Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets, once helped me land a job.
I managed to get an interview for a job for which I really had no qualifications, and one of the interview questions toward the end was: ‘who do you admire and why?’
I immediately said, “Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets. He was a creative and technical genious that was always on the cutting-edge of puppetry. He introduced a style of puppetry that we now just take for granted with set design and technology that allowed the puppets to directly interact with humans. And on top of that, he was an outstanding leader that assembled the best industry talent to produce widely acclaimed and popular movie and TV shows. He was known to be gentle, kind and humble and could get the best out of his team. I always aspire to work and lead like him.”
Some months after I got that job, I was talking with the two people who interviewed me who were now my supervisors, and they said that it was the immediacy of response, articulate description and confidence with which I answered the question that helped seal the deal. All of the other interviewees hesitated and said something like: ‘my mum’ or some other family member. (It also helped that one of the interviewers had The Muppet Show theme song as her ringtone!).
So I have always been a Jim Henson fan. I got my first Ernie before age 3 and toted him around everywhere. A succession of Ernies replaced him. I grew up watching Sesame Street, like all Gen X-ers. I watched every TV special available. My parents took me to a Muppet exhibition at the Indianapolis Children’s Museum when I was about 7 or 8, and I still remember parts of the exhibits (particularly how they filmed the bicycle sequence in The Great Muppet Caper). I accumulated a huge Muppet collection as people always bought me Muppet stuff for holidays. (I still have a collection but it is reduced in size).
Even though I was still super, super shy (voted shiest junior female in high school), I gave a commencement speech at my high school graduation (from the state’s prestigious public boarding school for ‘gifted and talented’ kids) that was based on The Rainbow Connection song. I even had my Kermit puppet with me sitting on the podium and had him wave a rainbow windsock at the end of the speech.
I’ve gone to several Muppet/Jim Henson film festivals in Melbourne. Additionally, in 2007, Nigel and I went to see Puppet Up!! at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival – an adults only improv show created by Brian Henson – Jim Henson’s son who took over the company after Jim Henson died. Nigel got picked out of the entire crowd to go up and work a puppet for one of the improv scenes. He was really good – and tons of people came up after the show to congratulate him.
In a different life, I would have been a puppeteer. I suppose it’s why I love having my little crew around and posing them in places. I love how pieces of fluff can come to life.
Now, this tour was originally meant to be a ride to Brisbane to see a Jim Henson exhibition at a gallery there. But I was uncomfortable with riding north into the advancing fire season so late in the year when temps are already way above normal. I just couldn’t get myself excited for that trip. So I flew to Brisbane instead. The exhibition was huge and AMAZING. It was worth every penny to go see (even though my tax refund paid for the trip). I was in Muppet superfan heaven.
And now we’re ready to go tour. I have really been missing riding in the VIC High Country, so that’s what we’re going to do.
Life moves too fast if you don’t do novel things. You hear old people talk about how time speeds up as you age, but really it’s just that you fall into ruts and routines and all of a sudden are convincing yourself that life is ‘all about appreciating the small things’. No, it’s not, you are just stuck in routine and ensconced in comfort and convenience.
My work contracts fly by because I get stuck in the work-home-sleep-work routine. It’s a sort of rut. But, sadly, it is a necessary money-making rut. But I do these hard rides to slow down time and inject the novelty needed in life so I don’t age prematurely. There’s a lot of science behind this – you can read a lay person’s explanation here: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/dec/29/does-life-feel-like-its-speeding-up-how-to-slow-down-time-in-2025
And in a decade or so, I won’t be physically capable of such challenging and rough rides. So we need to go do these rides now.
And in the last few weeks, the doom and gloom has increased. Not only are we facing an existential climate crisis (which may influence how this tour plays out), the news has been plastered with stories on how AI is going to kill us all in 3-5 years time, America has provocatively bragged about having weapons in space and a prominent economist has said:
“The next 30 to 40 years are going to be very difficult,” the influential economist Charles Goodhart warned recently.
“Those who lived primarily in the years between 1950 and 2020 — those 70 years — those were probably the best years in terms of growth, living standards, [and] conditions that… the Western world has ever seen.
“We didn’t know how lucky we were, and many of the conditions that gave us that magnificent period are over,” he said. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-16/next-few-decades-will-be-very-difficult-charles-goodhart-warns/107153670
Maybe nothing happens, but let’s get in another big ride just in case. Any excuse to go for a ride, right?!
So the tour title comes from one of those great American road trips where Kermit and his gang of misfits, weirdos and whatevers meet up and travel to Hollywood to become famous. Early in The Muppet Movie, there’s a road trip sequence with Kermit and Fozzie in a Studebaker on the road trip west.
It is the lyrics: “Movin’ right along, footloose and fancy free” that have inspired this tour’s journal title, because it’s time to head out without any worries for a little bit longer before we take on another work contract of some sort.
My plan is to do a 6-week ride into the High Country and pop out just before the Melbourne Cup long weekend (31 Oct – 3 Nov). I’ll return to Albury, restock Nigel’s freezer with nutritious meals, resupply my supplements and do any required bike maintenance. If the fire danger is still okay, we’ll head into the High Country again for as long as conditions remain okay.
Deep down, I’d love to do an ‘equinox to equinox’ tour, but that is ambitious, particularly the given 3-month long-term weather forecasts. So after the beginning of November, we’ll just ride until the weather stops us, or an interesting job contract pops up.
Here is my plan for the first few weeks below – this is probably 18-21 days of riding.
Originally, I was just going to take the train down to Seymour and start from there. However, I’m still coughing up crap from COVID, so I thought I’d add four days onto the front of the ride and leave from Nigel’s place. This gives me 4 days of easier terrain to cough out the rest of the junk before I get to more mountainous terrain and the need for deeper breathing and more lung capacity.
When I thought I was going to ride to Brisbane to see the Muppets, I thought it would be cruel not to take Journey Ernie with us. So I tasked Nigel with engineering something for him to ride in. As always, Nigel came up with something light and pretty simple. It would be a shame not to use this, so Ernie is going to come with us for this first six weeks on the road.
The packing list looks pretty much the same as we had for the last ride to Far West NSW. It can still be quite cold in the High Country in September and October. In most years, the ski season extends through September, though there is no snow left up there this year. So I’m taking all my winter gear for the cold nights. I’m taking less water capacity than the previous ride, but I’ve added back in my little folding bucket and the solar charger. Everything else is the same, and we’ll swap out the winter gear when we return to Albury briefly at the end of October.
As always, I won’t write up the rest of the journal until I’m home. But at least when all is quiet, you will know that we’re just out there riding in the mountains and ‘movin’ right along, footloose and fancy free’.