MWNews 69

See, I didn't finish the story when I got home. Can't remeber why, but I have an extra half an hour before I leave work today, so I thought I would try to add to the camping story.

As you can see, I have added two pictures this time. Neither of which is current or from a camping trip, but it is what I had. I think I have posted from this set of pictures before. It is one of the beaches near us. Actually, it is near Shelly Beach, where we used to live. We went for a walk one day and I took a lot of pictures.

And so I can keep with the theme of always finding something to complain about, the blog is not working as it should and I am having to use two lines between paragraphs instead of just one. Normally, it fills in the extra line for me, but does not seem to be doing that now. Might be something I have done but if the paragraphs in this post are separated by hugh gaps, it is not my fault.

The third day of camping was perfect. You could not ask for a better day. Clear skies, not too warm or too cold, little wind. As I said, perfect.

We had promised the kids a they could spend all day on the beach that day and we decided to walk from the camp grounds, around the bay area to the town across the bay. We had visited it briefly the day before but it looked like a pleasant walk if we went along the beach.

It was probably only about two miles, but after taking an hour and a half to walk one way, it seemed a lot farther. Juanita had convinced me to walk all that way without shoes. It was sand, no rocks and the sand was compacted enough to be able to puch the pram on.

Now, I have to explain, that I am an american. And while most kids go barefoot most of the time in America, as an adult, I always wear shoes. I think it is a cultural thing. You know the signs, no shirt, no shoes, no service. I grew up with that idea and have lived my life by it.

In Australia, they take their shoes off most of the time. Most houses, the owners have a little, and some not so little, pile of shoes just outside the front door. You are expected to take your shoes off anytime you enter someone's house. Being American, I never do, but it is expected and everyone seems to comply with that option. Even repair workers and salesmen take their shoes off when they come into your house. I have no idea how or where this tradition started, but it seems to be generally acepted here in Australia.

Well, walking a couple of miles with no shoes on was not all that fun. Even if the sand was soft and there were no rocks or anything to walk on. By the time we got to the town, my feet were killing me. It was only the prospect of having to walk all the way back that kept me from falling down and crying because of the pain. Juanita was not effected at all and, of course, the kids had no problems with it either. The did spend most of the time walking in the waves as they rolled in but I tried that a couple of times and besides the fact that the pram would not roll in the wet sand, it was bloody cold in the water and I was not going to stay in there no matter how good it might feel on my aching feet.

I have mentioned the pram a couple of times. I decided it would be a good idea to take it with us. Not only because I knew the kids would get tired and want to be picked up but also, it made a convient place to hold everything we were taking with us.

We brought water, cokes, snacks, jumpers (in case it got cold), buckets for digging and the kites in case we wanted to rest and fly them. The kites got taken out almost immediately, but there was not enough wind to keep them aloft. After letting them rise a few times and then having the wind die and they come crashing down into the water, I decided it was not worth the effort and put them away.

The buckets never got used as the kids were playing in the water too much and the drinks were finished in the first 45 mintes of the trip, so for the next 45 minutes, we had nothing to drink.

William spent the most time in the pram. He was not feeling well and spent about 30 minutes at the start resting. After a while, he got out and played with the others. We changed his nappy and left it off of him after a little while and he thought that was just wonderful. He came running up to me and said, 'Dad, look. He bent over and showed me his bare bottom and ran off laughing. Everyone seemed to think this was hilarious. I am not so sure. I took as a sign of things to come when he gets older. Guess only time will tell.

Maeghan walked the entire way over. She never got tired and ran and splashed the whole way. She found some shells and some sticks and never once complained about being tired or wanting to get into the pram. I am not sure how she managed it. I was exhausted, but she kept going and going. Even when we arrived, she wanted to go play in the playground we knew was there and would not let us rest or sit for any amount of time. We managed to get them both in the public showers to rinse off the sand, but they were straight over to the park after that. I wanted to lie down and sleep but could not find a comfortable enough place to do it. Besides, it was lunch time and I was hungry.

We went for fish and chips. The shop owner tried to warn me that I had ordered too much food, but I would not listen and we ended up with about three times as much chips as we wanted. Normally, having too much food is not a problem, but there were a lot of chips. Maeghan and Juanita spent the time picking out the crispy ones. Too much troube to explain what that means, but they both say they only eat crispy chips and leave all the other to me and William.

After lunch, we went to play again and I tried to sleep on the bench. I had better luck sleeping sitting up but could not find a comfortable spot when I tried to lay down. After about two hours, we decided it was time to go back.

The kids played for about the first half hour, then they wanted in the pram. William went right to sleep. Maeghan stayed awake, probably because it was not comfortable for her but after an hour of that, she got out and started playing in the water again. It took about the same amount of time to get back. I have to tell you that at this point, I was thinking I would never walk again. My feet hurt. Juanita had made arrangements with the kids to take a shower and then take a nap when we got back. We got the kids showered and I went to shower myself. When I got back, Juanita and William and Juanita were going to sleep but Maeghan wanted to continue to play. I took her up to the trash disposal area and we emptied out rubbish. When we got back, the others were aware and we decided to drive to see the light house that was nearby. Fifteen minutes in the car and both kids were asleep. Juanita and I decided to try to find other camping areas nearby, in case we wanted to come back someday, and drove for about another two hours. We ended up in the nearest big town and it was dark. I had already decided I was too tired to cook back at the camp, so we spent some time looking for a place to eat.

No point in saying we ended up at McDonalds. We always end up at McDonalds. I won't go into the fascination Australia has with McDonalds, but there seem to be more of them here than there are in America. At least one if every town, and most of the time, one every few blocks. Maybe it is because we live in the Sydney area, but they are everywhere. And we always seem to end up there.

It must be said that there is not a whole lot of other choices. Fast food is not something Australians are really into, not like in America, but other types are restaurants are just too expensive to eat in. To me, they charge way too much for dining out over here. At least $30 a person, no matter where you go or what you order. So we end up at McDonalds. It is either that or KFC. Not a whole lot of other choices.

We were scheduled to leave the next day and according to our brochure, we had to be out of the campsite by 10 am. We started packing about 8 am and finished around noon. No one from the camp site came by and said anything, so that was not an issue, but what took us three hours to setup took four hours to take down. Mostly because we clean everything so it does not get packed away dirty, although by the time I was ready to take the tent down, I gave up on wiping the bottom of the tent off as I wrapped it up so it will be dirty the next time we use it.

Then I had to pack the trailor, did I mention we bought a new trailor mostly just for camping. I probably did at some point. Anyway, I packed it up and put the tarp over it and then the netting to hold it all in place. I have to say that we used to do this type of thing with rope and try to tie everything down. Boy were we stupid. It is so much easier to throw a tarp across everything and use the netting we bought with the trailor to lay over it and hold everything down. I have no idea how we ever did that with the ropes. And you do not have to worry about packing everything just right. It is not going anywhere with the tarp to keep the wind off it. It works just great.

Well, once again, I have overstayed my time. I was meant to leave 20 minutes ago and I still have not mentioned Maeghan and the doctor. She had her yearly or half-yearly appointment last week. That is where Juanita was when I was writing the last blog and she was coming to pick me up. I suppose I will go into it the next time. That is why I am mentioning it here, so when some back to this, I can read it and remember what it was I was going to write about. Clever eh?

Anyway, I have to go home now. We are going to a camping show on the weekend, it is one of the only ones that is free around here. It is back where we lived when we first came to Sydney, in the Penrith area. We have not been back in a couple of years. It is about two hours from where we live now, so it will be good to get back and see how things have changed. Probably have not changed at all, although there is a new shopping center that they were building the last time we went that way and I want to check it out.

So until next time,

Talk to you later