Word: bryson
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid,” by Bill Bryson...
Truckers Darren Schneider and Rod Bryson couldn't have chosen a more dramatic place to stop. But having turned off the 90 Mile Straight, "Australia's Longest Straight Road," in the early hours of the morning en route from Melbourne to Perth, their three-carriage Kenworth inexplicably shuts down. A misty dawn reveals an endless vista of saltbush: They're bang in the middle of an ancient seabed stretching 700 km from South Australia's Head of the Bight west to Balladonia. Nullarbor translates as "no trees" in Latin, and for the moment the truckers are without a clue. "Usually...
...keep on coming and they don't thin out." But a roo isn't to blame this morning, nor is low oil or water. Written across the Kenworth's chassis is the motto without trucking australia stops, but into the last quarter of their 40-hour trip, Schneider and Bryson must simply sit on the roadside and check and recheck the truck manual...
...Having moved to Perth from New Zealand little over a year ago, Bryson, 48, is new to the Nullarbor. "The thing that struck me," he says, "is it's the same but different. There's always something a bit different down the road." Today he's especially struck by the tyranny of distance. From Ceduna to Esperance alone, he says, "this distance would get me the whole length of New Zealand...
...With no sign yet of the engine coming to life, Schneider decides to hitch a 30-km ride to Balladonia, where he'll phone for help. "Get me a sausage roll or something, mate," Bryson calls from the truck, soon to be a mere speck in the landscape...