Keith's Trip

[Sumner]

Keith how about cutting and pasting your Australia trip experiences here that you posted on the e-mail list.  I'm sure others who aren't on that list would enjoy reading them.

I thought they were great and even my wife enjoyed them.  Your driving experiences where great

c ya, Sum

[KeithTurk]

First off going doesn't seem to be a problem time wise... but coming back
kicks your butt...  maybe it's one to many nights hanging out late shooting
the bull with a ton of folks that are just like us, only separated by an
uncommon language.

The Salt has the potential to be something special... thou it's hampered by
the same issues we have at Bonneville.... Weather, course prep, and ultimately
the skill of the dedicated volunteers making it happen.  It's going to be hard
for any North American team to catch it just right... BUT when it happens the
fact is that it's going to be the Best surface you'll ever race on.

My opinion is that certain cars are going to have an advantage on this surface
based on the size of the car and how the engine is aspirated.... Any car with
forced induction is most likely going to do better at Bonneville based on the
Altitude and any Normally aspirated car is going to do better down under at
virtually sea level, so long as it's not the size of Chicago.   The air is
dense there... which makes it great for engines but bad for aero packages.  As
for traction coefficients....  Lake Gairdner might have a serious leg up on a
good year.... the salt down there has some serious traction when it's dry... (
we tore up Noonan's tire just trying to get it started in 3rd gear )

The People simply can't be beat...  If you think about how we treat someone
who speaks with a British accent over here.. they all treat us exactly the
same... extremely friendly and more then willing to pitch in a hand to make
whatever your doing work...  I will warn you thou... they seem to be stocked
with an over supply of some serious beer and have the need to deplete the
stocks on a regular basis so as to keep it fresh....

Accommodations are right at interesting... and vary from a semi nice Bed and
Breakfast Inn...( not fancy but nice and clean ) to a shipping container with
8 bunks and foam mattresses, ( you furnish the sleeping bag )  Or ultimately
you can sleep in a tent if your game to hang out with ants the size of puppy
dogs....

What do you want to know?

[KeithTurk]

Gary Hensley should have something to add to this... but I'm guessing the
total bill for the trip down there was around $3000 dollars total... I haven't
added it up to the penny but here's the essential break down of costs...

1,750 bought the plane tickets and half a rental car. ( the right half
sucked... no steering wheel or brake pedal )

Fuel is around $3.50 a gallon... or 1.21 a liter in Aussie dollars.... the US
dollar buys 1.30 Aussie dollars...  We bought a couple of hundred dollars
worth...

Rooms varied from 150 a night at a nice place in Adelaide to 10 bucks a night
for a cot in the shipping container... splitting it helped...

Food everywhere was outstanding... never an issue.  not particularly
expensive... 10 bucks for a killer dinner at the salt and 5 bucks for lunch...
which was really fair for the quantity and quality of the meals...

Planning while important to some... really wasn't overly necessary.. we kind
of winged the whole thing... and the best part was that Gary was a great
traveling companion... no worries or issues... we both just kind of worked out
what it was going to take to get it done...   I'm going to have to do an
e-mail of it's own on driving down there....

[KeithTurk]

First off it's not driving on the wrong side of the road.... it's driving on
the left.... trust me on this... if you drive on the right your on the wrong
side and folks instantly take notice....

Honestly driving was my biggest fear... and Gary will attest it wasn't
unwarranted... We started out having a ball with it... there are several
things that are different... like the steering column has the turn signals on
the right side and wipers on the left.... so everytime we'd go to turn we'd
hit the Wipers instead of the turn signal.... it was an absolute riot... we
laughed our asses off the first part of the trip... but after a while it
simply got to be a pain in the butt.  Same with driving on the left.... it
took major concentration in the early going... but after a while we settled
into it... but every once in a while we be caught with an intersection that
took your breath away.... seriously it's a bitch kitty to change how you think
about where you should be on the other side of the intersection.

Okay now I have to tell on myself.... I was in the pits cruising the rental
car, after hanging out with some folks for a bit ... I got in the car to
continue on... only to realize I'd gotten in the left side.... so I'm sitting
there and instantly realize I didn't have a steering wheel over here... and
since it had bucket seats... coolly sliding over wasn't an option..... so I
looked around a bit ... made it look like I planned it.... got out... when to
the back seat on the right side... looked around a bit.... and then went to
the drivers side and got in and started off...  I was acting fairly cool about
it... but old habits die hard.... Good thing I could laugh about it.... it had
to look pretty stupid...

By the way it's the left side that's lacking the steering wheel... as you can
tell after two weeks of this junk.... it gets sorta confusing...   My
recommendation on learning to drive over there is to start out from the rental
car parking lot and follow someone going down the road... just keep following
them until you get where they are going and pick up someone else.... inside of
30 minutes you'll get the hang of it and not be to far from where you want to
be.... it's not that big of a deal... but it is a pain in the butt.

Keith

[Freud]

When I was in England my friends told me that if I got lost and couldn't figure out how to get home just go to  pizza parlor, order a pizza and give them your address. When they went to deliver it, just follow him.

That should work down there also.

 

Always resourceful,
FREUD

[JimW]

I found (when I was in the UK) that driving on the left, most of the time, was not bad.  There were plenty of visual cues - other cars on the road, parked cars facing the 'correct' direction, and such.  Two things gave me fits.

1.  Needing to make a left turn while arriving at a 2 lane to 4 lane divided highway intersection when no other vehicles were in sight.  I invariably turned left across the road leaving the median on my left.  Oops.  Now, how do you get back across the median?

2. Meeting another car on a narrow road.  I instinctively 'dodge' right.  Unfortunately, they instinctively dodge left - which puts you both into the same ditch.  (Same true for meeting people walking in hallways or on stairs - you have to learn to 'freeze' see what they are going to do, and then react accordingly.)


One thing my Dad taught me was about an Aussie 'round of beer'.  All of you (say 12) sit down at a table and someone buys the first batch - 1 beer for everyone.  Then the next guy buys the next batch - 1 beer for everyone.  The 'Round' does not end until 'everyone' at the table has had their chance to buy.  No one is allowed to leave during the 'round'.  So, in this case, a round of beer is 12 beers.   Lord help you if you lose track (likely) and get caught in the second round.  LOL

[gazza414]

Glad you enjoyed your trip to the Ozzie salt this year Keith, and look forward to seeing you down here again ..maybe with that car!!

We may need to pray in advance for the rain gods to Plymouth off 1st !!!
Prior notice required OK.

Dont let the driving on the "other side " phase ya ... all of us from the colonies have managed over the years.