The luxury of another short ride, only 50kms from Goolgowi to Griffith, enabled me to arrive by lunch-time, but before leaving Goolgowi I visited the Carrathool Shire Council Offices where I had worked for three and a half years, for coffee and a chat.
- My Office used to be on the right (with screen door) that was now occupied by the General Manager, one of the best offices I ever had.
It was good to catch up with Jenny Campbell again, didn’t have much of a chance to talk with her two nights before at the Hillston Community Centre. Jenny has a funny sense of humour that can ‘crack up’ her staff and colleagues, but at the same time she is a knowledge bank of information, particularly on the operations of local government, and has given me excellent professional advice on a couple of occasions in the past. At the time I don’t think I acknowledged how important her advice and perspective had been when she freely provided it.
However, I missed out again on catching up with Jim Ashton, my ‘old’ boss at Carrathool Shire Council.
The ride to Griffith was very familiar as I would have averaged the trip into Griffith twice a week while working in Goolgowi. But, of course you don’t really appreciate the subtleties of the landscape as much in a car. Certainly there were hills, the kind you have to change gear for when riding a recumbent trike that I hadn’t noticed before. I also couldn’t pick the stretch of fence line on the western side of the road that I recall had been almost covered by wind-blown sand that had allowed sheep to easily walk over it during one particular heavy sandstorm in 2002.
I always thought that he large roundabout at the intersection of the Mid Western Highway and Kidman Way had potential, for example, to install a solar powered sculpture in the middle. In any case it was, once again, worthwhile to ride around the roundabout.
I was also very pleased to be able to ride past farm 1763 (I think) where I had my third and last puncture on my previous ride ‘up’ the Kidman way and, because of insurmountable tyre problems, I abandoned my trip north. I still hadn’t had a puncture riding south thus far because of the better wheels, tyres, tubes and valves and the excellent Tyre Shield ® sealant I had poured in the tyres in Buderim 1,500kms earlier – more about that later.
- Correct signage on display at this winery…
In Griffith I checked into the same room at the EconoLodge Griffith Motor Inn on Banna Avenue that I had stayed for three days a month or so earlier.
I attended to some business with my Griffith based accountant and revisited Toms Cycle World to have my ‘unflatenable’ tyres and valves looked at. I knew that the valves had to be replaced because I had not been able to blow the tyres up with my hand pump since Buderim as the sealant had been too good in blocking the valves. To use the sealant I suggest you also use the compressor based capacity at service stations to clear the valves of the sealant after you have poured it into the tyres. The tyres were apparently given new valves and the all clear after I asked for them to be pressurised to 65psi.