She runs like an absolute beauty!! Mighty White, or Pepper as Jo calls our brilliantly white car, is a real winner. The only thing that had us worried was a warning tone that comes on every half hour or so signalling that theres a fault with the airbags and that they could spontaniously deploy without warning while im licking along the freeway. Suitably worried, we found a Ford dealership and he told us that the beeping was caused by the fact that someone had taken the fuse for the airbags out and that the he could fix it in a jiffy. One jiffy later and he'd changed his tune saying that because the fuse he put in blew the instant he plugged it in that there was a serious short in the system somewhere and that our best bet was to get to an electrician and let him fix it. Failing that, he said, just turn up the radio and you wont hear the beeping. So thats the plan. We drove this first leg without music as i was too tight to buy an adapter for my ipod but the second we arrived here i threw money at the nearest clerk for the gadget to save me singing for the next 700kms aswell. Jo was happy, though agrees i sing like an angel. I bough a very nice, far too expensive, guitar in Perth so that Jo could play in the back and entertain me while i drove but she insists on sitting up front, rigid as a board with a look of abject terror on her face thats very off putting. Youd think that someone who doesnt like driving at warp speed would prefer to sit in the back but it appears she likes to yelp at things periodically either to keep me on my toes or to simply terrorise me. The car is a real mover. Perhaps "the starship enterprise" would be a better name for the Mighty White but thats probably my mouth writing cheques that the mighty white cant cash.
Yesterday we went on a tour of some wineries and a brewery, stopping a a cheese and a chocolate factory on the way. The tour took all day, we tried over 50 wines and bought only 3, one of which we drank with lunch in the middle of the tour. West coast Australian red wine tastes like vulcanised rubber smells. The white was much much better though, so we got some of that. I never ate any chocolate in the factory. That makes it almost a year and a half since i indulged. In the brewery i made up for it though, sampling almost everything they made there! Too much wine and the big drive today saw us both in bed asleep by 9.30pm, half an hour later than the night before. Driving tires me out. White knuckle passenger sitting tires Jo out.
Tomorrow we start a 3 day drive thatll take us to Adelaide. We could go for 2 fourteen hour days but i dont know if i can be doing with all that. We could stop, but in the middle of the desert is... the middle of the desert. And nothing else.
Off to eat dinner now, sausages, beans and smash. Just like yesterday. Just like tomorrow. Jo refuses to eat any more sausages regardless how cheap they are and is opting instead for tinned Ravioli. Id rather starve. Or eat sausages forever.
Ill be coming at you next from sunny Adelaide.
