charge us for outrageously exceeding our
baggage weight limit. We know many other cyclists that have not always
been so lucky and have been charged fortunes to fly with a bike. In 12
months we will be flying to New Zealand and will have to repeat the whole process
again.
Anytime we land in a new continent we experience some form
of culture shock. This time it started with the water fountain we
encountered on the way to customs in the Melbourne airport. In Asia we
had forgotten that there are places in the world that has clean water coming
out of a faucet. This strange contraption sticking out of the wall
squirted a perfect stream of clean
water into the air really took us by surprise. We stood in silent confusion
just staring at it while people pushed their way around us. Cindie
said, "We don't have to buy water again."
After we walked onto the street from the airport we noticed everyone rushing
around with a million things to get done and not enough time to do them.
People in the first world pay a high price for their wealth. A slow
paced life is not as productive but is more peaceful. This new culture and frantic level of activity left us confused for several
days.
Fortunately we became acquainted with a family living
in Adelaide through friends from Tucson. Without ever seeing us except
in photos from our
web site, Ray was waiting for us at the airport when we landed. We stayed at his home for ten days while we settled into a new
world. Thank you Ray and Effie, without your help we would have been
two lost drifters down under.
AUDIO BOOK
Life on the road can have many unexpected turns.
This is just as true in our online world as it is the real world.
While we were in Malaysia we came up with the idea of turning our printed
book into an audio book. We found a professional to record it in his
sound studio and the next thing we knew we had an audio book. The
recording is divided into separate mp3 files for each chapter with the
entire book
over seven hours long. It has
been available as a download from our web site for a few weeks and the initial response has been great
with sales much better than expected. I have thrown bits and pieces of
our new audio book together as a sample that you can download by clicking
Hear 5min Preview(3.5mb)
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