Week 272-3 ” Home again”

We arrived home yesterday after a reasonably easy trip home. it was great to sleep in our own bed – a bit more room than the caravan bed.

We arrived home to them still working on the curb and channel along Hogan Street – I figured it would have been completely finished in the 5 weeks we have been away. I parked some 50 meters from Hogan st to make sure we could get down to our drive. They move the grader and roller for me. As we walked into the entrance Jessie was there to greet us and has not left us alone since. Lorna came across and it is great to have such a good friend to look after the house and of course Jessie – who has been cared for better than we do.

Since the last blog we have continued to enjoy the Queensland Climate and Jill has continued to get over the tooth. She still has a bit of a cold – needs nose drops each night but is not sneezing into the CPAP mask any more. We left Fraser Lodge C/P in Hervey Bay on the 28th after a slight problem with our bookings as I had only paid up to the 27th and we had to move sites. We drove south around Tin Can Bay to Rainbow Beach to our new home for a couple of days Rainbow Waters C/P. On the way we had an appointment with Saturn Antenna’s to check out our poor TV reception. They tested our setup then put a new TV into the mix . The difference was amazing – our set only managed to show there was only 5 channels to choose from , theirs had 30 channels – so I guess the problem is our TV – we have a Kogan LED set at home so will swap them and give it another go. They have just released a telephone ariel in their new antenna’s so I had ours exchanged to the new one. We moved into the new caravan park which is on the edge of TinCan Bay – great park – a bit out of Rainbow Beach . Lots of permanent set ups , lots of boats of all sizes. over the next couple of days we went out to Inskip Point where the barge leaves for Fraser Island and checked all the local areas.

We set out on Saturday morning for our long trip home – only to realise we did not have brake lights or electric brakes on the van. Driving carefully so as to be able to warm drivers behind when we wanted to stop. We decided to stop at Gympie to have them look at our wiring. Saturday morning so we continued on to Dalby and spent the night in the Pioneer Village C/P.  We were the only non permanent guests and we then moved on to Goondiwindi and stayed at a much fuller Top Tourist park. They provided entertainment – a country singer when we were there. Jill wanted a magnum ice cream and after eating she read on the stick she had won a free magnum – she still has to collect this one.Next move was to Coonabarabran and the John Oxley C/P – I entered the managers office and it was amazing he was surrounded by stuff ( hard to describe) . Took our money and said find yourself a site. We dove around and finally settled into a site. Neighbours were very friendly and the park had great amenities and was fairly full by the time night came. Our starts have become later as we progressed and if we got away about 11am we were doing well. Next stop was at Forbes – Big 4 where we had stopped on the way north. Final stop was at Lake Talbot Tourist Park in Narranderer. They had drained the lake last week to clean up the bottom and get rid of the carp. Apparently they do that each year and restock it with cod and yellow belly. Our fellow caravaners were either heading – north or south and all had some interesting tales to tell.

As usual we were the last overnighter to leave the park (11am) and we continued south stopping at the lake south of Uranna for lunch and off to Wangaratta.

We had our first Skype from Riley and he has started day care and Nicole is back at work. He still has his cold and is having trouble sleeping over night. It was certainly great to see him as we had missed his smiling face and cuddles.

Out table had a stack of mail – bills mostly and our Recliners for the caravan were there and I could not wait so after dinner I put one together – not quite what I had expected but I think with some slight modification to the base and the van they will be great – has to be a lot better than the current seats.

Still no photos but will put up some to show our trip soon.

I have become an iPhone  user and Chris put an app (FUEL LOG 3) which allows you to calculate fuel economy for the trip. The stats show at the last fill at Narranderer we had traveled 3512K used 671l at an average of 15.69 l/100k at a cost of $969.639 which means the cost per Km was $0.234. Hows that for a lot of trivial information. I still have one more fill up to complete the journey – will let you know next time.

See you on the net