Posts By Country




December 6th, 2011 | Australasia

Conversations with the Big Fella…

When things get a little tough out on the road, the Big Fella often feels the need to share his anxieties with me, and today was no exception…!!

We battled through driving rain for a portion of our ride back to Townsville, and conditions were far from perfect, and in some areas, downright dangerous…

Sometimes the Big Fella becomes my voice of reason, and other times he is just a worrying pain in the neck…!!

With the rain coming down, we made a dash for Bluewater Springs Roadhouse to take shelter...

We had just left Bluewater Springs Roadhouse and turned onto the Harvey Range road… We had sat out a massive storm that had dumped three inches of rain on us in under an hour…!!

Things were wet out to say the least… Fearful of being trapped on the wrong side of Townsville by the rising waters of Snake Creek, and Stockman’s Creek further along the road, I had opted to take off before the rain had stopped falling… I was under the mistaken impression that the worst was over…!!

A few minutes after setting off, the rain came down in buckets again, drenching me right through all the rain gear I had put on…

I sat behind a car that was traveling slower and slower, the harder it rained… Like me, the poor bugger was having trouble seeing the road ahead…!!

Sheets of lightning criss-crossed the sky above us, making me duck instinctively each time a loud crack sounded overhead…

After hanging behind the car for twenty minutes, and seemingly getting nowhere fast, I took a chance, and thundered through the spray alongside the car, made it past without incident, and then opened the throttle… I was hoping to ride out of the storm as quickly as I could, because there was no place to pull over and try to take shelter from it…

I gritted my teeth, and remember saying aloud to myself, “Just tough it out…!!”…

This was all the invitation the Big Fella needed to become chatty…

“Don’t you think we’re going a little too fast in these conditions…?”

“Maybe…” I grunted in return, “but remind me again which shoes you are wearing…!!”

“Michelin, of course…!!” came the quick reply…

“And what is special about them…??” I asked…

“They’re the best damn wet weather tyres in the world…!!”

“Exactly… So pipe down and let me concentrate….!!”

"I am not sure you should be whipping me to do 140 km/h in this...!!"

A few minutes later, as the rain eased off a bit, and the clouds lifted slightly… I eased back on the throttle and breathed a sigh of relief… Felt myself beginning to come off the “adrenaline high” I had been on, and looked forward to a less stressful completion of the day’s ride… But the Big Fella had more on his mind…

“What about Wallabies…?”

“What about them…??”

“Well, considering how dark it is, they might think it is dusk, and being filled with the joys of spring, they could be hopping about and become a bit of a nuisance at the speed you are pushing me at…!! I’ve been dodging birds all week, and I’m not in the mood to mess about with Wallabies too…!!”

“Nah… No worries, Mate…!! It’s only 3 o’clock…!! Wallabies are still tucked up in their beds at this time of day…!!”

“Wallabies have watches and beds…??”

“Oh shut up and stay focused, dammit…!!”

"How come we have to pull over for him...!!" moaned the Big Fella... "Because he would kill us otherwise, that's why...!!"

Coming around a long bend and into an even longer straight, I spied a huge wave of water being sprayed up ahead…

“Oh shit…!! You’re not going to try and overtake this truck are you…?? It’s a bloody road train…!!”, the Big Fella barked in apprehension…

“Of course I am…!! Why shouldn’t we…??”

“Maybe because we can’t see a damn thing through the spray being thrown up…!!”

“You scared…??” I asked…

“Am not…!!

“Ok, then lets blow a hole through that spray and see what’s on the other side…!!”

“Could be a large set of gates manned by a guy called Peter…!!” warned the Big Fella as we thundered down on the truck and rode through what felt like a waterfall, being kicked up behind it… I knew there was no oncoming traffic, because I had seen that the road ahead was clear from a long way behind the truck… But I wasn’t letting on that I knew of course…!!

"Why are we always running out of fuel in these remote places...??"... Chastized again by a cheeky bike...!!

Silence for about half a minute after that, then…

“When am I getting a service…?”

“Soon… Why…??”

“Well…. I haven’t been feeling myself lately…!!”

“I’m not surprised… You don’t have any hands…!!”

“Funny man…!! Seriously…can’t you hear that my motor is a little rougher on the ear…?? And the other day, I couldn’t get enough grunt to catch up to Cecil when he took off like a bat out of hell…!!”

“Well, we were carrying a lot more weight… Don’t worry about it…!!”

“Mmmm…. But when am I getting a service…?? I haven’t had my valves tickled since Perth, and that was almost 15 000 km ago, for heaven’s sake…!”

“Yeah, yeah…. Maybe Brisbane…!!”

“BRISBANE…!! That’s almost 2 000 km away…!!”

“You remember Willie…??”

“Yeah… That crazy American who is still stuck in Thailand…??”

“Yes, that’s the one… Well he did not service his GS for more than 40 000 km as I recall…!! And it gave him no trouble whatsoever…!!”

“Mmmm… But Willie isn’t quite right in the head…!! He did change from a BMW to a scooter, after all…!!”

“Well maybe his bike started back-chatting him, and he got tired of the whining…!! Think about that for a while…!!”

A short silence, then the kicker…

“When Patricia wasn’t feeling well, SHE got new oil…!!”

“That’s not the same thing…!! Besides, she’s sweet and says nice things to me… You just talk too much…!! Maybe I should consider a scooter too…!!”

The remainder of the ride into Townsville was as peaceful as any I can remember…

©GBWT 2011

3 comments to Conversations with the Big Fella…

  • Mark Behr

    Now that was fun – I can see our Australian sun has really affected you 🙂

  • Patricia

    Love the chats between the two of you…a fun one baby! missing you xoxoxo

  • Charmz

    Hmmmm I think it was the rain Mark, not the sun. Water affects Ronnie’s brain. Shame and he took it out on Big Fella.

Leave a Reply

You can use these HTML tags

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

  

  

  

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.