Xmas In July – Wagga Wagga
25th & 26th July, 2009.

We were sitting in a tiny café down the road from Romano’s Pub in Wagga Wagga, having breakfast, on Sunday 26th July and El Presidente asks – “So, who is going to do the ride report for this weekend?” The silence was deafening. Soooo, I said that I had never done one before, so would give it a go – so here it is.

About 14 bikes (and 17 or so people) assembled at 8.30am on Saturday morning in -2o temperature at Nicholls Service Station. But at least the sun was shining, so we thought we would have a good ride ahead of us. We took off under the guidance of Alan and Butch (with Ian Paterson as Tail End Charlie) towards Bowning, where Judy had booked us into the “RollOnInn Café” for morning tea. Alas, the sun was not to last – by the time we hit Murrumbateman, we were riding through a very wet and cold fog. This didn’t clear until the other side of Yass. The café owners were very considerate and had a blazing fire in a 44 gallon drum ready to warm us up. After sampling their coffee/tea/hot chocolate, we headed off for Wagga, via Harden and Cootamundra. The sun came and went for the rest of the trip. We arrived safely at the Romano Hotel, a lovely big old pub that has been done up nicely. But it is very difficult to warm up these old places, so the rooms were pretty cold. Some were lucky enough to have heaters in them, others had an electric blanket on their bed, others had both, but alas, some had neither.

There were others who arrived separately from the main group (some didn’t want to get out of bed so early) but we all got together for dinner, along with 10 people from the Wagga Ulysses group. 
The cold didn’t stop with the rooms of the pub – our roast dinner was cold as well, but most of us ate it anyway. We all took along a little pressie for a Kris Kringle – the bottle of lemon flavoured wine proving most popular and must have changed ownership no less than 20 times, I think, over the course of the night. A good time was nevertheless had by all and a massive big thank you has to go to Judy Perry for organising a great weekend again. (Thinking caps on for where we can go next year).

I can’t let this little tale, however, go untold. A certain person bade everyone a good night and there were a few of us still sitting around talking. This certain person returned 10 minutes later and announced that she couldn’t find her phone, has anyone seen it”. “But you have your phone in your hand”. “No, I have two - a work one and a personal one. Maybe I could ring it”. So, she does. The next thing we know, her boob is ringing. Yes, her phone was down her bra all the time. Dear, oh dear – isn’t it sad to be getting old?

Sunday morning at breakfast, the usual question was “How did you sleep?” Well the answers to that included: 
1.The constant beep, beep, beep, beep ….. from the pedestrian traffic lights on the corner kept him awake all night.
2.The pounding of the music from the floor below kept others awake till the early hours.
3.There was a street lamp outside another’s room – which had no blinds or curtains.
4.There were young girls running up and down the hallway in high heels.
5.The bar staff tossed their empty bottles and cans in the hopper right under the windows of others – at 3.30am.

 
Our return trip was a choice of coming home the long way, via Ardlethan and Ariah Park and leaving Wagga at 9.30am or having a look at the Wagga markets and leaving at 11am to come home the same way as we went over. Alan and I were the only ones to opt for the long trip and arrived home safely albeit cold and wet. The sun didn’t shine all day and the rain set in just before we got to Harden and stayed with us the rest of the way home. 

You will have to rely on someone else to fill you in on the trip home for others. 

We still had a good time though.

Lyn Munday
Pillion on GTR1000.