Two weeks to go

Till the start of the winter show circuit and most of us have colds, it’s wet and there are not many suitable places to rehearse!  The stress levels are rising in both the parents and the children!

We don’t have far to drive now to get to Gympie where we start our circuit competing at the Gympie show then the following day (Sunday) performing at the Gympie RSCPC Million Paws Walk.  

Chantel and Freya at the Million Paws Walk 2013

When it rains we often cannot train and travelling up the east coast there are not many free camps where we can pull up for a couple of days and set up the agility equipment!

I’m sure it will all work out, it always does.  I remember a few years back a few days before our first of the year show telling the girls that their routines needed a lot of work, in fact I just may or may not have told them that their routines sucked!  BUT on the day, they shone!  I know this year will be the same.

We did train/rehearse this week after spending time at the beach, when we found an amphitheatre.  Some of the locals/tourists enjoyed a free show.

HERE is our newest video :  Playtime at the beach with the Superdogs

Playing at the beach was a good stress reliever and the girls did well with the rehearsal, but need a bit of polishing before the first show in two weeks!

From SA to Vic and almost back again and 33 point turns!

With our South Australian Rego due on the Odyssey we tried to reregister online, but were given the message that we needed to phone in.  So we dutifully phoned in but didn’t realise we needed a credit/debit card to pay over the phone.  All was set to go, we just needed to put money on our debit card.

Two days later we phone again, card in hand only to be told we now could not do it either online or over the phone, we needed to come in to a South Australian Branch!  We were by this time in Seymour, Victoria about 500km form the nearest SA service centre.  They would not budge!  Apparently our SA drivers license, that was to have been posted to NSW had been returned and now they would not release it until we fronted up in person. The operator we spoke to said they did not post interstate, yet when we transferred our license to SA the lady at the desk had no problem with it! 

We now had two days to get this sorted before our current rego expired!  A 500km trip in two days was not what any of us wanted to do!

We had mail to collect so decided to go and collect it and hope that our SA drivers license was amongst it; it was not!  As it was now close to 10pm we choose to stay put and hope that either SA would be kind to us and understand our situation or maybe we could transfer to Vic rego.

First thing Thursday morning with rego due Friday, we phoned SA again, explaining our situation again, they still would not budge!  So we phoned VicRoads asking about transferring our rego.  Yeah, they said, that’s no problem!  Phew!!  Appointments were made and we breathed a bit easier!

By lunch time on Friday we had our Vic plates!!  Woo Hoo!!

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On another note;  we took a trip out in the Odyssey and used the GPS to find our way out of one town to the next town.  Hmmm … bad mistake!  We ended up on a narrow road with a lot of traffic behind us, and in front of us a 3 ton load limit bridge!  We put our hazard lights on, and got out of access the situation. We thought that with a bit of skill we could get turned around.  So Sarah went up to the top of the bridge and stopped the traffic while Jasmine helped direct Michael and make sure he avoided a stake that was inconveniently placed on the side of the road!  After much skill and manoeuvrings we got her turned round!  The other motorists waved to us as we drove away feeling very relieved!

There was signage approaching the bridge, but when we checked them on the way back they did look like they were pointing to the side roads!

This is a pic from Google Maps of where we turned round.  Fortunately there was a side “road” not that we could go far down it, but at least we could put our nose into it!

Change

I asked a question of Facebook recently “Change is good, right?”  Most people said it was and that one could not move forward without it.  One person said that if it was change for changing sake then it was not good.

On Monday, 4 March 2013 a guy rang up asking if we still had our bus for sale and could he come and look at it please.  A couple of hours later, he’d looked at the bus, told us he’d buy it and given us a $500 deposit! We’ve had the bus advertised off and on for about 3 years, had a lot of tyre kickers, a few fraudsters and then finally 1 genuine buyer!  It took us all by surprise!

The bus (The Auroara) has been home for four years.  Jireh was bought home from the hospital to the bus.  Serenity was born in the bus … so there were many memories.  When it hit home that she was really sold, it was a bit emotional for us all!  There wasn’t much time to dwell on it though as we now had to source another vehicle!

We’d been looking on Gumtree and Ebay consistently and knew of one that sounded like a go, but it was in Newcastle (we were in Carcoar Dam).  We phoned about it and found out it was gone!  Now what?  The new owner wanted to take possession of The Auroara as soon as possible.  No pressure at all!!

We spent the rest of the day scouring the internet and found a couple that sounded sort of interesting.  I emailed them both and next morning heard back from one of them (still waiting to hear back from the other one!). We phoned him up, made a time to view it, packed up the bus and left.    We arrived in the small town of Bowning, NSW a bit later than we’d expected, had a quick look at the van and decided we’d wait till morning to test drive it.

Morning came and everyone was up early excited to be test driving a car!  It drove nicely, looked ok on the outside and inside so we put a deposit on it! 

The next couple of days were spent sorting out the “stuff” in the bus and dealing with the RTA!

On Friday at about 1pm we met up with the guy who’d put the deposit on the Auroara to do the change over.  His wife said to him, “Do you realise you are buying these children’s home?”  Was sad yet exciting to see her drive away.

With mixed emotions we watch what had been our home for 4 years drive away without us!

Our new van the “Puddle Jumper”, was waiting across the road.  When all the formalities were over, the kids all piled in, we drove across the road and collected out stuff that we’d left under a tree!

Adrenalin was running high as we drove off to start the next chapter in the life of Wheel Education.

 

 

 

 

 

Quick Catch Up

Time has gotten away on me and I haven’t updated here in ages!  Sorry!

 

We had a great time staying at Ariah Park, NSW ($10 per night, power, showers, toilet, camp kitchen with free BBQ) where all the girls learned to swim or gain confidence in swimming.  By the time we left almost all the kids had jumped off the diving board, dived in at the deep end and all (except Jireh) had swam a width unaided. 

When the time came to leave we headed slowly north.  We found ourselves at a lovely free camp between Cowra and Bathurst, Carcoar Dam.  There was plenty of space, clean toilets, cold showers, dam water and a couple of rain water tanks. 

The best part of staying here was having neighbours who we’d already met on facebook - Highway-Dreams Around Oz!  We didn’t know they were there so it was a very pleasant surprise.

The worst part of staying here was the wind!  The camps 6 book stated that it was a windy area, and they were not joking!  In the two weeks we stayed there …. we had about 2 days with minimal wind!

On a trip into Blayney to do shopping we noticed the local district show was coming up and that they had a pet dog show with a best trick section!  With less than two weeks to train, the girls got motivated!  The day of the show was a freezing cold and very blustery but the girls and dogs did well.

The results were:

Sparkie - 3rd in Best Tricks, 3rd in Speed Sit.
Tess - 1st in Best Tricks, 2nd in Speed Sit, 2nd in Best Biscuit Catcher, 3rd in Waggliest Tail.
Lassie - 2nd in Best Tricks, 1st in Speed Sit.

 

Stay tuned for our next adventure!

Mini Tornado

It was a hot and sleepy afternoon.  There was no wind when suddenly the trees behind the bus started shaking!  We ran outside to see the dust and debries being flung high in the air!  The motorhome on the right of the picture suffered a bit of damage to their awning.

This was the best picture we got … taken on the phone!

Jessica grabbed her movie camera and shot the following video!

 

Jessica’s video of the mini tornado that blew through camp today!

It was no longer a sleepy afternoon … everyone in the campground was now awake and outside!! 

Painting out the windows

We’ve had our bus now for coming up four years.  We bought it off a school bus run in Wyong, NSW.

Roll on a couple of years and we wanted some privacy and protection from the sun.  We couldn’t afford to put window tint on so bought some window covering from Super Cheap Auto and got some $12 a sheet of solar shade, a static cling film.  Each sheet covered one window.

After two years we were noticing mould growing underneath!  Yuck and so not good for the health!  So off came the film and in came the heat!

We did a lot of research on what we could do short of repaneling the bus!  Reading on the bus forum we learned that if you use ESP direct onto a clean window then undercoat should stick!  We tried it on a small window and it worked!  

Firstly on the recommendation of the local paint shop, we cleaned the area with mineral turps before applying the ESP.  When the ESP was dry we applied a coat of oil based undercoat, followed by two coasts of Duraguard  Ultra Premium Gloss (a water based, UV  absorbing and antifungal paint with a 15 year warranty).

Here it is after one coat of Duraguard.

The man doing the work!

And here it is … the finished product. 

We are very happy with it. It makes a difference to the inside temperature. Even with the sun shining on the side of the bus, the painted glass was cool to the touch.

Removing The Heater Boxes

Four years ago we bought our bus off Busways in Wyong, NSW. We asked if they could remove some seats and the heater boxes.  When we arrived to pick it up, they’d removed the wrong seats and neither of the heater boxes!

A year or so ago we attempted to remove them only to have coolant all over the floor! We quickly put them back together and cleaned up the mess and put it in the too hard basket!

After spending some time thinking about the project, following the fluid lines from the radiator we tried again with success this time.

We turned off the stop cock conveniently located at the start of the radiator outlet, cut the hose with a bit to spare, turned it over and secured it with a zip tie.

Inside we undid the bolts, one heater box came undone easily (the one we’d previously attempted to remove) and the other requiring a lot more sweat!  This time there were only a few dribbles of radiator coolant on the floor!

The coolant was still dripping after the stop cock had been turned off and the hose turned over so we went to the local hardware store and for $1.40 bought two bungs for the end of the hose – problem solved!

The man who did all the work – and cleaned up his mess!!

 

 

 

  <--- Daddy’s helper!

Worst fire danger day in NSW

 

Tuesday 8 January 2013 was an extreme to catastrophic fire danger throughout most of NSW, the town of Ariah Park was classified as extreme.

 

We woke to temps already exceeding 30 deg C and by 11 am our air conditioner was reading “H” (i.e. any temp over 35 deg C).  The wind picked up and was hot! The humidity was around 15!  When we were outside we would not even sweat!  When we went back inside then the sweat would just pour off us!

 

We kept up with the happenings around NSW via facebook pages like ACREM, NSW rural fire service, etc.  It was a bit of a stressful day not knowing if a fire was going to spring up close to us. 

We took the kids over to the pool for a swim, but the wind made it unpleasant and they didn’t want to stay long.

 

Coming back to the camp we noticed the camp kitchen was filled with tumbleweeds!  They were all gathered in one corner!  Now that they were cooler and the weather had cooled a little the younger guys enjoyed playing in them!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It even cooled off enough for Gabrielle to get her bike out and enjoy a ride round the campground.

 

 

We were very thankful that the following day was a cooler day.

Fun Times

After the Wallumbilla Show we drove to Gympie.  Of all the places in Australia Gympie is the most like home for us.  It’s where our storage shed is that contains all our worldly possessions!

On our drive from Roma to Gympie we passed through 11 road works where teams were fixing the roads after the summer floods.  At one point it took us 2 hours to get 100k’s!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

After putting some stuff into storage we headed to the Gympie Showgrounds for the Gympie Show which is always the highlight of the year for the girls.

This year they took home 13 ribbons!  Girls and dogs did so well reflecting all the work they have put in to training in the last year.

 

While in Gympie we caught up with some kiwi friends where the girls had a great time in tearing up the lawn in their buggy!

 

 

 

 

Keeping it clean

So we live without running water … we carry drinking water in Jerry cans, about 70 litres.  How then do we keep everyone clean, you may ask?

Here are some of the ways we have found ….

Water slides are a great way to keep clean .. the friction on the slide gets the dirt off easily!

‘Hand held battery shower is great for quick clean-ups

 

Outback bath!!

A tap at the local park is great for washing hair and a quick scrub of the feet!

 

The most recent water efficient way of showering is using a 1 L pressure sprayer!  We can wash from top to toe the three youngest using less than 1 L of water!

 

A good swim in the sea followed by a cold outside shower is refreshing and invigorating!

Many servos have a shower, a lot of them are free or a couple of dollars for the key.  Showgrounds usually have hot showers and charge anywhere from free to $20 for a night on power and use of the facilities.  Some towns (Broken Hill in NSW, Roma in QLD) have free showers in town.  Ask the truckies, they usually know!

So while it’s not just as easy as turning on the tap and running a bath/shower … there are lots of ways to stay clean on the road!

Free Food!

After being forced to move sites due to the rudeness of fellow campers we now have a spot with internet reception!!  Yay!
AND …..

A tour bus pulled in having been up to Carnarvon Gorge.  They stopped for lunch, then gave us there leftover sandwiches! 

 

There was a selection of corned beef and salad, chicken and salad, and curried egg!  They also gave us some packets of chips and some muesli bars!

Jasmine enjoyed the treat as did the rest of us!

Thanks very much Kangaroo Bus lines for choosing our family out of all the other campers!!!

Where to next

Since the unexpected and untimely death of our youngest daughter Serenity in March this year we have been hesitant or unable to make many decisions!  It's been a rough road for us .... trying to parent gently when we as parents are in varying stages of  deep grief.  Things are slowly getting easier and the children are having less outbursts of grief.

So now we are getting ready to make some decisions about where we go and what we go in.  We have our bus up for sale and have at least one person interested.  Our friends have a people move (minibus) for sale that would suit us well.  The question now is, do we buy another bus or do we by something a van would tow?  A van towing something would allow us to go places we could not go in a bus, it would be easier round town for shopping etc, and it would be more economical on fuel.  On the flip side, there would be less room inside, the kids would have to share beds, it would not be as weatherproof or secure.  So to tow or not to tow is the question!

On another note ... we are all over the dreaded tummy bug and colds.  It's even less than no fun trying to clean up after puking children when you have no running water, no flush toilets and it's the middle of the night in the middle of winter!!

Gonna try and add some photo's of our rig ....

The master bed with a childs bed on the right

Look back from the front of the bus

With the awning up