Catching Up Part 2

The day after Rob's birthday party, Don and I were off to Rockingham again for the regular Friday ritual of "morning tea" with the veteran's group. This time Peter Roper brought his fantastic Excalibur car. Don't remember what year is is, built in the US of course, it has a 454 ci Chevy Corvette engine. And when he and Barry took off from the parking lot, Peter really got on it, ahh nothing like the throaty sound of a big block American V-8.

Don is thinking "I'd sure look good in this rig".

Get on it Peter! Hang on Barry!

We got back from tea, had a quick lunch, and were off to the Army Museum of Western Australia. This is one of the best I have ever seen, and created and maintained by volunteers only. Don has been working here as a guide for about 10 years. The museum is housed in the Old Artillery Barracks in Fremantle first occupied in 1912.

Main Gate to the Artillery Barracks

Static display of tanks. These buildings remind me a lot of those at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma.

Don has donated a combat uniform of his, complete with actual patrol equipment, to the museum and it in a display case in the Viet Nam era room. The photos are not too clear because of the glass, but I just had to add them. Remember, you can click on each photo and it will enlarge it.

This photo at the foot of the mannequin, is of Don and other patrol members in Viet Nam, 1970. Don is in the back row on the right.

This is the placard between the feet of the mannequin.

The museum also has a fantastic P.O.W. room, which we spent a lot of time in, remembering Uncle R. C. (Ike) and his own experiences in WW II and his time at Stalag Luft III. After our time in the museum, which for me was over too soon, we walked down to a couple of nice local pubs, inspecting the architecture and woodwork, then caught our bus back home for a nice chinese dinner set for us beautifully, as usual, by Jenny. Great day.

Rugby Union!

The next evening (Sat. 16 May) Rob, Braden, and Don take me to my first Rugby game. Staying with the local tradition, we must stop at a pub and have a few pints before the game, in this case it was the Irish Club (No comments please). And we met up with Rob's old pal from his days at Scotch College, Tim and his girlfriend Ai. I enjoyed the event very much, the game is very physical, and remember, the players wear no protective padding, and a fast paced game as well.

Here we are all decked out for the game. The name of the team is Western Force, this is Rob's favorite team of course, so we all had to wear Force hats and blue. This was taken in the sun room of the house before we left for the game. The guys are trying to convert me to a rugby fan.

In the stands, Braden, Uncle Bob, and Don. Go Force!

The playing field is bigger than that of American football, and in this stadium, Rugby shares it with Australian Rules football, a much different game (i.e. hardly any rules) which is played on an oval field, thus the shape of this playing ground.

Hey Rob, down in front!

It was a great night and I thank Rob for setting this up. Onya mate.