Epic fail trying to fit the PR4… I couldn’t even get the old PR3 off the rim. Time to pay someone to do it instead.
Here are the tyres (old and new) … the PR3 has 38,294km on it and should have been replaced a long time ago.
Note to self – weather radar…
Note to self – the weather radar only provides a point-in-time representation of the rain as it was at that time. It should be used as a guide as to where the rain has BEEN. Use of the radar as a device to predict where the rain will be comes with risk.
This is especially true when assessing whether or not you should wear your rain gear on a motorcycle, more so when you don’t have a change of underwear at work.
The tooth
Puppies welcoming me home
Day 27 – The End
When Ellie was organising this trip, I decided to return slightly earlier than the girls as I had already “done” DisneyWorld a while ago, and roller-coasters weren’t really my “thang”. After the motion sickness, I’m VERY glad I didn’t stay longer otherwise it would have been a big waste.
So, this was my last day. The kids rushed out the door for Disney – Animal Kingdom I think – leaving me to mooch around, do some blogging, and work out how we were not going to exceed our baggage weight limit. We were going to have to get Anne to post some stuff back for us.
We were staying in Disney’s Port Orleans Resort. At check-in, you get a wrist band (with RFID embedded), that is your room-key, credit card, ride entry, etc. for use throughout the parks. Quite high-tech.
I left at about 2:30 to catch the Disney shuttle to the airport for my 6pm departure. I was a little unsure why I had to leave so early, but the bus was late and it visited 5 other hotels en-route…. it took 1.5 hours to get to the airport. Add security, immigration, etc. and I had consumed much of my lead time – I wasn’t waiting long before we pushed back.
Some 25 hours later and Theo greeted me in the Perth domestic terminal – home at last. It was a great holiday, but I was looking forward to a shower with good pressure, a shave, sleep, bland non-restaurant food, and a bike ride.
Day 26 – Kennedy Space Center
Today we boarded a bus to Cape Canavarel and the Kennedy Space Center. Back in 1999 when I was in Austin Texas for a month I made the trip to the Johnson Center in Houston. I thoroughly enjoyed that and have been wanting to get to Kennedy ever since.
We met Anne & Bob in the carpark.
Day 25 – Theme Park Observations
I still have about 4 days of posts to complete. I’m almost there but the Hard Rock are a bit stingy with their wifi.
However, rather than wait to finish them first, I figured I’d post some observations while I sit waiting for the kids to come out of The Mumny for about the 23rd time.
So, after 2.5 days in theme parks:
– these theme parks are a lot of fun for most;
– Universal and Disney spare nothing when it comes to detail. After all, the more authentic it is, the more people will want to come, stay at their hotels, & buy their merchandise.
– it is sensory overload: sights, smells, motion, & noise – oh the non-stop noise!
– there’s a very surprising number of people using gopher carts across the age groups. Not sure why, but I doubt our own parents would do a theme park in one. They’d rather die first.
– a lot of parents and grandparents line the streets parking themselves on any chair/seat/wall they can find. Some of them have been there for hours & many are very grumpy… they should have a) left a long time ago, or b) never come in the first place. They on their phones like me. D’oh!
Day 25 – Universal’s Islands of Adventure
This is the second Universal Park located right next to the other one visited yesterday… about an extra 10 minutes walk away from the hotel.
No chances taken today – I performed the role of navigator, courier, & financier. In between I wandered about and just looked. I did actually wake this morning still bit feeling terribly well – I’m now thinking I might have a little bug.
The 2 children hit it running. An early retreat on my part left them to do as they please without concern for my well-being. First stop was Gringots in the first park from yesterday (cos they open earlier then the Islands of Adventure) so the kids could hit the ride again.
Continue reading “Day 25 – Universal’s Islands of Adventure”
Day 24 – Universal Studios
We headed to the Universal Studios park from the hotel only a 10 minute walk away. Then on to the Harry Potter ride. Carrying a bag & phones we needed to find a locker, but all were taken. We were beaten by the other 1 hours worth of muggles. So instead we headed to the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit roller coaster. We’d go back later.
Big mistake.
The roller coaster pretty much set me on edge for the rest of the day, given my poor showing at EPCOT the previous day. While I suffer from sea-sickness (a real burley generator) I haven’t experienced motion sickness since before the kids were born. So, the last 2 days have been a bit of a shock.
The biggest problem was that both Grace & Ellie are roller-coaster junkies – obviously they don’t suffer. We then moved on to Revenge of the Mummy, Transformers 3D, Despicable Me Minion Mayhem, and Terminator 2 3D. All just adding to my grief. Even a cute little Nemo ride targeting 10 year olds didn’t agree with me.
Day 23 – New York to Orlando
On advice from the hotel, we jumped in a taxi early to get to Newark Airport just in case we experienced bad traffic. So, we ended up with a 2.5 hour wait in the departure lounge – very annoying. When we checked in the airline scales said we were over. They wanted $100/lb for excess baggage! So, we jettisoned some things like washing power, and a few other items, moved others to hand luggage (!), and tried again – this time at a different set of scales. We were under by about 8 lbs, so I reckon the scales were wrong.
We landed in Orlando at about 2:15 in the arvo and stood there for over an hour waiting for our luggage:
We finally got to the Hard Rock Hotel late in the day, dumped our bags, quick change, and jumped in a taxi to EPCOT. Ellie had organised this half-day visit mostly for me (cos I’m into science [TBBT joke]).