The Journey Begins (for some)

[shonko]

NATIONAL MEET, 02 Days, 16 Hours, 48 Minutes, 41 Seconds.

1900+km journey begins at 5am tomorow, one way!!!! Still it is down hill on the map so we will be sweet.... See you about 5pm tomorrow Darren.

We are packed ready to go. Son has been "excused from school" for 8 days on the grounds of "very important stuff"........ I cited a spiritual event, our pilgramage, his life will be enriched for the experience, blah blah blah. :

See all you reek freaks on Friday. (tomorrow for Darren and Thursday for Cyco........) BRING IT ON!!!
Regards
Shonko

[redreek(the stig)]

hey shonk,
Are you talking ESDST or SLOW QLD time  when you leave ? 
see you tomorrow arvo,What do you drink ? i'll have a cold 1 waiting for you.
...Darren     

[Philinsa]

Wish you well on the Road Trip shonko.

I start tomorrow and cheat by picking up a trailer for Iain and loading his car. Thursday I get my trailer and load the Stockade Reek. : We will be off on Friday.

We will probably drop them off the trailers some way out of town and drive in, in convoy  

[cruetoone]

safe journey for all.. reek on don't forget your camera's....

[shonko]

Thanks Guys.

Darren has just reminded me I am an hour late before I leave.........you know cows and curtains etc. I still think it will be around 5pm as I was being quite conservative (I think)...........I have your mobile and will ring if there is a "change".

Geez a beer, beauty! Mate I drink anything (haven't you been watching)  .......in NSW I usually grab a Tooheys, but I should be the one buying the beers.

Good luck to you Phil and indeed all who are embarking on the trek to Mildura

Cheers! (hic)

[redreek(the stig)]

i did say 1 

[Gunna]

Have fun Shonko (and Shonko 1.1).

I wish I was going as well but RRRR will be there next year, where ever there is next year.

Dean

[The Metalsmith]

And so it begins...
                              I've got the utes' twin tanks all fueled up: 120 litres. I'm leaving at 5:30 am and plan to drive straight though with no stops. Yes it sounds crazy but I love it when it's just you, the car and the road.

See you all there you complete freaks...


     Simon                           

[cruetoone]

                                      hey simon
                  safe travel's stay between the white lines ...

                    keep in mind stop revive survive 

[shonko]

Well the journey continues.....

For those that didn't make it to Mildura, the trek this year has been quite the experience.

Day one
820km to Darrens house at New Castle no problems.

Day two
Short drive to meet Cyco and get this show on the road. Cyco supplied the UHF hand held (thanks for that mate) and Darren has a car mounted unit we were set like jelly...Planned 740km to the motel at Narandera (or something like that) 400km no worries then DEAD!!! Nothing nadda naught.....something electrical Oh F....!
We tested for the obvious but no luck so it was a call to the NRMA...then while we were waiting and Darren was taking photo's of my demise (thanks for that) I remembered to check the connections to the relays hiding under the rear window tunnel found the loose wire and there was life!! Cancel that NRMA call and we are off again. Then not 30 min later down the road another crisis, no oil pressure!!! Oh F....! again. This time I had an easy fix to trim off the oil line to the cooler where it had split and top up the oil. Thanks to Cyco for lending me a liter of oil to get me going again. Our estimated 3.30pm arrival was now 5.45, but other than that all was good.

.....to be continued

[shonko]

Day three
Only 480km to go now to Mildura. The drive went exactly as planned (one more jiggle of the loose wire as I didn't do it right the first time but all good) UNTIL we reached literally the third to last round about to the motel and BANG, no F....ing cluth 

So now I have travelled nearly 2000km, made it to Mildura but have a broken clutch. So I start ringing the local car/automative places in town. Nothing!!! best that can be done is get a clutch cable up from Adelaide will arrive Tuesday! Then My luck changed

I was given a phone number of a private VW enthusiest who happens to have 54 VW in his back yard!!!!! I kid you not! Also the gentleman, Doug, happens to be one of the nicest people you could wish to meet. This guy was on his hands and knees in the dark at 9.30pm to get a pedal cluster out of one of his cars for a complete stranger. I owe this guy for saving my weekend!!!!

Also I can't thank Darren (redreek) enough for the work he did for me Friday night to get my car up for the meet in the morning, finished at 12.30am. And thanks to the others involved and Morris for lending me some tools needed for the job. Without your guys help I could have never got the job done in time.

A MASIVE THANKS FOR SAVING MY ASS!!!!

Now the return journey begins this thursday........
Shonko
 

[shonko]

I forgot to mention it was actually the clutch "hook" on the pedal cluster that broke not the cable............

[CyCo]

Not to mention that I left a tool kit behind on one of the stops to fix your shonky QLD reek. Ah well, it was only a $70 'kit. Easily replaced.

 

[shonko]

.......oh yeah and that!

[cruetoone]

i bet you were so glad to finally get to mildura hope the few extra days are a treat have a safe journey home.