On the road!

Today I took off for Sydney!

The plan was to leave this morning and get to byron bay and stay the night at a place just below there. Instead I went to Geoff's place to collect some things I had left and ended up staying longer than planned.  Luckily while talking to Geoff I had decided to not drive as far today and stop just south of the Gold Coast.

     The drive along the Pacific Coast highway was absolutely beautiful but since I had left a little later than planned I got stuck in traffic and didn't get to camp till after dark.  I went driving through back roads (because I get lost everywhere I go) and took some of the most beautiful roads I have ever been on through poring rain.

     Getting to the site looked like an easy place to park at first till I realized most of the places to park had been taken that were accessible due to the place being extremely muddy.   Luckily I found a spot and after using the restroom the German couple next to me were very nice and moved their van so I could get a better spot instead of being half in the mud.

     One of the reasons I had a late start was because I took a while in the grocery store buying food that travels well and is easy to cook. Thank goodness I did. Because once I got near my site I just wanted to be done driving.    The picture is of my lovely dinner.  It was as delicious as most camp meals are. Now to bed. Perhaps in the am I will take a picture of my campsite. From what I could see of my headlights I'm betting it is either amazing or a swampy mess.

I am Finally Mobile!!

   

New car: 4x4, Turbo Diesel, automatic 2000 Jackaroo 

  I got a car! I am so excited. It has been such a long journey here. The trouble started with trying to unlock my phone. I needed a sim card to do this. The sim card I had bought required a telephone number. I did not yet have a number it was why I needed a phone. Then I get it unlocked and the data didn't seem to work. That was O.K. I didn't need the data quite yet. I finally had the phone number the bank requires to finish setting up an account. 

     Phone number in hand now I could get money to buy a car, right? Wrong! My bank in the States does not do international money transfers. This took me a few days to figure out. Thank goodness for my parents. They saved my ass and went to my bank in the States to ask them what I need to do to get my money transferred. They said just to put it on my debt card and have the AU bank take it from my card. Sounded easy enough. Well I had to convince the AU bank to even try it they didn't think it would work. Thank heavens that it did or I would be going home a bit early in my trip. 

     Money all taken care of now I could start the wonderful process of buying cars on Gumtree (AU version of Craig's list). That was great...   not. There are so many people that are unreasonable and just want to yank you chain. It did not help that I sound like a 10 year old with a funny accent on the phone here so sellers didn't take me very seriously. I think that is where Geoff helped me the most. He was able to talk to them and get straight answers no problem. 

    

A shop Dad could be jealous of. LOL his is just as messy.

 So my last day at Geoff's he took me to see a Holden Jackaroo (Isuzu Trooper in the US). I liked it a lot. It was in my budget and had what I was looking for all except for a Roadworthy Certificate. That I had to wait a few days for to get then if it passed I could pick it up. Well it passed and the now previous owner is extremely nice. Fixing up old Jackaroos is his hobby. He talked me through everything he thought I would need to know about the car and extra tips. One day in and so far I am very happy I bought the Jackaroo. 

    

      Learning to drive on the wrong side of the road is pretty difficult. I keep reaching for things on the wrong side of the drivers seat out of muscle memory and there are so many natural habits I am having to break. It just takes a bit more concentration and my wipers go off instead of my indicators half the time but it is all part of the experience. Or so I tell myself.  

"I haven't been everywhere but it's on my list" -Susan Sontag  

And with a car it will be even easier to get there!

Moving on.

     So. Unfortunately I have had to move from Margaret and Geoff's. They have a lovely girl from mexico coming to stay with them and it is time for me to move on. Thankfully Geoff introduced me to Ian and Susa who I will be staying with to be a trial run for them. They want to try out Helpx and see how it goes (I hope I represent us Helpx-ers well).  They have toddler twins that are adorable but a handful. With Ian and Susa I will be helping clean the boat I worked on the other day, cleaning out their garage and some other smaller things.  
     The day before Geoff, Margaret, the rest of the boys and I went to Noosa National park to surf for the day. I can now say that I have jumped off Flat Rock and into Boiling Pot. Apparently this is something big in the surf world or at least here in Noosa. It was lots of fun, I am slowly getting better and it is always enjoyable to watch everyone surfing. 

Me paddling out.

At peace with the waves...             or whatever.

Waiting to catch a wave.

After a good crash. 

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the things you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sail. Explore. Dream. Discover." -Mark Twain  

I most certainly am not disappointed in my efforts to surf though it is slow going. And even the mistakes I am making along the way, and there are plenty of those, I am learning so much.

Fast Food

     So I just finished my second fast food meal here in the land of Oz.  I felt the differences were a bit noteworthy.    First McDonald's:  here in Australia burgers have beetroot on them. It is a thing like pickles, tomatoes and onions are on our American burgers.  The drink sizes ARE smaller. I thought that was just everyone trying to make us Americans feel like fattys. Also McDonald's  (maccas ) has slushies, how cool is that, and their menu is much less diverse than the US McDonald's menu.

     Today I tried Red Rooster. I was a bit hungry and had lots of time to kill so I decided to try something new and not go to subway where I would have the same thing I would get back home.
     So I went to this Red Rooster and looked at the menu. Now I mentioned I was hungry right? When I saw the menu title labeled "mega box" I thought "That's for me!" I got the chicken, mayo and lettuce burger and it came with fries and gravy and a drink.
      Silly me I thought I would be getting at least a large box of food. It is a little bigger than my hand. The burger was actually pulled chicken with a bit of lettuce and about the size of my palm. I got the equivalent of a kids serving of fries in the states in my box and a few ounces of gravy. I have no idea what the gravy was for. I dipped my fries and "burger" in it and it was absolutely delicious but very salty. Kind of like vegimite now that I think of it. It must be an Australian thing or maybe I was doing something wrong.
     Now I am sitting here still hungry and wanting another of these tiny "mega boxes"

"Eat chicken " -the Chick-Fil-A cows
    Only because I ate chicken today and am missing the overly sized American portions of food.  Oh and I got caught taking a picture of this empty box that had my food. Don't judge me girl, you don't know what I'm really doing!

This weeks update

the kangaroos are behind the cows

     Surfing wise I haven't gotten very far. I've been out a total of three times. 1st time I did ok. 2nd time I stood up. 3rd time the waves were huge, the current strong, and my arms were weak. I paddled out as much as I could but I knew I wouldn't make it out and back to shore without hurting myself.  I think the best part of that day was the dog I met. I seem to really miss how back home we have pets everywhere. 

     I FINALLY got my bank account sorted out. Many thanks to my parents for that.  Who knew that in this day and age my bank in the states couldn't transfer money to an overseas account.  It's crazy! The solution turned out to be sort of easy.  I just got a cash advance from my US card to my AU account.  Not to bad but the banks don't seem to want to work together. I was in the bank so much all the employees began to recognize me even over the phone!

     I'm still car shopping. I'll write a post about that when it is all done. Or maybe I will just write a book it seems to be so difficult and taking so long.

     I got a job! It is just for a few days while I am still in Noosa but a bit extra money is nice.   I went with Geoff to one of his skipper jobs to take a ride up the river on a Dinner cruise boat. When the owner found out I was a waitress he offered me a job to cover for one of his waitress. How could I say no? The boat is nice, the river is beautiful and I could definitely use some cash. So I showed up two days later for my shift and my new boss showed me a bit behind the bar and in the kitchen. We set up for the party (a late afternoon cruise) and got to work. For a first day it went great. Everyone was nice and cheerful. I work again tonight with a bigger party and other staff. We will see how it goes. I'm nervous as usual when doing something new.

"Not all those who wander are lost" -JRR Tolkien
It may be that not everyone who wanders is lost, but I often am.

Its hard to write a lot.

  It is hard to keep this blog up. The last thing I want to do while I am enjoying myself and having lots of fun is sit down and write. I really dislike writing but this will be nice to look back later and remember my travels. It's also great because I can keep my family up to date on what I'm doing and not annoy people with it on other forms of social media. So I will start now on what Ive been doing while slacking on this blog. 
     So. Since I got here I have been struggling to get my phone working. At first it was fighting with AT&T to unlock my phone like they were supposed to have done before I left the US. Finally getting that done I moved on to activating my pay as you go sim card. That they want you to have a telephone number to set up....     Hello! Im trying to GET a telephone number how am I supposed to provide them with one!! I will need to go into town and go to an actual store and set it up. 
     A few days ago I decided it would be nice to get a 4x4 car to get around in instead of going around on transportation. This requires a bank account. I was going to get one anyways but it wasn't an immediate need. Now wanting a car it is.  WELL, apparently you also need a phone number to register your bank account. This is just wonderful and makes no sense to me. I need to go in and talk to my new Australian bank. 
     Buying a car is as difficult as buying a car sounds. It's hard so far I have found a lot  I like but they are overpriced for not having registration and a RWC ( means that the car is safe to drive). 
     On to the fun stuff!! All around town here are little art displays for the art festival going on.
    I am learning to surf, I actually stood up!! 
 On tuesday I made burritos for my HelpX hosts and it was fun. Then on thursday I made quesadillas for them with the leftovers from burrito night. To my shock and horror they had never had nor heard of quesadillas. So I had to explain what  a quesadilla was and how to eat them. Australia really has very little Mexican food and to a Californian this is extremely strange as Mexican is a big part of our diet. 

"An adventure without risk is Disneyland"- Doug Coupland
Disneyland a dream land but this is real adventure.

Im a Poor Planner

   

The other day I went with the guys to watch them surf and take pictures. Unfortunately it is school holidays here and so the beaches are very crowded. So crowded in fact that it was extremely difficult to keep track of who was who in the crowd. I also am not very good a photography and thus didn't get a single decent picture out of hundreds. 
     On the way back from surfing the guys have a tradition of stoping at 7/11 for coffee. Me not being a coffee drinker I got a doughnut. Well I tried to get a doughnut. A couple of days into the trip and my credit card company randomly decided to shut my card down so it got declined and that was plenty embarrassing because I knew that I had plenty of credit left on it. Thankfully it was a quick fix and all that I had to do was hit a button on an email they sent me. Would have been nice if Capital One had paid attention to the travel notice I gave them ahead of time. 
     Australian Rugby league is big here and that night we watched the Broncos vs Roosters. I think it was a lot more exciting than American football. It was actually kind of fun to watch, unlike football lol.

"A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving" -Lao Tzu
I do have a few fixed plans and I am intent on getting there (or I will let my hosts down) and I am by no means a good traveler but I hope to become one some day.