DAY 19
Week 3
TERRANORA (New South Wales, AUS) to PACIFIC PARADISE (Queesnland, AUS)
Thursday November 23rd, 2006
TODAYS MILEAGE – 140 miles or 225 kilometres
TRIP MILEAGE – 3408 miles or 5485 kilometres
It's turkey day!!! 
Yeah that's right, it's Thanksgiving and although a very significant public holiday in the United States, it barely rates a mention here in Australia. In years past, I would head over to my good mates Sipper & Ruth's for an afternoon of getting fat, dumb & happy on turkey with all the fixings, followed by Dallas Cowboys football. Always a great time.
Being over here in Gods own county, the First Test of the Ashes series got underway at the 'Gabba and anyone with even a passing interest in sport, would be sneaking glances on the idiot box or snatching sound bites from the radio, as we all want to give the Poms a bit of a touch up. C'mon Aussie C'mon.
The plan for the day was to head North up to Southport (Queensland) to catch up with a couple of mates of mine – Randall "Queenie" Quinlivan and Ian "Bozo" Bowie. We all played bit of footy together with Westies and although Bozo couldn't make it, it was great to catch up for a chat, as I hadn't seen either of them for over a decade.
From Southport (Queensland) I kept heading North on up past Brisbane (Queensland) and into the Sunshine Coast to catch up with a couple whom I have a tremendous amount of respect and time for, Frankie & Rai Winter. Now I should have known better than to take a fellow Territorians (those of us who hail from the Northern Territory of Australia) directions of "just North of Bris–Vegas" would actually be just ONLY 122 kilometres or 76 miles.
To be honest, I couldn't have cared less as it was simply a spectacular day. Why wouldn't anyone not enjoy the balmy 30°C (86°F) temperatures here on the Sunshine Coast (Queensland). Putting that into perspective, my home town of Alice Springs (Northern Territory) is settling in on its average Summer temperatures of 41°C (106°F), and Boise (Idaho, USA) is on 0°C (31°F).
I know it's hard to believe now, but growing up in my hometown of Alice Springs was a totally unique experience to say the least. There was no TV other than the test pattern to speak of, no beaches although there was thousands of miles of sand in any directions and entertainment took many forms, but usually contained a fair share of elbow bending.
Looking back, it would be fair to say that Westies Rugby was my surrogate family, but I also did a fair amount of growing up with the influence of the "Pub & Club crew", which came about because those of us who were running in those circles actually worked in the pubs and clubs of Alice Springs. Joints like The Memo (Memorial Club), AJ's (Alice Junction Tavern), The Gap (Gap Hotel & Motel) or Bo's (Bojangles). Be it bar staff, security or DJ's – it mattered not, just as long as you were good peoples or had the potential to be.
As with any group of people, especially those in their early twenties charged with dispensing good times by the ounce, at that point in my life there was an eclectic mix of characters from all walks of life. Some were finding themselves, while others were hiding from something, some were running from something, while others were smashing headlong into the unknown. It was these dichotomies that made the "Pub & Club crew" so attractive to me.
The core of the "Pub & Club crew" was loosely based around Rai & Frankie, Ian "Trots" Trotter, Rob "Strangey" Strange & Jordie Duffy. The cast of character went on from there –Napes, Mauler, Widgie, Mel, JC, Milo, Gorky & Lauren, The Adams boys Jason & Danny, Mad Renee, Big Dave Hunt & Loz, Di Calder, Jeff "Mandela" Nelson and Gerry The Germ to name a few. From bushies to cops, crankers to queers, dodgiest to drongos, lunatics to legends. It was like humanities Noah's Ark in that there was nearly two of everything in both sexes.
A funny story on how close a group we were in a town of 25,000. There was an unwritten rule that nobody fucked with Frankie as she was Rai's better half. Not that Frankie couldn't hold her own or anything, but owing to the fact that Rai was big, strong and plenty tough, always ensured that Frankie was never (that I know of) harassed in any way, shape or form. This was also the unwritten rule for any of the girlfriends or females that were part of, or with members of the group. I was pretty serious about this American shiela named Ruth (who later became my wife) and she went out on Friday night with her girlfriends to the SGB (Simpson's Gap Bar) at the Sheraton Hotel. I was in bed as I'd get up at 2AM to take my cab out for 10 hours in order take the rest of the weekend off. Anyways, after a couple of hours of her girlfriends dancing up a storm, Ruth didn't get one fella to even talk to her, let alone ask her for a dance. You can imagine how she was pretty frustrated about this. In her words, she was looking pretty good but no guy would talk to her. She goes up to one of the boyfriends of one of her work mates (I think it was Walshy from memory, who was a team mate of mine at Westies) and asks why she couldn't get a guy to dance with her. "Pretty simple" he reckons, "they don't want to get their lights punched out by Fitzy or his mates for messing with his woman".
On this visit, Rai was off working, which just means I'll have to return again just to see if he's still paying the hairdresser a search fee. Frankie and I spent many an hour reminiscing of our formative years and chatting about where we've been, where we're headed as well as some of the dreams and dramas. A great way to spend an evening.
I think it's a great thing to see where we are now and the lives we lead 20 years down the track. For Frankie and Rai, they have two gorgeous kids Dirk (16) and Maddie (14), a house on the coast, two dogs, a budgie which adds up to their own piece of paradise and good on them. Frankie and I agreed that we would never swap the time we had in the Alice, as at the time we didn't know it, but it became a big part of who we are. Having said that, we don't miss it enough to want to return on a permanent basis, considering all that's happened since we left.
• TERRANORA (New South Wales, AUS)