And They are off!

After two years (or more) of planning Sheridan and family were due to leave at 10 am yesterday morning on their epic (to borrow a word from Aidan)trip around Oz.

Of course not everything goes to plan. The car had been serviced and had a clutch replaced last week. Sunday there seemed to be a leak. Phone to dad/Warren who says it has to go back.

We offered them the use of the Jeep to get them on their way and drove down on Monday morning. in the meantime, they had delivered car to repairer and had been told it was be ready after lunch, only postponing the start by four hours. As we were already on the way when they got that news, we left the Jeep there "just in case". Car did take longer to fix but back on same day.

As they were heading North they drove both vehicles and Dennis (caravan) and we met them out on the highway to collect the Jeep. I did take a photo of them packed and ready to take off but only had my phone. Now if I could work out how to go from the phone to the computer and my blog, I could post the picture but as I don't know how to do that, the photo stays put. They drove off at 5.45 pm, a little behind schedule but not too bad. First stop wasn't far and we did get a message that they had arrived and were settling up in the fading light.

Starting to make it more real for us as we are now down to 28 days until we leave and there is quite a bit that I want/need to do around home first.

Heavens to Betsy!

We were off! Our first move in the caravan nicknamed Maggie. I will buy a plate with the name on it, not sure if it will be an actual number plate or just a wall hanging type thing. Number plates cost upwards of $400 and as I am a cheap skate the jury is definitely still out on that that, Warren says no way that we are spending that type of money when it already has a number plate, we will see!

The name is to compliment our Daughter and Son-in-laws caravan, they bought one and named it Dennis and as we will be travelling with them next year, Maggie is/was Dennis the Menace's friend/cohort, so next year Dennis and Maggie will head out into the great outdoor and follow the black tarmac.

Anyway we hitched the Jeep up to Maggie and surprise surprise everything worked except for one side light which Warren took the cover off and cleaned it, it was a bit (a lot) corroded!

We drove it slowly out the road and it towed well, mirrors needed a bit of adjustment and we went around the big block about eight kms. Then the problem was getting Maggie back into the back yard. Doesn't help that we live on a corner but luckily its not a busy road.

My job was to watch the gate and the side of the house and the eaves.

Only needed a couple of up and backs, the driveway is not that wide. The ladder was in place as Warren had washed the top of Maggie before we took her out.

Ha, now to pack it and take it up the road a couple of hours away and really test her out and see what we have forgotten.