As Ride Reports go, looking at the beautifully documented and illustrated Easter ones, this one is bare-bones!
My departure time was 7:00pm EST, which was based on changing to DST over the border and arriving in Echuca for a scratch lunch and brief catch-up thence onwards to Mansfield for the Honda ST1300/1100 Rally. As I moaned elsewhere, I haven't missed any of either gathering, so attendance was a must. There are only two of us who have attended every OzSToc Rally and I'm not planning on letting that other guy outdo me.
Although, as I mentioned during a Dinner presentation, the young larrikin has the advantage of more "life years" up his sleeve than I have.
The night ride out to Goondiwindi was pleasant enough, although the roadworks on the Cunningham Gap are a tad tedious and my bypass road on the north of Warwick was closed (as was the Brisbane Road shortcut in Dubbo). There's a fairly new Liberty servo at the northern end of Goondi which I decided to try. I had the nozzle in the tank when one of the ubiquitous sons of India came running out with indecipherable tidings. I walked towards him, but the reduced distance didn't improve the clarity of his message. His excitement and accent compounded by my terrible hearing (always worsened by a few hours of wind/ road/ engine noise) meant even his third attempt was lost on me. I hung up the hose and found all I needed at the BP. Back on the road I had a thought that a possible issue was his eftpos may have been unavailable, in which case I could have assuaged his anxiety with ready cash.
The 24 hour Dubbo Maccas supplied an early breakfast. I'm actually getting the hang of the app and accumulating points. For years I used the punch card to earn free coffees and when it was phased out had "old person" issues moving onto the app. But like using Booking dot com, there are rewards for loyalty.
The Ride Plan built on Google Maps was going better than usual and I arrived in Echuca an hour early. The corner docket was supplied by a very skeptical barman when I asked for it having paid cash for a drink. After half an hour's chat and a few chips scrounged from our new rider, I was on the road to Mansfield.
Victorians would be familiar with the road from Euroa to Mansfield. While it might be most rider's delight, it was plain annoying following a careful BMW driver. That said, if I had an open go at it, I couldn't have done it much quicker, since I wasn't my sharpest self and much of the the road is a continuous series of tight blind bends- challenging at the best of times. There might be a quicker route from Echuca to Mansfield (and I did go via Mooroopna) but that was what looked most suitable from my Brisbane vantage point.
Having secured the vital End Docket, I arrived at the Rally in time to see the riders dispersing from the Group Photo, dang it! Still, mission accomplished, so can't complain!
My departure time was 7:00pm EST, which was based on changing to DST over the border and arriving in Echuca for a scratch lunch and brief catch-up thence onwards to Mansfield for the Honda ST1300/1100 Rally. As I moaned elsewhere, I haven't missed any of either gathering, so attendance was a must. There are only two of us who have attended every OzSToc Rally and I'm not planning on letting that other guy outdo me.
Although, as I mentioned during a Dinner presentation, the young larrikin has the advantage of more "life years" up his sleeve than I have.The night ride out to Goondiwindi was pleasant enough, although the roadworks on the Cunningham Gap are a tad tedious and my bypass road on the north of Warwick was closed (as was the Brisbane Road shortcut in Dubbo). There's a fairly new Liberty servo at the northern end of Goondi which I decided to try. I had the nozzle in the tank when one of the ubiquitous sons of India came running out with indecipherable tidings. I walked towards him, but the reduced distance didn't improve the clarity of his message. His excitement and accent compounded by my terrible hearing (always worsened by a few hours of wind/ road/ engine noise) meant even his third attempt was lost on me. I hung up the hose and found all I needed at the BP. Back on the road I had a thought that a possible issue was his eftpos may have been unavailable, in which case I could have assuaged his anxiety with ready cash.
The 24 hour Dubbo Maccas supplied an early breakfast. I'm actually getting the hang of the app and accumulating points. For years I used the punch card to earn free coffees and when it was phased out had "old person" issues moving onto the app. But like using Booking dot com, there are rewards for loyalty.
The Ride Plan built on Google Maps was going better than usual and I arrived in Echuca an hour early. The corner docket was supplied by a very skeptical barman when I asked for it having paid cash for a drink. After half an hour's chat and a few chips scrounged from our new rider, I was on the road to Mansfield.
Victorians would be familiar with the road from Euroa to Mansfield. While it might be most rider's delight, it was plain annoying following a careful BMW driver. That said, if I had an open go at it, I couldn't have done it much quicker, since I wasn't my sharpest self and much of the the road is a continuous series of tight blind bends- challenging at the best of times. There might be a quicker route from Echuca to Mansfield (and I did go via Mooroopna) but that was what looked most suitable from my Brisbane vantage point.
Having secured the vital End Docket, I arrived at the Rally in time to see the riders dispersing from the Group Photo, dang it! Still, mission accomplished, so can't complain!
