So long to Molong

The final appointment in Canberra was to pay $30 or so to go up the telstra tower and take in the view.  Gee I hope the engineer pressed the right buttons on his calculator as the wind was blowing and in characteristic fashion was dam cold.  Arctic.

Left the Telstra tower and headed toward Molong.  Got as far as the Dickson Shops where Marcus and I went to buy fuel for the car while the rest fueld up at Maccas.  Took me forever to find the bonnet catch which turned out to be hidden under the dash on the passenger side.  Finally left Canberra about 6:45pm












MOLONG

 We arrived 10:30pm at the Molong Motor Inn 02 6366 8099 Jim & Liz.  Same place we stayed last year.  This year we had a family room (sleeps 5) $130 and the room next door which we put Marcus & Chris in for $99.

Our room room was spacious, clean and we think  new split system ac.  We took longer than I would have liked to get up and going so I actually met Jim who is very nice man.

Breakfast was our BYO cerial.

WELLINGTON

Racing along the road toward Wellington and we came across a horific accident.  Two cars upside down and riped to pieces.  Emergency services everywhere.

Then as we arrived at Wellington, we saw the most amazing cemetary.  Flowers on every grave.  Did a U turn and came back to take a photo.


GEURIE
Bought a dozen or so pink lady apples from a roadside stall $6 for 2kg.  I can atest to their good taste.


DUBBO
We commenced a systematic search for coffee and soon realised that the highway does not go down the main street.  Eventually Frank & Marcus bought coffee at some random coffee shop in the main street.  meanwhile the children revolted and Chris walked off in a huff.  Got in the car and drove round the corner to the world famous "Village Bakery" in Darling St.  I got a "Bee Sting" which while good, did not measure up the the one I had bought at the petrol station on the South sie of Holbrook.

TECHNOLOGY
We are driving North of Dubbo.  Amazingly, Vodafone
The macbook air that I am using is shiny aluminum and reflects the sunlight.  I doubt if Mr Jobs tested it in the sunny auusie bush. Equally odd is that Vodafone has coverage but no Telstra.  Also something odd with Crazy Johns which is carried by Vodafone but I can't get Chris's phone to pass data.

10:30am GILGANDRA
The town of windmills and hnece lots of points for everyone.  Makes playing Windmill somewhat easy.  Traded text messages with the Konings as we passed Neptune. They are doing sighteeing while we are on a mission.  The GPS advises that our ETA Brisbane is currently 6:31pm.  We will take longer because we will have a few stops and Marcus is driving.  In NSW, learner drivers are restricted to 80kmh.  Bizzare!  As Fin said "Like mobile spead bumps on the highway" Given the data that shows that L platers are safer than any other driver category by a long shot it is yet another indictment of the way we approach raod safety.



PLUTO
We missed Pluto on the way down.  We figured we had -  and I mean had to find it on the way home.  Google & http://www.solarsystemdrive.com/pluto.html informed us that Pluto was at "Sugar’s Park, Newell Highway, Bellata".  Problem was neither google nor the Navman in the Vito seemed inclined to tell me where that was.  Somewhere along the line I located the longitude and latitude but I could not find a way to enter that information into either google nor the Navman.  Google managed to inform me that there was a "driver reviver" at Bellata and they had a map on their web page and so we were able to coax the Navman into locating Bellata using the "pick from map" feature and there we found Pluto.



View Larger Map

goondiwindi crept closer and finally we were over the river and Marcus could drive at the same speed as the rest of us.  We stopped at a small park and made use of the facility.  Someone probably had a tantrum and we were on our way.  This is tourist driving with purpose.  A mission to be home.

No decision could be made wrt to dinner and we drove toward  Millmerran where I do not believe we stopped although we did drive slowly through a closed petrol station.

6:45
The entry to toowoomba from the south west came with a fantastic view of the moon rising slowly from the horizon into a sky with a little cloud.  One of those views that you just can not photograph.

Petrol was purchased.

The troops suggested that dinner was required.  The petrol station had one solitary sausage roll.  (Not purchased). 

Megan and I had come to the conclusion that Maccas and travel and children just do not mix.  In fact they go in and then half an our later they come out again.  Maccas was therefore off the menu.  We did however spot dominos pizza.  We parked, walked in, ordered a Hawian and a meat lovers and two garlic bread.  We passed on the soft drink deal.  Probably cost the same.  We rearranged the tables so we could all sit in and each had two slices.  Dan had a moment but eventually got over it.

Back in the van and on to Brisbane.  Megan was going to do this leg but she faded and Frank took over.  We finally made it home at about 10:30pm.