The weather was sunny and very pleasant for driving, it got to 25°.
We left Glenlodge about 8:30am and rang Jason, hoping to call in and see him, but he was at Elliott Heads, he had gone for an early morning drive before his work commitment, so we missed him. We will see him in 2 weeks when we get to Southport.
We arrived at Dicky Beach about 1:30pm and setup camp, including the awning and satellite dish.
Our Camp - nice bike.
Marg relaxing.
Our Camp.
The weather was sunny, occasionally cloudy, with a cool breeze, it only got to 19.5°, that was mainly due to the gusty cool wind(45kph).
After relaxing around camp, it was time to explore the Dicky Beach Village shopping strip. Most of the shops had tables and chairs out the front with lovely views of the CP and the beach. We had a coffee from the Bakery and later I bought 2 homemade pies for lunch. They were yumma.
During the afternoon, we walked next door to the Dicky Beach Surf Life Saving Club, they have pokies, nice cheap meals and cold beer and are less than 100 meters from our front door( well our only door) to their front door. And you may wonder why we love this place. Anyway, we are now members of the Dicky Beach SLSC, it is only $8 per year to join, you save approx $2 per meal and about 50c per beer, so we will recoup our outlay without any problems. Also we don't have to sign in anymore. I actually played the pokies this time, I put in $4 and played for 45 minutes before we left, when Marg said we were going, I had about $10 in credit, so I maxed my bet to 200 and lost my $10 in 5 goes. So I lost $4 for 45 minutes entertainment. I can live with that, Marg won a couple of dollars.
Back at camp, I sat in the sun out of the breeze and read my book (John Grisham's The Rainmaker), it has really sucked me in, I am pretty sure that I have never read it, if I have then I have forgotten it. Quiet night watching TV until 8:30 then I read my book.
Tomorrow, Luke is coming to visit us.
A view from the main street.
Major excitement today, our son Luke is riding his motorbike up to see us and will be staying with us overnight.
The weather is cloudy with some sunny breaks, the wind is still blowing and it's cool. It is meant to get to 21°, I can't see that happening.
Luke arrived about 11:30am, it was great to see him, we hadn't seen him since last Xmas. During the afternoon, we went over to the Club(Dicky Beach SLSC), Marg played on the pokies and Luke and I sat down and drank. After that we just relaxed back at camp and went over to the shops for dinner. There are 3 Fish and chip shops in the strip, we chose one, they were yumma.
Sleeping arrangements were interesting, I laid the cushions on the floor between the slideouts and Luke slept there, during my nightly visits to the toilet, I managed to NOT stand on him.
Overnight it RAINED, not much but enough to wet the ground. The temperature ranged from 19.5° to 12.7°.
The Club (Dicky Beach Surf Lifesaving Club).
It rained overnight, but only drizzle, enough to wet the roads.
We got up about 7am, dressed and went over to the shops for breaky, Marg and Luke noticed that there were pancakes for breaky, so that's what they had. I had a Big Aussie breaky (Eggs, bacon, tomato, sausage, hash brown and toast), it was yumma.
A sad moment was when Luke left to ride home back to the Gold Coast. We will see both our boys from Mon 3rd Aug onwards.
The temperature rangedd from 8.7° to 19.0°.
It was cool over night, but no rain.
We got woken at 7:30am by a phone call from Luke, he rang us to say that his motorbike just stopped while riding to the station this morning. This was later diagnosed to be dirty fuel, all is well again.
Late morning, we drove to Kawana Shopping Centre to do some food shopping and while there, we had lunch. I am looking into buying a High Definition Set Top Box. During the afternoon, Marg wandered over to the Club to play the pokies, I went across a bit later to join her, but the urge to buy the Set Top Box overcame me and I drove back to JB and bought the Set Top Box, I must admit that I did get on the internet and check out the STBs, so I had done my homework.
The temperature ranged from 11.8° to 25.0°.
Tomorrow, we are driving to Australia Fair on the Gold Coast, to surprise Mum and Dad.
It was cool over night, and I was back with my sleeping bag.
We were ready to leave about 8:55am to drive the 170kms to Australia Fair, Southport, where we were going to meet Mum and Dad. They are holidaying on the Gold Coast and are due to leave for Melbourne on Friday and we are not getting there until Monday, so I thought a surprise visit was in order. We arrived at Aussie Fair about 11am and we planned to meet them in the food court near Maccas about 11:30am. As we were early, we got a table and ordered our lunch, they arrived on time and we managed to surprise them. It was great to see them again, as we have been away since early April and hadn't seen them since then. Mum was suitably surprised, I had to ring dad to help organise it, but it worked very well.
The Brisbane gateway coming from Sunshine Coast to the Gold Coast took 2.25 hours and we had no dramas, but going back to the Sunshine coast, there was traffic everywhere, as there was a truck accident northbound and this stuffed the traffic for a few kilometers.
We are now back and buggered, so dinner tonight is takeaway from the shops across the road.
The temperature ranged from 7.9° to 20.3°.
Tomorrow, we are off to "The Club" at 9:30am for bingo.
It was cool over night, and still in my sleeping bag.
Today is Bingo at our 'Club'. We left camp about 9:10am and walked all the way to our 'Club', at most 100 meters, for the 9:30am start. We spend $50 on the bingo tickets and Marg won $10, I won nothing, so we lost $40, but had an absolute ball. The lady who called the numbers was a speedster. I had enough trouble, just marking the numbers without trying to keep track of what sequence of numbers we needed. There were at least 50 people there about 5 males. It was the second time that I have played bingo and am loving it, I must be turning into a grey nomad.
After bingo, we drove to Dick Smiths in Caloudra, I wanted to buy a 4 in 1 switch box for the TV, I managed to get what I needed. We stopped for lunch at a cafe in the main street and we also found a Fudge shop, we bought some fudge and it was yumma.
It was member's night at our 'Club' tonight, so we arrived at 5pm and booked a table for dinner. Marg went off to the pokies and I went to the bar, I could either watch the rugby or sky racing. Today, I decided to watch Sky racing, as I am not a gambler, it was interesting watching these guys at the bar betting on nearly every race. There was a race starting about every 5 to 10 minutes, there were dogs, trots and horses. To help pass the time, I would choose the second favorite for a place, some came in and some didn't, if I had been betting I may have broken even. Who knows and really who cares. About 6ish I went and got Marg and we went to dinner, Marg had lamb shranks and I had chicken parma. They were yumma.
Being members' night they chose random membership numbers for $100, surprise, surprise, we didn't win.
The temperature ranged from 6.5° to 20.2°.
Tomorrow, we are enjoying life.
It was still cool over night.
Marg had the nerve to complain, while having a shower in our van this morning, that the shower was not warm enough. Upon investigation, our gas bottle had run out. If you remember the drama I had about refilling the gas bottle in Mt Isa, I asked at reception, if they fill gas bottles, they do and so I left it to be filled and it cost $27.
Later in the morning, we drove back to Kawana Shopping centre, because Marg had earlier in the week, saw a handbag that she wanted and today, she decided to buy it, so we drove there and bought it. During the afternoon, after nearly falling asleep in the sun, while I was reading, I then went and had a nanna nap.
Dinner tonight was curried sausages and rice, it was yumma.
The temperature ranged from 6.1° to 20.0°.
Tomorrow, we are still enjoying life.
It was still cool over night. Everyday, the weather is the same, cool early morning and slowly warming up to low 20s by late morning. There is a breeze usually light, with no clouds and blue skies. It really is very pleasant.
We went back Kawana Waters shopping centre, Marg wanted to buy some fancy looking slippers, so naturally, we stopped for lunch consisting of pies and coffee. During the afternoon, Marg went to the pokies and I went for a walk along the beach and took some photos.
The temperature ranged from 9.9° to 22.0°.
Tomorrow, we are still enjoying life.
SS Dicky.
Looking south towards Caloundra.
Looking North. Nice beach.
A beautiful beach.
A beautiful beach.
Lifesaving equipment.
Big drama today, I have got a computer virus, this has stuffed me right up.
It is the Win32:Tcpz[Tool] virus which involves your passwords. Most of today has involved stuffing about with my PC.
We did manage to walk along the beach and just we arrived on the beach the US mini aircraft carrier USS ESSEX had just appeared fairly close offshore. We walked along the beach to the rocks and checked out some of the nice houses fronting he beach. Marg is cooking a casserole for dinner in our Turbo Oven.
The temperature ranged from 10.2° to 20.4°.
Tomorrow, we are still enjoying life.
USS Essex after leaving Brisbane.
Marg on the rocks.
Marg on the rocks.
This virus is pissing me off, big time.
I didn't realise how much my life revolves around the PC and internet until now. I am not happy Jan. Apart from being pissed off, I did start to pack up our site in readiness of tomorrow's departure.
Most of the afternoon was spent buggering about with the PC and watching the V8s.
The temperature ranged from 6.9° to 21.0°.
Tomorrow, we drive to Southport - 176kms.
*2009 - Index page*
**NEXT - Heading to Southport**
