Thankyou Mesa Arizona

[SirTanon]

Originally Posted By: Linctex
Folks in the USA generally love Australians.

I have made a lot of friends that live in NSW, that's where I'm headed if I ever make it to Oz.


Indeed! I love them so much, I married one

 

[PimTac]

Travel is perhaps the best eye opening experience everyone should have. The students will never forget their time in a foreign place. I know of a student who just got back from Hiroshima on a exchange program.

You will get more education traveling for a couple of weeks than you will ever get in any classroom.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: Reddy45
Shannow have you ever been to the states? You can come and eat BBQ and shoot guns and be confused by our measurement system LOL.

Yeah mate, we love it.

2010 (now) wife and I went to NY (she won a trip), to stay 5 days, and have a lunch with author Paulina Simons. We convinced the company to drop us in SF for a week on the way back.
We met Gary Allan, and XS650, and a co-moderator on the screamforme. Hired a Camaro, and drove to Reno, down one side of Lake Tahoe.

2014, the 4 of us went over for wife and I to get married (legitimately, in Vegas). Couple of days in the two Disneylands, hire a car and drive to Vegas, got married. Moved on to Anthem, Sierra Vista (did tombstone), Elephant Butte, Socorro, Roswell, Albuqyuerque, Flagstaff, Vegas (pick up paperwork), SF, then Waikiki for 5 days.
We met tempest, moribundman, and the other co-mod from screamforme.

2010 - Donner pass.


2014

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: AZjeff
What part of her trip really stands out and where all did she go? And props to you dad & mom for letting her go, that's a long way apart.


Apparently (and it shocked us) the Coyotes versus Sharks Ice Hockey game.
Loves her host family.

 

[SZR48207]

Shannow I think you hit all the high points. Big Boy burgers, driving Camaros, 6 shooters, and Vegas.

We'll arrange a BITOG group trip to Australia. Hope you have enough rooms in your house for a bunch of oil nerds to sleep over! (jk)

 

[AZjeff]

Not surprising about pro hockey. You don't get a sense of how fast the puck moves on TV and how they can skate is amazing.

Sounds like your 2014 trip would be hard to top.

 

[Shannow]

Jeff,
one of the silly highlights of the trip was that the guy who ran the shooting range in Tombstone (BTW, that's an around the neck wallet full of passports, not a gut when I look at the pics) was Kevin Rudd, same as our former PM. I gave him a 10 pack of tea bags, the blend of which was developed BY Kevin Rudd for a competition by one of the tea companies.

Like I said, silly, but memorable.

 

[Shannow]

Another silliness from the 2014 trip is that I did all the driving, and in the desert could see the small black and white roadkill from a LOOOOONG way away...enough time to sneak the HVAC onto full fresh air, as we sailed through the plume of a dead skunk...they still tell everyone how mean I was.



You haven't lived until you've got that through the car.

 

[AZjeff]

Originally Posted By: Shannow
You haven't lived until you've got that through the car.


Glad you were able to provide that annoyingly commonplace experience. It's amazing how far the skunk plume (good word) will travel before dissipating with the right conditions. It can fill up a house 1/2 mile away from the release zone. You have animals with similar skills there?

 

[jimbrewer]

The Aussies are this country's best ally, and that's just a statistical fact.

More than that, their outgoing, rough-and-ready face that they present is very appealing, at least to Americans.

I love this song. Of course Judith Durham could sing the Sydney phone book and make it sound good.

If the link doesn't go through, google "I am Australian" on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD3SkTyXzcE

 

[supton]

Only time skunks bother me is after I run one over (thankfully it's only been once).

Shannow, how did you take to driving in the US? I drove once in England, and it felt really weird. I kept drifting on the road as I could no longer watch the lines in my normal manner. [That and the fact that speed limits were even less of a suggestion.]

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

Originally Posted By: Shannow
Originally Posted By: Reddy45
Shannow have you ever been to the states? You can come and eat BBQ and shoot guns and be confused by our measurement system LOL.

Yeah mate, we love it.

2010 (now) wife and I went to NY (she won a trip), to stay 5 days, and have a lunch with author Paulina Simons. We convinced the company to drop us in SF for a week on the way back.
We met Gary Allan, and XS650, and a co-moderator on the screamforme. Hired a Camaro, and drove to Reno, down one side of Lake Tahoe.

2014, the 4 of us went over for wife and I to get married (legitimately, in Vegas). Couple of days in the two Disneylands, hire a car and drive to Vegas, got married. Moved on to Anthem, Sierra Vista (did tombstone), Elephant Butte, Socorro, Roswell, Albuqyuerque, Flagstaff, Vegas (pick up paperwork), SF, then Waikiki for 5 days.
We met tempest, moribundman, and the other co-mod from screamforme.

2010 - Donner pass.


2014




Roswell has cashed in on what was nothing but a crashed weather balloon array and radar targets. Nice looking family. Did you try a "Lottaburger" from Blakes while you were in the Land of Enchantment? Australia and NZ have been our allies for decades and the USA appreciates the support we get from our friends even in not so good times. Thanks to all of you.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: supton
Shannow, how did you take to driving in the US? I drove once in England, and it felt really weird. I kept drifting on the road as I could no longer watch the lines in my normal manner. [That and the fact that speed limits were even less of a suggestion.]


My introduction was the Camaro in 2010, in San Francisco, peak hour, getting across the bridge to head north...that and the windy road was errifying.

2014, the maxima, and the desert was fine.

 

[Shannow]

All over now, the wife and son are down the big smoke staying at an airport motel to meet the plane at 8:30AM.

Last night was in San Francisco, and on a limo tour of the place at night...looks happy enough.

 

[Shannow]

Part two of the story has happened...

The eldest daughter of Rhiannon's host family graduated high school, and hopped on a plane, and came to visit and stay for us for a tad over two and a half weeks.

Had the last week of term attending school with our daughter...her school in Mesa has 40k students, our town is 15k or thereabouts.

I took the two week school holidays off and we did some touristy things.

Shopping in the big smoke (a couple of times in Sydney, one including a ferry ride (apparently a rarity in Arizona).

She wanted to visit the LDS temple in Sydney, so we drove there. I met a nice old guy named George, who on chencking her credentials allowed her into the temple (we had to wait outside, which is fine)...Koala and wildlife park.

Bathurst for a day, lap of the mountain.

Teenage friends (other people from the Aussie students trip) over for loud evenings and card games.

Was a great couple of weeks