The team's accommodations in Cairns: The Big Backyard hostel. They gave us a good rate on rooms, so thanks, Big Backyard!

Journal by Nancy Olson

Well, I didn’t run today, so that makes it a bad day. I mean, I guess it’s not a bad day, but it’s definitely below average. I was just really, really sleepy, and then I ended up working all day. I worked from the hostel for several hours, and then I went to the Internet café to post journals and photos. That was several hours, too, $9 worth of hours.

The cute/nice guy who used to work at Global Gossip when I was in Cairns a couple of months ago now works next door at another café. Global Gossip’s computers couldn’t read my memory stick, so I was forced to venture next door, and viola! There was Hayden. He was excited about his new Yamaha motorcycle street machine, and he was happy to tell me all about it in the way a new father might boast about his kid. I love it when people are just so totally stoked about something that way. It doesn’t matter what it is, just be excited.

Hayden asked how the story ended with my dented Santa Cruz (The bike was dented on the flight from Argentina to Cairns, and I was talking to the airline and my insurance company about a claim when I last saw Hayden.). I let him know that neither the airline nor my renters’ insurance would cover the damage. The good news, however, is that I emailed Rob Roskopp of Santa Cruz some photos of the dent, and he assured me it is cosmetic versus structural, so I’m in the clear. I felt bad about breaking the news about the blemish to Nick over email, but he assured me in his response that he doesn’t care. Oh well; the bike seems happy, at any rate.

So, I finished using the net and gabbing and went to Woolworth’s. Remember Woolworths? It’s been out of business in the U.S. for ages, but it was a sort of department store, if memory serves me correctly. Well, In Aus, it’s a grocery store. Uh, I guess select Woolworth’s grocers do have a variety store section, but not all do. So, uh, like, I sense that this is, like, the world’s most boring blog, but that’s how my day was. Internet all day, shop for lunch and dinner, return to the hostel to do more work, resize and rename images for several hours, and then get ready for bed.

The exciting thing was when Nick, at about 11:30 at night, broke the news to Todd and me that we needed to make space in our vehicle for the team’s refrigerator. Great. Now, here’s an example of something that would have been nice to know sometime prior to minutes before midnight on the eve of departure. No worries. Life is just swell. See ya’s later.

Help support our cause: The LONGITUDE Expedition is the longest journey ever attempted with a focus on Parkinson's Disease. The Drive Around the World team aims to raise money for Parkinson’s Disease research by driving four certified pre-owned Land Rover Discoverys around the globe following lines of longitude. Readers are encouraged to pledge small amounts of money per expedition-kilometer via a pledge form that can be found on our Parkinson’s page by clicking here. 100% of donations received go directly to Parkinson's research and all who donate $10 or more will be entered into a raffle to win an expedition-equipped Land Rover Discovery.