After
waiting months and months in pleasant anticipation we were finally at
the day we were going to leave for our Hook Up Holiday with Raven!
Since we had been alerted to the fact that we didn't need to arrive before 2pm, we wern't in a hurry. We packed our bags, towels, sleeping bags, and pillows.
We sorted through the food and decided what we were going to take and what we were going to leave.
We called up our mate who was going to house sit and let him know when we were leaving, and wrote a note, detailing what was where for the mouse, cats and dog, as he wasn't arriving till late.
Then we had a nice lunch, piled into the car, and were off!
It rained right up till Warragul, and then suddenly it was sunny! The children were all asleep, and life was good!
Then we hit Pakenham, and there was a funny smell. I saw the stearing wheel case was smoking, and so we high tailed it to the nearest auto electrician in some panic!
The chappy who checked the problem said ideally he'd keep the car the rest of the afternoon and fix the car while pocketting $300 of our dollars. Whut? No! This can't happen! We have to be somewhere rather badly! Was our reply to this. Well, you'll have to take it slowly then, we were told, because if it fuses you won't go ANYWHERE! When it starts to smoke again, just stop for ten minutes and let 'er cool off. Okay, this will have to do, says we, and off we go again.
It is now 2:30pm and we are not even half way yet! Argh! Oh well, nothing could be helped. We do nt have mobile phones, and in any caes I did not have Ravens number with me, so they would just have to cope, same as us!
Finally, three hours later, we pull into Eildon, with four grumpy children, and slightly panicy Mummy, and a tired Daddy. But we had made it! And the caravan park lady said that our friend had already told them we were arriving some time and which cabin they were in, so all was well! We drove up to our cabin, and I trotted straight over to Raven's cabin to give them a heads up, ut they were out on a walk (they had left a note with our cabin, but I wasn't sure if they had gotten back or not yet.)
Hauling the children out and setting them in front of the TV (because we didn't want to loose them whilest unpacking the car) Michael and I make short work of emptying the car and filling the cabin, and not long after this Raven makes her appearance! Ironically, my first thought was, Gee she's tall! lol, thing is, I somehow got the impression she was short, but she is my height! lol, never mind. She gives great hugs! care of dinner fous all that first night, but this was also when we discovered that the parks bbq's were a dollar for five minutes or something slightly ourtagious like that.
The children all hit it off at first sight, and Raven and her hubby got on so well with us it seemed like we had always known each other! AND I discovered that Raven is not impartial to walking, so we went on a dark walk that first night and left the children with the blokes, and yacked away to each other like there was no tomorrow, lol!
Bed was good. We got back to our cabin after nine, and the three older children fell into bed like felled trees After their showers. Eli, however, HATES the shower and so was ablooted in the sink, and then by this time had gotten his third or fourth wind, and was not going to sleep. Nosiree bob! Sleep was not happening! We fiunally had to give him something to take the edge off his excitement and he finally slept. We used two dining chairs to wall off the side off his bunk you got in my, so he wouldn't fall out. Trouble was, this didn't stop him from coming and finding me a couple of times in the night!
Next morning we were in agreement to get together after ten, so brekky and bed making, getting dressed, putting on a load of washing, and generally being excited all fitted in before we saw them again. Boy, I was tired already, lol!
We went fishing in the moring, and Raven's second girl caught the first fish! In fact, she caught the ONLY fish that was to be caught during our stay at the park!! But Dassah had selected her to be her busim buddy (highly unusual for Dassah, she is so shy usually) and so she was well content with her friends success, and she got to hold the rod for a while herself, as did all my children, so the morning was not without excitment!
That afternoon we foofed around, but later Raven, her second girl, Dassah and myself all went for a walk to pick up some supply's for dinner that night, and we did more talking, a little singing (sorry girls, lol!), and enjoyed ourselves.
That night we used the bbq at a park down the road and by the water. The bbq's were free, and there was more space, AND a childrens park was RIGHT there and fenced in to boot! Just perfect!
Sleep once again was welcome, and Eli went down by himself this time, and slept a LITTLE easier that night, so I got a little extra sleep myself.
The next, and last day we were taking it easy. Over the couse of the day the children spent a lot of time together, Raven and I took them and went on an explore around the park, where we fed some birds, and the children LOVED it! The birds, once they realized that food was availably, wher quite bold, and they had them eat out of their hands, and Dassah even had one bird hold her hand still with its claws! She was so tickled pink! Raven also had a grand time as the birds were o her hands too, and not very afraid!
That night we had dinner at their cabin, and the children were relativley quiet watching TV and playing Nintendo DS (Malachi was wrapt!) Raven and I went another dark walk, and we sort of got side tracked a little longer than we planned with the yammering, because when we got back in mine husband was slightly frazzled, lol!
When we got back to our cabin it was close to 10pm, but Michael and I decided to pack as much into the car as we could to try and save some time tomorrow, and we finally fell into bed at 11:30.
The next morning we were both a wee bit blurry eyed but we got through brekky okay, and the children were happy to sit relatively quietly in front of the TV whilst Michael and I finished packing the car, and we were pretty much done when my bright sparkly Raven appeared with what was left of the fresh food (they couldn't take it with them, there are heavy fines for taking fresh produce across the border) and we sat and talked a bit more, enjoyig each others company for a bit, before she ducked back to her own place to finish packing.
There was a fond fairwell on everyones part when the time came to part, especially Dassah and her special friend. Poor Dassah was in tears, and even the promise of letters didn't pacify her. The poor darling miserably picked up the two flowers had picked together earlier and left on the picnic table and held them close to her breast as she climbed into the car.
We were all feeling a bit empty on the way home. Raven and her family turned out to be gems, and they fitted with us really well.
The ride home took just over five hours, and we stopped at Pakenham MacDonalds for lunch. Man we were happy the car was behaving itself. What took so long was not the stops, though, it was the fact that we took a wrong turn and got lost! Oh boy, I was not dealing well at that point because Michael didn't want us to have lunch till Paknham, and I was needing to eat. So was was not a happy camper, but we got there in the end, and had a late lunch.
HOME! How sweet it looked! How Good it smelt! How wonderful it felt! Home was good.
Then we got inside and saw an ominous note on the table...
...and discovered that our ratbag dog had racked up $800 worth of fines.
First thing Michael did was call our friend while I unpacked the car. Michael found out that Mr Spud had escaped twice, the first time by braeking his collar (his LEATHER collar) and the second time by some how getting out of the chain harness our friend and latched around him.
It was blatantly obvious at that moment that Spud could not ever be trusted. We needed a dog that could be trusted with the children (Spud growled at Eli when Eli grabbed at him) and that would look after the house while we wern't there (it appeared that Mr Spud could scale thousand foot walls and break unbreakable bonds).
We now had a debt we could not repay and a problem dog.
Michael called the pound, told them the situation, and said they could keep the dog.
This didn't spoil our holiday, simply the home coming. Over the next few days Michael negotiated the fines down to $200, with the possibility of the other fines being waved all together, though we don't know yet. And they waved the giving the dog up fee. So it Was not all bad. We were dog free and exhausted!
Over the next week I slowly got ontop of my emails, cleaned my house within an inch of its life (incuding wiping down all the walls in our bedroom from ceiling to floor with bleach and tea tree oil to get rid of the mold that had started to grow) and attemped to get organised for school to start again and Daylight Savings to start.
FINALLY! I am sitting down and blogging about it and, Lord willing, I'll even have photo's to go with this :)
Since we had been alerted to the fact that we didn't need to arrive before 2pm, we wern't in a hurry. We packed our bags, towels, sleeping bags, and pillows.
We sorted through the food and decided what we were going to take and what we were going to leave.
We called up our mate who was going to house sit and let him know when we were leaving, and wrote a note, detailing what was where for the mouse, cats and dog, as he wasn't arriving till late.
Then we had a nice lunch, piled into the car, and were off!
It rained right up till Warragul, and then suddenly it was sunny! The children were all asleep, and life was good!
Then we hit Pakenham, and there was a funny smell. I saw the stearing wheel case was smoking, and so we high tailed it to the nearest auto electrician in some panic!
The chappy who checked the problem said ideally he'd keep the car the rest of the afternoon and fix the car while pocketting $300 of our dollars. Whut? No! This can't happen! We have to be somewhere rather badly! Was our reply to this. Well, you'll have to take it slowly then, we were told, because if it fuses you won't go ANYWHERE! When it starts to smoke again, just stop for ten minutes and let 'er cool off. Okay, this will have to do, says we, and off we go again.
It is now 2:30pm and we are not even half way yet! Argh! Oh well, nothing could be helped. We do nt have mobile phones, and in any caes I did not have Ravens number with me, so they would just have to cope, same as us!
Finally, three hours later, we pull into Eildon, with four grumpy children, and slightly panicy Mummy, and a tired Daddy. But we had made it! And the caravan park lady said that our friend had already told them we were arriving some time and which cabin they were in, so all was well! We drove up to our cabin, and I trotted straight over to Raven's cabin to give them a heads up, ut they were out on a walk (they had left a note with our cabin, but I wasn't sure if they had gotten back or not yet.)
Hauling the children out and setting them in front of the TV (because we didn't want to loose them whilest unpacking the car) Michael and I make short work of emptying the car and filling the cabin, and not long after this Raven makes her appearance! Ironically, my first thought was, Gee she's tall! lol, thing is, I somehow got the impression she was short, but she is my height! lol, never mind. She gives great hugs! care of dinner fous all that first night, but this was also when we discovered that the parks bbq's were a dollar for five minutes or something slightly ourtagious like that.
The children all hit it off at first sight, and Raven and her hubby got on so well with us it seemed like we had always known each other! AND I discovered that Raven is not impartial to walking, so we went on a dark walk that first night and left the children with the blokes, and yacked away to each other like there was no tomorrow, lol!
Bed was good. We got back to our cabin after nine, and the three older children fell into bed like felled trees After their showers. Eli, however, HATES the shower and so was ablooted in the sink, and then by this time had gotten his third or fourth wind, and was not going to sleep. Nosiree bob! Sleep was not happening! We fiunally had to give him something to take the edge off his excitement and he finally slept. We used two dining chairs to wall off the side off his bunk you got in my, so he wouldn't fall out. Trouble was, this didn't stop him from coming and finding me a couple of times in the night!
Next morning we were in agreement to get together after ten, so brekky and bed making, getting dressed, putting on a load of washing, and generally being excited all fitted in before we saw them again. Boy, I was tired already, lol!
We went fishing in the moring, and Raven's second girl caught the first fish! In fact, she caught the ONLY fish that was to be caught during our stay at the park!! But Dassah had selected her to be her busim buddy (highly unusual for Dassah, she is so shy usually) and so she was well content with her friends success, and she got to hold the rod for a while herself, as did all my children, so the morning was not without excitment!
That afternoon we foofed around, but later Raven, her second girl, Dassah and myself all went for a walk to pick up some supply's for dinner that night, and we did more talking, a little singing (sorry girls, lol!), and enjoyed ourselves.
That night we used the bbq at a park down the road and by the water. The bbq's were free, and there was more space, AND a childrens park was RIGHT there and fenced in to boot! Just perfect!
Sleep once again was welcome, and Eli went down by himself this time, and slept a LITTLE easier that night, so I got a little extra sleep myself.
The next, and last day we were taking it easy. Over the couse of the day the children spent a lot of time together, Raven and I took them and went on an explore around the park, where we fed some birds, and the children LOVED it! The birds, once they realized that food was availably, wher quite bold, and they had them eat out of their hands, and Dassah even had one bird hold her hand still with its claws! She was so tickled pink! Raven also had a grand time as the birds were o her hands too, and not very afraid!
That night we had dinner at their cabin, and the children were relativley quiet watching TV and playing Nintendo DS (Malachi was wrapt!) Raven and I went another dark walk, and we sort of got side tracked a little longer than we planned with the yammering, because when we got back in mine husband was slightly frazzled, lol!
When we got back to our cabin it was close to 10pm, but Michael and I decided to pack as much into the car as we could to try and save some time tomorrow, and we finally fell into bed at 11:30.
The next morning we were both a wee bit blurry eyed but we got through brekky okay, and the children were happy to sit relatively quietly in front of the TV whilst Michael and I finished packing the car, and we were pretty much done when my bright sparkly Raven appeared with what was left of the fresh food (they couldn't take it with them, there are heavy fines for taking fresh produce across the border) and we sat and talked a bit more, enjoyig each others company for a bit, before she ducked back to her own place to finish packing.
There was a fond fairwell on everyones part when the time came to part, especially Dassah and her special friend. Poor Dassah was in tears, and even the promise of letters didn't pacify her. The poor darling miserably picked up the two flowers had picked together earlier and left on the picnic table and held them close to her breast as she climbed into the car.
We were all feeling a bit empty on the way home. Raven and her family turned out to be gems, and they fitted with us really well.
The ride home took just over five hours, and we stopped at Pakenham MacDonalds for lunch. Man we were happy the car was behaving itself. What took so long was not the stops, though, it was the fact that we took a wrong turn and got lost! Oh boy, I was not dealing well at that point because Michael didn't want us to have lunch till Paknham, and I was needing to eat. So was was not a happy camper, but we got there in the end, and had a late lunch.
HOME! How sweet it looked! How Good it smelt! How wonderful it felt! Home was good.
Then we got inside and saw an ominous note on the table...
...and discovered that our ratbag dog had racked up $800 worth of fines.
First thing Michael did was call our friend while I unpacked the car. Michael found out that Mr Spud had escaped twice, the first time by braeking his collar (his LEATHER collar) and the second time by some how getting out of the chain harness our friend and latched around him.
It was blatantly obvious at that moment that Spud could not ever be trusted. We needed a dog that could be trusted with the children (Spud growled at Eli when Eli grabbed at him) and that would look after the house while we wern't there (it appeared that Mr Spud could scale thousand foot walls and break unbreakable bonds).
We now had a debt we could not repay and a problem dog.
Michael called the pound, told them the situation, and said they could keep the dog.
This didn't spoil our holiday, simply the home coming. Over the next few days Michael negotiated the fines down to $200, with the possibility of the other fines being waved all together, though we don't know yet. And they waved the giving the dog up fee. So it Was not all bad. We were dog free and exhausted!
Over the next week I slowly got ontop of my emails, cleaned my house within an inch of its life (incuding wiping down all the walls in our bedroom from ceiling to floor with bleach and tea tree oil to get rid of the mold that had started to grow) and attemped to get organised for school to start again and Daylight Savings to start.
FINALLY! I am sitting down and blogging about it and, Lord willing, I'll even have photo's to go with this :)
What an awful car journey for you.
ReplyDeleteThe holiday looked fab though. Glad you enjoyed it.
The car journey could have been worse. It leasty it wasn't really hot! But it was just a tad too long, lol!
DeleteThe holiday was just brilliant. Possibly the best holiday we've had in years!