Day 3 Goondiwindi to Dubbo

Set out this morning for another big day. Plan was to ride to Moree for breakfast and then to Narrabri for morning tea and then to Coonabarabran for lunch then on to Dubbo. About 500k. We left Gundi at 6 as planned and stopped for our boarder crossing photo. In Moree I was not sure where we should stop. I was thinking a Maccas for the free wifi but we were a fair way in and we had not seen one. Then I spotted a bakery and thought why not. There was a park out front. I pulled up and the others pulled in behind me. Then I learnt the short falling of panniers Warren pulled up behind me and started to roll back in as did I. I was looking to my left to see how close I was to the curb however on the other side my pannier bumped Warrens and catching him off balance. In slow motion his bike when to the ground. *#*!!! Once we recovered from being annoyed and assessed it there was a small amount of damage to Warrens right pannier and his hand guard. I went for a look and the Maccas was just round the corner so we all went on for breakfast. Breakfast was fun and if that was the only drama for the day it would have been great. No so.
We got about 20k out of Moree and Warren felt something was wrong with his bike. Kerry pulled up and they waved us on. At least I think they did. We went on anyway. We soon got a call from Kerry to say that his tyre looked like it was going flat so he was going to head back to Moree. They would catch us up. For the Hoppers the rest of the day went to plan.
Morning tea at a great bakery that had an upstairs eating area where we sat on the veranda that over looked the street. A great perspective on Narrabri. In Coonabarabran we brought pies and went to the park were we came to the attention of geese. On to Dubbo through the Goonoo state forest. We arrived in Dubbo about 5.30 local time. (Now in daylight saving). The other exciting thing was that the Battaglene's were on the road and looked like joining us about 9.30pm and they did.
Back to Warren and Kerry who were having the adventure no one wants to have. On his return toward Moree it became clear that the problem was much greater. The left hand side rear wheel bearing had clasped. He called RACQ who sent a truck to transport it back to Moree. Warren had visited the bike shop that morning before the Maccas breakfast he should have said see ya later.
Warren threw himself in with the workshop boys as they started on their new most important job. The wheel bearing turned out to be something readily available - well at least in a town that survives on keeping harvesters going. The problem was the spacer - a long tube that goes between the left and right bearings. The collapsed bearing had severely damaged one end. The young bloke in the workshop did a recon of the engineering workshop up the road and found an aluminium tube that would do the job. It just need boring out. Unfortunately it was not their most important job and they would have to wait for the morning to get it sorted.
Kerry booked them into the Motel across the road which happened to have artesian pools. They applied the therapy of sitting in the hot mineral pool before jumping into the cold one. Good prep for the big day they fronted tomorrow catching up. And so day 3 closed. Much more eventful than the spread sheet indicated.