Day 21: Mon 16 May - Howard to Gladstone

Day 21: Mon 16 May - Howard to Gladstone

19 – 28°, We woke to very fine nuisance drizzle, only while packing, then it cleared to a mostly clear sunny and very humid day. We headed off for today's 255km trip north to Gladstone shortly after 8:30am, enjoying relatively little traffic until Gin Gin, where we stopped for a brew and a bite to eat from the 'famous!!" Gin Gin bakery. The rest area on the way through town is very nice and clean, and it's a great spot to break the journey.  While we are happy to contribute to the local economy of small country towns, a home brewed coffee out of the van and Noeleene's Ricotta cake would have been much more enjoyable though. 
Continuing on our way, the road conditions, especially between Gin Gin and Miriam Vale deteriorated, with many deep potholes, and even some sections of the highway reduced to a single lane due to the extent of recent flood damage. We arrived safely in Gladstone at my mother's house in good time at around 1pm, and as mum doesn't have anywhere other than on street parking for the van, her neighbour has kindly allowed us to park the van in his driveway for the duration of our stay. With only about 20cm between the van and his house on one side, and 30cm to the fence on the other side, I was very satisfied with my skills at reverse parking an 8.5m van up a long narrow driveway. Needless to say, over the past 12 months, I've gained a lot of experience and grown in confidence towing and manoeuvring the van. I also needed to have a lot of confidence in Noeleene's spotting, and she did a great job too.

It is Chris's 30th birthday today, and unfortunately we weren't able to celebrate it with him, but we did call him a couple of times.  He assures us he had a great weekend celebrating with his brother and friends. It's nice to return home to one of Mum's roast dinners, and today was no different - the roast beef and vegetables was worth the trip to Gladstone alone.  

We didn't make it past the Gin Gin Bakery - it's a lovely rest stop in the park across the road

A real test of my reverse parking skills - I passed. 



A bit tight but safely parked.


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