Google Map Fun Part 5

I'm going to play my game again.

I'm not feeling well. Maybe it will cheer me up.
 
I think it will actually.

I'm in Tasmania now; 1733 Mud Walls Road, Jericho.  

Jericho reminds me of Flashforward.  In the show, there was some kind of evil mysterious organization called Jericho. It was related to the Iraqi War.

Mud Walls Road is pretty. There's lots of shades of brown, and a little bit of green. The road is paved, but narrow.

Jericho is near the Tasmanian place I "visited" last time; Oatlands. I wonder if Jericho has sandstone buildings as well.

They're actually very near each other. It would take about 15 minutes to get to Jericho from Oatlands.  That is...if you drive. If you tried walking, it would take about three hours.

It might not be a bad walk....if you're up for a long walk.

Lord Wiki says that Jericho DOES have sandstone buildings.   

This Tasmanian tourism site says the first recorded church service was held in Jericho, in 1823.   I'm not sure what they mean by first. First church service in Australia? Tasmania?  Or maybe just the first service in Jericho.

Anyway, guess who led the service at St. James Anglican Church?  

Samuel Marsden.  If I recall correctly, he's an ancestor of John Marsden.

According to this National Trust website, the church building is having problems, and needs repairs/restoration.

I'm going to move onto Victoria.

The image I got is a bit hazy.  I don't know if this is due to the weather, or the photography. It looks dreamlike....kind of cool.

The address is 276 Wallacedale  Byaduk Road in Wallacedale.

There's a narrow road and lots of trees.  The sun shines brightly. I think that's where I'm getting the hazy dreamlike imagery.

I zoomed out of the map. Wallacedale is pretty far west, fairly near the South Australia border.   

Wait.  No.Actually it's much farther than I expected....16 hours.  Or maybe Google Maps is messing with me.

I don't know. It LOOKS close to Mt. Gambier. But Google Maps is telling me it would take about 21 hours to drive there.

And now it's saying it would take two days to drive from Wallacedale to Melbourne.

That CAN'T be right.

Yeah.  There's definitely a mistake.

I just plugged in the directions to Melbourne to Mt. Gambier, and that's only a 5 hour drive.    Wallacedale is inbetween those places, so there's no way it should take 16 hours to get from Wallacedale to Mt Gambier.

Okay. I redid it. It takes about 4 hours to get from Mt Gambier  to Wallacedale.

I'm not sure what went wrong there.

Oh well.

Now I'm on Kinka Road in New South Wales. I'm in a parking lot actually. There are five cars.  It looks like some kind of natural park.  I see one of those warning/guideline signs.

I zoomed out. Kinka Road is on the coast of New South Wales. It's about two hours north of Newcastle.

On Kinka Road, there's a place called Sugarloaf Point Lighthouse Holiday Accommodations. I see it on the map. Let's see if they have a website.  Here they are, and now I know what the town is called.  Seal Rocks.  I wasn't sure before.  

They won a Qantas tourism award in 2009.  Cool.

It doesn't seem like they come with air-conditioning. That's fine in nice weather. But what if it gets really hot?   

I sound very spoiled....sorry.

They do say they provide heating, so maybe it's more likely to get too cold there.  Maybe because it's near the water?

Wow. It's kind of expensive! It's $2660 a week in the summer.  For that price, I'd definitely expect air-conditioning. I'm guessing either it's not needed in that area, OR they have it, and just forgot to list it.

Ah.  Now I see that Google Maps DID try to inform me that Kinka Road was in Seal Rocks. I just didn't listen well enough.

This holiday park in Seal Rocks looks much more affordable, AND it has air-conditioning.  There you can get a cabin for about $900-1200 a week.

Now I've jumped up to Queensland. I'm on 3976 Wide Bay Highway in Kilkivan.   

Kilkivan is about 45 minutes north-west of Gympie.

Here's a travel article about the town.  They say it's a rural type place.It has a mining history, but now its main industry is cattle.

I'm not back on the Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory.Instead, I'm on the Barkley Highway.   It doesn't look much different from Stuart. Oh!  I'm in Warumungu.  Is that where I was last time?   I thought it was, but Firefox is saying the spelling is wrong.  If It was the same place, I would have added it to my Firefox dictionary thing.

Oops.  Never mind.  I just spelled it wrong. It IS the same place.  

Ah!   In Western Australia, I've come across red dirt.  I haven't been seeing enough of that in my virtual travels.

I'm in Nepean Road in Victoria Rock. I see unpaved road, and then paved road. There's lots of the red mud.

Victoria Rock is somewhat near Kalgoorlie.  I'm not sure of the distance though, because Google Maps refuses to tell me.

This tourism website has some information about Victoria Rock.  They say it's about an hours drive from Coolgardie.    I think that's one of the places I visited recently....well, VIRTUALLY visited.

Now I'm back on the Stuart Highway...not in the Northern Territory, but in South Australia.   I kind of cheated, and didn't close my eyes.  A lot of Australia isn't covered by Google Maps Street View, so if I keep going COMPLETELY random, I end up getting just photographs, and not street views.

Anyway, this view I'm looking at now is SO Australia. I mean it fits my stereotype of Australia pretty much perfectly.

There's a road, lots of dirt and mud on the sides of the road, and very little trees. I think I see one tree off in the distance. There are some little bushes though.

Well, I think that's it for now.

I Got a Package

I got my books from Powells today! I'm so happy and excited; and grateful to my parents for giving me a gift certificate.

Here is what I got.

1. Gallipoli by Alan Moorehead. I think Moorehead is a friend of Robert Hughes. Maybe? I kind of remember reading that. Anyway, I'm not sure why I got this book. Nonfiction books about history and war usually bore me. Really great writers can make anything interesting though. Maybe this will be one of those books? I hope.

2. Mrs. Fraser on The Fatal Shore by Michael Alexander. This is another nonfiction book. Mrs. Fraser was the subject of that really creepy painting by Sidney Nolan.

3. The Rock by Robert Doherty. It's some kind of science fiction type thing involving Uluru.

4. Outside the Gates of Science by Damien Broderick. I've been wanting to read this one. It's about paranormal research. I think it might be like that other book I read; Conscious Universe by Dean Radin. And Radin writes some of that promotional praise stuff on the back of Broderick's book. Maybe they have the same sort of ideas. I really like when people look at paranormal stuff with a scientific and open-minded approach. I much prefer this to skeptics, and people who are overly open-minded.

5. A Fence Around the Cuckoo by Ruth Park. This is one of Park's autobiographies.

6. How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier. This is supernatural chick lit. I sometimes LOVE that stuff. Well, I find some books more appealing than other ones. We'll see if I end up liking this one.

7. The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson. I think this is that book that has subtle hints of lesbianism. Or maybe it didn't, but the movie did? It's about a women's school in Melbourne. Oh. And there's an introduction by Germaine Greer. This should be interesting.

8. Fresh Fields by Peter Kocan. I hope this book is as awesome as the other stuff I've read by Kocan. I really loved The Treatment and The Cure.

9. The Black Grail by Damien Broderick. I just looked at the back, and it involves time travel. If it doesn't totally confuse me and scramble my brain, maybe it will be my Lost and FlashFoward replacement....my rebound science fiction.

So, here's the thing. I'm all sad about Lost going bye bye. I've been cheering myself up with the idea of further bonding with FlashForward. The show has some similarities to Lost. They both involve time travel and destiny; and both shows feature Sonya Walger and Dominic Monaghan.

The other day I was telling Tim that I think American science fiction/mystery shows shouldn't go on indefinitely. They should be on for a set time, instead of dragging on and on. I didn't really see how they could keep do several seasons of FlashForward. It would get ridiculous, and repetitive.

Well, the day after saying this....I found out that ABC (American one) is not renewing the show. It has two episodes left, and that's it. Now I'm not only grieving, but I'm feeling guilty for saying it's going to drag on and on. I stick with my feeling that the show needs to have an end in sight. But goodness....not that soon! There's no way they can tie everything together in two episodes.

I think one more year would have been perfect.

Oh well. I still have my Sookie to look forward to. Sookie, Eric, Bill, Sam..... Ah, now I'm feeling better.

Let me continue with the books.

10. Eustace by Catherine Jinks. This is the second in the Allie's Ghost Hunter series. I really loved the first book. I hope I like this one too.

11. Homesickness by Murray Bail. I read his other book; Eucalyptus. I liked some aspects of it, but was bored with some of it. I hope to like this one more.

12. Swords and Crowns and Rings by Ruth Park This is one of Park's fiction books. It's the one that has a romance involving a dwarf. And I think it also involves economic differences.

13. Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta. I don't remember ordering this one, but I'm very glad that I did! I read about it recently, and it sounded interesting to me. I want to read all of Marchetta's books.

And I got one book that's not Australian; Stephen King's Under the Dome. I love almost everything by Stephen King. I hope this book is included in that. It does sound a bit like The Simpson's movie which I didn't like. But hopefully King did a better job with the subject.