I had a premonition today, that I would loose Dad. Be careful what you believe, it often comes true, how does that work? Well in some instances it is all about what you are paying attention to. If you are looking for something you are much more likely to see it, Conversely if you are looking for something you are less likely to see other things. Example, you walk into a party and you notice lots of people talking and laughing and having lots of fun, you end up thinking whoa that was great party everyone was really into each other. Conversely if you walk into the same party but notice a couple arguing and a couple of young guys giving each other the eye you come away thinking, man that was intense, what a stressed out atmosphere. Same party.
I don’t know if it was the same thing today or just observation of how we travelled through the city yesterday, but as we headed off this morning I knew that I was going to loose Dad today.
How do I recount today’s events without being negative about my travel companion, you are likely to read between the lines.
We loaded up and headed out to have breakfast at the bakery that we noticed last night next to the Chinese restaurant. We had to go in the opposite direction because of being on a one way system, and ride around the block sort of, left then left again then up a couple of blocks or so and left again then probably a right and you are there, pretty straight forward. Dad headed out first so I thought I would follow and see what happens. Dad has lots of strengths and weaknesses as do we all, sense of direction I have noticed through my lifetime, is not one of Dads strengths. We turned left then left again then rode for a while, a bit further than I would have gone, then Dad started to look around in a way that I interpreted as confused and wondering where the Bakery was. Eventually I took the lead and we rode directly to the Bakery, over a few blocks and back a bit.
Now dear reader, I can see you rolling your eyes and hear you muttering something about righteousness. It is true that I have always perceived myself as strong in many areas, which has mostly served me well, but every now and then someone I care about informs me of one of my weaknesses, which usually floors me, but I hear them. So yes I also have strengths and weaknesses (well a catalogue of weaknesses it turns out), however, sense of direction is one of my strengths (provided we are in the Southern Hemisphere, for some reason I get all screwed up in the Northern Hemisphere and have to think quite hard about it, and often get things wrong).
I digress. We had breakfast in the bakery, Dad a big breakfast that he could not finish, and for me Eggs Benedict, oh I love Eggs Bene, but it is a treat. After breakfast we were heading into town to see if I could get the MSR cooker fixed to prevent any accidental national park burn downs. However as I said I had a premonition, so I punched in the address to Dads GPS and said if we get separated that we should meet at the BMW shop where we also needed to go to get a couple of parts for Dads bike. I put the same data into my GPS so we had the same directions happening. Off we went. Perhaps it is the way Dad was riding in this City that had me thinking this way as he was hanging back a fair bit and as with any city if you leave a gap it gets filled, so I often was not able to tell if he was still following or not as the rear vision mirrors are low on the RTs’ so that you can not see over the following cars. I was riding slowly so Dad could keep up without difficulty however he seemed to be riding even more slowly. Anyway we went to the Mountain designs shop that had MSR cookers without event. I went in a found that, yes these cookers are still worth an arm and a leg, but good news parts are available to put the cooker right, so I will repair this in NZ, in the mean time I bought a gas cooker to keep us going, and should be less likely to blow up, which is a good thing when cooking in national parks that are tinder dry.
We rode off to the BMW shop. They did not have the parts for the bikes but I asked them about the headlights that are not working on my bike and this lead to a full day of diagnostic work that was ultimately unsuccessful. They gave me a loan bike to carry on for the day, a brand new F650 with 5km on the odometer. We went into the Bell Tower to have a coffee and read the paper while waiting for the team to fix my bike. We then went for a ride out to Fremantle for a brief look, very historic.
Then we rode into town to the BMW shop again. The bike was not ready so we spent a couple of hours kicking BMW tyres. Interesting, the Bikes looked more and more attractive and the cars less and less appealing the more time I spent there. Eventually the Mechanic admitted defeat and put my bike back together. Very generously they did not charge me anything, fantastic service Perth BMW. We headed off to get a bit south prior to dark, and my previous premonition about loosing Dad had obviously escaped me. We rode south on the freeway for 70kms or so then turned off. It was getting dark and I stopped to see if Dad was going OK and see what he wanted to do, turn around to some motels behind us or carry on, we decide to carry on to the next town and get the next motel we came across. I headed of into the failing light with just my fog lights to illuminate the way. Dad was following, then around the first round about a Ute came between us and I let it pass me to give a good set of lights ahead. The Ute came through fast and I accelerated behind them to follow their lead assuming that Dad was right behind me. I raced to keep up with the Ute who seemed to take my acceleration as a challenge. After about 5-10 km we came to a major intersection and I could not see Dad behind me so stopped to wait for him to catch up.
After about ten minutes he was not there so I turned around to see what had happened. But riding all the way back to where we had talked, there was no sign of him, I turned around and rode slowly back thinking could he have gone off the road unnoticed, but there was no sign of braking (do ABS brakes leave much sign of braking?). I thought maybe he has gone on to the next town via another route, so I rode on to the next petrol station to see if he had stopped, but no sign. I waited there as I thought this is the only way to where we were headed, and there is no missing me if he comes along. I had a pie and waited for 20 minutes or so. I phoned Di to let her know in case Dad phoned home instead of phoning my cell phone, and then headed up the road to the next town. Perhaps he has ridden through without me noticing and stopped outside a motel. But no there was no sign of him anywhere. The problem was that there were now several different options for turning off which when multiplied out meant an impossible number of directions he could have gone.
I started to worry at this point, thinking there was nowhere he would have turned off back there, perhaps something did go wrong and he went off the road, so I speed back to the original road and rode down it slowly looking at every opportunity to go off the road carefully, but there was still no sign. By the time I got back to the last point that we spoke it had been two hours since we last saw each other and was about 7pm. I phoned home and checked that there was no sign from Dad to either Di or Mum. I phoned the Police to ask for their advice and help. After a bit of questioning and advice from the call centre policewoman, she spoke to her advisor and came back to me with the address that Dad was staying at! He had phoned the police to let them know where he was if I phoned in, but somehow did not think to phone my Cell Phone.
He had followed a single light thinking it was me, but then discovered that it was a Ute with a blown bulb. At this point it had lead him off in the wrong direction and Dad spent a bit of time looking around for a prominent place to meet me, or accommodation. He had a mishap also with him dropping his bike as well, and reinjuring his leg that was hurt with his bike falling last time. Eventually Dad found somewhere to stay and the Proprietor advised calling the police to let them know where he was. It was not long after this that I phoned in. I let everyone back home know that he was alright and then rode to the motel he was at, about 10km back towards the city, in the opposite direction to where we had been headed.
Clearly we need to update our emergency contact plan for if we get separated. Dad phones me on my cell phone would be a good plan.
Sometimes the least planned days turn into the most notable days. Interesting Travel lodge that he had checked into with an excellent Irish themed pub, we celebrated our reunion with a Guinness.
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