March 26 - Australia: Sydney, New South Wales 

Run Along Sydney Harbour

Today was an administrative day.  We both woke up and went for runs this morning.  Not far from our apartment building, there's a lovely running path that passes through "The Domain" and the Sydney Botanical Gardens.  The paths follow the Sydney Harbour, until we suddenly see the Opera House and Harbour Bridge pop into view.  It's absolutely beautiful, and this morning was lovely weather for a run.  Jon ran all the way past the Opera House and to the bridge.  But I ran just to the Opera House and back.  Great run.

Finding a Truck Buyer

After breakfast, Jon took the truck to Parramatta Road to find a truck buyer.  We decided to go with used car dealers, because they'd be easier to deal with than private buyers.  We probably could get a better price from someone private, but it could take too long to sell.  And we'd have to figure out the registration problem.  So using a dealer makes it much easier on our lives.

Jon was gone for most of the day, and I spent the day reading and catching up on journal entries.  Hours later, Jon called and said he'd been to fifteen dealers and wasn't able to get an offer above $12,000.  (We paid $16,600).  But he finally found a dealer who'd give him $13,500. The only problem was that we'd have to give them the truck on Thursday instead of Saturday.  This is because the banks are closed on Friday and Saturday and so we wouldn't get a cashier's check.  But that's the price we have to pay for convenience.

Jon finally came back in the late afternoon, happy that he'd made a deal for the truck but disappointed with the final price.  We'd been hoping for more.  But in the end it was definitely less money than renting a car for these past four months.

And that was our exciting day.  Sorry for the boring journal entry, but tomorrow will be better.