Dalby November 2013

 November 19^th, We finished packing up and drove down to Dalby. We called into the Information Centre to check on the Caravan Parks in this Town and to pick up some brochures on the sights. There was only one Caravan Park listed in our NRMA Book but the Information Centre put us onto another, just on the edge of Town, called “Pioneer Village Caravan Park”. We drove out to the Park and went in to check on their price for a week’s stay and it was $55 cheaper, so we booked in. They only had a drive through site available, which isn’t a problem, so we got ourselves set up. What we soon discovered is that this park has Workers Accommodation out the back for 150 people, with their own facilities including a Restaurant and a Gym. Most of those workers would be in the Gas Mining Industry. The Caravan Park side is full of permanent/semi permanent people who are also working in this area. After Dinner I went onto the Centrelink Site to put in my change of address, because my Pension Number has a few 8’s in it, I wasn’t able to log on no matter what I tried ( No. 8 is one of the keys not working on my keypad). In frustration I gave up!

November 20^th, It was very hot today and we were happy to go to the Shopping Centre to escape the heat and restock our larder. I had noticed yesterday, that there was a Computer Shop in the main street, so I went in to see if they could repair my Laptop keypad problem. They didn’t think they could get it done in my timeframe but suggested that the cheapest way to overcome my problem was to use a “plug-in” keypad. This had also been suggested at the last 2 places, where I had asked about repairs, but I was now at the stage where I couldn’t take it anymore, so I bought a $30 keypad, Yippee!

November 21^st, I walked over the road, from our Caravan Park, to the Pioneer Park Museum and filled in 3 hours wandering around. It is a collection of 22 buildings, relocated to that site and manned by the local Historical Society and they have an amazing collection of local items. A lot of the buildings house collections, donated or on loan from local people. This is the sort of thing I like to browse through, when we stop at country Towns, while Val is happy to browse the Shops. We drove into Town for a look around; it was 37deg. so we needed to escape the heat. I parked in the Coles carpark and sat in the car with the motor off but with the air conditioner still running. When Val came back to the car, it wouldn’t start. There was a loud clicking noise coming from the starter motor and the fan belt was barley moving on each clicking sound!  There was nothing I could do, other than look at the engine compartment like I had some idea that I might be able to find the problem and tell all the passing shoppers what my problem was. I rang the NRMA Roadside Service number and was surprised to be answered by the RACQ Operator. I asked her “how come” and she informed me that if you called from Queensland it automatically switched the call to the RACQ, that’s progress for you! After getting my details she said we will have a service van there within the hour. I sent Val off to the Woolworths Centre, in the main street, to do her thing while I waited for the RACQ. About 50 minutes later the RACQ Service Guy came and checked the battery and said it was down slightly, the alternator was putting charge into the battery and asked had I been using the auxiliary power, which I had in running the air con. He hooked up his booster cables to the battery and “lo and Behold, a Miracle” the car started up. What I hadn’t realized was that as well as running the air con. I had the headlights “ON” as well, as I have them set on “Auto” and I was in the shade! So my options were to put in a new battery at $175 or run the engine for ½ hour and see how the battery goes. You can guess which option I went with! I picked up Val and we went to the RSL for a needed Chardy and a flutter, in the cool.

November 22^nd, I drove into Town to get Val some ingredients for her lemon butter, so I took the opportunity to get a few photos and check out the Creek that runs through Town. It had plenty of water in it and some nice parkland areas along its banks, so I was thinking it would probably have fish in it. No fishing rod with me so I went home for lunch and to help Val with the Lemon Butter production.

November 25^th, We went into Town to do a bit of shopping and had a very nice lunch at one of the Pubs in Town. I had the $9 steak special, which was a typical country pub sized meal, so I didn’t need much for tea tonight. We started packing up to leave, in the morning, for Goondiwindi.