Welcome, Gravelrash

thefreqofnature · Post by **thefreqofnature** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 3:58 pm

Welcome Gravelrash

Here's a pic of PV's local bird...send us some photos of birds near you!

EDIT: WOW

I didn't start a thread

How'd this get here

History is revised yet again

Gravelrash · Post by **Gravelrash** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 5:05 pm

thefreqofnature wrote:Welcome Gravelrash

Here's a pic of PV's local bird...send us some photos of birds ner you!

Cheers freqo!

BucYouUp68 · Post by **BucYouUp68** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 5:34 pm

Welcome to our campfire Gravelrash, great to have you here. :fire:

B-Spec · Post by **B-Spec** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 5:50 pm

WELCOME Gravelrash...

Gravelrash · Post by **Gravelrash** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 7:00 pm

Thanks BucYouUp68 and B-Spec. I'm already enjoying the threads here enormously. It's all about my favorite pre-occupation, ghost towning in America and I can tell I'm in damn fine company.
I found this website through the good advice of David Wright, a man who needs no introduction! His photos keep my imagination fueled through this miserable winter I'm enduring. (There's this little bump known as Tasmania just south of me, but it doesn't do a thing to stop the winds howling in off the Antarctic!)

I'm planning a 3 month trip to the States in Summer '08 which I hope is going to give me my fill of Rocky Mountain highs as well as a major fix of your fabulous desert history.
Your country......leaves me speechless. I am just glad I will have the opportunity to experience some of it. I'm really looking forward to the possibility of meeting up with some Panamint fans.
I don't live too far from the Australian Ballarat and I'm a very handy barman! I sense the beginnings of a plan!

Bill Gossett · Post by **Bill Gossett** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 7:54 pm

Welcome to the board Gravelrash. Maybe we'll be able to hook up when you come out.

Yes, this is a good group of people here.

Gravelrash · Post by **Gravelrash** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 8:11 pm

Bill Gossett wrote:Welcome to the board Gravelrash. Maybe we'll be able to hook up when you come out.

Yes, this is a good group of people here.

Thanks Bill. Hook up is the plan! I've just been scouring the threads and I'm salivating..... I don't know what it is, but I need a spiedie!

Getting to drive America is going to be one of life's high points for me. You people live in an amazingly god-blessed country.

I'm definitely angling for a Ballarat barmans job. Some would say I am over-qualified! As time gets closer I will start some serious lobbying.
Every decent ghost town needs a one-legged barman!

David_Bricker · Post by **David_Bricker** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 9:02 pm

Welcome, Gravelrash! Nice to have someone from Down Under! Also nice to see someone who has further to come to get to Death Valley than I!

I've been to Melbourne and Ballarat once. Nowhere near enough time to explore! A friend of mine is on temporary assignment right now in Melbourne. We've been looking for an excuse to require me to make a business trip down there.

David Bricker / SYR

Gravelrash · Post by **Gravelrash** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 2:57 am

David_Bricker wrote:Welcome, Gravelrash! Nice to have someone from Down Under! Also nice to see someone who has further to come to get to Death Valley than I!

I've been to Melbourne and Ballarat once. Nowhere near enough time to explore! A friend of mine is on temporary assignment right now in Melbourne. We've been looking for an excuse to require me to make a business trip down there.

David Bricker / SYR

Thanks for the welcome David. I guess this means I can still hope for some spiedies? I don't know what they are, mind you, but you don't get as.....rotund.....as I am, without making some damn good educated guesses about what's hot at the B-B-Q! I lived in Thailand for 10 years, so I learned to shut up and eat, despite what it looked like! Best decision of my life!

Death Valley has been on my radar for years but I didn't know much about it, really, beyond what most armchair tourists might know, until I started exploring your ghost towns. I used to go panning and exploring around the central New South Wales goldrush areas in my younger days but I left Australia to live o/s many years ago and I lost touch with "all that". Four years ago I moved to Victoria, purely for business and discovered I had landed in the great Gippsland goldrush area! There is a fabulous semi-ghost nearby - Walhalla - which I get to as often as I can. It reignited my love of the search and I've been having a ball the last 2 years, exploring the Victorian high country and it's gold history.

We have our business on the market and my wife and daughter surprised me a few months ago by suggesting I indulge my passion for all things American.... and go! I don't need to be asked twice. I will not examine their generous offer any closer! Who cares what their motives are, if it means I get to see Bodie?

My initial aim was to get as much Rocky Mountain into me as is humanly possible in 3 months. I fell in love with Montana years ago and feel like I can drive Going to the Sun Road and die a happy man.
I came across ghosttowns dot com, had a huge "Oh wow" moment, spent the last 5 or 6 weeks exploring all the fantastic ghost towns on their site, "met" David Wright as we shared (my) growing love of Jarbidge and....here I am!
My original plans have all gone out the window, several times, as I've explored more and discovered more. GoogleEarth is my friend!

Finding Panamint and Ballarat was huge for me. I felt enormous pride when I discovered the "bottle house" was built by an Aussie. I hope he drank his fair share!
Now I think I'll be lucky to get out of Death Valley in a month!

I'm pleased you've seen a bit of Oz and I hope you can come back and see a bit more. The welcome mat is out.
I think now you'll understand why I have a fixation on mountains!! Ours are kinda ridiculous, aren't they!? Biggest "mountain" nearby is 1,200 metres!!
I have only ever been to the "re-enactment town" of Sovereign Hill near our Ballarat once, many years ago, but if your friend is into a bit of exploring, I thoroughly recommend the city of Bendigo, only an hour north. Both cities were central in our 1850's gold rush and Bendigo continues to produce to this day. It reeks of "Central Deborah", but there's a lot more fun to be had in the surrounding area. A detectors haven.
If your friend is looking for some driving company, he/you could pm me and I'd be delighted to show him around my area.
Maybe he could share the secret of the spiedie??

David_Bricker · Post by **David_Bricker** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 8:44 am

I'll actually be talking to my friend on the phone this afternoon - I'll mention Bendigo to him. Last December, I draqgged him out to Death Valley after a conference we had in Las Vegas - got him hooked on the desert. He's been in Melbourne about a month, starting to get out to explore when work permits.

I understand what you mean about bumps passing for mountains. Growing up in the foothills of Southern California, anything less than 2000 meters was a hill. Now, in upstate NY, they put ski slopes on anything bigger than 500 meters! The tallest "mountain" in the Northeast is about 1100 meters.

Yeah, you could spend a month in the Death Valley area, certainly. Like Oz, the country is so big, it's hard to narrow in on a particular area, to the exclusion of other areas. So, I suggest you start with Death Valley

The diversity is truly amazing. Any idea on when you might be coming over?

David Bricker / SYR

Gravelrash · Post by **Gravelrash** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 2:07 pm

"It reeks of "Central Deborah", but there's a lot more fun to be had in the surrounding area. A detectors haven."

Hmmmm - I don't know what happened to this bit of text.!There's a whole chunk missing. I dunno about anyone else but the idea of reeking of Central Deborah is ....disturbing!
I meant to say there's a touristy/functioning mine in the city of Bendigo by that name and that the city reeks of old gold money! Nice buildings and "feel".
Maybe the elastic band between USA and Oz got stretched too far last night? Apologies to Deborah.

David_Bricker wrote:I'll actually be talking to my friend on the phone this afternoon - I'll mention Bendigo to him. Last December, I draqgged him out to Death Valley after a conference we had in Las Vegas - got him hooked on the desert. He's been in Melbourne about a month, starting to get out to explore when work permits.

I understand what you mean about bumps passing for mountains. Growing up in the foothills of Southern California, anything less than 2000 meters was a hill. Now, in upstate NY, they put ski slopes on anything bigger than 500 meters! The tallest "mountain" in the Northeast is about 1100 meters.

Yeah, you could spend a month in the Death Valley area, certainly. Like Oz, the country is so big, it's hard to narrow in on a particular area, to the exclusion of other areas. So, I suggest you start with Death Valley The diversity is truly amazing. Any idea on when you might be coming over?

David Bricker / SYR

Yeah, we are a bit lacking in heft when it comes to mountains! Glad you were kind!
I just noticed how far you are from Death Valley! That's quite a haul you have to make. Tell me you drive Route 66 to get there! Another thing I'd love to do but the sheer size/distance thing is forcing me to prioritise like crazy. Not an easy thing to do.
I'll say it again, and you'll all hear it from me ad infinitum, there's no country on earth as blessed with so much as America, and I've been to a few. God was in full show off mode when he splashed the paint can around America.
So, I'll just have to concentrate on the western mountain areas and think myself lucky.

When? Well that all depends on how soon my business sells, if at all! (Naah, I'm confident) That will dictate what season it is, of course, and my plans will vary according to that. I have a good mate in Arizona, so if I arrive in late winter/early spring I'll start there and work my way nth;
If it's summer, I'd planned to start in Montana and work my way down.

Several years ago I worked with a bunch of Yanks in Thailand and they were merciless in ribbing Idaho because of this one guy on the crew, so I had some preconceived ideas about ID. Exploring there via GoogleEarth has blown those old ideas out of the water. I have to see Bannack and Rocky Bar, at the very least.
Same with Utah. I thought it was just full of young men in shirts and ties who knocked on your door when you were busy and.... sand, sand, sand. Now I'm a fan, to say the least!
So it's all up in the air, just with the year '08 pencilled in.
That's ok, Death Valley ain't going nowhere!

By the way, don't think it went off the radar. Still no vital info on what a spiedie is. I noticed!

David_Bricker · Post by **David_Bricker** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 2:57 pm

Gravelrash wrote: I just noticed how far you are from Death Valley! That's quite a haul you have to make. Tell me you drive Route 66 to get there! Another thing I'd love to do but the sheer size/distance thing is forcing me to prioritise like crazy. Not an easy thing to do.

No, no long 3,000 mile drives for me! I usually fly into Las Vegas, which is about a 4 hour drive to PSR. The downside is having to use a rental, which is a challenge for the off-highway portion of the trip.

Gravelrash wrote:By the way, don't think it went off the radar. Still no vital info on what a spiedie is. I noticed!

This I did answer somewhat in the Trip Planning section, under the Fall Haul thread. If that post doesn't answer your questions, ask for more info, or just show up to our shindig and find out firsthand! I can assure you, they taste better than Vegemite, at least to me!!!

David Bricker / SYR

Gravelrash · Post by **Gravelrash** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 3:07 pm

David_Bricker wrote: This I did answer somewhat in the Trip Planning section, under the Fall Haul thread. If that post doesn't answer your questions, ask for more info, or just show up to our shindig and find out firsthand! I can assure you, they taste better than Vegemite, at least to me!!!
David Bricker / SYR

Ah, yes. Just saw that post mate. Sounds every bit as good as I thought. I'm in!

Something tasting better than vegemite? I'm afraid to say, that's oxymoronic.

3,000 miles - I can imagine you don't look forward to that on a regular basis but I expect to clock up about that and a bit more. I'll see the chiropractor when I get back home!! I was sent a listing of every hot spring in the US, by a guy at GT.com. That'll help!