Jen gets famous

 

Sunday 27 June 2021 – Jen gets famous

As we had all fallen into our beds with food comas last night, nothing had been packed up in preparation for this morning’s departure.  Consequently it took a while to pack up as we had three nights worth of stuff out in and around the van including all the additional accompaniments to a caravan park stay such as sullage hoses and electrical cords.

We were therefore pleasantly surprised to find we were still out the gates of the caravan park by 8.30am. It was then a fairly non-event drive east and then south away from Broome.  It was truly remarkable how many cars and caravans heading north we passed – no wonder there is not a free site to be had in Broome between now and September!

We drove for a couple of hours and then pulled over into a 24 hour rest stop area for toilet break and a cuppa.  Larry was lusting over a Ford F250 truck and Kedron van parked opposite us – apparently our future rig as he is getting sick of having to put the weight distribution hitches on and off the Jeep.  The next car is not to have them!!

We drove on and put the radio on hoping we could get enough reception to listen to the Eagles/Bulldogs game and were happy to find that we did!  I had sent Kate a text early that morning telling her to enjoy the game and get us a win but a couple of hours later when we got reception near a phone tower we learned the news that WA has a new Covid case and therefore the Premier had declared a no crowd game at Optus.  So therefore it was up to us to cheer the Bulldogs on from the car, not being able to send Kate to do the job for us.

ABC Grandstand were calling the game and did their usual thing of asking people to text in with their thoughts etc.  Having listened to other games on other car trips I knew that people called in from all over Australia to say where they were listening to the game from so I quickly sent a text saying “Driving south from Broome.  Cheering the Eagles on from somewhere near Pardoo.  Sounds like it’s just a bit warmer and drier here! Jen”.   I wasn’t sure whether I still had enough reception for it to send but sure enough about 5 minutes later one of them says “Jen says she is driving south from Broome etc etc” .  That’s me!!  I’m famous and on the radio!

And that was the only excitement for the day.  It was a terrible game to listen to and probably an even worse game to watch.  The Eagles played appallingly badly and got shown up by a much better team.   Luckily we arrived at De Grey campground at three quarter time and were spared listening to the final quarter where the Eagles managed to give away another 30 points or so.  Bummer.

De Grey campsite was absolutely heaving with caravans – far busier in the middle of the afternoon than when Larry and I had arrived here after dark only a few weeks ago.  The mass exodus from the south of the state to north for winter has obviously begun.  We eventually found a spot for the two vans parked on the edge of a wide bit of road and glared a bit at the campervan who had parked right in the middle of a big, curved site which could have easily fitted three sets of vans if he had parked at one end of it.  I was happy to see someone eventually crowded in on them once there were no other options but they had the last laugh by lighting a smoky campfire which blew directly over our van

 After a minimal set up as it is only an overnight stay we sat down with gin and tonics and cheese and crackers and had a nice pre-dinner session.   Dinner was a quick meal of soft tacos and mince, salad and sour cream and they were very tasty and went down a treat.  Eventually it got a bit chilly so we retired to our vans and another early night was had.