Northbound out of Alice Springs we rolled with thoughts of the Devils Marbles and a cold one at the Roadhouse. The road had changed from flat greenish desert to western USA looking "Jump Ups" as they call them, basically table top looking hills. The road actually had some bends in it and small hills that "Icy" the motorhome buzzed up. We caught up with some road trains and an occasional southbound car but it was 108 at times and everybody and everything seemed to be hiding inside. **

* After four hours of easy driving we were closing in on Devils Marbles when something in the back of the motorhome let loose. Dispatched Joy to investigate her findings were "its coming from outside!" Yes we had blown our first tire. Actually the tread had separated and all that was left was the steel cords but we still were holding air. So we limped the next five miles to just short of The Devils Marbles to a Roadhouse that was for some reason painted up as a Martian Space Ship?? **

* There was no phone service and no tire shop our motorhome people said someone would be there in 3-4 hours, I said don't bother. Our motorhome had all the tools needed for a tire change and I wanted to get out of Mars. Back in Kalgoorlie we had taken a mine tour and they gave us a cover all to wear which I saved and was now again wearing laying under the motorhome trying to get the spare loosened up. 102 degrees,25 minutes and a host of swear works and we were northbound again towards "The Marbles" ***.

What we hadn't noticed was the large storm clouds ahead while changing the tire. Uh Oh, By the time we made the Devils Marbles Pub it was a cyclone not kidding. Everything was being thrown about including us in Icy. Not wanting to get soaked setting up camp we pulled the plug on the Pub and headed north towards Tennant Creek and our new tire that was waiting there for us. As luck would have it 15 minutes later the skies parted and nearly at the same moment the sign for Devils Marbles did too. *

**. And we learned this trick years ago while on vacation from a tour guide that turned a rainy afternoon of looking at Orangoutangs in the jungle of Borneo into how lucky we were as not many tourist get to see the Orangoutangs when its raining. So with that in mind we jumped out into the now 82 degree air and enjoyed the marbles no longer dusty but shiny and clean. They did look rather odd stacked on top of each other and probably were someone's large marble collection. ***.

Wanting our tire fixed we headed northbound and stayed the night in Tennant Creek a small town at the cross roads of the north south east intersections. Early morning found us putting on the new tire and heading east again towards the coast more than a 10 days away. **

* The Eastbound road had now changed to what they called the Table Lands and was boring and interesting at the same time, the Road houses that popped up here and there were a welcome site for a drink, diesel or just stretch the legs as this was to date our longest segment. The long slung trees changed to long "Paddocks" of grass and many "grids" across the road to keep the wandering cattle on one side of the fence or the other. **

*. After 580KM we finally took our foot off the petal arriving in Queensland and the small town of Camooweal nothing more than a blip on the map it was a metropolis of characters in the Pub this night. Shouting me a beer and eating with a guy named Barry to a cowboy hat wear dude that looked like 1885. The news of the night was the new sidewalk they were installing that day across from the Country Grocery. Joy and I plugged in for a well earned nights sleep, tomorrow we were heading for WInton and the dinosaurs.