Bike improvements and cheating on the mileage...

2100km and counting....

Gosh.  Almost done!   :-/

Jocelyn connected me with her friends Mandy and Dave Gillan, and after some debate with Mooka, I was sent by the most direct route to a tiny village called North Star, and thence south towards Croppa Creek and Beniguy.  The road to North Star wasn't the most difficult 45km I'd ever done, but a rough, unsealed road and a horrendous headwind certainly made it the most tedious.  I also became reacquainted with something I hadn't encountered since charters Towers: flat tires.  I was on my fourth flat, about 15km south of North Star when Dave and Mandy showed up.  Dave suggested that he could load up the bike and drive me the rest of the way to his place, and I think he expected me to be all hard core and say I wanted to cycle the whole way.  It was a hot day.  it was still quite windy and I was looking at the 4th flat of the day.  Dave was wrong.

Dave and Mandy and their son live on an incredible spread, and Dave is a full-on farmer who seems to be able to do everything and do it well.  I got a tour of Dave's farm as well as the run-down on everything that concerns NSW farmers nowadays, boiled down into one word: rain.  The ongoing drought is the express or implied subject of all conversation, never far from the surface and always subject to prediction and hope.  Like farmers everywhere I think, farmers in NSW are living on a knife-edge, and I heard many times that a few more years of dry weather will be the end of them.

On the upside, I was treated to an outstanding spagbol dinner and I got to meet a young couple from the midlands of England: Tom and May. T&M are in Australia on a work visa, but it is their stated intent to work their way into a permanent residency status and stay forever. They are very disenchanted with the situation in England; lots of crime and unemployment, no real opportunity.  They both seemed very well-balanced, focused and determined, and for what it's worth, I was impressed with them both.  I think they will do very well.

The next day, Dave and I worked thru a few small issues on the bike, and Dave fabricated this amazing mast and flag for the back of the trailer, reducing my chances of being ground up by a road-train by at least 500%.  The best improvement, however, is perhaps more mundane.

Best improvement ever, full stop.

The issue of the front of the bike flopping about has been a source of E.X.T.R.E.M.E irritation for me since I bought the bike.  The front is loaded up of course, so as soon as it flops one way or the other, the bike typically falls over, resulting in profanity.  Since the attachment of the trailer, it's been even more maddening, if that's even possible.  After a little discussion, Dave drilled a hole in the front tube, cleaned the shavings from the upper and lower bearings and fitted a pin in the tube.  Voila!  A fork-lock is born and I swear I could hear cherubim singing through the streaming sunshine in the clouds.  Irritation reduced.  Quality of life improved.  Awesome!

So by that time, Mandy had returned from town and she was kind enough to treat me to salmon sandwiches for lunch, which were fabulous.  Dave loaded the bike+stuff on the back of his ute, and drove me (took a very small amount of convincing) to Beniguy, where I rode the last 4 or 5 klicks to Xandra and Mooka's place.  Another great day!

Thank you Mandy, thank you Dave.  I hope to see you again soon....