Next stop Hervey Bay. We arrived after a 13 hour night bus ride. Once again, did we mention how stupid this bus pass thing was??? Hervey Bay is where Australians come to die…the elephant graveyard. We have never seen more motorized scooters anywhere else and we lived near Sun City, the place the snowbirds go to die! We stayed at the Friendly Hostel which was only friendly in name. The proprietress was very, very, high strung. She gives new meaning to the term micro-manager. She watched your every move. Jason was scolded for running the water while washing a knife. Next, [View Full Entry]

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After a shorter bus ride with another crazy bus driver (we are noticing a trend) we arrived in Airlie beach, the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands. We stayed in Airlie for 3 nights before our sailing trip. The first night unfortunately we met the equivalent of Debbie the Downer who informed us our sailing trip would be the worst experience of our life. Luckily she was wrong and just happened to be a miserable girl from Canada (probably worked at a call center). We spent 2 nights, 3 days aboard the Kiana, a 60 foot sailboat. The boat held 14 passengers [View Full Entry]

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After an 8 hour bus ride with Nick, our psychotic and probably drunk bus driver, we arrived in Townsville, the launching point for Magnetic Island. We stayed 1 night in Townsville…BOOOOO the hostel was prison-like and the highlight was talking to a 600 pound Samoan power lifter who claimed he had just come in 2nd place in the world championship of Power-lifting. Jason wanted to call his bluff given the accommodations he was staying in but thought twice after looking at his size. Instead we just congratulated him. Magnetic Island is a 20 minute ferry ride from Townsville. It is full [View Full Entry]

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We decided to fly north to Cairns, the northern part of the Great Barrier Reef. We left Sydney on December 2nd, at the airport Jason managed to sneak us into the Qantas club where we ate and drank like first class passengers….little did they know we had a coach ticket. Our genius plan was to travel back to Sydney via Greyhound some 3,000 miles….or 4 million kilometers (still trying to figure out the metric system)…..seemed like a brilliant idea on paper. So far we have made it the Whitsunday Islands, still have 2,000 miles to go…..which equals 30 hours on a [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Sydney early on the 25th. We checked into our hostel (Eva's Backpackers) and began our exploration. Strange thing on the roads - BIG yellow letters telling you to look right. Apparently, Sydney had to let travelers know in writing to look the right way or they would be squashed. So, left is right and right is left in Australian driving terms. We wondered how many foreigners had been run over in the past. We spent the day walking through the Royal Botanical Gardens (Giant Bats Everywhere!), the Harbor, Chinatown, The Rocks and Kings Cross (our hood!). Kings Cross [View Full Entry]

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Finally made it to Poughkeepsie! We got the cats settled, visited with old friends and apparently at age 34 Jason still has chores to do around the house. We had Thanksgiving on November 22nd and the Lipka’s dropped us off at the airport on Thanksgiving Day! [View Full Entry]

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First step to this odyssey, leave your job. We did that on November 3rd. We happily celebrated our first retirement at a little bar in Scottsdale, Arizona called the Skeptical Chemist of which we have little recollection of. Step 2 was finding a foster home for 2 cats for the duration of our journey. Luckily we found that solution in Jason’s parents…only problem there was 2,800 miles between us and them. The solution, pack up a car and drive across country. We did, beginning on November 10th. The 4 day journey was a blur, littered with food poisoning, crack house equivalen [View Full Entry]

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