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James Magee.

The Pilliga is an area of scrub (native trees and bushes) in north central NSW. The Newell Highway runs through the Pilliga from Coonabarabran to Narrabri (north bound), a distance of 70 miles. It is undulating and sometimes steep. It is dry unless there has been good rain in the most recent time, i.e. creeks are simply dry sand. End of chapter 1.

It was in 1994 I was driving north bound through the Pilliga to Narrabri when I came across an elderly gentleman pushing his bicycle up a moderately steep incline. I stopped and offered him a ride saying he could put his bike on the tray of my ute (Pickup). A man in his 70’s declined saying in a broad American speech accent, “I promised myself I’d ride the whole way”. I asked where to? And he replied to Cairns having arrived at Melbourne. Now that’s some 1,800 miles and that's if he takes the shortest route. His name was James McGee, from Vidor, Texas.
I asked James if he wanted anything and he said yes, water. He hadn’t realised it was so far between services or running creeks. I gave him water and when returning that evening I bought him both water and food. He slept on the stony/sandy ground in a swag which provided only a thin ground cover. He said he had no difficulty sleeping following a hard day’s pedalling. James did make it to Cairns, I know because he called me to tell me so. He had made other long bicycle journeys, one I remember him speaking of was Mexico to Canada. He also wrote and invited me to Oshkosh for the airshow. We would drive in his campervan, the drive from Vidor which is only 30 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico to Oshkosh which is 250 miles south of the Canadian Border. A distance of 1,800 miles the most direct way. I declined that and later regretted it.
James had told me he fought in the “Battle of the Coral Sea” which is off the north east coast of Australia and thus stopped the Japanese invasion of Australia. To come to Australia he required a visa and that was valid for only 3 months. I suggested he disregard that imposition, just overstay like others do. He explained to get this visa he had to sign a document, in front of a judge to say he would neither overstay nor apply for and extension. A bloke who saved Australia was treated like that made me embarrassed, even annoyed. The law can be an ass but those who administer it can be real donkeys. Case right here.

An interesting story of Vidor and I’ll try to make it a bit shorter than how James told it to me. Well Vidor is an all-white town and roadside signage saying “Niggers not Welcome”. I checked the internet and it says similar- “Nigger, don’t let the sun set on you”. This signage apparently appears in many towns in USA.
Well the Feds built houses for the homeless in Vidor. Inmates being released from prison are homeless too and some of these people were black. They came. Shortly followed by the KKK. The negros were off and went to a neighbouring town by the name of Beaumont where one was murdered by a random drive by shooting. The reason James mentioned this to me was because of the KKK the town of Vidor appeared on TV’s all around the world. Did I see it he asked, but no I didn’t.
In Australia we are not permitted to speak with racial discrimination. We are supposedly a nation of free speech but we are not. It’s becoming more restrictive with woke folk and the sexually abnormal becoming influential. So where are we heading, I hate to think.