*I just want to let everyone know that I was supposed to document the entirety of our time on the road but like so many other attempts to keep a journal or diary, I failed. Here’s a glimpse into the first couple days of our trip. Unedited. It’s sporadic, rambles on at times, and there aren't too many facts about Southern Australia, but it was what was on my mind at the time…*
Road Journal.
“Couldn’t wait to get going, but wasn’t quite ready to leave…”
Thursday April 14th
Day 1.
First of all – Happy 24th Birthday Scott Dulany!!! Thinking of you wherever you are and hoping you're having a fantastic day with great food, amazing friends, and some celebratory drinks!
Well, it’s officially been an hour into our 37-hour trek across Southern Australia! We’ve pretty much explored every nook and cranny of our campervan and settled in for an 8-½ hour trip to the first (and most likely last) major city - Adelaide! The sun is out and it’s a bit chilly, definitely feels like the beginning of Fall! It's strange having September weather in April. Already sweatshirts have been taken out of squished suitcases and blankets found. Chris immediately assumed his designated role of “the only person who can confidently drive this house on wheels” and has taken his place in the front seat. Patty, who wasn’t feeling too hot after the largest thick shake in the world and some pork sliders, is scrunched up in the passenger seat – accompanied by Spike, Josh’s cactus. I’ve plopped down in, what looks like, the “booth”… aka the-perfect-place-to-play-Scrabble-table. With the windows cracked, a blanket tucked next to me, and some sunnies on I’m feeling very content. My black stretchy pants are back out for our journey, I think the last time I donned these yoga-esque fashion faux pa was on the long journey over to Australia. Almost 8 months ago. Besides, they also came in handy when chowing down at Misty’s Diner (an American-themed 50’s style restaurant). It figures I’d find my favorite restaurant the last day in Melbourne. I was elated when we walked into this pink, black, and white themed diner and I could order French Fries, burgers, and a shake! It reminded me of some of my favorite restaurants back in the States - the Tilton Diner and the Sycamore Diner. It seems that I would have been in my prime back in the '50s. Also, if allowed to eat at any of those places anytime I wanted, I would definitely NOT fit into my stretchy pants. I'm buzzing with the familiar feelings of the beginning of a new adventure, but I think the food and the lack of sleep finally caught up to Josh – who is currently passed out in the back with the blinds drawn.
The Camper is about the size of the room we lived in at Jessica House (our first "home" in Melbourne), and A LOT nicer. It is absolutely huge, clean, and even has a fridge and TV. The shower and toilet situation is pretty crazy, and reminds me of The Clipper’s bathroom facilities. The shower is basically ON the toilet. So you have to stand next to the toilet and turn on the shower and kind of lean over to wash yourself. Already I’ve soaked myself a couple times while trying to turn on the sink and accidentally turned on the shower. Oh well! We’ll sort it out!
It’s a weird feeling to be leaving Melbourne. The feeling was kind of like when I left the States. I was definitely wearing about leaving such an amazing place, but the aspect of something fresh and new overrides any sad feelings I might have. I think it’s the fluidity and consistency of moving that has me used to it all at this point. I think it’s up to six or seven different places in less than six years? Three different houses during college, North Carolina, Luxembourg, Columbus, and now Australia. Phew. But new locations mean new people which means new friends which means “broadening horizons”. I can’t wait! I thrive on being with, and around, people. It got to the point that in November Patty needed to tell me to calm down. And I realized I didn't have to be a part of absolutely everything. But I can’t help it, I love the energy and when you meet that couple people (or that one person) and you just click. There really is nothing better.
Well, enough reflection and onto the scenery... it seems like Australia is pretty flat right about now. The tallest things I can see are the wind catchers (what is the correct term?) that probably power the surrounding farms. Windmills? Yeah, windmills. No Kangaroos yet, just some cows – which, surprisingly are the same here, you’d think they’d have stripes instead of spots or something uniquely aussie. The light is doing this pretty cool thing, it’s coming out in patches as soon as the clouds move out of the way a bit… the taller hills are being highlighted and you could easily take a picture of this and sign it “Van Gogh” and people would believe it. I used to be confused about why people pay so much money for paintings of dull things such as sparse fields or rows of trees. This is one of those moments where I get it. The scene is calming and peaceful. Cows don’t have it bad, do they?
Anyway, there are about a billion different colors in the sky at this moment. There’s the perfect blue that accompanies the clouds when it’s just the right day… it always reminds me of the beginning of The Simpsons or waterskiing on Lake Tomahawk at camp. The clouds are those long paint-stroke ones that seem to hover, just waiting to disappear or open up. My favorite clouds are the ones that seem to touch down somewhere just beyond where you can see and have the sun above them, just waiting to crash through any opening it can find. I feel like the sun and water are pretty similar in the fact that they are constantly searching for flaws, openings, and patches to leak through and infest. Whether it’s slip-ups with sunscreen, macro-bursts in a snorkel, or bits of roof that need to be patched up – we’re constantly searching for these imperfections and doing our best to protect ourselves from them. But then there are the beautiful mistakes… beautiful mistakes? The times when the sun finds it’s way through the rain and different colors swirl around to make a rainbow, or when bits of water get caught in a spider web. I know I’m being lame right now and these images belong in a Disney movie, but I blame the scenery… and my over active imagination.
Another part of the scenery that is not nature are all these ridiculous signs that are spattered along Australian highways. One that I love in particular that is so demanding is...
“TIRED? POWERNAP NOW!”
I've seen other variations of this such as "SLEEP OR DIE". We’ve also passed a lot of road names like Snake Creek, Mount Emu Creek, Kangaroo Junction and lots of other uncommon names. I’ll check back in a while to see if we’ve come across any others.
So… we’ve fast-forwarded a couple of hours and we are now close to Adelaide! We stopped twice at gas stations (petrol stations) to fuel up with some chips and beer. That is the extent of dinner tonight… I got some beef jerky and Chap Stick as well. The life on the road is pretty grand - some games of catch phrase, poem writing to entertain each other, the States game (which Josh beat me at), the Get-To-Know-You game... which is stupid because we've been living with each other since January, and trying to figure out the heat/speaker differences between the front cabin and the back. It seems like the perfect volume and warmth to fall asleep to in the front... and then a rockin' Friday nightclub and chilly in the back. Super.
Friday April 15th
Day 2.
So we’ve all made the executive decision not to change for at least a couple of days. As Chris said, "it just makes things easier.” This way we don't have to unpack and honestly, who really cares about looks at this point? So that means jeans and an England jersey for Chris, stretchy pants and a bogan aussie singlet for Patty, jeans and Josh’s favorite shirt for him, and stretchy pants and my victorica’s secret shirt for me. The beds were… less than comfortable. Comparable to sleeping on the hard ground in a tent at Fraser Island. It seemed like, again, there was a disconnect between the heat and one part of the Camper was way too hot, and the other part was freezing. We'll have to get to the bottom of that. We ended up parking in this remote, VERY QUIET, hilly area. Perfect place for a horror movie to go down. I kept waking up in the morning thinking that we were going to get in trouble because of all the cars that kept passing us. It felt like each car that drove by was about to crash into the side of our camper due to it swaying violently every time another vehicle would come close. It was okay though, nobody stopped and there was never that knocking on the door that I expected throughout the night. However, when we finally did venture outside we realized we were parked in the middle of a construction site. That would account for all of the cars around us. Crap. But we survived the night and are now on our way to reach Adelaide… which is about an hour away. We didn’t want to stop in the city due to the charges at camping grounds and whatnot. Hopefully we’ll get some food other than chips and I’ll be set. Oh, my French braid and the running band have already come out so looking remotely cute this trip is a no-go. I’m going to dive into the book I brought, Invictus, later on – unless Josh takes it first. In which Petra will have to come out again in full force and scare the crap out of him. You see, Josh has a habit of rough housing and throwing me around… that was until I made up this crazy weirdo alter-ego, Petra. Revenge is sweet.
We stopped in Adelaide for lunch! There was this huge indoor market with tons of different food – and the prices were fantastic compared to Melbourne. As we decided, we’ve been grossly exploited living in a city where McD’s costs more than a normal sandwich in the States. Chris and I went straight for the meat pies amongst other treats… wraps, sandwiches, truffles, croquettes, corn and cheese thing, and of course – coffee. The city was great! It seemed open and really clean. But of course we jumped to conclusions with “everyone here is weird” because the first person we saw had bright pink hair that matched her knee high boots. Judgmental much? After sorting out our grumbling stomachs we made our way back to the Camper. The next couple hours consisted of Josh and I reading in the back while Chris manned the front and Patty learned more about Australia. The chips have been devoured again but we’re refraining from cracking open any beers ‘til later.
Let's see... what else happened? Oh! Josh drove this morning, and it went pretty well! Chris somehow got cream in his eyes and had to take a break from the perils of the road. I was Josh’s number 2 person and proceeded to be a backseat driver while manning the radio. Although it was only for about twenty minutes, it was fun to switch positions with Patty & Chris. Got to give them a couple minutes to lay down and experience the ridiculously loud speakers in the back, and for us to pretend like we’re the responsible ones taking control. We're currently on a road that we’ve been on for the last 3 hours. There's nothing but vast desert and a couple turns here and there… the scary part about this road is that it’s completely straight but yet there are tons of markers indicating fatalities and/or accidents. The black markers mean death while the red ones are for near fatal accidents. It’s pretty nerve wrecking since there are TONS – it makes me feel safer that Chris and Josh are driving instead of me, and that we’re in a massive car that would take a lot to total. I still have that kicked-in-the-stomach feeling whenever we come up close behind a car… reminds me of two years ago and the split second I saw the car stopped in front of me and how I barely swerved out of the way, totaling Baby Blue and almost killing myself. Even though the scars have all but faded, definitely the scariest moment of my entire life.
By the way, another sign “REST OR DIE”. These Aussies don't mess around with the signs! But on a good note and we can finally see the ocean! I kept on forgetting while reading my book that I’m road tripping across South Australia. Then I'd look out the window and realize that there wasn't anything familiar. What a difference a year makes, or even six months. I would have never imagined that I'd meet two guys and end up hiking across the country with them. When I think about how completely altered my life has become by Chris, Josh, and (of course) Patty I can’t believe it. I don’t know if I’ve ever been happier.
At this moment, the trip reminds me of a scene from my favorite movie, "Almost Famous"... where they were road tripping across the country while touring. Suddenly "Tiny Dancer" comes on the radio and everyone starts singing together while watching hundreds of miles go by beneath them. Only right now, (much to Josh's dismay) Chris Brown is on the radio and the measurements are in Kilometers, not miles. I'll end today on a quote from "Almost Famous" that just about sums up our little band of adventurers...
"The only true currency in this bankrupt world... is what you share with someone else when you're uncool."
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