How to Sell Your House When Moving to Australia

On a business trip to Michigan's Upper Peninsula during the summer of 2007, I was approached in the parlor of the company cottage after hours by our then Executive VP - Technical. "Mike," he said between sips of beer, "tell me what makes an exploration geologist tick." Though I was squarely involved in establishing our mine operation's reconciliation and resource technology standards at the time, I recall conveying the philosophy of searching for subtle patterns where none was previously recognized, whether it be in volumes of data or rocks, and methodically assessing the potential for value. Most of all I remember stressing a passion for discovery that I still applied to my distinctly different job.

I thought nothing if it at the time, but I must have made an impression. A couple weeks later I called home from my office in Cleveland, Ohio. "Are you sitting down?" I asked my wife. "What do you think about spending three years in Perth, Western Australia?" The company needed someone to bring its brand and some additional experience to the exploration team of a recent acquisition.

An expatriate assignment includes all manner of preparations, and we only had a few months to wrap up affairs on the domestic end, including the sale of our house on the west side of Cleveland, in Avon Lake. Soon our home was listed by the same Realtor who had helped us find the house only a year before.

Apple Pi

The circumference of the earth is approximately 24,901 miles (40,075 km). Its radius is about 3,959 miles (6,371 km). The former divided by twice the latter is roughly a magic number, at least to two decimal places. That's a lot of frequent flier miles and proof our blue planet isn't a perfect sphere.

Happy π Day

Picture of the Moment - Breaking Surf at Yallingup, Western Australia

The surf breaks at Yallingup, Western Australia make for one of the premier surfing destinations in the world. I don't surf, but when we visited here in July, 2008 I built up a healthy respect for the people who ride these house-high monsters.

Surf Breaks at Yallingup, Western Australia. July 2008.

Picture of the Moment - Coolest Memory Stick Ever

Sure it's only a loosely travel-related post. But boats are a medium of travel, and this is the neatest memory stick I've ever come across. I picked it up at a recent mining convention in Toronto. The real Willem van Oranje is a dredger operated by Boskalis. She was named after the House of Oranje Nassau and launched by the Queen of the Netherlands in 2010.

The "Right Stuff" in America - Best of the Kennedy Space Center

After five days at Disney World at the beginning of February, we capped our Florida family vacation with a visit to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). We spent a day; enthusiasts could spend weeks. Normally I write on the universally amusing aspects of areas we visit. I can't focus on absurdity at such a place as the KSC. What's been done there is too profound.

The first thing you notice beyond the ticket counter is the rocket garden, an outdoor display of historic rockets used in the early US space program. Most are standing vertically (a Saturn IB is not) and are in their original state or cobbled from disparate original parts. There are mock-ups of capsules you can get into, and a gantry-style walkway that once extended from the fixed launch tower of LC-39A, and its attached "white room" that moon-bound Apollo astronauts used to make final preparations before accessing their capsule.

Picture of the Moment -- There's Gold in Them Hills, but Not in This Pan

Just moments before a flash of temper, a gold prospector realizes he's been skunked. But everyone is guaranteed to find a little color at Big Thunder Gold Mine in Keystone, South Dakota, even if Dad has to give a little help.

Seconds later this little prospector tossed his gold pan in frustration. Stubbornness is a virtue among gold panners, and prospecting is not the profession of the impatient. But few people got rich during the great gold rushes of the 19th century and early 20th century. The real money was made by the people that supplied food, equipment and the staples--blue jeans, bullets, booze and burlesque. The demotivational poster was created using a tool on Despair.com.

The 1892-vintage Big Thunder mine is a great place to try your hand at panning on the front porch or in nearby Battle Creek, and if you don't strike it rich there's always the ice cream. And you won't strike it rich, even with gold at $1300/oz.

The site includes a mining museum, gift shops and option of a tour of the underground workings, where all mine visitors get a free sample of gold ore. We visited the beautiful Black Hills a couple times (2004, 2006) for a western-themed family camping, and gold panning at a variety of locations was a highlight for the kids. These tourist sites are "seeded," as it is very rare to find any color in the played-out surroundings (and still productive sites are probably over private claims), but the process is much the same as in the 1870s.

The nearby Homestake Gold Mine in Lead was the deepest gold mine in North America when it closed in 2002 after producing approximately 40 million ounces of gold over 126 years, one of the continent's biggest single lodes.

Awash in Travel Amenities

A scalding-hot shower is a treasured part of my morning routine, but I haven't bought soap in years. My wife can still stand to be around me though. Perks of frequent business trips include the travel-sized, hair cleaning products, soap and body wash that come with a hotel stay. Some people collect stamps in good condition. I collect soap, which is most valuable when used.

It's a special bonus when housekeeping puts out both a facial bar and bath soap--with careful hoarding it's an opportunity to build an inventory when missing toiletries are replaced daily during a long stay. That stash carries me through extended periods at home. Personal hygiene products would be one of the biggest added financial burdens brought on by unemployment, after exhaustion of the soap severance package.