Day 5 - Adelaide

Do Me A Favour?

Hey can you all do me a favour, my 15yr old son Dan applied for a part time job the other week and he got it! I have rang him & congratulated him, but I thought it would be funny if he got a heap of texts congratulating him on getting his job from people he knows and even from people he does not know. So his number is 0448 723 377 so if you get a chance can you please send him a text & congratulate him.

One for the Boys (& some of the girls)

Have I told you how much I love our Land Rover Discovery? It is actually becoming quite weird, but the more I drive it, the more I like her and what she is capable of! For those of you who don’t know her she is a 2011 Land Rover Discovery 4 with the 3 litre twin turbo diesel engine & 6 speed automatic transmission.  To get even more technical the engine has a capacity of 2993cc, but produces 180KW of power and 600NM of torque, that last bit is the sexy bit to me, I’m not sure if any of you have been in a vehicle with 600NM of pulling power but it is pretty damn hot! My neighbour Chris once described it as “She pulls like a 14 year old schoolboy!” That is so wrong….

I think the reason I like her so much is that I actually understand how she works, I’m a diesel mechanic by trade (long time ago) but I have a fairly good understanding of what she does and how she does it. And I drive her according to how she works best.

A good example was yesterday we were driving into Adelaide, there are lots of hills as you get to the city limits and we were driving up a long steady incline. There was another car and caravan in the left lane about 500m ahead so rather than slow down and wait to follow it up the hill (Bloody caravans) I changed back a couple of gears manually and got the motor into its peak torque range and pulled out into the right lane where I stayed on 100km/h till I got past the slow moving van. Love it! Oh and when we were going through the Bullshit National park yesterday, rather than constantly braking she holds onto a higher gear and uses the engine as a brake, how clever.

And the 4WD system is smarter than Professor Julius Sumner Miller! It thinks for itself and has modes for different surfaces, mud, sand, rocks you name it……

Did I tell you that I love my Land Rover?

No under the breath comments from Mr Egg here…by the way Mr Egg, Happy Birthday for the other day!

How does the van work?

A couple of people have asked how a guy in a wheelchair can cope with a 20 foot caravan, the answer is “Easy…Ness does it all!.....Ha”

Actually that is not true, the van was designed so I can pretty much set it up all by myself. Hooking it up & unhooking it is easy, just back the car up to roughly where the tow ball meets the drawbar. That’s the part I am really good at.   I then have an electric jockey wheel that I just raise or lower to hook up or unhook. I can hook up the safety chains & electrics release the handbrake and off we go. When we stop for the night the van also has electric stabilizer legs so no winding up & down. I have an electric hydraulic hoist on the back for me to get in & out. As far as power and water goes we can carry nearly 300 litres of water in built in tanks, and have 3 gell cell batteries that are powered by 2 x 80 watt solar panels on the roof. So in reality we don’t need to stay at caravan parks for weeks at a time, the only limitations are water and if we are getting sun on the panels.

There’s just something about it.

Some people have asked what it is like to just pack up & take off, the answer is “Unreal!” I reckon it is one of those things that you either love or hate, I was a bit concerned when I met Ness, she comes from a background where 5 star is acceptable & red dirt is something that you see on TV. So I was a little worried when I told her that I’d like to work & travel by car & caravan. But to her credit she has taken to it like a pig to mud, she even said the other day it’s just “less frantic.”

I know the self help gurus all say that we lead hectic lives & we need to simplify things. Well it doesn’t get any simpler than this! Drive, stop when & where you want, see different things, meet different (sometimes really different) people, pull up for the night, eat, sleep & then repeat again the next day!....Or if you don’t want to go anywhere then don’t!

I know, I know….you have mortgages, leases, commitments. So do we, and we can still do it! We even have an 8 month old & one of us is disabled (I shouldn’t talk about Ness like that!)

I reckon you all have 12 months to work out how next May you can give up your normal life for 3-4 months, set yourselves up in a car, caravan, bus, kombi, pull kids out of school & join us on one of our trips! I guarantee it will change your lives! We will be doing it for the rest of our lives!

Readers comments & Special mentions 

Sue & Bill our neighbours, thanks so much for your support, Sue came out on the road & took photos of us driving past. We will send you pictures of the unidentified flora that we saw on our last trip, hopefully you can solve the mystery!

Birthdays

Egg & Campbell both had birthdays this week, sorry guys we did not forget, but we were probably admiring some amazing coastline somewhere & had no phone reception to call you both. Happy Birthday to you both from the travelling Woodies.

Ilsa agrees with me about Ness being a Nuffa for putting my Grabber Thingy on the top shelf.

Marg, you & Norm are our Van idols, when I look at a place on the map now I ask myself “Hmmm Wonder if Marg & Norm have been here?” and the answer is probably YES!

Lou, great to hear from you from Dubai, you will enjoy being back to work for a rest from Chelsea! Ness read me your FaceBook post today, very funny! Tell Box to be careful about that corporate ladder, It’s a long way to fall once you get up that high! I reckon he could come up with a really well pimped up caravan & tow vehicle to join us on our annual journey. Chels would love the outback towns & caravan parks.

Annie’s Blog

The last few months I have noticed something, when I am sitting in my high chair or car seat or anywhere really and I need to do a poo, Mum & Dad look at me & smile, I even heard Dad say to Mum the other day “Look Ness she is doing a big poo!”

Whats the big deal? I’m trying to push it out & I have to strain, I mean have you ever tried to do a poo while you are sitting up with a pillow strapped between your legs, its hard work….so of course I’m going to make a funny face and my eyes will water! But I don’t see why Dad & Mum think it is funny!

And you know what is worse, when I have finally done a poo and Mum or Dad have to change my nappy, they get all happy and say to me “Good Girl, That’s a lovely big poo!” now I’m only 8 months old and this world is new to me….. but do we really have to celebrate big Poo’s? Is there a holiday for Big Poo Day? Do you get in trouble if you only do a small Poo?

I’m so confused with this world!

Mum took me out to the grass today, we put a black & white rug down but for some reason I didn’t like it. I don’t know what it is but I just don’t like anything that is Black & White. Some days when we were at home Dan & my Mum & Dad watch the football, there is a team that wear black & white colours and I just don’t like them! I really like the team that wears Red and White though, my dad really likes them too, I hope he buys me a red & white footy jumper! Annie…best you rethink this, your Pop is expecting you to like Black & White, just like your Mum!!

Goodnight for now, I’ll write more tomorrow.

AnnieInAVan

Comments

[Rob]

Annie-you tell your daddy you already made your choice to join the magpie army and I have the photo to prove it!

[Jack Annie's friend]

Hi Miss Annie!!
Ha Ha Poo story, I think poo is a funny thing too, when I poo around my brother he makes these funny noises like he's gonna spew! When Dad goes to change my nappy and finds poo, he calls Mum through the house intercom saying "HELP Back up required, HELP!!)
Gee wizz whats the big deal??!!
I don't get the footy colors thing too, Dad and Sophie say Black and White, Cam says Black and Yellow, unless were at his footy game and then it's OK for Black and Red and Mums says Black and Red, but she's really COOL cause she says I can decide on whatever color I like!!!
Mums groups tomorrow, its just not gonna be the same with out you there, no girls to check out!!
Gotta go mum says it time for a nap, gee she gets tired alot, always says sleep time!
Talk soon, Jack

[Arama]

Hey Annie
First off the only colour is ALL BLACK! It's a different type of footie however much better than that other game! When you are bigger I'll take you out and show you how much better it is. Oh and if anyone tries the green and gold thing just laugh!!!!!!
Poo stories - first the fact that you get to do them wothout having to undress the bottom half is pretty cool - once you learn to use the potty you won't have that option until you are really old, so enjoy this time in your life. Mum and Dad will get over it soon I hope - there is no shame in little poos so don't get a complex (there are way bigger things coming up for you to get complexes about!).
Glad your enjoying you trip and hope you see more flying angels soon
Arama xxx