Today I took my time leaving Charters Towers Queensland on my '09 Harley Davidson Road King, only a short ride ahead of me to Townsville where I was to meet up with my wife who was flying up from home for the weekend.
Heading towards the coast there was a little more to see, hills, greenness, a bit more traffic and some corners! Before long though, I was in Townsville and the GPS took me straight to the Casino where we were booked in. A while later my wife arrived and we spent the afternoon on foot looking around. We had actually entered a 10k run at the Townsville Running Festival on the following day but sadly at some point during the HOG Rally I injured my ankle and decided not to risk it.
During the course of that afternoon it was apparent that Townsville had been a popular second day destination from the HOG Rally as the number of patched vests in the crowd and in the cafe's increased. We even bumped into the couple I'd ridden with from Julia Creek to Hughenden the day before and spied a few of our own Chapter having lunch. They originally had planned to stay in Townsville overnight but had decided to push south to Bowen.
Not having to bother with carb loading and eating healthily for the race tomorrow (my wife decided not to run in sympathy) we enjoyed a long relaxing multi course meal at the a la carte restaurant at the Casino. A night's luxury before kicking off the 2000+ kilometre solo ride home that begins tomorrow.