On the road again and trouble with the law

Monday March 5, 2012 – Change of plans: On to Lighting Ridge and trouble with the law

We got a late start on Sunday afternoon.  The replacement car we were expecting at 2 showed up closer to 5 in the afternoon.  It was raining and ugly out.  We drove just another 150 kilometers or so and stopped at Dubbo, NSW for the night.

Dan's new ride, a Ford Explorer

Monday morning the sun was shining and we started out for Lightning Ridge.  The weather in Manilla was not all that great today and it looked like it would be better later in the week.  There are black opal mines in Lightning Ridge that Mary Beth wanted to see so we decided to head in that direction and then head on to Manilla on Wednesday.

About 60 kilometers down the road we came into the town of Gilgandra.  I made a wrong turn a couple of kilometers down the highway outside town so I pulled over to turn around.  Unfortunately I made a U turn right in front of a police car.  Oops.  

When he pulled us over he checked the registration and found that the compulsory insurance had not been paid.  That’s something Traveler’s Auto Barn takes care of.  It turns out that although the sticker on the windshield says we’re good to August of 2012 the previous owner had cancelled the insurance.  After telling me that the fine was $1000 dollars the policeman just gave me a warning and told me to go straight to the local RTA office and get it taken care of before driving further.  He never got around to the U turn.  I’m happy for that.

I called Traveler’s Auto Barn and they started working on having things corrected.  Initial estimate was an hour.  We had sandwiches at the bakery in town and waited.

While we were waiting we had time to try and figure out another issue with the new car.  When they delivered it we were in a hurry to get down the road.  There was a spare tire in the rear cargo area.  I wondered why it was there and not underneath the car but just dismissed it.  Checking underneath the car we see another spare tire.  Great, we have two spares.  After about two hours Traveler’s called and the insurance had been sorted out.  They had an extra tire so they had just put it in the back.  I guess we have a spare in case Mary Beth trashes another tire driving down from launch.

We were on the road again.  During the rest of the trip we discovered a few things about the Explorer.  The check engine light came on (generally emissions issues) and the fact that automatic transmission does not always shift to a higher gear once you get to cruising speed.   4000 rpm at 100 kph is not cool or good for the fuel economy.  We’ll see what Liam at Traveler’s Auto Barn has to say about it tomorrow.

Emus along the road enroute to Lightning Ridge

We pulled in to Lightning Ridge and the Bluey Motel around five pm.  The motel manager, Margie, was very helpful.  We have tomorrow all planned.  Tour of the city and Opal mines and then all the great stores Mary Beth wants to check out.  (oh boy).  Dinner at the bowling club right across the street from the hotel. (Bowling on the green not bowling as in U.S. Bowling) 

We split a bottle of wine with dinner forgetting that we were going to go to the artesian hot springs in the evening.  1 bottle of wine is 8 “standard drinks” in Australia.  I guess that means you can have 1 standard drink an hour.  Anyway we decided we would get up and go the hot springs for a dip at sunrise.  Sunrise is at 7:01 tomorrow.  We’ll see if we make it.