How to spend $1000 without even trying

Our caravan Maggie is an old girl and is doing very well for her age but there are some things that do need to be replaced.

The annex is worn and the last time we took it out and unfurled it, there were quite big patches coming off it and so we decided to replace it.

The annex was around $500 and then we had a couple of the struts replaced as well in the pop up bit.

We are all set, now have a calendar with days to go and all the things that we want or need to do before we leave.

I think we got $22 change out of  a thousand bucks.

Nanowrimo is going well 45759 words so far, five days to go.

Stormy weather

Yesterday when we went to Redcliffe, Warren was wearing shorts and said when he got out of the car that he should have worn long pants as it was a bit cool. At the time it was cloudy.

Sun was shining after we had lunch and it was very pleasant. Drove home in sunshine and two hours later, there was no sun and on the news there was talk of thunderstorms in Sydney. Overcast here and then the rain started. Oh my, it was heavy.

Probably hard to see but the driveway had about an inch of water on it. We had been sitting outside but the rain started to be blown in under the patio.

Water is streaming off the annex of the caravan and running down the post, already tere is puddles on the grass. Twenty minutes after this the rain had stopped and the sun was out!

Shake down trip.

Well, we set off on first trip! Up to Woodgate about four to five hours away. We have been there twice before, six and four years ago. Sleepy little town about 20ks off the Bruce Highway. Warren in particular wanted to go because we had been there before and the sites were reasonably flat and easy to get into.

Got a great site just inside the main gate, the beach is a short walk across the road probably 50 metres from the caravan entrance. He had to back into the site but couldn't do it straight in as there was a cabin opposite so had to do it on the turn. First up, the van was a bit crooked, I was happy with it being one foot the difference between the front and back but not so Warren so he did it again with me giving directions, next time it was probably one inch difference and he decided that was close enough.

We had very little to unpack as most of the stuff was already in the caravan, a bonus! In the camper van we would have the back seat full of clothes and fridge and just stuff.

Got the annex up and out then realised that whoops! we really should have raised the top first but only had to slacken off the annex a little and the top went up no problems.

Time for coffee and check out the wild life or at least our neighbours, lots of people in, mostly retirees like ourselves.

This was Sunday morning after I had done the housework. As it was Fathers day and we were on holidays, I cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast only to discover that there was no egg slide in the van so that was the first thing on our list to add. Thankfully I had taken a non stick fry pan, although not quite as good as my blue stone pans, a pair of tongs worked just as well to get the eggs out.

The other end of the van, there is no permanent table but the extendable one works fine, there is another one the same size that can be clicked together to make a bigger one and there are three different lengths of leg, one in the picture is using all three.

We went shopping for the bits and pieces that we needed, even though it was probably a bit more costly, at least we could get the things and leave in there. So, an egg slide, pegs,foil for the oven, can opener, thought we did pretty well over all.

What a weekend to go to the beach though, it rained particularly all afternoon Sunday, we had read the papers and gone for a bike ride even rode on the wet sand, it was like riding on bitumen. Warren went fishing while I wrote some of my application. Mid afternoon we set off for a walk and afternoon tea on the way back it started raining and we were 15 minutes away from shelter, at least it wasn't freezing.