Now that CLP has settled into retirement her days mostly consist of Sewing, Scrapbooking and Sleeping. Two of those are about to fade away as we set off on our road trip next week to complete Retirement/60th celebrations. Yes, she will still have to darn my socks so that she has a reason for living.
To kick things off with a bang first up of course is the rather major event of GC2 Ranny’s Wedding in Toowoomba on Oct 19th. Not just a great event but also an opportunity to catch up with family and see all the Grandkiddies together. Some even have parts in ceremony which will be magic. We will head out a day early as due to amount of driving planned for said road trip we need an early start on Sunday after wedding to make first stop that night of Armidale
The Road trip can be broken into a few segments with the first major event being a few days in Melboring to celebrate CLP 60th with offspring who are flying in for 2 nights. We need to be in Melboring by Thursday so our track takes us via Armidale, 2 nights Hunter Valley and one night in Gundagai. Some stops on this trip simply pick themselves being midpoint between Point A and B and trying to limit ourselves to < 5 hrs driving a day. Road works of course can screw up the best of plans. One highlight of Melboring trip will be an all day French Cooking class in St Kilda where we get to eat the product at the end. Just hope Toast is the first item.
From there we bid farewell to family and head west towards Kangaroo Island. Once again there is a "forced stop" at Hicksville along the way to break the trip. Rather shocked to see the Ferry prices for getting to KI from Cape Jervis – $400 for car plus 2 folk. Seems you cant just sit in the car! Monopoly = Price Gouging 101. On second examination though a bit of a knob kiss when we noted Senior Discount was available and save $50. Our teeth almost fell out with our good fortune
After a few days on KI we head to Penola in Coonawarra region. Having visited the other Wine regions in SA this was a no brainer – which kinda reflects my state after a day of red wine. A couple of quaffing days then sees me head back in Victoria with a different route. No, still taking CLP, I just mean we are using different highways…..
Time then to chill with brother and wifey for a few days at Harcourt in regional Victoria. Should be tres pleasant after a lot of driving and suggest some drinking may be involved. It will be the closest we have ever been to Flemington on Melbourne Cup day. A record likely to last forever. From there we head to Echuca if for no other reason then we saw the option of a Gin and Beer cruise on a Paddle Steamer available for a reasonable price. Once falling off said Paddle Steamer on dusk we thought staying the night in Echuca made sense. Then the fun starts
Leaving Echuca on Saturday, we need to be back in Brisvegas for a Wednesday 8 pm date with Steve Martin and Martin Short at Brisbane Entertainment Centre . And we have planned no accommodation! I believe it is called flying(or driving) by seat of pants – a term I am not familiar with! We plan at least to travel in part up Thuunderbolt Way and be at Canungra for Tuesday night to catch up with Bruce and Therese – and grab free accommodation. We are retirees after all
So about 3.5 weeks in total with many highlights to be sure. Catch up with family along the way and complete our SA Wine Region Bingo card to boot. Beauty of driving is you dont have to worry about shipping wine home before catching flights. Mind you, it never seemed to diminish our purchases on previous trips
Now I just have to work on that Father of the Bride speech….
flashman181 