DisLeichhardt Tour – 2010
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010Big thanks to Wendy and Loz who reviewed all the adventures of the latest RA away trip.
Getting up at 8:00am is not a good way to start a Sunday, especially when sleep time for the previous night totalled about 3 hours, however there was an RA away trip on so it had to be done.
The faithfuls gathered at Kingston for a 9:00am departure, and in a new RA record, the first bus was on the road 3 minutes early. The other bus had to wait for the Northsiders who were being questioned at the border into the Southside…
Bus 1, the wet bus, was making surprisingly good time, and there was plenty of hearty banter from the front of the bus on the Raiders players and management. Those in the back were trying to pry as much info as we could out of Dugan’s grandma, but she was as tight lipped as Dugan’s defence and didn’t give up anything. KW and I began reminiscing on previous RA adventures, giving the newbies a taste of what can happen when you get on it with the RA!
The compulsory Sutton Forrest Maccas stop allowed the 2nd bus to finally catch up, and after a quick breakfast off the Maccas lunch menu (missed brekky by 5 mins – devo) we were on the road again. We had remembered to put the beers on ice, and keep them on our bus, so all was good. After a bit more debating, which included KW being accosted for not knowing when the next Raiders board meeting was on, the newspaper quizzes came out to play. Being the only one who could read at the back of the bus I was designated quiz master, while the others prepared themselves for questions. Unfortunately for KW, Bindi Irwin was not the answer to any question, and neither was John Newcombe in the Wimbledon trivia. Wayno was dominating everything, with Greg chipping in quietly from the corner every now and then.
Once ‘who wants to be a millionaire’ was over, it was confirmed that beer o’clock had been reached, and the back of the bus duly cracked a few. The 2nd bus, which at this point was travelling closely behind, was not impressed by this fact, as they only had water on board. Needless to say we did our best to show them what they were missing.
Upon arrival at our destination, we parked the buses at the gate, and headed into the worst ground in the league. Seiffert Oval has better seats than disLeichhardt, and that is saying something. Wooden planks greeted those with seating tickets, while those of us with GA at least had some grass for cushioning. The RA congregated on the hill in front of the portable big screen, and cheered on the Toyota Cup boys to a resounding victory over the competition leaders. With first grade kick off fast approaching we realised we had no confetti, enter Jed, the newspaper tearing champion of the RA. He had us 3 bags of confetti in no time, which we spread accordingly over the whole hill as the Raiders ran out. Thanks for stripping, Jed.
No need to go over the game, the Raiders did their best to make us think we were in for a win then hit the showers 5 minutes early. After 75 minutes of silence, Tigpies fans actually started cheering and tried to start up some chant about being a long way back to Canberra. The fact that we wanted to return to civilisation, where the toilets actually flush and dentists exist meant the chant didn’t last too long!
We wandered (crutched) back out to the bus, where KW was given the job of telling the non drinkers they were in the mini van for the way home. None were too disappointed about it, I think it was something to do with the fact that wouldn’t have to stop 15 times for pee breaks on the way.
We boarded the bus, cracked a beer, and went nowhere. Naturally we were sitting ducks for the attentions of passing mouthy, douchebag Tigpies fans with one notable twat unable to do anything other than sing ‘We are the Champions’ at us. The irony here is that this tool was wearing a wallabies jersey and had a haircut from 1993, which looked incredibly shit and we told him so. This jerk probably should have borrowed a hat from the Fat Controller – who was a good sport as he stood there with a ridiculous grin on his face while we proceeded to take the piss out of him and his stupid looking hat. The traffic out of the ground was terrible, but we were parked behind the Raiders bus so managed to give all the boys a cheer as they were walking to it. Massive ups to T Thommo and Monas who stopped and had chat, and also JayCar for giving me his sandwich. The Orr’s and I shared it and man was it a good sandwich – double ham!
After a pee break before we even left the ground, we were off, slowly. We made it about half an hour down the road before another pee stop was ordered. We stopped at a servo in Bankstown that doubled as a kebab store, which did some mean hot chips. As we were about to leave we noticed 2 were missing, only to see Spewing Sam and Slippery running back across the road with some Sunny Vale and Fruity Lexia casks. Trouble was brewing… or spewing…
Attempts were made to get some songs happening, however a mechanical failure with the ipod player meant that there was no backing music, and so every song lasted about 2 lines. The only songs that were finished the entire trip were the Green Machine, Queanbeyan High and Tuggeranong Hawks victory songs. The drinking song also made an appearance, and Spewing Sam, as his new name suggests, was soon decorating the outside of the bus with the Sunny Vale. The RA bus was stopped for its second ever spew stop (the first was on the Dragons away, and that was for Spewing Sam’s brother), and Sam was given a red card for his antics. Liam then decided it was a good time to bring out the Vuvuzela’s and for the rest of the trip the bus sounded like a South African soccer stadium.
Sam assumed the foetal position and passed out, was decorated in Raiders banners, then needed another spew. We stopped at a rest stop with actual toilets which was a nice change compared to the side of the road, next to a sheer rock-face where we has previously stopped. Also handy for someone on crutches, and females in general, as squatting proves difficult….
^Sam - Always spews on the left side of the bus!
We made it to Sutton Forrest Macca’s, where there were no cheeseburger challenges because it is after all, a family restaurant. And also because Marko wasn’t there. Some more chundering and we were ready to go. By this time it was about 9:00pm, there was no booze left and people were turning into major pests (KW). Sleeping was out of the question, as the Vuvuzela’s were out in force, as well as Slippery’s camera which has about a million flashes.
We finally made it back to Canberra about 10:30pm, an hour after the other bus, and everyone headed home with ringing ears and no voice.
Hope to see you all in Bay 72 this coming Monday, when the Raiders take on the Bulldogs at Fortress (?) Bruce.
GO RAIDERS!
