Nov 24 - off to Perth

We caught the car to the airport at 6am at the hotel in Melbourne, went through all the usual airport rigamarole, had breakfast at the airport and boarded our flight around 9am.  Landing in Perth at 10:30, we soon had our bags and were looking for our car rental.  I'd used rentalcars.com again but this time had a surprise, with our rental place being not only off airport, but limiited hours.  They picked us up quickly but we'll have to figure out how to handle this on the 29th as our flight is before 6am and they're not open / there's no shuttle.  Ugh. 

We cruised into town with our SUV (yes, I'd rented a big one), eventually finding the beach and lunch.  Neil lives close to, but not on, the water, in Swanbourne,  a Perth suburb.  We stopped at a wine store, picking up two bottles of red and one white, all Margaret River wines.  That's the local wine area.

Getting to Neil's about 2:30, we met Annie and soon Charlie and Georgia.  Charlie went off to work before Neil came home.  Georgia is working on some 80+ page university paper, editing, editing, editing before submission. 

Chat, chat, chat ... we learned about each other, got acquainted.    They have memories of my Aunt Joan, Scott, Bobbie ... Bobbie's son Carter ... from visits to the Tomenson cottage and visits here in Perth.  They're sure that they met my Mom and Dad but that memory is limited; none of my Uncle Phil's family.  Although we had exchanged emails and Facebook notes, until you're face to face the exact placement of people in families doesn't really stick. 

Kylie arrived at 4pm and quickly hit the floor, smothered by the three dogs.  She's doing well.  Her time with the au pair family has been extended to 9 months from 6.  Kylie was born an adult; I'll never have any concerns with her making her way in life. 

The six of us went out to dinner by the beach, a hopping place with lots of pizza, salads, hummus, kangaroo ... yes, kangaroo ... a huge, crowded, noisy, warehouse type place.  The food was very good, albeit way off my regular diet -- as was the food from the ride.  My digestive system is all mixed up and I'm not sure when it's going to be back and working "properly".

Back to Neil's, we had wine and cheese. Snacks after dinner. 

The 2018 RM calendar arrived in an email just before heading to Perth so I was able to study that on the flight.  There are 55 x 1200+ rides scheduled in 2018 !  Australia (10), India (8), France, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, US, Thailand, Brazil, Columbia, Spain, Croatia, Bulgaria, Ireland, Russia, Israel, Uzbekistan (?) ... too many choices.  A number of these need to be on my bucket list and with travels with Sandy in those areas.  Gotta squeeze them in while I'm still able; who knows how long that will last !

Browse the list below to get a sense of what people are offering ... perhaps I should take one year and see many it's actually possible to put on a personal schedule ?  No, it would probably kill me :)

Onward !

	DATE	COUNTRY	Name of Ride	Distance
2017 DEC	9	THAILAND	Tanaosri 1200	1215
2018
JAN	26	INDIA	Dehli 1400	1400
FEB	24	AUSTRALIA	Riverina 1200	1200
	25	INDIA	Pune 1200	1200
MAR	10	AUSTRALIA	South Gippsland 1200	1200
	10	INDIA	Noida 1200	1200
	28	COLUMBIA	Medellin-Villavicencio-Medellin	1200
	30	AUSTRALIA	Wangaratta Wahine	1200
	30	AUSTRALIA	The Resurrection 1200	1200
APR	27	BRAZIL	RMC 1300	1300
MAY	3	USA NC	Carolina Spring	1200
	19	SOUTH KOREA	Korea 1200	1200
	31	USA MD	Blue Ridge to Bay	1200
JUN	2	SPAIN	Al-Andalus 2018	2000
	18	CROATIA	4 Corners of Croatia/Hard Cro Randonnee	1400
	22	BULGARIA	S-V-S	1200
	23	IRELAND	Mile Failte	1200
	23	USA WA	Cascade 1200	1200
	29	RUSSIA	!st Baltic 1200	1200
	30	SPAIN	Lleida Leon Lleid	1200
JUL	4	BELGIUM	H C H	1200
	7	RUSSIA	E75-1	1515
	14	INDIA	Bangalore 1200	1200
	15	BRAZIL	Brasil Central 1200	1222
	18	AUSTRALIA	TransOZ #1	4000
	21	SWEDEN		1500
	22	ITALY	Alpi 4000	1407
	23	RUSSIA	Brevet du Nord	1600
	25	BELGIUM	B S B	1200
	25	AUSTRALIA	TransOZ #2	4000
AUG	1	AUSTRALIA	TransOZ #3	4000
	2	UKRAINE	Lviv-Carpathians-Lviv	1200
	4	RUSSIA	Trans - Oural Marathon	1200
	4	RUSSIA	Orenburg Paris Orenburg	1200
	8	AUSTRALIA	TransOZ #4	4000
	11	INDIA	Jaipur 1200	1200
	13	USA MN	Coulee Challenge	1200
	19	SPAIN	Madrid Gijon Madrid	1200
	23	UKRAINE	Kharkov-Dnepr-Kiev-Kharkov	1200
	26	USA CA	California Central Coast Randonnée	1200
	29	UKRAINE	Lviv-Odessa	1200
	30	USA IL	Mac 'n Cheese	1200
	31	THE NETHERLANDS	Merselo - Verona	1200
SEP	20	USA NC	Taste of Carolina	1200
	21	UZBEKISTAN	Silk Route	1200
	22	AUSTRALIA	Mallee Routes	1200
	26	INDIA	Madras 1200	1200
	29	INDIA	Delhi 1200	1200
OCT	1	AUSTRALIA	Perth-Albany-Perth	1200
	10	TAIWAN	Pingtung-Hualien-Chiayi-Pingtung	1200
	17	BRAZIL	Sul Brasilerio	1212
	19	INDIA	Noida1400	1400
	19	INDIA	Hyderabad 1200	1200
	23	ISRAEL	Israeli 1200	1200
NOV	4	USA FL	Cross Florida	1600