The Steamtug Blog

The time has come, when living by motorcycle only is no longer funny. So in preparation for the coming Winter, I have brought a new car. It’s nothing really special, a Mazda 3 but has the sports pack with the leather seats, leather sports steering wheel, and the most essential, the Bose 10 speaker premium sound system. It even has a “fully sick sub woofa” which is mounted into the spare tyre in the boot!

Riley and I spent last night setting up our phones on the blue tooth, building our phone book entries etc. I am finishing work early today, and going to drive it to Adelaide to break her in! Should be a nice Easter break. I thought with the house all boxed up for Easter holiday, that the solar panels would make pure profit for the coming week. Then I found out that Mitch and Riley are coming home. They will probably be having spa baths, and parties while we are away and use more electricity than if I had just stayed home! Oh well, at least I will have a good time while away. I am hoping to see the paddle steamer “Industry” at Renmark and the Humphrey pump at Cobdogla. It’s an engineering marvel, like one of those things you see in old text books and say to yourself “that can’t work…” but the irrigated vast areas of the riverina with it for a long time.

Heading West

So we headed along the coast, trying to get some miles down even though I was tired, coming straight from work. We got a few hours done, and pulled into Port Fairy. This is a little ship harbour on the southern coast. We got a room at the Caledonian Hotel, built in 1844. It proudly states, it’s the oldest licensed hotel in Victoria, built in 1844, and I got to thinking how old that was as I brought a big pint glass of Guinness at the bar, and carried it back to my room to drink, then thought about the arrival of my family to Australia was still 2 years before this pub was built, as my family arrived in Australia in 1842, and settled in Heywood Victoria. Now this may not seem such a long time to English people, but this was when the area they settled into was vast, remote and pioneering spirit would have been needed to survive there. I recently read the book about the Burke and Wills expedition to find the inland sea in the centre of Australia, they really had no idea what was in the centre of this county, and that was 20 years later, in 1862. It was even before the gold rush in the 1850’s! So I find my family history quite fascinating. My family were farm labourers, and I read once that my Great, great Grandpa Billy Dye, the first of our family to be born in Australia was famous in the Western District for his hand made stock whips. His children found employment with the early Victorian Railways, and they  lived in a house near the railway station in Heywood, and they named the street “Dye” Street after our family.

Don’t drink beer in Adelaide!

We stayed at the big hotel on Glenelg Beach, the Stamford. The bar there advertised pints of beer for $8. I thought this a little dear, but for the type of venue expected to pay a bit extra. But when the beer was put on the bar, I was surprised to see it was only a schooner glass for $8. Oh, I thought I must be mistaken and began to drink. But the further I got down the glass, the more angry I became and was convinced I had been cheated! We sure looked small when I compare the memory of that pint of Guiness in Port Fairy. When I challenged the barman that he had made a mistake, he rudely told me that this was a pint glass here in Adelaide, and if I don’t like it I should go back to Victoria. So I have lodged a complaint with the liquor licensing commission. We shall see who gets the last sip of the pint!

Don’t park in Mildura

Then, driving back along the Murray River, we stopped at Mildura for a break. I pulled up in the main street and went into the bakery, sat at a big table with my sudoku puzzle when I noticed the parking officer put a ticket on my windscreen. I flew out of the shop grabbed the ticket and checked the parking sign. It said first hour of parking free. So I chased down the bloke, and told him he had made a mistake. He just looked at me and said he had not fined me for not paying to park, but because I didn’t park within the white lines! I told him he can’t fine me for that, and he told me “Oh, I have not fined you sir, I fined the car!” So I complained further, and he told me “I’m just doing my job” and I told him it was a crap job… and he just agreed with me! I took the fine around to the council office and explained how the car next to me had parked too far over, and I had to park like this. They just said, “Just because somebody else breaks the law, is not excuse for you to follow.” So I shut up, and paid up. Just be careful when parking in Mildura.

Sorry about all the negatives, but I really did have a nice time anyway!