First motorhome adventure 2024

Our journey to
get home on Tuesday.

If you and I were sitting down at a coffee shop and you asked me about my week, I could tell you quite a tale. This is a bit long, so I've started with:

TL;DR (too long didn't read) version:

On Friday night we had a simple BBQ dinner on Friday night (Australia Day) with friends. 

On Saturday we packed our bags and headed up to my parents' place in Toowoomba where we stopped for a short chat, then packed our stuff into their small motorhome and headed across town to spend the night with long-time friends.

We slept in the motorhome in their driveway overnight. About 1.30 a fierce storm came through the region. I didn't get much sleep! Sunday morning we had breakfast with our friends before driving to church with them. We didn't stay long afterwards as we'd been invited to a 60th birthday party down the road.

Free camping in the Aussie bush...with a book
and travel Scrabble...and several hundred mozzies.

After the party we drove down the Toowoomba range and into the area north of the main highway between Toowoomba and Brisbane. We stopped the night in a cleared spot (that we paid a small amount for) on a private property, with no water, toilet, or shower, it was very much "free camping". It was a very hot night!

On Monday morning we packed up camp and headed into Brisbane to attend the funeral of a former colleague in Japan, and then back out again to camp north of Brisbane at a small town's show grounds.

It was wet again that night, but not with the driving rain we'd experienced early on Sunday morning. However the amount of rain that had already fallen was starting to pool on the already saturated ground.

Tuesday morning we drove the "back routes" to get the motorhome back to my parents. It was a very wet drive that took a lot longer than expected due to road conditions.

We didn't stay long at my parents, because we had promised to pick our youngest son up from work in Ipswich at 3pm. However, quickly discovered that the main highway was flooded in one spot, so we spent about 40 minutes working our way around the blockage on local roads.

We finally arrived home seven hours after leaving that morning, on a journey that probably should have only taken five!

Longer version

Friday night's dinner was preceded by an event with our son that proved to me (again) how real and how crippling anxiety can be. We learnt some things and were challenged again to double down in prayer for him. I won't go into the details here in a public space, but it wasn't an easy time. 

Dinner we enjoyed, however. Time spent with friends who know us well and accept us as we are is precious. It was a comfortable evening and helped me relax a bit.

Saturday was hot. In fact most days are hot and humid at the moment. We teeter on the edge of using air conditioning most days (our modus operandi is to use it as minimally as we can to keep costs low). Thankfully most nights have been cool enough with just the overhead fan on. We discovered on this trip that hot nights in a motorhome can be a little more challenging.

We arrived at our friends' house late afternoon and spent the next several hours talking and eating. Another place where we feel seen and heard and loved deeply. It was wonderful. We've walked with this couple for over 30 years, most of the time not in the same city or state, or even country, but we're grateful for a friendship that has weathered a lot, including nine kids between us!

We slept here.

I've already mentioned the storm. I slept very poorly: it was hot and a "new" bed, even before we got buffeted by the storm. It was a struggle to concentrate in church the next morning, but we were grateful to be back in the church where we got married in 1997 and to see a few familiar faces.

Our motor home adventure ramped up once we headed off the main road on Sunday afternoon. The place David had booked was very basic. Certainly quiet and dark once the sun went down. And plenty of mozzies who got a good feed off me! But without electricity we only had a fan for part of the night, so my sleep was mostly being passed out from exhaustion from the night before.

Free camping, with free dogs.
So enthusiastically
keeping an eye on us!

It was delightful to have breakfast in the bush the next morning. One of the big things that struck me about camping in a motorhome is how easy it is to set-up camp, and pack up later. Last time we did this (2012) we'd only been tent camping a handful of times, but now we have a lot of tent camping under our belts and the ease of set-up in a motorhome is amazing.

Attending a funeral in the middle of our long weekend meant this really wasn't a relaxing adventure. But our main goal for taking this trip was to have a trial run at using the van prior to a much longer trip in March–May, so we did achieve that. 

The funeral itself was pretty amazing, however. Definitely had us turning our eyes to Jesus and the various tributes gave us a good well-rounded image of the woman we were mourning. Fittingly, for someone who had spent around half her life in Japan, there were a number of short messages from people who had served with her there, most of whom we knew, so we felt quite a home. Afterwards at the "reception" we had many eclectic conversations. We met former colleagues (from Australia and Japan), Japanese expats, people who've prayed for us since we were in our 20s, someone who used to attend the same church as me when I was at uni. I met a Japanese lady who is good friends with someone I haven't seen since 7th grade! My parents were there and they introduced me to friends of theirs who we'd not met. It was intense!

After that we hopped back in the motorhome and drove to our next campsite. This time with power and water, and a beautiful amenities block (shower and toilet). After we were set up, we ended up chatting with a lady walking her very friendly service dog past our van. It struck me that in this mobile group of people, they don't care where you are "from" they just want to know about the journey: where have you been recently and where are you going next. Unlike a hairdresser I encountered last year, they don't want to know about whether you have a day off and what your job is. In some ways that's refreshing, for people like us who have too much backstory for an easy introductory conversation.

I wish I'd had more time and energy to
take some photos in this picturesque
 location (Dayboro). But we were rushed and it
was wet most of the time we were there.

On Tuesday morning we had some difficulties trying to empty our grey and black water. First place it was pouring rain and there was a line up, and we were in a bit of a rush to get going. At the second place, it was still raining, but not as hard, and we suspect the dump point had been underwater earlier in the day and it so was tricky.

Driving in sub-optimal conditions for much of the day on Tuesday was draining. At times water was running over the road, or it was raining so hard it was difficult to see far ahead. And then, on the final leg, we ran into flooding in the Lockyer Valley. We decided to push through and see what alternative route we could find and were surprised to find a slightly complicated way through that only delayed us 40 minutes. Alternatives to this story (if the flooding had been worse) were an extra night at my parents, or a long detour of a few hours. If this had been 20 years ago, I don't know how we would have managed because finding the alternative route meant a lot of consulting of Google Maps and Qldtraffic.qld.gov.au (a webpage that shows road conditions). I drove as I am more prone to motion sickness than David. But we were both exhausted by the time we got home. 

Happy to chalk this up as another adventure, but also grateful for a home base (some of our camping companions live all the time in their mobile accommodation). But now we're preparing for our "big trip" starting in just six weeks!