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Randy and Jody
Australia
Round-Australia bicycle trip 2001
Canada
Other
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5 March 2000Randy has started a two year Graduate Diploma in Internet and Web Technology at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, one of Australia's largest educational institutions with approx 40,000 students (even bigger than the University of Washington). The program has an option to continue study for an extra year and receive a master's degree.top 3 March 1999Jody has just returned from a 3 week trip through Western Australia. Highlights included the state capitol, Perth, and a visit with her family at their pub in Dongora. They are the publicans there. Jody also travelled to the World Heritage area of Shark Bay and Monkey Mia in the North of the state. This area is famous for its beautiful beaches and friendly dolphins. Stay tuned here for a trip report and some fantastic photos!top 21 February 1999Go straight to the itinerary.A few changes have been made aimed at getting us on the road as soon as possible, and moving more of our visiting time to after the family reunion (11 September). Also, we have cut out a few things (like the Queen Charlotte Islands and Orcas Island mountain biking trip to allow more time to cycle the Yellowhead Highway from Prince Rupert to Jasper (about a 3 week trip). Recent research has shown that this is quite a spectacular cycling trip so we would like to incorporate this if possible. We plan to spend some time on Orcas after the reunion though. itinerary top 12 February 1999Go straight to the itinerary.The Randy and Jody World Tour announces its America and Canada dates with arrival in Vancouver, B.C. on Friday, 2 July 1999 and appearances at major points of interest along the way, including the San Juan Islands of Washington State, the Inside Passage of British Columbia, the Canadian Rockies,Glacier National Park in Montana, and Mt. Ranier, Mt. St. Helens, and Olympic National Parks in Washington State. They will depart Vancouver to return to Melbourne on 30 September 1999. Randy and Jody would like to invite family, friends, and cyclists to join us for parts of the trip. The total trip length is 15 weeks, but we have also broken down short segments that may appeal to some people. For example, if you like to ride mountain bikes, you might join us on Orcas Island for a week of mountain biking. If you want to go on a boat cruise, join us on the ferry trip on BC Ferries up the Inside Passage of British Columbia. If you like bicycle touring, join us on a world-class bicycle tour of Vancouver Island, Banff and Jasper National Parks in the Canadian Rockies and the Glacier, Ranier and Olympic National Parks of the American National Park system. Ride the areas best singletrack trails. We have posted tentative dates below, which will be firmed up as the date gets closer and people get back to us. Please feel free to contact us if you are interested in joining us on any part of this trip. 17 December 1998The Melbourne Bicycle Touring Club (MBTC) awarded Jody the "Cleanest MBTC clothing" award today at the annual Christmas BBQ. To reward her, she was presented with a bicycle rear-vision mirror. Jody said she was not expecting the award, but was still grateful. When asked about laundry tips that may have set her apart from the other contenders, Jody declined to comment, stating that she will be trying to repeat the win next year and does not wish to give away any secrets that may help the competition.top 14 November 1998I recently participated in my first Audax ride as a member of the Melbourne Bicycle Touring Club's (MBTC) 6 man team. I was actually enlisted at the last moment to substitute for Glenn, who was sick and not expected to be participate. As it turns out, Glenn was okay on the ride day and started with the team anyways. I must admit to not completely understanding the rules and motivation for the ride. From what I understand, the idea is that it is not a race, but a long distance endurance event of at least 250 Kilometres. No matter how much distance you choose to cover, you must cover it in exactly 24 hours. Each team chooses its own route and starting point so you do not see many other cyclists until the end, where everyone finishes together.Our team chose to start in Ballarat, a country town about an hour North-East of Melbourne by car. We hired a large van and a trailer to carry our bikes and stocked up with food and supplies before heading out. The finish was set for Rochester, a small town near the New South Wales border which is the birthplace of Sir Hubert Opperman, a famous Aussie endurance cyclist from the 1930's. Since I had done no training for the ride, I was happy to hear that the route we chose was nice and flat, and generally conducive to covering lots of K's with minimal effort. The weather was just about perfect, other than a few headwinds. We rode in a paceline most of the way to conserve energy. It was interesting to note that pacelines in Australia rotate similar to pacelines in the US, even though in Australia we are cycling on the other side of the road. By this I mean the leader falls back to the left of the pack. This took some time to get used to as this generally means the pack has to actually steer around the leader as they pass him since he can only go so far to the left without going into the shoulder. The system seems to work better on right-hand side roads, where the leader can pull left into the road (rather than the shoulder), and the pack can continue straight past without steering around him. Another interesting difference was that the cyclist behind the leader (rather than the leader himself) is the one that calls the rotation. This seemed to work fine, although I still prefer having the leader call the rotation for some reason. The hardest part of the ride is staying awake and riding in the dark. We all had good quality lighting systems, but riding till 2 am when you're usually in bed at 10 pm takes some concentration. By this time our team was down to 4 people as we lost 2 cyclists on the way due to a bingle and sickness. A very important part of the effort is the support team. This is a team of its own that travels in the van and sets up food and beverages along the way and provides moral support. Generally these people are the partners or friends of the cyclists, many of which alternate roles every year. We would take a 10 minute break (usually stratched to 15 minutes) about every 30 K's. At 2 am we arrived in Echuca, where we slept in a caravan park for 4 hours before cycling another 25 K's into Rochester, where we finished the ride. Here we had a nice pancake breakfast, heard a speech form the winner of the Ride Across AMerica (RAAM), and visited the Oppy museum.
Overall the ride was good fun. I liked the social aspect of the ride more than the ride itself, but would probably do it again. Since the pace is relatively slow and the terrain flat, the ride does not require great levels of fitness. I think it is probably more important to have a comfortable position on your bike and to stretch beforehand. I thought it would be important to train together, but in actual practice this did not seem as critical.
7 October 1998The Department of Immigration and Multi-cultural Affairs (D.I.M.A.) sent us a letter yesterday confirming my Extended Eligibilty visa. Basically this means I am on track to get my permanent residence (in 2 years)and in the meanwhile have most of the rights of a permanent resident, including the right to work and travel overseas. However, I am exempted from public assistance such as welfare and unemployment benefits until my permanent residence visa is confirmed, which will occur in 2 years assuming our relationship continues. Thanks to Aussie citizens Connie O'Meara and Adam Skerritt for providing us with statutory declarations. Also thanks to (Yanks) Gary Capshaw, Wendy Harbor, and Bernie Miller for sending declarations from the USA.top 4 October 1998The state of Victoria has been without Natural Gas since 25 September when the main (and only) Natural Gas plant exploded, killing 2 employees and injuring many more. The plant is located in Longford, Victoria on the South East coast. Over 90% of residences in Victoria use Natural Gas for heat, hot water, and cooking. Industry such as bakeries, dairies, and breweries are also heavily dependant on Natural Gas and these products have been in short supply since the explosion. The cost to industry is estimated at $35 million per day and over 50,000 employees have been "stood down". Most residents suffer from the inconvenience of cold showers and the added expense of eating meals out at restaurants not closed down by the shortage. Fortunately the weather has been quite warm so the lack of heating is not a problem for most people. The Victorian goverment has estimated services should be restored in approximately two weeks.top 5 September 1998I went to my first Aussie Rules football game last Friday night to watch the North Melbourne Kangaroos play the Essendon Bombers. It is the finals now so the atmosphere at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (M.C.G.) was quite excting. The stadium holds 130,000 people and is an open-air design. If you haven't seen Aussie Rules, it is much different to American "grid-iron" football. I would describe it as a combination of rugby, soccer, and basketball. The field size differs from stadium to stadium but at the M.C.G. is around 180 metres long. Normally they don't play the National Anthem but since it is the finals they played an old recording of it. Noone seemed to know the words though.
The game itself is very fast moving and fun to watch. The first thing you notice is that the players don't wear any pads. All passing is done either by kicking the ball or "hand-balling", which is a technique involving hitting the ball with a closed fist. Also, players have to dribble the ball (which is shaped like a football) when they run with it. The spectators eat "meat pies", drink beer, and yell while they watch the game. The kicking is pretty impressive with kicks of 60 to 70 metres being quite common. With these kicks a group of players gathers under the ball and jump as high as they can to catch the ball. If the ball is caught it is called a "mark", which allows for another long kick. Otherwise, the players scramble trying to set up another "mark". The game doesn't stop for injuries or fights so you will see a few players laying on the ground being attended to by medical personnel with the game going on right around them. Also, the clock counts up (rather than down) which is quite funny and keeps with the tradition of everything being done "upside down" down under. In the end, the Kangaroos won the game 48 - 68.
17 August 1998Jody graduated last week from the Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE with a Certificate in Sports Massage. The final exam consisted of a written exam on anatomy and massage theory as well as a hands-on exam on massage technique. Jody received high marks on both and is now looking to expand her home-based business. Further down the track she plans to sudy remedial massage and expand her business into that area as well. To book a massage, click here.top 13 August 1998The Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA) today conducted an interview with Randy and Jody to determine the status of Randy's permanant residence application which was lodged 90 days ago. The interview was conducted at 2 Londale Street in downtown Melbourne and lasted approximately 15 minutes. This is in contrast with their estimated time of 1.5 to 2 hours. Also, we were not interviewed seperately as I was told we would be. The interviewing officer, Peter James, was a friendly guy and asked questions about our relationship such as where we met and how long we had been in a relationship. He also looked at some photos of our Yellowstone trip in 1995 and reviewed reference sheets from our friends and family who were aware of the relationship over a year ago. The reason for this is that the visa is based on the condition that our relationship be genuine and over one year old. We left feeling fairly good about the interview and we should get an answer within 2-3 months. If we are succesful I will get a temporary visa valid for 2 years. After two years they will interview us again to determine the status of the relationship and if that is succesful I will be issued a permanant residence visa valid for life. Thanks to all our friends and family who sent reference statements!top 2 August 1998Randy and Jody went cross country skiing today at Lake Mountain, about 2 hours North-East of Melbourne by car. We went with the Melbourne Bicycle Touring Club (MBTC) which we have been involved with for about a year now. A highlight of the trip was on the drive up listening to the Aussies get excited about the snow (its a bit rare here). Jody in particular was quite excited as she is from Perth were there is no snow for thousands of miles (although she did work on a ski hill in Canada for a season). The weather was good and the snow was reasonable, but not quite like Washington state. Saw heaps of "snow-gums", a type of Eucalyptus tree that grows in the higher elevations (by Aussie standards 1000 metres plus). We did a black-diamond run called the Woolly-Butt track which was good fun. One of the MBTC members, Tony, gave lessons on skiing technique that we took advantage of. Afterwards we all met at the bakery for hot chocolate and Anzac cookies. Noted some good cycling routes (The Acheron Way) for when the snow melts (or sooner).top 20 July 1998Randy's e-mail address at work is randal@gcs.com . Please use this address if you need to contact me via e-mail during business hours. Otherwise, use the old address, RandyMiller@bigpond.com, which is still active. In other news, note that the cyclist formerly known as Randy is now known as Randal. This is mainly due to a naming conflict at work.top 20 July 1998In an amazing new development, fugitive exile from the United States, Randy Miller, survived a long bout of unemployment and signed a 3 month contract with an actual employer. Mr. Miller lamented, "I have to work again tomorrow", with a sad look on his face. His fiancee, Jody, remarked, "Randy should not have to work in his condition".top 2 July 1998Randy returned from his bicycle trip from Sydney to Brisbane today. He saw heaps of nice beaches and sub-tropical rainforest. Also met some interesting people. For the full story click here.top 1 June 1998Jody received a well-deserved promotion today when Danka Australia Business Supplies Manager, Mr. Rohan _______, offered her the position of Sales Coordinator in a special meeting arranged early this morning. The new position will involve increased resposibilities as well as a substantial salary increase. Jody said she will be supervising a team of 4 people as they attempt to break into the potentially lucrative Easturn suburb market in Melbourne. She asked that her salary details remain confidential. Mr. _______ said that Jody has been a consistent performer for Danka. To send Jody a congratulation e-mail, click here.top
E-mail Randy: RandyMiller@bigpond.comcom
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