We had to vacate the piece of land on which the trailer was parked because the electricity company was coming to trim some trees around the power line which runs through the bush block. We were up at sparrowfart and away by 8 o'clock. We had breakfast in a rest area on the highway and picked up a tankful of diesel at Woodburn before driving to Casino to spend a little time in Casino Village. Jean wanted to see what it is like and I thought I should check it out if I was to have a valid opinion about the place.
The Village is well laid out and quite pretty. It has the benefit of being new which helps. There was some problem with the size of the rig because the sites are only 12 metres long. In theory I should have paid for two sites but, since there was no suggestion that that would happen, we agreed to stay.
I met up with Alan Tesch and Vince Moran the founders of the Village and sometime Directors of the club, and we chatted about the Village. They told me that their average occupancy is now over 60 which is in the area of the break-even figure so the enterprise is going well.
We also talked about the Self-containment Scheme. Alan was impressed that Ross and I have offered to do all the work and asked me to send him copies of the documents.
We met several friends from the road and made some happy re-connections. We heard that the combined Solos and Highway Wanderers gathering here last weekend saw over a hundred Solos vehicles but just two Highway Wanderers.
We decided to stay on for another day so that we could participate in the regular Wednesday night dinner.
I did some more laundry and some minor repairs. I found that the Little Motley had picked up a nail in a tyre so I had to change the wheel and take it to town for repair.
Dinner was very good, the company was very good, the wine was very good and the after dinner film, Brassed Off, was very good.
The weather had turned again with continuous rain so we decided to stay put for a few more days.
I went to town to try to find an internet connection but to no avail.
We ordered an eternity ring from a local jeweller to celebrate the fact that Jean and I first met fifty years ago next month. The wanted to have a ring made in the right size rather than modify an existing one. It will be ready within the week so we will hang about a few days longer.
We had a thunder storm in the afternoon which dampened my enthusiasm for any kind of outside work but the weather cleared up in time for happy hour.
It's strange that, with all the vehicles here which must hold at least eighty or ninety people only a dozen or so turned up for happy hour. I guess this place is more like a caravan park than a motorhome gathering.
I had an early phone call from Barry Ward thanking me for the email. I didn't think that I had sent it so some kind of digital magic had been at work. I guess that when I tried to connect yesterday, the connection had worked and the mail had been sent without me noticing.
The weather had cleared up and turned rather hot but we went to town anyway.
Happy hour was much better attended, probably because there was a free sausage sizzle. We enjoyed the company, the conversation and the grog but we went back to the Motley for dinner.
I made some corrections to the self-containment scheme documents and sent them off via the mobile phone connection.
In the afternoon the village had organised an Octoberfest. I was asked to help by lending my voice so I managed to avoid the silly games. There were about fifty people there, which was less than I had thought, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and the "german" dinner and the beer and the wine were nice.
I got the sewing machine out and made a new thumb splint and a new CPAP mask harness from the wet suit material I bought in Brisbane. The nett cost was $3 per item saving about $50 each.
The weather continues to vacillate from fine and sunny to overcast and windy and back. The sunset was spectacular with the golden orb of the sun dropping dramatically behind some low clouds.
In the morning, I had a phone call from John Osborne at Head Office saying that my emails had arrived but that there were some problems with the formatting.
In the afternoon I borrowed a PC from the office to check the files. There were a couple of small style problems which I corrected. I burned the new files to a CD-ROM and sent it to Head Office by snail mail.
A solo friend, Helen, had turned up with some kind of electrical problem. The new 0.5A solar panel which is supposed to charge the start battery had caused it to discharge to an unacceptable level. I found that the wiring was correct and in good order and that the panel was putting 0.7A into the battery. When I asked Helen for more details of the problem she told me that it had taken several days to discharge the battery and that she had not disconnected the panel from the battery overnight. I tested for reverse current when the panel was without any light but only found a milliamp which couldn't explain the discharge. I fitted a diode anyway on the assumption that it could do no harm and might solve the problem.
I finally found the enthusiasm to make the new curtains for the Motley. By time happy hour had approached, I thought I had finished but I found two more still to be made. I guess I'll always have some jobs in the to-do list.
In the evening, we went out to dinner with John and Rosie, long time friends from the Northern Territory. We had a really nice meal, drank lots of good wine, and had some very interesting conversation. Happy hour chats usually talk about time on the road but when you have dinner together, the subjects are generally much more broad and one gets to know people much more thoroughly.
I tried to hang the curtains I had made but they were too short. When I tried to fix one the holes from the first sewing were very obvious so I scrapped them. I'll have to get some more material and try again.
The jeweller had rung to say that the ring was ready so we went to town to pick it up and to have a celebratory lunch at the RSM Club.
Having some time to spare, we drove to Lismore to buy new cloth for the curtains.
At happy hour, I asked one of the residents of the Village where he originated from. He told me he was born in Hitchin in Hertfordshire and gave me a long and detailed life history of his childhood and his time in the RAF, which was most illuminating. He spent several years in the Middle East and has very definite views on the unthinking and culturally ignorant ways of the Americans.
I spent most of the day making curtains. We happy houred for the last time here and said our farewells.