The Great Aussie Road Trip .......Finit
Without Prejudice
Beenleigh was to be our last destination excpet for some old haunts Yvette wanted to look at. Places she had stayed when she was a single Mother of one.
We drove from Mudgereeba to Labrador then I swung away from the Coast. heading out into the dark. It was New Years Eve on the Gold Coast and we were no longer the party girls we had been.
And with our precious cargo in the back and in Yvette's belly we drove away from Queensland and back to Victoria. Heading for home, after 2 weeks, but first we had to drive the Newell.
Some of the stops on the Newell are like stepping back in time about 30 years. One road house we stopped at, the man and woman uttered not a word as Yvette asked for the key to the ladies. It was no more than a 2 pump, dusty shop, with an empty cafe, red gingham check tablecloths, flies hovering and buzzing.
The man and woman, something fairly gothic about them, staring at us as if we were creatures from another Planet. Well Yvette did have a SIC BITCH, tee shirt stretched across her burgeoning belly. I expected the air to be full of the sound of duelling banjos, so backwards it was.
We filled up every bottle of water we could find and crossed the burning highway back to the boys, air conditioner still on, full bore. Hurrying as the faintly open mouthed Man and Woman were still watching us in Silence. Yvette and I shuddered as we took off, Yvette as ever open mouthed,
"Who the ****, were those retards?"
We had a cunning plan, that on signal we would stop the car and wet the boys down with water and they would calm down.
Just in the last few miles they had started to get cranky. We had no idea what the Temperature was but it was hot. Boiling. So that what we did, on count of 3 we stopped, turned around and poured water all over the boys heads.
The water wasn't that cold, and once we set off again the wet boys felt the breeze from the air conditioning and there was peace again,
Deb rang us from Eden, the group of families she was with were all at a windy hot beach and she wanted to leave, she felt uneasy, and just then Screams, Ashleigh Deb's daughter right at that moment being stung by a blue Bottle, Youch!
I am guessing there was no argument after that to get off the beach and Deb would be livid, wishing she had listened to her insticts, biting her lip, before blurting out,
"I told you so !"
We were now way out in the "Back Of Bourke", near West Wyalong, and what we thought was 36 degrees was really 46, degrees. No wonder the boys were hot.
We stopped at a Motel with its own little rooms and the boys took off for the pool and we followed after lying down in the room for a cool half hour, wetting ourselves with a shower before we went.
The pool was alive with people, there was barely a square inch between any of them and we sat on the grassy hill under the shade of a tree. The boys dive bombed and splashed and we went into Town that night and bought them Chinese and watched X factor on TV.
We took our time on the journey home, wanting the boys to experience everything that was great about their country. Pies with sauce eaten in a park, hot liquid splashing on to bare legs in the hurry to eat. Playing in parks near towns and investiagting creeks and small waterfalls and under bridges and picnic lunches of chicken and fresh rolls, from local bakeries, mayo, tomato. Lamingtons fresh and moist.
We showed them bushranger haunts and old banks. Our feet sinking into soft tar, and when we finally pulled into Melbourne we told them we were in Sydney.
The monotonous "Are we there, yet?" getting to us, so we thought we'd trick them and see how long it took them to work out we were really in Melbourne. Two minutes, of course but they were rapt. The journey almost over and PS2 waiting fot them at home.
We had given them the experience we had wanted to. A real Australian experience that we had as kids and wanted to do the same for them. Especially being young males, that needed to swim and have adventures and fight and make up and endure the uncomfortable heat and meet Men like Darren.
So we did what we had set out to and weren't we glad it was all over and the boys could play with PS2 quietly and we could rest and relax and talk about the trip and I could unkink my back from all the driving and it took about three days before it did.
Love Janette
Beenleigh was to be our last destination excpet for some old haunts Yvette wanted to look at. Places she had stayed when she was a single Mother of one.
We drove from Mudgereeba to Labrador then I swung away from the Coast. heading out into the dark. It was New Years Eve on the Gold Coast and we were no longer the party girls we had been.
And with our precious cargo in the back and in Yvette's belly we drove away from Queensland and back to Victoria. Heading for home, after 2 weeks, but first we had to drive the Newell.
Some of the stops on the Newell are like stepping back in time about 30 years. One road house we stopped at, the man and woman uttered not a word as Yvette asked for the key to the ladies. It was no more than a 2 pump, dusty shop, with an empty cafe, red gingham check tablecloths, flies hovering and buzzing.
The man and woman, something fairly gothic about them, staring at us as if we were creatures from another Planet. Well Yvette did have a SIC BITCH, tee shirt stretched across her burgeoning belly. I expected the air to be full of the sound of duelling banjos, so backwards it was.
We filled up every bottle of water we could find and crossed the burning highway back to the boys, air conditioner still on, full bore. Hurrying as the faintly open mouthed Man and Woman were still watching us in Silence. Yvette and I shuddered as we took off, Yvette as ever open mouthed,
"Who the ****, were those retards?"
We had a cunning plan, that on signal we would stop the car and wet the boys down with water and they would calm down.
Just in the last few miles they had started to get cranky. We had no idea what the Temperature was but it was hot. Boiling. So that what we did, on count of 3 we stopped, turned around and poured water all over the boys heads.
The water wasn't that cold, and once we set off again the wet boys felt the breeze from the air conditioning and there was peace again,
Deb rang us from Eden, the group of families she was with were all at a windy hot beach and she wanted to leave, she felt uneasy, and just then Screams, Ashleigh Deb's daughter right at that moment being stung by a blue Bottle, Youch!
I am guessing there was no argument after that to get off the beach and Deb would be livid, wishing she had listened to her insticts, biting her lip, before blurting out,
"I told you so !"
We were now way out in the "Back Of Bourke", near West Wyalong, and what we thought was 36 degrees was really 46, degrees. No wonder the boys were hot.
We stopped at a Motel with its own little rooms and the boys took off for the pool and we followed after lying down in the room for a cool half hour, wetting ourselves with a shower before we went.
The pool was alive with people, there was barely a square inch between any of them and we sat on the grassy hill under the shade of a tree. The boys dive bombed and splashed and we went into Town that night and bought them Chinese and watched X factor on TV.
We took our time on the journey home, wanting the boys to experience everything that was great about their country. Pies with sauce eaten in a park, hot liquid splashing on to bare legs in the hurry to eat. Playing in parks near towns and investiagting creeks and small waterfalls and under bridges and picnic lunches of chicken and fresh rolls, from local bakeries, mayo, tomato. Lamingtons fresh and moist.
We showed them bushranger haunts and old banks. Our feet sinking into soft tar, and when we finally pulled into Melbourne we told them we were in Sydney.
The monotonous "Are we there, yet?" getting to us, so we thought we'd trick them and see how long it took them to work out we were really in Melbourne. Two minutes, of course but they were rapt. The journey almost over and PS2 waiting fot them at home.
We had given them the experience we had wanted to. A real Australian experience that we had as kids and wanted to do the same for them. Especially being young males, that needed to swim and have adventures and fight and make up and endure the uncomfortable heat and meet Men like Darren.
So we did what we had set out to and weren't we glad it was all over and the boys could play with PS2 quietly and we could rest and relax and talk about the trip and I could unkink my back from all the driving and it took about three days before it did.
Love Janette
