It’s a bit long but I hope you all enjoy the read…
The day before the trip I had to ride from Strathpine to Nerang to have the radiator replaced on the wife’s new (2nd hand) ute.
This was supposed to be a quick job after which I’d get home by 13:00 to get ready for the ride and load the bike… the repair took a bit longer and we didn’t get home until 16:30.
I got home and as I was taking off my gear I noticed smoke start to flow out from under the seat and out of the right hand faring pocket,
turns out when I placed the iPhone charger in the pocket the USB connection fell into the cigarette lighter (power outlet) and fried the thin wires all the way to the fuse.
So I removed the power unit checked all other wires that had been effected (only a little damage to outer casing or shielding) and fixed damage with electrical tape.
Then shot down to JayCar and got a new (and better) system and fuses.
I finished the install at 21:30 and finally got to load the bike (all done and in bed by 23:00)
I woke up eager to go for the ride and found that the wife was still feeling very sick, she opted to stay home but told me to go and have fun. (She’s a good sort
)
At 05:30 Gaz arrived and after a bit of a chat we headed off.
First stop was at 07:00 at the Oz Fuel service station in Yamanto to meet up with Whizz and his mate.
We arrived and fuelled up the bikes then parked in the car park off to the side, after a while I wondered out the front of the station for a smoke and spotted Whizz and his mate parked on the service road.
We had a bit of a chat then noticed it was 07:15 and decided we should get geared up as Diesel and company should be heading past any minute.
As Gaz and I were gearing up Whizz pulled in and (after a little incident
) advised the group had just gone past and he took off to catch up, Gaz and I took off a minute of so later.
As we were riding along a B double truck pulled out ahead of us and started to drive along at about walking speed.
We slowed down and the truck pulled over a little.
I looked for a hand coming from the driver’s window to wave us past, but no hand.
I decided to overtake anyway (as I couldn’t see any other reason for him to have pulled over) and shot forward with Gaz following behind.
I went past no worries but Gaz got a bit of a scare as he was slower on the acceleration the me (I had left it a bit late
) As he was passing the cab of the truck it started to pull back into the lane just as another truck was approaching on the other side of the road.
As you may have guessed Gaz made it past and we continued on to meet up with everyone at the Warwick Truck Stop without any further issues.
We pulled in and discovered that Whizz and his mate were the only ones there. The group that had gone passed weren’t with us.
A little while later the other guys started to arrive and we all got to meet up with old friends and new and look at some of the farkles and mods (Tipsy’s Hwy Blades) then it was time for a feed and Gaz to fuel up his tiny 17 litre tank again.
After the feed we all headed off. Gaz and I made our next stop at the BP in Tenterfield to fuel up and have a smoke and then decided to cruise on to Glen Innes for lunch.
After a bite at KFC we continued on to Inverell and checked in, Gaz headed over to meet up with the guys he would be sharing a cabin with and I headed over to set up my tent.
After setting up the tent we all had a chat took some pics of all the STs and then Gaz and I headed out to town to pick up some refreshments, stoped by the pub and were directed to Liquorland where we picked up a carton of crown lager. On a side note the carton will fit in the top box.
Then it was back to sink a few brews and chat to all the guys, check out the mods people had done and show off mine.
Then a brilliant dinner, some more drinks and chats then as everyone had gone to bed I did also. The Redverz tent was awesome and the -7 degrees sleeping bag worked a trick.
I had a bit of trouble sleeping as my uvula had swollen (think I might have picked up a bit of the flu from the wife
) but managed to sleep on and off through the night until… in the wee hours of the morning as I was having a drink of hot water I passed out and spilt the water through a quarter of the sleeping bag. I woke about an hour later to discover I was sleeping in near frozen water.
Fortunately the sleeping bag opens up to become a doona, so tossed the wet half to one side and slept under the other half until about 06:30 when Rob woke up and gave me some coffee. (Thanks mate
)
A little later the Lions Club arrived and cooked up an awesome breakfast.
After breakfast and chatting with people for a while it was time to pack up and say goodbye to everyone.
Gaz and I headed off at around 09:00 and got stuck behind about a kilometre of classic cars and caravans travelling along at 20km under the speed limit.
We ended up overtaking them and continued on our way, stopped for fuel at Tenterfield and as we continued spotted the guys at the Blue Belle Café down the road, gave a nod and a rev of the bikes and continued on to Warwick for feed (and more fuel)
Waved to a number of amazing ST legends heading past while I had a smoke after which it was time to hit the road again.
The final stop before home was at the Mobil on the Cunningham Hwy just past Willowbank onramp. We watched all the crotch rockets speed past (apparently there was some big race on) and fuelled up.
Made it back home (Strathpine) at about 16:30 and had a bit of a chat to Gaz before he continued on to Caboolture.
Over the whole trip counted a bit over 20 dead roos/wallabies on or near the road
and clocked up just over 900 km.
And finally a massive thanks to Streak and everyone that organised the RTE and also to everyone that attended, you all made this trip awesome.
Pics @:
http://s1075.photobucket.com/albums/w435/ShineyOzSTOC/Shiney%20s%20trip%20to%20Inverell/Cheers
Shiney
