Alphabet Soup

I was up before 5am (hard life not having a job), but Jo has to go to Sydney for a few days, so the first mission was to deliver her to the airport in the car, then home again and change into my bike gear and I was on the road a few mins before 6am, in the dark and cool Melbourne morning.

My mission.. to collect the whole alphabet.

Home 5:56 --------------------------

Hazeldene 6:45 -------H------------------


After all of the haybale minions on the sides of roads, this one is novel.


Where the Farck...
Yarck 7:26 -------H----------------Y-


25 years ago I used to come here every weekend and skydive
Violet Town 8:12 -------H-------------V--Y-


There are two buildings in Orrvale with the name of the town on them. THe other one was the local primary school. I got there right in the middle of drop off time so had to go hunting for more..
Orrvale 8:50 -------H------O------V--Y-


Zeerust 9:07 -------H------O------V--YZ


Undera 9:39 -------H------O-----UV--YZ


My First fuel stop was in Echuca
Echuca 10:11 ----E--H------O-----UV--YZ


Gunbower 10:52 ----E-GH------O-----UV--YZ


Pyramid Hill 11:09 ----E-GH------OP----UV--YZ


Kerang 11:50 ----E-GH--K---OP----UV--YZ


Unfortunatley for Quambatook, although the welcome sign on the main street looks fresh, the whole town is quite stale. Most of the shops have closed down. There are only 2 or 3 cars on the main street in the middle of the day, and they seemed to be in quite a hurry to leave.
Quambatook 12:41 18279 ----E-GH--K---OPQ---UV--YZ


Boort 13:11 -B--E-GH--K---OPQ---UV--YZ


Everything else gets a crossing these days. why not..


Durham Ox 13:26 -B-DE-GH--K---OPQ---UV--YZ


One of several small towns in this district with perfectly manicured lawn tennis courts.
Serpentine 13:48 -B-DE-GH--K---OPQ-S-UV--YZ


Second Fuel stop in Inglewood.
Inglewood 14:05 -B-DE-GHI-K---OPQ-S-UV--YZ


The front of the Rheola memorial hall was filled with a herd of sheep who scampered quick smart when I turned up.
Rheola 14:33 -B-DE-GHI-K---OPQRS-UV--YZ


Logan 14:47 -B-DE-GHI-KL--OPQRS-UV--YZ


Navarre 15:28 -B-DE-GHI-KL-NOPQRS-UV--YZ


If it wasn't for the war memorial, Joel Joel would just be a name on a map
Joel Joel 15:48 -B-DE-GHIJKL-NOPQRS-UV--YZ


Moonambel 16:13 -B-DE-GHIJKLMNOPQRS-UV--YZ


The pie shop in Avoca is difficult to ride past.
Avoca 16:28 AB-DE-GHIJKLMNOPQRS-UV--YZ


Talbot 17:01 AB-DE-GHIJKLMNOPQRSTUV--YZ


More fuel in Creswick
Creswick 17:27 ABCDE-GHIJKLMNOPQRSTUV--YZ


Warrenheip gets its name from the local indigenious word for "emu feathers"
Warrenheip 17:53 ABCDE-GHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVW-YZ


The only thing in Fiskville is the Country Fire Authority training complex, and several dozen roos.
Fiskville 18:24 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVW-YZ


Only one letter remaining.. but there is a catch.. there is no locality in Victoria starting with an "X", so I found the next best thing.
Exford 19:04 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ


home 19:45
Here is a spot link showing the trackpoints and also the above points.
https://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=88d952cce4b8c04f9

Total distance: 1091km

Awesome idea!
Great pics and ride report.
Bloody good effort :bow:

Totally excellent!!!
You're a legend Nev.
I'm fairly well traveled but I still had to have your thread open in one tab and google maps in another tab. .....and then AFTER reading your awesome RR I saw the link to your spot map. Lol.

Now, my Google search confirms nowhere in Vic starting with X but there is Xantippe in WA so on yer bike.

Next time do it in order.....

Good effort Nev, I'm impressed.


This is something along the lines on a thread on the OzSTOC Forum (ST owners) re. taking a pic of your ST in front of the township sign, where the first letter of the town is one letter of a word about related to motorcycles. To make it even easier one "wild card" per word is allowed.


OzSTOC have a maximum of six letter words, sometimes stretched to eight, but 26 takes this to new level.


I think the challenge now is to see who can get the alphabet in a shorter distance, or in order as suggested by Marty.


I think John is correct about Xantippe in WA, but I don't think there is anything there, let alone anything with a sign.


Mind if I put a link to your thread in OzSTOC?

Huzzah!

What a bloody fantastic idea for a ride.

Sorry mate but at some stage I will be stealing this idea (with full credit to you of course) for an openroader ride. :devil:

Williamson said:

I think the challenge now is to see who can get the alphabet in a shorter distance,

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I have a 1000 mile version of this ride planned out also. One of the parameters I didn't mention was that I was doing it with a minimum distance of 1000km (And that includes commuting from from home to the hazeldene(60km) , and then home from Exford (75km)),

If I was trying to minimise distance, I'd have chosen Kyabram instead of Kerang, Queenscliff instead of Quambatook, Jan Juc or Johanna instead of Joel Joel, etc

Hytram said:

Next time do it in order.....

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Yep, no good doing the alphabet if it's not in alphabetical order....back on ya bike sunshine....

it is my ambition to also not have a job then go on rides like this.

BB63 said:

Yep, no good doing the alphabet if it's not in alphabetical order....back on ya bike sunshine....

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That's why I called it Alphabet soup

twowheeler said:

it is my ambition to also not have a job then go on rides like this.

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It's always good to have ambition