Less than 24 hours.

Yep, we are planning on leaving for our big trip at 10 am tomorrow. It has been a busy last two days, as we had visitors here for a few days, Friday was washing day. All the sheets and towels were washed and beds remade.

Moved lot of things in the pantry, I want to leave room for the house sitters as well as have food stuffs to take in the caravan. Fridge is on and later this afternoon, I will transfer what is left in our freezer to out there. Probably have a weeks worth of food so quite happy that we have been able to eat down the fridge, freezer and pantry to such a small amount.

The car is partly packed, I have bought some food for lunches, coffee milk, mugs etc are already out there.

This afternoon I will make two covers for our tablets, shouldn't take much more than an hour. I also have a dress that is too long, it is a pop over one that I will use to go back and forth to the shower block.

The last load of washing is out on the line, I was planning on washing in the morning but we will take a small amount of dirty stuff with us.

Getting ready t go this time seems to be very busy, far more busy than going to China for six months. I guess we are packing the caravan and that is an extra rater than just trowing clothes in a suitcase, making sure we had our meds and then catch a flight. At least we will be able to buy whatever (within reason) i we have forgotten something.

Just did our money available totals, I will be keeping a log of what we are or have spent. My challenge to myself is to keep between $800 and a thousand dollars a week, this will be for everything. I did think $700 a week but that may be too restricting so bumped it to $800, then if its unde, I will feel as though I have really achieved something. Warren just laughs at me and says "Yeah, whatever!"

At the Beach.

It's summer time and we are at the beach for a few days. The weather had been hot so it is an ideal time to pack and enjoy the sun, sand and sea. I like going to the beach but I don't like swimming in the sea which is probably lucky as the weather has turned to almost winter again.

This was the caravan park yesterday. It rained later and again during both nights that we have been here.

The beach is just through the pine trees, I took the photo from the back of our van. Beach views at the park are $50 a night and one row back and the rest are $44 a night. We joined the Park company so we get 10% off but I am glad we are only staying three nights (for the cost). There is a pool and kids were making good use of it over the weekend but there has been no-one in it today. I would like to go in but too cold.

Each evening Warren and I have wandered over to the beach and paddled and walked and it was surprising warm, well much warmer than I expected.

Nano is doing well, I am up to 15760 words, about 800 written today already and about to start my second stint for the day.

Make mend and reuse

On our last trip out in the caravan, we spent more time in the evenings sitting in the van on the seats because it was dark and cold earlier.

I found the seats got very hard very quickly and suggested that we buy some new foam for the seats. The van being a 1974 or 76 model and I am sure the seats have not been upgraded in all that time.

We took one cushion down to Clark Rubber to compare and also to see if they could supply it Yep they could and would cut it to size if we gave them the measurements.

The foam on the left is the old one and does look worse for wear As I have recovered the seats only last year, I wanted to be able to use the same materials and I didn't want to have to buy more so had to take the covers off carefully so that they could be reused. Luckily I had made them like a slip cover and had laced the back with strong cotton so that it would "give" when people sat on it, making it easy to remove.

The green foam on the right is the new stuff and I wanted to completely cover that before putting on the outer cover.

The one on the left has been covered, I used fabric that has been in my stash for several years. I actually bought this to make a skirt and jacket. It is a pale pink and I never wear that colour, probably one of the reasons it was still in my stash. It is gabardine so easy to work with but quite sturdy, very suitable for seats covers. To make it fit snugly, I sewed up three sides and with Warren we "dressed" the foam and then I hand sewed the ends closed. My fingers were quite sore for a couple of days after from pushing and pulling the needle through the material.

The one of the right is the final result. We now have four seats,three making up the lounge/dining area and one (the one above) will fill on top of a table if we ever want to make it into a double/single bed.

Before we did have three smaller pieces but they moved a fair bit but this one is made to fit. I did had to put a seam down the middle to get enough from the three to make one big cover.

Warren will use the old foam for practice at archery.  

Roadside stops

These are wonderful and on our shake down caravan trip we stopped at one on the way about two hours from home. I had prepared some lunch and a flask of hot water and we sat in the van and had lunch. It made a nice change as with the campervan, we have to find seats or stand up. Getting too old and want/need our comfort.

This is a very popular place to stop called Chatswood park, Can even over night as the length of stay is 20 hours. Toilets but no shower or electricity. As we walked back from the toilets about a hundred metres or so (couldn't park the van closer because of the numbers) there were even a couple of blokes lying on the grass sun baking, it was quite warm out. 

There is plenty of parks and there is even a turning circle so no need to back around. Behind the toilet block is a small lake/dam and heaps of ducks and birds can be seen there.

This was the spot that we took a break on the way back, Nice open spaces not too far off the highway, tables and benches and a toilet block, all that it needed for a short break. 

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.

Spring

First day of spring today and it is a beautiful day, 25 degrees on the patio. I feel as though I have an extra afternoon off today as we were going to go to the Tennis centre and help out with a mail out, but they rang this morning to say that things were not ready yet so we have the afternoon to ourselves.

I shopped this morning and used my Coles voucher so got $107 worrth of food for $53, I stocked up n some items for the pantry. MY DD say that its not savings unless the money that you didn't spend goes into savings so I took it and added it to the car loan. I reached my own goal for the end of the month so feeling a bit chipper about that. I like to challenge myself to see if I can do it. My next goal is to be under a certain amount by the end of October, doable I think but will need to be on top of things to achieve it.

Anyway, with our free afternoon we are continuing to prepare the caravan for its first trip with us. Warren is cleaning the roof and I am going to clean inside the cupboards ready t put crockery and cutlery in. We also need to check if the lights etc work as it has sat in the back yard for eight months.

I also want to change over my clothes, put away the jumpers and get out the lighter things out.

We bought a Jeep!

Everything was going swimmingly, we had the caravan  up for sale to make way for the new one, had a few inquiries. Had a few people want to offer a lot less than we wanted before they even looked at it. We were prepared to drop the price a bit but we didn't want to lose money on it.

Anyway two weeks ago, we got a phone call from the salesman who would be looking after our after sales service. Along with the purchase of the the new van we had also ordered the electric brakes and Anderson plug for the car. He, Sam rang to tell us that the van would be built in the next batch being started in August and was checking our requirements. He then asked what car we would be using as the tow vehicle when Warren told him, he came back and said that he didn't think the towing capacity was enough (the guy from Melbourne who sold us the van said it would be!)

It appeared that Sam was correct and we decided that we couldn't afford a new caravan and another tow vehicle so we cancelled the new van and canceled the ad selling the old van. Back to plan B! We found a Jeep near here and ended up buying it, picking it up last Tuesday. Quite low mileage and had everything on it that we needed. The reason for the Jeep itself is that Warren wanted a diesel and I wanted auto if I am going to help with towing, that cut out a lot of brands.

Before collecting it, we went to the RACQ to get insurance and Warren just couldn't help himself, he stood up and announced "We bought a Jeep!" just like in the adverts.

We bought a caravan

On Sunday we went to the caravan and camping and came away being the owners of a new caravan. How the h......did that happen?

We had looked at another camper and it was set up similar to ours with a north south bed, more room and a bit stronger than ours BUT we want to be able to pull up on the road and get into the van, make a coffee, have lunch even have a quick lie down if we want so another camper doesn't fit the bill (plus we have a caravan! even though we have nothing to pull it.)

We looked at Jayco Doves, Swift and a Hawke, all light weight but again cant access them without setting them up. Then a salesman came over and starting chatting and we were discussing what we wanted from a van and he said something along the line of "There's a light weight one over here that would probably suit" of course we went to look and within thirty minutes we were signing on the dotted line.

We had done what we always do with one saying no we cant, the other well yes we could and we go back and forth until we both agree.

Positive things are we don't need to buy another car, it will fit in the garage therefore we don't need to concrete outside or erect a new fence and gate, its new so hopefully no problems or it will be under warranty and finally stuff it its only money. (we have since realised that even though it will fit inside the garage, the door opening is not high enough to allow it to go through the door, bummer)

negative side is the cost (again stuff it, its only money)

It does take three months for the vans to be made but we could nominate a date up to the end of the year, as we had no plans to go anywhere except motorbike riding, we asked for a pick up date in early December.

This is a picture of our new van, we went for single beds (gives a full length bed and a little more room inside by having singles) have an A/C, and a microwave, no oven which I didn't want anyway. An awning on the outside and we opted to have an TV aerial fitted which they added in the price, bonus. Now we need to sell our fixer upper caravan.