Today felt like a real road trip. Usually we are driving to a destination to stay there for a weekend or a week and then go back. It’s strange just… driving… lots of driving. Chris even let me stop at places on the way seeings it is a road trip.

We had a concerning conversation in the car trying to work out petrol consumption on the first day, litres per 100k and how much petrol would cost for our trip and if my before leaving home estimate was correct. The concerning part wasn’t how much petrol costs – but how two 50 something people can now be so bad at maths – hang on – do you divide the km by litres? No – you divide litres by km. How many litres did you say you put in? In the end, I googled and found an online calculator that did it all for us.

First stop Jerilderie. Can you guess the reason this town’s claim to fame?

Second stop Narrandera. We saw a nice park so pulled over. We thought we’d keep driving though the town but Chris wanted to use the loo. I waited at the car – he came back all excited. The toilet and information centre were amazing. You should see them. It was a very nice information centre – lots of artwork on display. The person working there was so lovely. She said if you are driving through, you need to walk around the block. There is a bakery on the corner that sells bee stings. And there is a fountain at a park made by Royal Doulton – one of only two in the world. And do a slight detour on the way out to see the silo art work.

So we went around the block. Even though Chris is not big on bee stings bought one seeing it was recommended. It was amazing. Checked out the Royal Doulton fountain. It was actually a really lovely town. I wonder how many towns we’ve driven to that we should have stopped at. On the way out we detoured and looked at the silo art. Chris read the information about the silos. I’m watching in amazement. Who is this person stopping voluntarily? Reading the information? Getting excited by the toilet? (actually scrap that surprise). Admiring the art on display? The only conclusion I can come to is – we are getting old. I said that to Chris, he said “yes, when we were younger the only reason we would stop would be to go to the pub.”

I could not get over how many caravans there were. I reckon there are more caravans than cars. I decided to count cars, trucks, caravans. Each time a car, truck or caravan went past I updated the tally out loud. It wasn’t very accurate because I wasn’t writing it down. In 30 minutes, cars were just ahead 24 cars, 22 caravans, 18 trucks and 1 car with boat. I said to Chris wouldn’t it be fun to do this the whole way. He didn’t look enthused.

We stopped at a rest stop for lunch. It was so cool just to be able to open the caravan and go in and get lunch! After all the years of having a jayco popup such a luxury.

We drove through West Wyalong and Forbes. Forbes Lake was beautiful and people were free camped along the edge. Maybe we could do free camping – it looked pretty good.

We are staying at Parkes Showgrounds. I’d heard you can stay at showgrounds in country towns, and we arrived just as the sun was going down. As we drove to the camping areas, the colours with the sun going down were so beautiful. I said to Chris sorry – I will have to go and take photos while you set up. He is used to my semi-obsession with photos and light, so he agreed. Today he even said “the light’s terrible too glary’ when I was taking photos. I’ve trained him well.

I loved walking around the showgrounds as the sun went down. The colours were beautiful. I could imagine all the animals being there and the excitement of competing. The showground only costs $25 night with water and power and really clean showers and toilets. Good value.

And our tv works we could watch the AFL Port / Hawthorn final! I always poo pooed tv in caravan but I’m just going to get off that high horse right now.