The Rock I pulled out of Alice Springs 10 minutes ahead of schedule at 8:50. My Fastener friends who have traveled with me and certainly my family know that when a departure time is set it’s BIH (bags In Hand) at or before the specified departure time?. A lot of people think The Rock is just outside Alice Springs - in fact, it is 274 miles south and west. The Rock will be my furthest West Point in Australia on the bike trip. I stopped and popped a couple pictures of Connors Mountain which is a pretty good size plateau rock in its own right. It was a hot ride down, 95 degrees was my top temperature recorded but very little wind. I was cruising along at 70 when all of a sudden there were 250-350 ... read more

HOT !!!!!! A couple of people have asked for the donation sight so "For the avoidance of doubt" . Here is the address to donate to Cureduchenne Muscular Dystrophy www.cureduchenne.org/Jimsride Please pass it on so we can get closer to our goal. Thanks Jim... read more

Tennant Springs Supplemental Edition I decided to have dinner at the Blue Stone Motor Inn restaurant "Anna's". Patricia was my waitress she was born in Chile but grew up in B.A. Argentina. Toward the end of my meal I struck up a conversation with two Aussie fellas at the table next to me. They invited me to come over and sit with them. I call them opposite end fellas because Brad (on the left) is from Victoria (Melbourne) and Jim is from Darwin. I think the only other two major cities you can get further apart then these two in Australia might be Perth and Brisbane. They were both consultants working with the indigenous people on employment prospects. We talked about the similarities the Aboriginal tribes and the Aussie's have with the US and American Indian ... read more

Happy First day of Spring....or for those reading this in the NH Happy first day of Fall. The sun is over the equator and is heading toward the Tropic of Capricorn so both those in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) and Southern Hemisphere are getting the same amount of daylight (depending on their distance from the equator). Headed out around 7:30 - I wanted to find someplace to have a regular breakfast. I had filled up with gas when I first hit Hughenden so I was good until I found a breakfast stop. I hit Richmond around 9:00 and found a little gas station that also made breakfast- just what I was looking for and was able to top off with gas to boot. The terrain started out with wide open cattle grazing land - in fact, ... read more

After 8+ hours on the bike yesterday and knowing that I would have 50+ more miles today than yesterday I was hoping there wouldn't be as many construction delays today. Started out at 6:45 – The temperature was down today but a trade off with some heavy winds. I was thankful that I decided to ship my bike and that the Crane Worldwide gang were able to come through for me. Those winds on a smaller R1200 GS motorcycle would have forced me to slow down considerably. Between heat and wind -I’ll take the heat every time. Any of you who’ve driven in South Dakota on I-90 West or East bound know what kind of winds there were today at times. I now have an idea why they call this continent OZ. Over the last two ... read more