Day 44

Start:  Swansea

Finish:  Newcastle 

Distance:  15

Total:  711

Happy Super Bowl Monday everyone!  Not such a big deal in the land down under. However, one of the major TV networks did carry the game live, even though it was in the middle of the day on Monday here. 

I had a good day walking on up the coast to Newcastle; a major city north of Sydney. As you recall I was suppose to be here two nights and looking forward to a day off tomorrow but I’ve beat that dead horse enough so I’ll just say I’m enjoying my stay at the brand spanking new Holiday Inn Express.  It’s so new, it’s just a vacant lot on Google Maps. However, when I checked in, the receptionist said they’d had some cancellations for tomorrow night so if I wanted to stay another night they had rooms. TOO LATE!  I already have rooms booked every night for the next week down the road and I’d have to cancel all of them so TOO LATE!  

My walk up from Swansea was uneventful. I had a really nice bike/walking trail part of the way and believe it or not, the last three miles were DOWNHILL vs the usual uphill. The Super Bowl kicked off over here at 10:30 AM Monday and I already knew my CBS Sports App would not play the video live on my phone because I’ve tried to watch other sports events live on it and other apps and I get the usual pop up that the video is not available in my area. So right before kickoff I started to look for an audio streaming source to listen to the game on radio. No luck there either. So I resorted to keeping up with the game on my ESPN app and watching the gamecast. At least I could imagine what was happening, even though I really didn’t give a hoot about who won being a Cowboy fan and all. 

So as I was getting close to my hotel, and I mean really close, the game was in its last minute. 19-16; KC had the ball and was about to either win or tie the game. I walked into the hotel lobby and the game was on a big screen TV right by the reception desk. KC was lining up to kick the tying field goal. I stood there and watched as 5-6 other people who worked in the hotel were oblivious to what was going on. They weren’t busy with any other guests. They were just doing their thing and had no interest whatsoever in the Super Bowl. Probably the same reaction you’d get at the Holiday Inn Express in the U.S. if the Cricket World Championship were on. So after the tying field goal, I checked in and went to my room and watched the rest of the game. 

Starting tomorrow I turn away from the coastline for a few days. And no more big towns for a while either.  700+ miles down, 500+ more to go. JB.