March 2nd 2023

It was meant to be yesterday that our “real retirement” trip started. But our “Captain”, Henry (the Beaglier) had to go and have his stitches out from his recent surgery so he demanded and extra day recuperation.

We started today unloading the van…well I did. I rethought all the clothes I had put in and decided to take the opportunity to take Ray’s words literally. “You can always buy anything you have left behind”. I left home with one pair of shorts, one top and my thongs. (Not really. but I did unload a fair chunk of things I wouldn’t mind replacing.)

Before long we were off, destination Moama/Echuca. We decided to pass through Yea instead of through the city. I agreed because the driving is easier but I always like to watch everyone else going to work when I’m not.

We like Yea, it’s a quaint little town and we always stop for a coffee, pie and cake at the bakery. Our Captain, Henry, is going to necessitate more frequent stops than we are used to so this trip is going to have some learning curves in it for each of us. We are mentally prepared to travel for these 9 weeks as if we have a dependant child with us who can’t be left alone. Lets hope that Henry is prepared to travel with two retired people who still want to get out and do things because sleeping is one of Henry’s favourite things to do.

We reached Shepparton, realising that our glovebox bounty was empty. We always have boiled lollies like Humbugs on our travel journey to help pass the time and I had neglected to bring any. We knew we were about an hour from Moama so we would survive and get some at a later stage. Souvenirs are not important, Humbugs are!

Ray lived in Shepparton many years ago, (well before meeting me) and it is quite a metropolis in comparison to then. It is a big bustling city. We drove through it , refuelled and turned around to head to Moama. It was then that we were met with a Detour. Ray knew the road that we needed to go down but the detour said “local traffic only”. In trying to negotiate away from the detour, we ended up in a dead end. Yep! Imagine. Our rig in total is 15.2metres and we were in a dead end. There was parking on either side of us and random cars parked along each side. I looked at Ray.

“I’ll do a three point turn”, he said, but as he progressed to reverse we quickly realised that the length of our rig was wider that the street.

I started to get hot (not a flush). “I’ll just have to reverse out the way we came in”.

My mind went in so many directions. What if it was me driving? Could I flag someone down ad ask them to get my car and van out of here? I don’t think many people would have the skills to actually do it. What about a crane? Unhook the caravan, lower the crane, hitch it on, up, up, up into the sky, then drive the car out and re-hitch it on, then off I go!

Ray was reversing the van the way we came, visibility was poor (which is how we got into this mess in the first place). I jumped out to check on clearance – just to be sure- we have a “Safety Dave” which is a camera that shows what is going on at the back of the caravan but there is nothing like real eyeballs.

Finally we were out. Congratulations all round, and gratitude for Ray’s towing abilities. Even Henry was smiling (with his tongue). Our lesson for today from our Captain: “Mum can scout ahead whenever we get detours, just to be sure”.

We drove on to Moama without further incidents.