Toowoomba to Brisbane, 2010

September 1st, We headed off towards Toowoomba and after being on the road about an hour, came to a flag man holding up his stop sign. Another holdup for road works, I thought. To our surprise the problem was a semi, with a full load of pumpkins, had gone off the road into a ditch, lost his load and very badly wrecked his truck and trailer.. There were pumpkins everywhere, a lot broken in pieces and spread up into the bush. We stopped at Crows Nest and had lunch at Trudy’s Coffee Shop and Cafe, where I had a great hamburger and coffee. Crows Nest is another quaint Town, which has kept all the old shops. After lunch we went to Salts Antiques and Collectables, on the north side of Town, and were amazed at the huge array of stock they had. Val is still on a mission to find an antique dressing table for Joan, with the top curved in along the front edge. We booked into the Toowoomba Motor Village (TT) after a stop at the Information Centre to grab a map and some brochures. They were busy so we had to split our visit between 2 sites.Our timing was fortunate, as we arrived to free nibblies and drinks in the Camp Kitchen. It was a Dometic “Follow the Sun” happy hour Promotion, with the team of Jay and Dianne Conclaves. A group photo was taken for the local Newspaper. We were all put into a raffle draw and I won a Caravan Man (Tony Bryant) Coffee Mug.

September 2nd, I went to the Downstream Tourist Railway and Museum this morning and found a small but very busy volunteer group restoring a diesel Locomotive and various Carriages. I was given a personal guided Tour of everything they have, along with their progress to date and what their aims are. It was very interesting and informative. I’m looking forward to our next visit to Toowoomba when I will be expecting to be able to take a train trip.



September 3rd, Packed up this morning and moved to site 45, then spent most of the day setting up and repairing the jockey wheel that I forgot to remove before driving off the old site. I wrecked the jockey wheel clamp as well so had to buy a new one and remove the old one from the frame. Now all I need is a welder to secure the clamp to the frame. The Park Manager is going to give me the phone number of a mobile repair company to see if he can come and do the necessary, welding. I hope I don’t get a flat tyre as I had to use the car jack to support the front of the Caravan.

September 4th, It was very overcast this morning but we still drove, around 80 Klms, to the Dalby State School Markets as Val’s contact for Pandora lookalike beads had a stand there. We were amazed at the size of the Markets which had a lot of good quality stuff on sale. Val spent a small fortune but was very happy. On the way home it started raining, so they were lucky to get their Markets in to-day.

September 6th, It rained all day and night yesterday but the blue skies and sunshine are back to-day. We went into the CBD, Val had to go to Lincraft, so we went to Queens Park Gardens. We were very impressed with the colourful display of flowers and shrubs. We couldn’t help noticing that a lot of the streets in Toowoomba are Tree lined, looks great.

September 7th, As we will be leaving here before the annual “Festival of Flowers” starts, we did our own Tour of the Gardens to-day. We started with a drive by Lake Annand and East Creek Park, which were clean attractive Parks with bridges over the water but no garden beds. Next was Laurel Bank Park which was equally as impressive as Queen Park Gardens yesterday. We drove on to the historic Newtown Park to see the State Rose Garden. Unfortunately there were only a few roses in flower but we could imagine how lovely it would look when all the roses are in full bloom. We drove past Boyce Gardens on the way home. We enjoyed our drive as this is a very large and clean City and we have now seen a lot of its backstreets on to-days tour.

September 8th, I went to see the Cobb and Co Museum to-day and was very impressed. They re-opened 2 days ago after completing extensions and expanding their displays. In the adjacent Park there is a collection of various types of Windmills. The displays cover a lot of local and surrounding areas history, a great Butterfly and Beetle Collection, the local Aboriginal Tribes and a large area devoted to a vast collection of horse drawn vehicles including several Cobb & Co Coaches. They have a large Factory and Blacksmith Workshop that re-builds Carriages ready for Display.

September 9th, We went to re-visit the Japanese Gardens to-day, we saw them last time we were here (around 2 years ago). Nothing had changed but we still enjoyed the serenity that you feel in such a well kept, colourful and beautifully manicured place. We went on to Picnic Point, which is a lovely Park on the highest hill around Town and includes a Lookout. The gardens were very colourful, the view from the Lookout was incredible and Val enjoyed an afternoon Chardy while I had an icecream, at the Picnic Point Restaurant. We had a visit from a local Kookaburra who seemed to find something to laugh at.

September 10th, It rained all last night and has continued on to-day with the added bonus of a strong, gusty wind. I walked up to the Office to get some washing machine change and the wind turned my umbrella inside out. Val has gone to the Hairdressers to make herself beautiful for Sophies 1st Birthday to-morrow in Brisbane.

September 11th, I was very happy at 7.30am when the Mobile Trailer & Caravan Repair Van arrived to weld a new jockey wheel bracket onto the drawbar of our Van, as we were leaving for Brisbane at 10am. He was supposed to call in last Wednesday or Thursday and didn’t make it, then Friday it rained all day. We were enjoying the trip to Brisbane, lovely countryside and scenery, but, as we were travelling along the Ipswich Motorway, doing 90kph in a 100kph limit, an Idiot pulled out from a Service Centre at a slow speed, straight across into my lane, causing me to slam the brakes on while blasting him with the horn. Fortunately we avoided a collision but it shook us up, big time. We booked into the Gateway Village Resort, set up the Van then headed to Brian & Julies place for Sophies 1st Birthday. We had a lovely “Birthday Afternoon Tea” with Rebecca & Nigel and all their friends, then stayed on for a great BBQ dinner and watched the League Final Playoffs on Channel 9.

September 12th, Val was up early to-day to make a couple of quiches for lunch. Brian, Julie, Nigel, Rebecca and Sophie are coming for lunch at our Caravan Park. Brian supplied all the leftover salads from yesterday’s party. We all had an enjoyable lunch at the Camp Kitchen, then Sophie had a swim in the Pool. We were reminded of our Annaliese, as Sophie is just the same when it comes to the Pool and has no fear of water and jumps straight in.

September 13th, We packed up this morning ready to leave to-morrow. Val made a diet trifle to take to Brian and Julies for Dinner. We had a lovely fish and chips takeaway followed by the delicious trifle. We said our goodbyes to all the family.