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go-redgirl · 5 years ago

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Don’t Forget: New Hampshire Winner And Dem Frontrunner Bernie Sanders Has A Lot Of Crazy Plans; Here are 19 Of His Insane Policy Proposals The Federalist ^ | 02/12/2020 | Emily Jashinsky and Madeline Osburn

With a win in New Hampshire, a maybe-win in Iowa last week, and a month-long surge into second place nationally, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is now in strong position to win the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. It’s been a long road for the curmudgeonly man from Vermont, who spent years toiling on the fringes of official Washington. Of all things, the event that ultimately launched him into the Democratic Party’s mainstream turned out to be a binary 2016 primary contest with Hillary Clinton, a match-up in which the contrast ultimately benefited him more than her.

So, here we are, in February 2020, and a self-identified democratic socialist appears poised to be the candidate of the Democratic Party. That could easily change, and the party establishment will work hard to ensure it does, but let us not take for granted how stunning it is that a man as radically leftist as Sanders is the likely nominee as primary season heats up.

As Sanders and his supporters boast, he is not a normal Democrat candidate. He is the most radical member of the Senate. His platform would make him the furthest left major party nominee in the modern era.

Sanders is a European-style ideologue who seeks to radically transform the government and the economy, dismantling the system of free enterprise, and he’s not bashful about that. To be sure, his success has pushed other candidates left on issues such as health care and higher education, but Sanders still stands as the most radical candidate, which makes him the most appealing to many of his supporters.

As Sanders surges in the nominating contest, the sheer extremism of his platform should not be normalized simply because he’s earning a decent slice of the Democratic primary vote. It’s in that spirit we present this list, which conveys the radicalism on which Sanders has built his career and staked his campaign.

1. $34 Trillion Socialized Health Insurance Overhaul

Sanders would ban private insurance and implement single-payer government health care. Under his Medicare for All proposal, “federal spending on health care would still increase by 10 percent of G.D.P., or more than triple what the government spends on the military,” according to The New York Times.

2. Mass Bailout of Student Loan Debt

The senator would bail out student loan debt for “45 million Americans,” totaling “about 1.6 trillion,” according to his campaign website.

3. Making Higher Education ‘Tuition Free’

As with many of his policy proposals, Sanders’ oversimplified justification for providing free college is: Countries in Europe offer it for free, why can’t the United States? Unlike in Europe, however, tuition is precisely what made the United States the top country in which to study, and the reason students from all over the world flock to the United States for education.

Additionally, the costs of state-run universities in Europe have not ballooned to pay for the ever-expanded services American universities now must offer to remain competitive (luxurious gyms with lazy rivers, behemoth athletic departments, and gourmet dining halls). In 2016, Sanders’ opponent Hillary Clinton knocked his free tuition plan because it relied on state governors, including Republican governors who often cut spending, to put in state money.

4. Implementing ‘National Rent Control’

Sanders’ campaign has pledged to spend $2.5 trillion to build 10 million government housing units. He also wants the federal government to further invade every state’s housing laws and local economy by enforcing a national “rent control standard.” He proposes using the federal government to wage war against gentrification and zoning laws.

5. Instituting a Moratorium on Deportations

Sanders’ immigration plan includes ending deportations of illegal immigrants and offering citizenship to the 11 million illegal immigrants already living in the United States.

6. Effectively Abolishing ICE and CBP

Sanders wants to eliminate the federal agencies, Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Protection, that protect our country’s sovereign borders and protect U.S. citizens from illegal immigrants who commit acts of violence and organized crime all over the United States.

7. Enacting a Green New Deal

Sanders is a supporter of Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez’s, D-N.Y., Green New Deal, which calls for the banning of fossil fuel energy production, such as oil and gas, which is the lifeblood of American industry. The initial version of the Green New Deal also called for banning cars, meat, and air travel, while also promising to provide all Americans education, healthy food, housing, and government-guaranteed jobs. Sanders has admitted his climate plan would be an “expensive” $16.3 trillion.

8. Approaching Abortion as Population Control

“Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders answered ‘yes’ and spoke about abortion when asked at a CNN town hall event Wednesday night if population control would play a part in his administration’s policy for dealing with climate change,” RealClearPolitics reported in September.

9. Admiration for Dictators, Communists, and Bread Lines

Sanders has long admired and praised tyrannical dictators such as Cuba’s Fidel Castro and the USSR’s Mikhail Gorbachev. In 1985, Sanders visited Managua to celebrate the anniversary of Nicaragua’s authoritarian Marxist regime, and often claimed that “the real truth is not being told” about the Nicaraguan dictators in U.S. press.

Last year, footage of Sanders from the 1980s surfaced, in which he praised socialist countries such as the Soviet Union and claimed bread lines in communist countries are a “good thing.”

“It’s funny sometimes American journalists talk about how bad a country is because people are lining up for food. That’s a good thing,” he said. “In other countries, people don’t line up for food, rich people get the food and poor people starve to death.”

10. Banning Hydraulic Fracking, Which Would Cripple the Economy

Sanders introduced a bill just last month that would “ban the process of hydraulic fracking.” According to Fox Business, “The Global Energy Institute, an arm of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, published a report in 2016 claiming that the U.S. would lose 14.8 million jobs by 2022 if a fracking ban were instituted.”

11. Issuing ‘Dozens’ of Sweeping Executive Orders to Implement Major Policies

A campaign list of “potential” Sanders executive orders obtained by the Washington Post “includes unilaterally allowing the United States to import prescription drugs from Canada, directing the Justice Department to legalize marijuana, and declaring climate change a national emergency while banning the exportation of crude oil.”

“Other options cited in the document include canceling federal contracts for firms paying workers less than $15 an hour and reversing federal rules blocking U.S. funding to organizations that provide abortion counseling,” the Post revealed.

The report further said Sanders is considering “lifting the cap on the number of refugees accepted into the United States and immediately halting border wall construction” in addition to reinstating Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.

12. Hiking Taxes, Even on the Middle Class

Sanders was forced in June to admit the middle class would pay more in taxes to fund his health-care overhaul. Brian Riedl in City Journal points out how Sanders’ elaborate plans will require even more money than his tax plan would generate.

“Sanders’s agenda is virtually impossible to pay for. Adding $97.5 trillion in new spending to an underlying $15.5 trillion projected budget deficit (under current policies) creates a ten-year budget gap of $113 trillion. Yet Sanders’s tax proposals would raise at most $23 trillion over the decade.”

13. Making Taxpayers Fund Political Campaigns

“The FEC no longer acts like enforcement agency, and needs to be replaced to effectively regulate campaign finance. And to address the outsized influence large corporate donors have on candidates, America must move to publicly fund federal elections in order to ensure a fair playing field free of the corrupting influence of large donors,” Sanders says on his website.

The senator’s platform also includes “A new system of Universal Small Dollar Vouchers [that] would give any voting-age American the ability to ‘donate’ to federal candidates,” and the Federal Election Commission “determin[ing] the appropriate threshold candidates must meet in order to qualify for public financing.” (Assuming it still exists.)

14. Allowing Convicted Felons to Vote

Asked in April whether Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should have the right to vote, Sanders replied, “Yes, even for terrible people, because once you start chipping away and you say, ‘Well, that guy committed a terrible crime, not going to let him vote. Well, that person did that, not going to let that person vote,’ you’re running down a slippery slope.”

15. Eliminating the Electoral College

Sanders came out in favor of abolishing the Electoral College in July.

16. Legalize Marijuana in the First 100 Days with Executive Action

According to his website, a President Sanders would legalize marijuana almost immediately, not through legislative action with Congress, but using unilateral executive order. He would also “vacate and expunge all past marijuana-related convictions.”

17. Eliminating Nuclear Power

Sanders aims to phase out nuclear power.

18. Nationalizing the Internet

Sanders has a $150 billion plan to make the Internet into a public utility and radically change the Internet as we know it. His “High-Speed Internet for All” plan would break up big Internet service providers such as AT&T and Comcast, and force local governments to buildpublicly owned broadband networks. High-speed Internet is now a “basic human right,” according to Sanders’ proposal.

19. Eliminate Billionaires

Sanders was quick to adopt Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s idea to impose a “wealth tax” on the richest Americans, but he was also quick to make it rake in even more money for his grand plans. Sanders’ wealth tax would affect more households and with a higher top rate than Warren’s plan.

When The New York Times asked Sanders if he thought billionaires should exist in the United States, he said, “I hope the day comes when they don’t.” He added, “It’s not going to be tomorrow.”

He also said he wanted to tell “the wealthiest families in this country they cannot have so much wealth.”

Emily Jashinsky is Culture Editor at The Federalist. Madeline Osburn is Staff Writer at The Federalist and Producer of the Federalist Radio Hour. Photo (Donna Light/AP)

TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Philosophy; Politics/Elections

KEYWORDS:2020; 2020 dem primary; barbara green; bernie; bernie sanders; billionaires; breadlines; college communist; debt taxes; democratic socialism; dictatorship; conomics fracking; feel the bern; green new deal; hillary rotten clinton; ice; immigration; progressives; radical student; socialism

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junker-town · 5 years ago

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Maddy Freking and the history of girls at the Little League World Series

Photo by Alex Trautwig/MLB Photos via Getty Images

Maddy Freking is the latest in a long line of girls determined to play ball.

Media coverage of 12-year-old Minnesota pitcher and second baseman Maddy Freking at the Little League Worlds Series has been predictable, to say the least.

Freking claims the not-altogether-helpful distinction of being the “first girl in five years” to compete in the tournament. What has followed is a slew of well-intentioned but ultimately cliche stories that emphasize how unusual it is for a girl to be playing baseball — did you notice her long blonde hair sticking out from beneath her baseball cap?

Freking has though she’s fielded the repetitive questions with grace. “It’s an honor — I also think it’s really cool to be, out of however many boys have been here, only the 19th girl,” she told ESPN. Yes, 19 girls have played in the Little League World Series. Double digits. She’s the sixth girl to pitch, following Mo’ne Davis’ star turn in 2014.

No, girls don’t play every year, and yes, she’s the only girl currently competing. But her presence begs the question: when do we stop counting?

Girls and women have played baseball roughly since the sport’s genesis in the mid-19th century. Little League was founded in 1939, just four years before the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was organized (and eventually immortalized in A League Of Their Own). In 1950, then-13-year-old Kathryn “Kay” Johnston-Massar disguised herself as a boy to join her local Little League team in upstate New York; less then a year later, Little League explicitly forbade girls from playing in what became known as the Tubby Rule, dubbed for her gender-bending alias.

The Tubby Rule lasted until 1974 when, on the heels of Title IX, a coalition of girls around the country sued Little League for the right to play. New Jersey’s Maria Pepe, then 12, was the first, aided by the National Organization for Women. Little League came to face nearly 20 lawsuits from girls trying to get on the diamond, and eventually had no choice but to acquiesce.

This is an extremely brief and superficial history of girls in Little League, a small part of their rich history in baseball. Plenty of girls and women play the sport today. Maybe someday, if she keeps it up, Maddy Freking will join the wildly talented U.S. Women’s National Baseball Team, who compete internationally despite having next to no local support.

Below are the 18 girls who preceded Freking at the Little League World Series. This list will likely be out of date within a year or two, and hopefully can eventually stop being maintained at all.

Victoria Roche, Brussels, Belgium (1984)

Roche, 12, was a reserve outfielder for Brussels who played alongside her brother. Her team, the winners of the European championship, was eliminated early in the tournament. Her lack of production as a pinch-hitter (one walk, two hitless plate appearances) was studiously noted by the press, as was the attention her appearances received.

“Victoria is a very spirited girl,” team manager John Fader told the AP. “We’re happy to have her with us. Having a girl on our team has been no problem.”

Roche stayed at a motel in Williamsport away from her team since there were no Little League facilities for girls. “She’s no schlepper — she made it ahead of nine boys,” Fader added later.

“We were watching me on TV last night — it was pretty awful,” Roche told the AP. “I’d rather be just like the other boys.”

Photo from the Burlington Free Press, August 22, 1984

Victoria Brucker, San Pedro, California (1989)

The 12-year-old first baseman was the first American girl to reach the reach the Little League World Series, and entered the tournament as her team’s leading home run hitter despite the fact that she was taken last in the league’s regional draft.

Sexism followed her to the tournament, naturally. In a feature previewing her appearance, the Los Angeles Times described her as a “tall, attractive 12-year-old with darting brown eyes.” For her part, Brucker insisted over and over that she was “just one of the players.”

“When she first started playing, one parent, a man, told me to my face that I should take Victoria home and teach her to cook and clean,” her mother told the paper (she’s described as “a spirited woman”). “I told him, ‘She not only knows how to cook and clean, she can also crochet and play baseball better than your son.’”

“They just pitch her fastballs and she hits them out,” her teammate Anthony Pesusich told the AP. “They think, she’s a girl, so they just pitch fastballs.”

The same year, Betty Speziale became the first woman to umpire a Little League World Series game. The “firsts” piled up as Brucker got the first LLWS hit by a girl, eventually earning three runs (two off walks). But when Brucker’s team lost in the semifinals, her manager told the Times that the pressure and attention (Johnny Carson and Regis Philbin were among those asking for her to come on their shows) had “messed with her head.”

Photo from the Courier-Post, August 22, 1989

Kelly Craig, Trail, British Columbia (1990)

The third girl to play and the first girl to start a Little League World Series game as a pitcher, 12-year-old Craig was pulled in the first inning after three batters got on base. All of her individual errors were scrupulously documented by the national press, unlike those of her male teammates.

Photo from the Central New Jersey Home News, August 21, 1990

Giselle Hardy, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia (1991)

“She’s gutsy. She’d probably chew tobacco if you’d let her,” Hardy’s team manager Rich Hunter told USA Today. Otherwise, the 12-year-old’s team got more attention for playing shortly after U.S. troops established a base in Saudi Arabia than for her participation. Dhahran didn’t go far in the tournament, but Hardy did score a run.

Photo from the Hartford Courant, August 24, 1991

Krissy Wendell, Brooklyn Center, Minnesota (1994)

Wendell was her team’s catcher (the first girl to play in the Little League World Series at the position, are you sensing a pattern?), and the daughter of manager Larry Wendell. He would even let her call pitches, according to a piece from the Pioneer Press. “

She’s a little embarrassed by the attention of the boy-girl thing,” her father told the Washington Post. “I think she just wanted to play well and be part of the team.”

“Some players on other teams don’t think she can be good because she’s a girl,” an opposing pitcher told the Press. “Then they find out otherwise.”

Though coverage still dwelled on Wendell’s diminutive stature and “long blonde hair,” she made her ambitions clear. “I want to be the first female to play in the NHL,” she told the Press. “I like hockey because you’re always playing — there’s always action and there’s roughness.” Wendell became a marquee player on the U.S. women’s national hockey team, eventually becoming captain and leading the squad to its first gold medal at the women’s world championships, where she earned MVP.

Photo from the Philadelphia Inquirer, August 25, 1994

Sayaka Tsushima, Osaka, Japan (1998)

Centerfielder Tsushima was described the first girl to play in the Little League World Series from a “Far East” team (...), and became the first girl to make it to the World Series finals. Her team lost to Toms River East, New Jersey (and, as all the papers noted, she went 0-3).

“I just really want to do my best,” Tsushima told the New York Post through an interpreter. In her team’s first game against the defending champions from Mexico, she earned two runs off a single and a walk. “Being the first girl in a championship game here really doesn’t matter to me,” she continued. “I dream about being a major-league player. But there are a lot of limitations because of being a female.”

Alicia Hunolt, Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany (1999)

Hunolt’s team was eliminated early in the tournament, which might explain why there was little coverage related to how she was the only girl competing. She would later play softball for Auburn.

Tatiana Maltseva, Moscow, Russia (2001)

The reserve catcher was the first Russian player to compete in the LLWS, and, according to her coach, too shy to be interviewed at the time.

Photo from the Democrat and Chronicle, August 17, 2001

Sanoe Aina, Waipahu, Hawaii (2002)

“She’s just one of the guys,” Waipahu coach Delbert Macanas told the AP of Aina, who aspired to be the first girl to win a LLWS title. “The coaches selected her as a co-captain because of her leadership qualities. Sanoe is a great athlete who provides power in our lineup and has a big influence over the other players.”

Unfortunately, Aina’s team didn’t make it to the title game. “Baseball’s been fun,” she said at the time. “And now it’s time to play with the girls in softball.”

Merced Flores, Agana, Guam (2003)

“I have one more thing to say, and that is girls can play any sport they want,” first baseman Flores told the Pacific Daily News before heading to the LLWS, not long after she’d hit a grand slam at the Guam Little League district tournament. “They just need to work a bit harder to prove to guys that they can also hang,” she concluded. Her team went 0-3 at the World Series, but at least her performance wasn’t blamed or credited with the outcome.

“Guam’s Merced Flores didn’t homer in Williamsport — which was her goal — but it was nice to see her become the 10th girl to participate in the Little League World Series without becoming a sideshow,” Bill Griffith wrote in the Boston Globe.

Meghan Sims, Owensboro, Kentucky and Alexandra Bellini, Nepean, Ottawa (2004)

For the first time, two girls competed at the same Little League World Series in what was deemed the tournament’s “year of the woman” by the AP. Maria Pepe threw out the first pitch, and three women (including Krissy Wendell) were inducted into the Little League Hall of Excellence.

Sims was hitting .537 before the tournament started.

“Everyone knows of the human-interest side of the story: the girl playing the boys,” her coach, Vic Evans Jr., told the Courier-Journal. “What gets lost in that is just how good of a player she is. She was one of the five or 10 best players in Indianapolis. She’s a great baseball player, and she’s one of the guys.”

As for any smack talk that Bellini might have heard from opponents about being a girl, “they usually stop talking after she smokes a couple of pitches,” one of her teammates told the Ottawa Citizen.

Photo from the Courier-News, August 22, 2004

Brielle Meno, Yona, Guam (2008)

The outfielder’s appearance at the LLWS was met with little fanfare, though it was noted that she was the “first girl in four years” to compete at the tournament.

Katie Reyes, Vancouver, British Columbia and Bryn Stonehouse, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia (2009)

Reyes, a 13-year-old first baseman, drew national attention after hitting the winning runs in her squad’s final game — another “first” — as part of a 3-for-4, three-RBI performance. She and Stonehouse, whose appearance was overshadowed somewhat by Reyes’ offensive fireworks, were roommates at the tournament.

“She’s pretty confident in what she does,” Reyes’ mother told the Globe and Mail. “At one time, I thought she would be left out. As a mother of a girl, you think that way, because girls are underdogs. But in her case, the boys and coaches, the way they treat her, she’s not the girl to put on the sidelines. She’s the girl that delivers.”

Photo from USA Today, August 26, 2009

Eliska Stejskalova, South Moravia, Czech Republic (2013)

Stejskalova was on the first Czech team to win a Little League World Series game. “She is good, that is why she is here,” manager Pavel Chadim told ABC. “She has two brothers. One is her twin. He is not here and she is. It means she is very good.” That game was called by Cynthia Smith, the tournament’s fifth woman umpire.

Go Eliska!! RT @WNEP: Girl power at the Little League World Series http://t.co/VTtXlGzh9l

— Katie Couric (@katiecouric) August 19, 2013

Emma March, Vancouver, British Columbia and Mo’ne Davis, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (2014)

“A Novelty No Longer,” the New York Times insisted as two girls participated in the LLWS, 30 years after Roche had marked that first “first.”

Nevertheless Mo’ne Davis, the first African-American girl to participate in the LLWS, would causes a nearly unmatched frenzy by becoming the first girl to pitch a winning game at the tournament. She did it with a shutout, pitching 70 miles per hour. Sports Illustrated made her its first Little League cover star of either gender. “I never thought that at age 13 I would be a role model,” Davis told the Times.

March, a pitcher and first baseman, didn’t receive the same kind of hype, but she was still cited as proof that the game had reached a turning point. Five years later, coverage has been dishearteningly the same.

Photo By: Howard Simmons/NY Daily News via Getty Images

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shannrussell-blog1 · 5 years ago

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An important rail line for transporting passengers and cargo from 1882 to 1970s, the old Tallarook to Mansfield line sat fallow after its closure until the decision was made to turn it into a rail trail for cyclists, walkers, and horse riders, in 2004. Now it’s a popular tourist drawcard that sees hundreds of cyclists ride it in its entirety each year.

Where Is It?

The Great Victorian Rail Trail, formerly known as the Goulburn River High Country Rail Trail, is situated in North Eastern Victoria.

It runs from Tallarook, just off the Hume Highway, south of Seymour, to Mansfield, to the west of Mt Buller – gateway to the ski fields, according to the locals.

How Do I Get There?

If you start at Tallarook, it’s approximately a 1.5-hour drive from Melbourne along the Hume Highway. Mansfield is situated about 2.5 hours from Melbourne.

I caught the Seymour V/Line train from Southern Cross Station to Tallarook. The journey takes just over an hour, and most train services have bicycle facilities on-board.

When Should I Visit?

Autumn and spring are the best times to visit. I visited in late summer and receives some unpleasantly hot weather. I would imagine sections of the track become muddy after rain.

Where to Stay?

The Great Victorian Rail Trail is suitable for all sorts of bicycling tourers – credit card tourers and the self-sufficient alike. Generally, you’ll have a town to stay in each night.

Most towns offer a range of accommodation options. These are the accommodation options I observed in each town:

Tallarook – Pub, bush camping, bed and breakfast

Trawool – Motel

Yea – Pub, motels, caravan park, bed and breakfast

Molesworth – Pub, campground

Alexandra – Pub, motel, caravan park, bush camping, bed and breakfast

Yarck – Pub, bed and breakfast

Bonnie Doon – Pub, caravan park, bed and breakfast

Mansfield – Pub, caravan park, resort, bed and breakfast

If you’re willing to get off the track a bit, there are many other bush camping options available in and around the Lake Eildon National Park.

Where To Buy Food and Supplies?

The major towns along the trail have supermarkets of varying sizes, including Yea, Alexandra, and Mansfield. The smaller towns have general stores, some have service stations. There are some fine bakeries along the routes, and loads of great places to get a good cup of coffee.

Mansfield Coffee Merchant, Yea Emporium, and Hock The Ruby where my favourite places to grab a coffee.

Here’s a more comprehensive rundown on the type of resupply points and businesses available on the track:

Tallarook – Pub, cafes, general store

Trawool – Cafe/restaurant

Yea – Supermarket, cafes, restaurants, pubs, takeaway shops, butcher, bakery, service station

Molesworth – General store, pub

Alexandra – Supermarket, cafes, takeaway shops, butcher, bakery, service station

Yarck – General store, cafes, pub

Merton – Service station

Bonnie Doon – General store, pub, restaurants, service station

Mansfield – Supermarket, cafes, restaurants, pubs, takeaway shops, butcher, bakery, service station

Places To Stop For a Rest

There are plenty of places to stop for a break on this trail. Some spots are designated and sports shelter, seating, and a long-drop toilet. Sometimes the call of a big gumtree is enough.

Make sure you carry enough watch to get to the next town as while most of the toilets have a small rainwater tank the water isn’t suitable for drinking, and maybe empty anyway. (On my trip in February 2016 all of these rainwater tanks were empty, so I couldn’t even use them to wash my hands.)

See the map below which shows all the former station sites. Most of these sites have rest facilities, and there is also a shelter and picnic table at Merton Gap and Eglinton Cutting – two of the best views on the entire trip.

Ideal Credit Card Bicycle Touring Itinerary

Credit card cyclists are those that set off with very little gear, maybe a few changes of clothes, toiletries, and a few bits and pieces, and stay in motels or cabins each night, and eat out at restaurants and pubs. Here’s my take on the ideal itinerary for the credit card bike tourist that wants to ride a section of the rail trail over 4 days:

Day 1

Drive or catch the train to Tallarook first thing in the morning. Grab a coffee at Hock The Ruby and lunch in Yea. Cycle to Molesworth (56.2km). Stay at the Molesworth Hotel Motel. Have dinner at the pub.

Day 2

Cycle from Molesworth to Mansfield. Grab a takeaway breakfast at the Molesworth General Store – or let some muesli bars tide you over until you get to Yarck (11.8km) where you can enjoy something a little more substantial at the cafe. Stay in a cabin at a caravan park or motel in Mansfield. Dine out at one of the pubs or restaurants.

Day 3

Grab a nice breakfast of bacon and eggs at one of the cafes in Mansfield. Cycle from Mansfield to Alexandra (72.7km). Grab snacks and/or lunch at Bonnie Doon, Merton, or Yarck. Stay in a cabin at the caravan park or motel in Alexandra. Dine out at one of the pubs or restaurants.

Day 4

Cycle from Alexandra to Tallarook (73.1km). Grab breakfast at a cafe in Alexandra. Stop for lunch in Yea. Arrive in Tallrook late afternoon for a beer at the pub before catching the train or driving back to Melbourne.

Tallarook to Mansfield and Back Again in Late Summer

As I pushed my bike up to the front of the Tallarook Hotel two well-watered gentleman stumbled out. “It’s closed, maytttteee” the locals slurred as they unwisely stumbled to their cars. “I’ve got a booking, it’s fine” I told them as I tiredly pulled my phone from my pocket to inspect the time. 11:16pm.

Today was a long day. It started at 6:30am, as I cycled in the still darkness through the backstreets of Adelaide to catch The Overland train to Melbourne. An eleven-hour train journey was followed by a two-hour delay in Melbourne, giving me enough time to sink a hearty burger and slurp down a few pints of lager.

I was tired and just wanted to sleep, but there was still an hour of train travel to be beared, up the Seymour line to the sleepy village of Tallarook.

But this wouldn’t be last of my journey along railway lines – I was about to embark on a weeklong cycle up The Great Victorian Rail Trail to Mansfield and back again.

I had no idea they grew wine grapes in the area. These vineyards are just out of Tallarook.

Setting off

Next morning, the first day on the saddle, was off to a slow start. I slept in and wouldn’t make off until midday. No matter, I’ll make it a short one, I assured myself. I have plenty of time. A big breakfast at Hock The Ruby had me feeling I was in trendy Fitzroy, not a little rural town where dusty utes are the norm.

I was to learn that this part of rural Victoria was in no way caught behind the times, and was well up with my inner city tastes.

Good food, craft beer, and great coffee were found wherever I went. But not while feeling commercial or overly touristy. The towns largely support the communities, and the nature is pretty raw. Very raw in places.

First day in the saddle

The first day, indeed, was a short one. From Tallarook it was a pleasant downhill along flats of the fast-flowing Goulburn River, before it retreated and made its way past the old stations of Trawool, Granite, Kerrisdale, and Homewood.

The trail surface mainly comprised granitic sand up until Homewood where it gave way to chert and become a decidedly more difficult surface to ride on with a fully-packed touring bike with fairly slick 32mm tyres.

Bill Power, the owner of the Tallarook hotel, commented on my tyres as I set off, telling me they’d be a little uneasy on the sandy stretches. I found it to be quite the opposite – I thoroughly enjoyed the granitic sand and found the chert that made up most of the track beyond Homewood to be really hard going. All part of the fun, right?

I can proudly tell you I only nearly had one spill the entire week. I ducked into the Trawool Resort to grab a bottle of orange juice – a carb-loving cyclists best friend! As I was returning to the track via the gravel carpark I took a corner a little too tightly for my heavy bike. A sheet of gravel slid out from underneath me, as a couple of lunchers looked on, and I ended up under the bike.

I didn’t so much as come off the bike, as slowly place it on top of myself in a controlled manner with lots of swear words. I was fine. The bike was fine. We all had a laugh and I went on to think, ‘What an embarrassing story that would have made had it been worse. One mishap on the track. In a carpark buying orange juice.’ Onwards…

That dark grey gravel is the chert substance I have been whinging about. Beautiful view though, right?

Homewood to Yea

From Homewood it’s a slow climb up to Yea. The rough surface and headwind made it slow going and I arrived exhausted, after only 40km, around 4pm. With no bush camping options near town, I opted for a night at the Yea Holiday Park. Not a bad choice, either.

Self-sufficient campers enjoy a multitude of places to pitch a tent along the banks of the Yea River. The only thing that let the place down was its proximity to the Melba Highway which was alive with traffic well into the night.

Dinner was my favourite Back Country Cuisine Thai Chicken Curry and instant mash potato. Yes, this is a plug. It’s actually delicious. Try it for yourself.

As I cooked dinner a German couple who arrived in a campervan started to chat. They had intended to tour the south-east of Australia, from Brisbane, on their motorbikes.

One of the bikes carked it, it was going to be too expensive to repair or replace, so they resorted to completing their trip in a camper. They didn’t seem pleased but were happy to be in a warm climate.

Sleep came easily on a cool, still night.

The next day

Time to climb. From Yea, the trail winds through farmland, well away from the road, before making its way up to Cheviot Tunnel. The climb is gradual and scenic. Seeing the little dark blip of the tunnel entrance on the hillside was a relief. It meant it was downhill for the next several kilometres.

The Cheviot Tunnel was completed in 1883 and is constructed from approximately 675,000 handmade clay bricks. 130 years later, it is still in remarkable condition.

At the insistence of some locals I met in Yea, I turned my bike light on as I cycled through the tunnel and could make out the old lantern hooks used during construction, on the southern wall. Visible for the bird crap underneath them – they’re a popular perching spot it seems.

The mighty Cheviot Tunnel. Well worth the long, slow climb. Look at those bricks.

Descent to Molesworth

The descent down into Molesworth was pleasant. The track surface was sandy once more and was nicely shaded by terraces of trees, removing the pinch of the late morning sun.

A quick break for lunch, and I was on my way to the site of the old Cathkin station, then onto the old spur line down into the village of Alexandra, or Alex’ as locals call it.

It’s 14km from Cathkin, along the branch line, to Alexandra. It’s mostly gradual uphill on a chert surface, before you break out from the cutting right next to the Maroondah Highway, which reveals superb views of the township, the Cathedral Ranges to the south, Lake Eildon National Park to the east, and Kingslake, which was devastated by bushfires in 2009, way off in the distance.

As this trip was to be part camping, part credit card touring, I decided Alex’ was a nice place to get a motel for the night. Slack, I know!

The view over Alexandra. Those ranges in the background yield to Lake Eildon further to the east.

Heading off again the next morning

Remember that lovely descent into Alexandra I told you about? Well, going up it was the way I would be starting my day today. My fitness had improved a lot, despite only having 80km or so under my belt, so the ascent was easy going and before I knew it I was back at the spur lines junction with the main rail trail.

Today was going to be a long day. I would be riding from Alexandra to Mansfield – 79km and the longest climb of the trip. And what’s more, the mercury was set to hit 35°c.

From Cathkin, it’s all uphill for just over 20km to Merton Gap. Despite the ascent and again, the trail surface, this was one of my favourite sections of the track. It starts out running alongside the Maroondah Highway, though the tiny village of Yarck, before retracting inland through tacts of native woodland. Rolling hills all round. And the last of the Goulburn Valley.

The climb begins gradually before becoming steeper, with more ups and downs, as you curve back onto the main road, prior to the final stretch of the gap. It’s important to stop and look behind you as you approach the cutting. The views over the valley and the ranges beyond are stunning. It’s at this point you start to realise how far you have come.

A quick descent into Merton for a bite to eat and toilet break and it was on to Bonnie Doon. I challenge any Aussie who has seen the cult Australiana flick, The Castle, to say, read, or hear the name ‘Bonnie Doon’ and not break into song:

“We’re goin’ to Bonnie Doon. We’re goin’ to Boonie Doon.”

Riding to Bonnie Doon

It was nice riding into Bonnie Doon. Mostly flat with a bit of decline if anything. It passes through lush farming country, with the odd herd of cows or sheep to keep you company. Old Landcruiser utes swish by on the road, their kelpies in the back. The hills widen from the valley as you approach Bonnie Doon, telling you that Lake Eildon is near.

First you pass Brankeet Inlet to the north, which at the time of my trip was long dry. I spotted what I thought were clouds of smoke ahead. What could that be? Something was moving on the ground. I pulled aside and lay my bike against a wire fence. A farmer is herding his sheep. They’re running like mad through the dry lake bed and kick up dust as they go. What an unexpected sight.

The track eventually drops into Bonnie Doon. I contemplate spending the night here but didn’t like the look of the caravan park. I top up my water bottles out the front of the servo, douse myself in a couple of litres, and marvel at the sweat crystalised on my merino tee.

I phone ahead to a caravan park in Mansfield and advise them that I’ll be there around 6:30pm. I look forward to a beer and meal.

The car bridge over the Bonnie Doon arm of Lake Eildon. According to locals, water levels were apparently very low in all of these arms, but quite healthy in the main part of the lake.

The final 20km’s

The final 20km takes longer than expected. I’m clearly fatigued and the heat has gotten to me. Everybody I meet along the way think I am mad doing 79km in the heat. I vow to take the next day off, with temperatures forecast for 39°c, rather than do a side trip up to Mt Buller.

The highlight of this stretch is Maindample. Situated to the side of the track is a gazebo for shade, and an esky attached to an honesty box full of cold cans of soft drink, and a supply of cold water. A cold can of lemonade is just what I need. I empty what would have been about $6 of change into their jar as a sign of my gratitude. Puttering into Mansfield at around 6:45pm, I won’t make the supermarket to get some provisions for dinner. I’m chuffed by this – a pub meal it will be!

I’ve completed the Great Victorian Rail Trail. All 157.1km of it, including up and back the Alexander branch. That was fun.

Finished!

Accommodation after a long ride

Accommodation this night was the Mansfield High Country Caravan Park, right in town. Despite its central location, the unpowered tent sites were quiet and pleasant. Dinner was a protein-filled marinated lamb salad and a few pints at the Delatite Hotel at the end a rather hot and tiring day. Despite night-time temperatures in the high 20s, I slept well.

The next day I explore Mansfield and rent a cabin with an air conditioner. I’ve never been one for the heat, and today is hot. Problem is, the next day, when I’ll have no option but to get back on the trail, it’s due to be 38°c.

Travelling back to the start – the highlights

I won’t share the full story of travelling back to the start, but I will share with you some highlights (and lowlights!) The 67km ride from Mansfield back to Molesworth was hell. Half the day I was accompanied by a thick northerly headwind and 38°c temperatures. It was a tough slog.

However, the aches and pains and overheating soon went away when I pulled into the Molesworth Recreation Reserve campground, my resting place for the night.

Situated on the banks of the Goulburn it was a magic place to camp. I could have stayed a week.

Camping at the Molesworth Recreation Reserve. Dirt cheap, at $10 for an unpowered site, and oh-so peaceful and idyllic. My favourite camping spot of the trip.

Molesworth to Tallarook was a gentle ride and allowed me to appreciate the scenery that I had a few days earlier cycled away from. The upper reaches of the Goulburn is a stunning, rugged sort of place. With wooded hillsides, and sharp little escarpments of granite popping out here and there. It looks like it would be a beautiful place to hike someday.

It was early afternoon on a Thursday as I pulled into the main street of Tallarook once more. In 5 days, according to the Strava app, I had cycled 280.3km. To be sure, that’s not a huge number of kilometres, but with a heavy touring bike, average fitness, high temperatures, and that bloody chert, it was a challenge.

Final thoughts on my trip

No doubt, after riding the Great Victorian Rail Trail I have a taste for this kind of exploration. According to Rail Trails Australia, there are over 130 rail trails across Australia. They contribute greatly to tourism and local communities. This trail also represent a healthy way of exploring the outdoors while being inclusive of cyclists, walkers, and horse riders of all levels of fitness and abilities.

What’s more, they show you a perspective of Australia that has been observed and appreciated for many hundreds of years.

Update 12/07/2016: Added more information on the rest stops, food options, etc. Added ‘Ideal Credit Card Bicycle Touring Itinerary’ section.

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101 “I Love You” Quotes To Express How You Feel

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101 “I Love You” Quotes To Express How You Feel

Harini Natarajan Hyderabd040-395603080 June 28, 2019

George Sand said it right. “There is only one happiness in life. To love and be loved.”

But you know what’s very important to keep the love alive? Express it. Say it out loud. Sometimes, a simple ‘I love you so much’ can be enough. Sometimes, you need more!

Looking for quotes to tell them how special they are to you? We’ve got you covered! Here’s a round-up of 101 best “I love you” quotes.

101 Quotes To Say “I Love You”

“The hours I spend with you I look upon as sort of a perfumed garden, a dim twilight, and a fountain singing to it. You and you alone make me feel that I am alive. Other men it is said have seen angels, but I have seen thee and thou art enough.” – George Moore

“I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times, in life after life, in age after age forever.” – Rabindranath Tagore

“A kiss, when all is said, what is it? A rosy dot placed on the “i” in loving; ‘Tis a secret told to the mouth instead of to the ear.” – Edmond Rostand

“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” – Emily Bronte

“The ultimate test of a relationship is to disagree but to hold hands.” – Alexandra Penney

“Love is a promise, love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear.” – John Lennon

“Love makes the wildest spirit tame, and the tamest spirit wild.” – Alexis Delp

“Falling in love consists merely of uncorking the imagination and bottling the common–sense.” – Helen Rowland

“When you love someone, you love the whole person, just as he or she is, and not as you would like them to be.” – Leo Tolstoy

“When you like someone, you like them in spite of their faults. When you love someone, you love them with their faults.” – Elizabeth Cameron

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“True love is spelled G–I–V–E. It is not based on what you can get, but rooted in what you can give to the other person.” – Josh McDowell

“Love is something eternal; the aspect may change, but not the essence.” – Vincent Van Gogh

“Love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking together in the same direction.” – Antoine de Saint–Exupery

“Once you love, you cannot take it back, cannot undo it. What you felt may have changed, shifted slightly, yet still remains love.” – Whitney Otto

“The quickest way to receive love is to give; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly; and the best way to keep love is to give it wings.” – Anonymous

“All’s fair in love and war.” – Francis Edwards

“Love, like a river, will cut a new path whenever it meets an obstacle.” – Crystal Middlemas

“If I had one more night to live, I would want to spend it with you.” – Pearl Harbour

“When men and women are able to respect and accept their differences then love has a chance to blossom.” – Dr. John Gray

“You know you are in love when you see the world in her eyes, and her eyes everywhere in the world.” – David Levesque

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“Love is strong yet delicate. It can be broken. To truly love is to understand this. To be in love is to respect this.” – Stephen Packer

“We sat side by side in the morning light and looked out at the future together.” – Brian Andres

“Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.” – Francois Marie Arouet

“Love is a symbol of eternity. It wipes out all sense of time, destroying all memory of a beginning and all fear of an end.” – Anonymous

“The first duty of love — is to listen.” – Paul Tillich

“The greatest weakness of most humans is their hesitancy to tell others how much they love them while they’re still alive.” – A. Battista

“Love can never grow old. Locks may lose their brown and gold. Cheeks may fade and hollow grow. But the hearts that love will know, never winter’s frost and chill, summer’s warmth is in them still.” – Leo Buscaglia

“When you love someone, all your saved-up wishes start coming out.” – Elizabeth Bowen

“I never saw so sweet a face. As that I stood before. My heart has left its dwelling place … and can return no more.” – John Clare

“All that you are is all that I’ll ever need.” – Ed Sheeran

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“I love her, and that’s the beginning and end of everything.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Love recognizes no barriers.” – Maya Angelou

“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.” – Aristotle

“We are most alive when we’re in love.” – John Updike

“The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.” – Blaise Pascal

“Love is friendship that has caught fire.” – Ann Sanders

“You can’t blame gravity for falling in love.” – Albert Einstein

“If you find someone you love in your life, then hang on to that love.” – Princess Diana

“I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.” – John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

“A simple “I love you” means more than money.” – Frank Sinatra

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“Everything I do, I do it for you.” – Bryan Adams

“… it’s a blessed thing to love and feel loved in return.” – E.A. Bucchianeri

“It’s easy to fall in love. The hard part is finding someone to catch you.” – Bertrand Russell

“Love is like a mountain, hard to climb, but once you get to the top the view is beautiful.” – Daniel Monroe Tuttle

“You’ll never really know when he really loves you till he looks you in the eyes, grabs your hand, and says it.” – Meg Rogers

“When I saw you I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew.” – William Shakespeare

“Love is not blind – It sees more and not less, but because it sees more it is willing to see less.” – Will Moss

“Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit.” – Peter Ustinov

“Once in a while, in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairy tale.” – Anonymous

“Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone. It’s not warm when she’s away. Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone, and she’s always gone too long, anytime she goes away.” – Bill Withers

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“You Deserve Love, And You’ll Get It.” – Amy Poehler

“I want all of you, forever, you and me, every day.” – Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

“If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you.” – Winnie The Pooh

“True love stories never have endings.” – Richard Bach

“There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do to make you feel my love.” – Bob Dylan

“Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.” – Alfred, Lord Tennyson

“To be brave is to love someone unconditionally, without expecting anything in return.” – Madonna

“You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because the reality is finally better than your dreams.” – Dr. Seuss

“I love being married. It’s so great to find one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.” – Rita Rudner

“The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.” – Audrey Hepburn

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“You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how.” – Rhett Butler, Gone With the Wind

“I like you very much. Just as you are.” – Bridget Jones’s Diary

“Personally, I love a great love story.” – Meghan Markle

“Love is the flower; you’ve got to let it grow.” – John Lennon

“Maybe I don’t know that much but I know this much is true, I was blessed because I was loved by you.” – Celine Dion

“When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” – When Harry Met Sally

“Love loves to love love.” – James Joyce

“Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold.” – Zelda Fitzgerald

“Love is an endless act of forgiveness.” – Beyonce

“The smile is the beginning of love.” – Mother Teresa

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“Some love stories aren’t epic novels. Some are short stories, but that doesn’t make them any less filled with love.” – Sex & The City

“All you need is love.” – The Beatles

“Love was made for me and you.” – Nat King Cole

“I’d never lived before your love”.– Kelly Clarkson

“At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.” – Plato

“You had me at Hello!” – Jerry Maguire

“True love stories never have endings.” – Richard Bach

“Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer.” – Jean de la Fontaine

“Two things you will never have to chase: True friends & true love.” – Mandy Hale

“True love will triumph in the end—which may or may not be a lie, but if it is a lie, it’s the most beautiful lie we have.” – John Green

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“True love bears all, endures all and triumphs!” – Dada Vaswani

“True love is selfless. It is prepared to sacrifice.” – Sadhu Vaswani

“True love is usually the most inconvenient kind.” – Kiera Cass

“True love comes quietly, without banners or flashing lights. If you hear bells, get your ears checked.” – Erich Segal

“True love lasts forever.” – Joseph B. Wirthlin

“True love, especially first love, can be so tumultuous and passionate that it feels like a violent journey.” – Holliday Grainger

“True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations: it is seen with white hairs and is always young in the heart.” – Honore de Balzac

“True love brings up everything – you’re allowing a mirror to be held up to you daily.” – Billy Graham

“True love doesn’t happen right away; it’s an ever-growing process. It develops after you’ve gone through many ups and downs, when you’ve suffered together, cried together, laughed together.” – Ricardo Montalban

“The course of true love never did run smooth.” – William Shakespeare

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“Life is a game and true love is a trophy.” – Rufus Wainwright

“True love cannot be found where it does not exist, nor can it be denied where it does.” – Torquato Tasso

“I love true love, and I’m a woman who wants to be married for a lifetime. That traditional life is something that I want.” – Ali Larter

“True love doesn’t come to you it has to be inside you.” – Julia Roberts

“True love is inexhaustible; the more you give, the more you have. And if you go to draw at the true fountainhead, the more water you draw, the more abundant is its flow.” – Antoine de Saint–Exupery

“True love, to me, is when she’s the first thought that goes through your head when you wake up and the last thought that goes through your head before you go to sleep.” – Justin Timberlake

“Love is pure and true; love knows no gender.” – Tori Spelling

“It can only be true love when you enable your other half to be better, to be the person they’re destined to be.” – Michelle Yeoh

“He felt now that he was not simply close to her, but that he did not know where he ended and she began.” – Leo Tolstoy

“You know, true love really matters, friends really matter, family really matters. Being responsible and disciplined and healthy really matters.” – Courtney Thorne–Smith

“Only true love can fuel the hard work that awaits you.” – Tom Freston

Which quote is your favorite from this compilation of quotes and sayings? Is there any popular one we missed out? Let us know in the comments below!

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