Yeah, rest day today so we enjoy a nice long sleep in. Finally fell out of bed at about 8am. Had the three S's (well 2 for Aaron) and burst out into the carpark to find people wandering towards the dining room for breakfast.
After breaky I asked the boy what he wanted to do today because, besides cleaning the Bird, I had nothing planned. I was nearly floored at his response. "Can we go for a ride and have a look around". Here we are with a day where we could go to the beach, see a movie or whatever and even after 35 days of sitting on the back of a bike drifting around the country in extreemes of scorching heat and punishing rain, my boy wants to go for a ride. We sit down for a minute look at the map and find that just 30 km's away lies the "Gorge Road".
In no time flat were dressed, on the bike and rolling down the driveway. It's a nice fresh morning and the road is already undulating as we swing from corner to corner. We find the start of the Gorge road and realise that there are still some damp spots and leaf litter about, so it's steady as she goes. We quickly find a rhythm that feels just right and find that there are quite a few interconnecting roads that are just as twisty as the Gorge road. After an hour or so of roaming the Adelaide hills we came across a wildlife park with albino wallabies in it. Time for a quick photo or two. We head off again and find our way to a 24hr car wash and blast the last week or so of road grime from the bike. Just before we get underway again Aaron asks if the roads are good enough now to "ride properly" and I realised that it was time for "the road is not a racetrack" talk. (I do hope that before he gets his licence he understands that there is a time and place for everything). We dry off the bike and then make our way back to Lyndoch Hill (via the Gorge road of course). Ten Km's from our destination we catch up with a few of the other guys and stop for a chocky milk before heading home.
Once back at the motel Aaron really got stuck into polishing the bike and before long a crowd gathered to spur the little fella on. He really did do a great job on the bike. A couple of the others attempted to get Aaron to clean their bike and after he negotiated a price ($10) he thought was fair( I thought he was selling himself real short but he was happy), he began on the next bike. He kept at it and didn't finish until it was getting dark. Cheryl and Colin were so impressed with his work ethic that they took him into our room and presented him with a nice crisp $50 note. To see the look on his face when he emerged with the money that he had EARNT was priceless.
We got cleaned up and toddled off to dinner.
After dinner, the group were presented with an all expences paid weekend at the property by the owner, Mandy, who is herself a two time cancer survivor, and this quickly led to an impromptu auction, and this, along with some other goodies led to several thousand more dollars being raised. Several speaches were made but the one that Phil Walter made left the gathering silent.
When Aaron and I retired we spoke about the speaches for a while. Aaron then asked if he could send a letter to Mrs Walter. We settled on him sending an email and then went to bed.
Catch you later
Marty.........
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