MOJAVE OUTBACK AUSTRALIAN TEAM ARRIVES FOR DESERT RELAY RACE.Byline: Greg Botonis Staff Writer PALMDALE - ``No worries,'' Gilbert Sherwood has been telling 15 Australian police officers preparing for a 120-mile desert relay race relay race Race between teams in which each team member successively covers a specified portion of the course. In track events, such as the 4 × 100-m and 4 × 400-m relays, the runner finishing one leg passes a baton to the next runner while both are running within . The Aussies arrived in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. last week and have been in the Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley since Saturday, enjoying the hospitality of Sherwood, a retired sheriff's deputy, and his neighbors and observing American law enforcement at work. Sherwood has picked up his guests' phrase ``No worries'' - an Australian response to ``Thank you'' that is equivalent to Americans' ``Don't mention it'' or ``No problem.'' ``We just love having them here, and we hope this can be a regular thing,'' said Sherwood. The Australian team, including 10 more members who will arrive the day before the race, will participate Saturday and Sunday in the 16th annual Challenge Cup Relay, known as the Baker to Vegas run for law enforcement teams. Sherwood's former partner Pat Massey, also a retired sheriff's deputy, had told him that a team wanted to come to California from Queensland, a state in Australia's northeast corner. Massey had run across the team's Web site by chance and invited members to stay with her at her Phelan home. ``Hey, I've got more room here than you do, so they're going to stay with me,'' Sherwood said he told Massey. ``Then my neighbors started offering rooms in their home and the use of their RVs.'' The Australians plan to absorb as much of the American culture as they can while they are here. They brought small plush koala koala (kōä`lə), arboreal marsupial, or pouched mammal, Phascolarctos cinereus, native to Australia. Although it is sometimes called koala bear, or Australian bear, and is somewhat bearlike in appearance, it is not related to true bears and bottles of Australian rum rum, spirituous liquor made from fermented sugarcane products. Prepared by fermentation, distillation, and aging, it is made from the molasses and foam that rise to the top of boiled sugarcane juice. for the Americans and invited Antelope Valley runners to be their guests in Australia for races equivalent to the Challenge Cup. The Aussies visited both the Lancaster and Palmdale sheriff's stations Monday and rode along on patrols. They also went fishing at Lake Palmdale. On Tuesday they headed up to Wrightwood to see snow - many for the first time. Then it was back to Palmdale for a barbecue with California Highway Patrol highway patrol n. A state law enforcement organization whose police officers patrol the public highways. officers, firefighters and sheriff's deputies at the home of Sherwood's neighbors. They can't get use to Americans' driving on the right side of the road and have not yet tried it themselves. ``The nature of policing is the same,'' said Anthony Buxton, a 28- year-old plainclothes plain·clothes or plain-clothes adj. Wearing civilian clothes while on duty to avoid being identified as police or security: a plainclothes detective. constable. Once the race is over, the Australians will stay in Las Vegas Las Vegas (läs vā`gəs), city (1990 pop. 258,295), seat of Clark co., S Nev.; inc. 1911. It is the largest city in Nevada and the center of one of the fastest-growing urban areas in the United States. for a day or so before splitting up and heading out on their own. ``They're using this as a stepping-off point to go and see America,'' said Barry Krosch, 53, about members of the Australian team that he heads as captain. ``For most of the team, it's their first time seeing America.'' A police inspector an officer of police ranking next below a superintendent. See also: Police and Australian Air Force veteran, Krosch spent a year in Vietnam in 1969 with a U.S. Air Force fighter wing. Members of the team will travel from Disneyland to Washington, D.C., and see all they can in between. Until Saturday, though, they are focusing on winning the race. ``We've issued a few challenges already, and there's a few beers at stake,'' Krosch said. CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- color) Members of an Australian law enforcement team train in Palmdale for a 120-mile relay race across the Mojave Desert Mojave or Mohave Desert, c.15,000 sq mi (38,850 sq km), region of low, barren mountains and flat valleys, 2,000 to 5,000 ft (610–1,524 m) high, S Calif.; part of the Great Basin of the United States. . (2 -- color) Gilbert Sherwood, a retired sheriff's deputy, flies the Australian flag along with the U.S. flag in honor of a visiting police team from Queensland. Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion