October 24, 1995
Hi Patti,
Well I have finally made it here, what a trip. The country is absolutly beautiful even the desert. The people are excellent, I have yet to meet anyone that has not been friendly. When they hear that we are from the States they are immediatly intrested in who we are and what we are doing. In the desert, its like a parallel to being at sea, a 360 degree view of where the sky meets the ground without a single man made reference, there are no trees or hills, just flat land and brush as far as you can see.
Bill
Hi mates I'm now downunder,
Things are not too much different from back home. We drive on the opposite side of the road, which is really strange. They probably should not have allowed me to drive. The turn signal is on the other side of the steering wheel and every time I make a turn I wave my windshield wipers at them.
They have mostly American products in the stores. They are about 5 years behind us in music, TV shows and movies. They have fast food places, we have burger king they have happy jacks, both serve whoppers etc. They have Mc donalds, Pizza Hut, and a Sizzler.
It is very clean here, no one litters or does graffiti. Everyone has a lot of respect for each other and their belongings. The area is simply beautiful, one unique thing is that the soil here is very red in color and because of the runoff into the lakes and ponds, it makes the water turn purple in color. It is extremely beautiful to see as the sun is rising or setting.
The Australians have nicknames for everything, they call kangaroos - skippers and emu's - dusters. Kangaroos because they hop and emu's because they look like feather dusters.
When ever someone meets you they say "goodday" and when you ask for something or say thank you they reply "no worries" The people here are very nice, they are not materialistic, and do not have very much but are willing to share whatever they have with you.
South Australia is the name of the state that I am in, can anyone name the rest of the states in Australia? Does anyone know what country founded Australia? Well I have to get back to work so I will write again later. Hope to hear from you soon, please write.
Your mate,
Mr. Bill
October 26, 1995
Hi kids,
The final race of the year for the International Grand Prix Formula One racers will be here in Adelaide on November 9th and 10th. Does anyone there like racing?? It's sounds neat, I never seen it live, they race through the streets. The city puts on a big celebration.
Last night was the first launch and it was completely successful. The experimenter was Dr. Garmire from Penn State. The helicopter just brought it back on recovery a few minutes ago. They had an X-Ray telescope and were looking at the solar depression angle????
The time difference from home to here is 13.5 hours now. The US and Australia both observe daylight savings time does anyone know what the time difference will be when the clocks are changed?
The Australian's use the metric system here, the average speed limit is 110 Km/Hr. What is that speed in miles/hr? In the outback where we are they have no speed limit..
Here is something interesting. Our money(dollars) is made out of paper and all denominations are the same color. The notes here and made out of plastic and each denomination is a different color. Each denomination is multiple colors of the same hue, very beautiful. They even have a clear plastic window that you can see through, it helps stop counterfeiters as well. The coins go up to two dollars, the higher the value the smaller the coin.
Well got to go,
write back soon,
Mr. Bill