A new second hand car and a borrowed van

So now you know all about us and why we really need to get away.  Next comes what we are getting away in. Originally we were going to hire a van but a friend kindly lent us his. All we had to do was learn how to put it up and down as the cruiser would pull it really easily and since the little van isn’t much bigger than a large trailer or a 6 berth dog trailer, we didn’t need special towing mirrors or any extra towing skills.

The weekend after we drove our new second hand car home, we went down the coast to see Mum and Dad. Dad is a retired motor mechanic so we were eager to see what he thought of our purchase. He loved Lady Cruiser and took her for a drive down a dirt road with my husband. Trouble was he thought it was a rally car rather than a 4 wheel drive and gave it a flogging and in the process, my husband a white knuckle journey!

On the way home we went via our friend who owns the van’s place. We had a cuppa tea and then he gave us a quick demo on how to put pop the van up and down and a few other hints. He had cleaned all his gear out which was great but left us a few bits and bobs such as a jack, the awning and poles and so forth. Then it was time to hook up and do our first trip – from Southside Canberra to Northside Canberra! The little van was dwarfed by the cruiser but it towed nicely behind.

Collecting the van from the south of Canberra

We got home after our 40 minute drive and unhitched the van in our front garden. I had made a gravel space for a caravan when I re landscaped the garden at Christmas time. 

Re landscaping is a great way of burning off nervous energy when your husband is recovering from a heart attack and you get a great sense of achievement too!! After moving over 2 ton of smashed concrete (smashing cement is also good therapy) loading into trailer, driving to the tip, unloading, repeating this a few times then going to the garden suppliers for stones and more stones and mulch and more mulch, I recon I was the only person that ended up fitter by the end of January than they were before Christmas! Most people are struggling back to work after a month off playing on the beach unfit and fat! The best part of re landscaping whilst your spouse is recovering is that he can't argue or change things as mostly they are asleep. By the time they wake up and realise its all too late because you've done it. I did rediscover that my spine does not think much of mattock work or smashing cement with the back of a block splitter but its always nice to catch up with what my chiropractor is doing these days!

So our little van sat on the front all locked up for a few weeks but we really needed a dress rehearsal before we went away.

A good friend was having a farewell weekend away in Bombala. The friend is moving with his family to the USA. We are all in a running club called the Hash House Harriers which are drinkers with a running problem. We also are in the Bike hash which has similar values, drinkers with a bike riding problem so as you may gather, it was more a social  outing than hard core athleticism on display. 

So since its the middle of one of the most miserable winters on record and Bombala is that much closer to the mountains with all that cold snow on them, it made perfect sense to try out camping in a van that is 80% canvas. Mmm balmy!

First though we had to set it up to see how much cupboard space there was and to give it an airing.

With much skill, dexterity and more patience than I would ever have in my lifetime, Greg backed the little van down the driveway. This is no trivial feat as our driveway was designed by a little old lady who owned the house before us and she planted bushy trees on one side and roses on the other. The gates at the middle eat into what little space is left and so many times I have nearly taken the mirrors off the cruiser! The azalia and camilia bushes make for a lovely show in spring but the driveway barely wide enough for the falcon, even smaller for the cruiser and backing a trailer is almost an art form. In fact if there were exams on backing skills, assessors need only to get people to back trailers down our driveway.

So after a considerable time which I went inside and did other things and left Greg to deal with the backing, we got the van down the driveway. The next thing was to re grease the wheel bearings. Although our friend had told us that the bloke he bought it from had done them not long ago, you can never be sure and its easier to re do them now than have a wheel cease up on the road. To do this one of our neighbours came to help with a convenient tin of bearing grease he just happened to have.

From inside the house where I was there was much laughing coming from the driveway. I never thought greasing wheel bearings would be such a joyous task - so went to investigate. It turned out that beneath the hubcaps were the most spider webs you have ever seen in one space. If there had been a spider living there when we towed the van home they would have never been the same again.

Mass of cobwebs in the wheels

Bearings greased and wheels put back on we left the van up for a week to see if it rained whether there were any leaks. Unfortunately the only time it rained was the day we were going away and I was trying to pack it! Luckily I had put the bedding all except the pillows in the day before but the heavens opened and it chucked it down rain solidly. Van only leaked in the corner of the bed but I think that was because we hadn't put the canvas over the frame properly.

By the time I had a rant and a rave over the sheer inconvenience of another prospect of a  wet weekend etc etc, about 11am the rain stopped and by the time Greg came home from work it was freezing cold, damp and miserable but no precipitation.

Time to go.

Greg insisted on driving as he was having a good day for energy (since his attack, Greg has been fatigued most of the time. Nobody can figure out why and at one stage they were calling it chronic fatigue but another specialist we saw the other day said it wasn't. It doesn't matter, he just gets completely tired and has to rest. Some days he just is tired all day and can hardly function at all) So a good energy day is precious indeed as the next day could be a low energy day. Its unpredictable, frustrating and also annoying that no doctors can diagnose whats going on so at least we know and can take steps to fix it - or at least understand it.

I did call the local caravan park  earlier in the week to make a booking. The bloke who answered the phone almost laughed when I said I wanted to book. I mean you can never be too sure when a caravan park will be besieged by a convoy of grey nomads who book entire caravan parks out at once - but I guess they, like seasonal birds have gone north for the winter and any southern caravan park spots were there for the taking.

About Williamsdale Greg stopped the car to check the wheel nuts on the van in case they had worked themselves loose so I took a photo. It was so freezing cold when we got out of the car I questioned our sanity in choosing to camp at this time!

Checking the wheel nuts on the van wind chill factor was freezing

Rolling into Bombala after driving through sleet and rain and observing the black clouds surrounding the rain drenched countryside through furrowed brow - we found the caravan park.

The bloke on the phone was right, it was a 30 or so spot caravan park and there was one other van occupied, plus two that were onsite vans all locked up. The manager lived in another van. He came out to greet us after I hopped out of the car whilst jamming a beanie on my head, wrapping my scarf around my neck and finding my gloves and coat. You could not find enough clothes to wear! I paid the amount for two nights and he told us the code to the amenities block and wrote it on the receipt. Must have known how crap I am at remembering numbers. We could take our pick of spots and off you go.

We found a nice flat spot between the deciduous trees and parked the van. With surprising speed we had it unhitched, levelled, popped up, plugged in, bed made all within a half an hour which was good as we were running out of light and I think the temperature had dropped to almost zero. The tiny space inside the van made it almost impossible for 2 people to do things standing up so one had to sit whilst the other stood. In true Caz and Greg style, I decided it was happy hour and dragged out the gin and tonics, chardonnay for me, bickies and cheese and celebrated our first night in the holiday suite!

Cheers, our first happy hour in the van

I found some travel rugs to put over the foam seats for a bit of extra cosy and we plugged in a small blow heater that bought with a struggle, the temperature up to 8 degrees. Ahh this is living! We finished our drinks and went to find the pub that would be headquarters for the weekend. Our friends would have started to arrive and soon night one of the farewell party would be in full swing.

About us, the trip and the rest of it

My name is Caz and almost 20 years ago I married this nice bloke called Greg. We moved from a coastal town to Canberra where he got a good job and I didn't really and have been swapping careers ever since.

Like they say in the classics - a change is a good as a holiday but its not really. My husband became a workaholic and work became his total focus. This happened over a number of years and we didn't have many holidays because he could not bare to be away from work for too long. Even when he did go on holidays, he always answered work queries on his mobile phone, checked emails, wrote reports and did quotes. I bet everyone has known of a person like that.

So in 20 years or so we have only had one two week holiday per year. The HR department in his work keeps chasing him to take leave but he wouldn't. His boss didn't particularly want him to take leave either as Greg is the only person to do his job so when he is not there very little gets done in his department.

Anyway, last year he opened another department where he works and employs another bloke and this is all run out of Melbourne. Lots of to - ing and fro-ing and stress and stuff happened. His health began to suffer but he would not slow down and work was far too important. Even the marriage wasn't as important as work. Like any machine that gets worked too much without proper maintenance, Greg's body started to break down and he showed signs of stress and had health problems. In spite of my many requests to get him to start treating his body like a precious thing instead of an abused item, on the 18th of December last year he had a heart attack.

Heart attacks are very scary things. I rushed him to hospital and sat and waited in the emergency department reading the crazy heart graph on the monitor that my husband was plugged into with various leads. This is real and he might die. This was all avoidable. What damage has he done long term? The staff were very thorough and kind. I guess they are used to looking at over stressed spouses looking like they have been dragged through a hedge backwards sitting all hours of the day and night beside drugged out partners, (4 lots of morphine to control the pain) praying that it all will turn out ok in the end.

Next day he had a stress test and it showed up that the 'plumbing' for the want of a better word was all fine and that there was not 'fixable' cause like a stent or bypass or anything that needed to be done so we all concluded that it was due to stress. He was to see his GP and could leave the hospital so long as if he had any slight pain he was to return at once.

Christmas was a blur for both of us. Greg was so exhausted and weak he couldn't do anything except sit in a chair or rest on the bed. We went to my parent's place for Christmas which is at the coast. We had planned, for the last few years, a family get together. My sister is in Melbourne, my brother and his family in Queensland and we live in Canberra so its like trying to herd cats getting us all together.

Prior to all of this, some months before, Greg and I had spoken about taking a month off, using some of his leave and chooffing off on a road trip. We had always wanted to get a caravan and 4WD and go photographing wildlife and landscapes. We decided to revisit this thought and put it into practice. We had a conversation when we came home from Christmas and he filled out a leave form and sent it to his work. Miraculously it went under the radar of the big boss and was approved. Trouble was that the only convenient time to go away for such a long time is in the middle of winter. So July the 13th was the date.

It felt like a lifetime away. July and we were only in January! Still there were things to do before then. We always wanted a 4WD so started looking. Greg's brother in law used to be in the second hand car game in Melbourne so we asked him to ask his contacts to keep an eye out for a vehicle. Still if we didn't find one by then our dear old falcon wagon would do the job. The other thing was a van. I priced hiring one for that length of time and it turned out we could probably spend a month in Thailand for the same price!

I have a good mate who had recently bought a older, small campervan. He was using it at New Years but other than that it would sit at his place until the next new years eve. His daughter came up with the great idea that we should borrow it instead of hiring one. He thought it was a great idea. He didn't even want any money for the time we had it even though I tried to give it to him. Bonus! So now we had an old falcon and an even older little van. Well at least the car would pull it without blowing up.

Because Greg and his heart attack was not a fix thing, we managed to slip through all the cracks on the medical system. He should have had 6 weeks off. The local GP we now used to go to gave him 4 days. All he told Greg to do was stay off the grog for 2 months, take really strong ant acids for 2 months and change jobs. Greg didn't drink much anyway and he didn't have a stomach problem either. Its not like you can change jobs like that - even though the job was the problem. He really needed rest and the doctor didn't want to give him any time off. I didn't think much of his advice. He didn't even refer Greg to a cardiologist. I gave Greg the chance to find another GP. After 2 months of Greg not bothering to do that and still feeling exhausted and tired all the time, I found him one. To the new GP's surprise that Greg wasn't under cardiac care, he found and got us in to a cardiologist within 2 weeks. Greg started having more tests. It was looking more like he had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome all the time. Luckily other than an irregular heart beat, it appears at this stage there is nothing structurally wrong with the heart. Having said that we are still doing more tests - everything takes so much time and appointments are had to make for huge waiting lists.

The real start of the journey
We received a call from Trevor the brother in law from Melbourne one Thursday about 5 weeks ago. There had just been traded in a 100 series white Land Cruiser in pretty good nick with 200,000 on the clock. She was a 4.2 litre turbo diesel and because of Trevor being a good mate of the bloke that owned the car yard, even managed to get $4000 off the yard price. He sent a photo of the car and I was in love.

Because we were in Canberra, we got Trev to test drive the car and on his recommendation we said we would buy it. The following weekend at sparrow's fart we caught a lift with a neighbour who was going into work to the airport to pick up our new second hand car. Greg has a magic redraw your mortgage cheque book and in a few hours we would own a Cruiser. Trev and Janece (Greg's sister) met us at the airport. It took us for ever to get to Melbourne from Canberra as we had to go via Sydney which is a pain in the neck but saved us $300 per person. Melbourne was freezing cold and raining which is why Melbourne is a great place to visit and I would never live there. We went directly to the car yard after waiting for ever for our luggage. Now you might wonder why we would need luggage for an over nighter in Melbourne but I am a fan of taking your own lunch on the road and a thermos and we have a bag with all our road trip gear which I put in another bag with our bits and pieces and stuck it in the luggage. In the bag is a knife for cutting fruit so I had to. Anyway the luggage people must have been having a tea break when we rolled up as we waited over 20 minutes for our one bag.

Arriving at the car yard in the rain and gloom that is a typical Saturday in Melbourne - I know this as I grew up there, we met our car. She had been detailed and carpets cleaned and smelled all deodorant ish. they had covered every vinyl surface with armour all so whatever you touched it came off in your hands. I could not wait to get it home and get a soapy sponge and towel on it to get rid of it. We paid our money, got the paperwork sorted then came across our first problem. Who gets to drive it first.

Greg got to drive only because I hate driving in Melbourne traffic. The steering wheel was leather and worn so I suggested we go via an auto shop to get a cover for it, also some floor mats so we followed Trev and Janece back to their place in Kilsyth where conveniently placed next to the biggest Bunnings you have ever seen is an auto pro shop.

A few hundred dollars later including a steering wheel cover which was such a tight fit that the manager had to go out and put it on, some good rubber floor mats with a lip around them so when you get in with muddy, wet shoes the stuff that falls off them doesn't go all over the place, a tow ball cover and some sheepskin fluffy seat covers to avoid that sore backside on big trips - we went to the rellie's place to play with the car.


We had a lovely evening with the family - we had only been down a few weeks before for Greg's Mum's wedding. The next day Trev and Janece were due to fly out to Thailand for 10 days so we gave them a lift to the airport. They were there a bit early - like hours as we had to get on the road to drive all the way back to Canberra so we said our cheery bye's then attempted to navigate our of Melbourne airport and on to the Hume highway.

The first thing we did was get stuck in a roadworks traffic jam for half an hour. Then near Seymour there was an accident that held us up for another long time by which time we had been in the car nearly 3 hours and barely got out of the burbs of Melbourne. It was going to be a long trip home and I needed to pee.

We stopped for a coffee, wee and fuel. It was one of those truck stop come roadhouses. We haven't owned a diesel car before so we had to keep in mind to find the DIESEL pumps. The other thing was which side do you fill on? One of us jumped out to look. Conveniently its on the same side as the falcon's. One less thing to remember.  At this place the diesel pumps were over there and the petrol ones over under the cover. Too easy. Aren't we fancy all you petrol people queues for you and we have a choice of pumps with nobody there! Turned out they were the truck ones and the fuel came out an 100mph so poor Greg is trying not to get sprayed with fuel as he tried to only hold the pump half in.

I was oblivious as I went to get coffee in our labelled mugs which I thought was such a brilliant idea. I named our mugs with our dymo lebeller. Mine says Caz's coffee Mug, Black NO Sugar. His says Greg's coffee Mug, double shot flat white, one sugar. Saves confusion at any coffee place. I came back to a grumpy Greg who said next time we should line up at the normal bowers - avoid truck ones.

Eventually we got home. It did strike me on the way that we now own a 4WD and this was the beginning of it all.

More background

Whilst in my last blog I prattled on about my husband a whole lot, I didn't get to tell you much about me. So I started a business some 12 years ago grooming toy dogs from home. People bring their scruffy fluffies to me, I make them look beautiful with clipping, nails, bath and blowdry etc and then the owners come back, the dog is overjoyed to see them and they pay money and take pretty puppydog home. I originally groomed all sorts of dogs but found the big fluffies were too much for one woman's back to cope with, especially when they did not want to have their nails clipped and decided to enter a protest which can involve jumping around, biting, twisting, weeing, pooing and expelling anal glands. Small dogs can also display this behaviour simply because doing as they are asked is not what is normally required of them at home but don't require as much energy from me to control! After becoming best friends with my chiropractor and probably funding them a new car, I downsized to small fluffies which is not so hard on my neck, shoulders and lower back.

Whilst I have met some wonderful people and some really lovely dogs, as well as some interesting folk,  some psycho animals and its a pretty repeatative job.  I long for some long service leave. I mean I would have been entitled if I was employed by someone else.

Mid life crisis new career aspirations...

Meanwhile about 4 years ago, during another mid life crisis, I walked the Kokoda trail with some good buddies, none of which were my husband as he could not get leave from work. When I returned to dog grooming I decided that there should be more to life so I embarked in a fitness career. You might think this is a bit far left but when I was training for Kokoda it made me reschedule my dog grooms to fit around training times. I decided that there was not a lot of info or personal trainers out there that would cater to a full on 8 day exhausting walk - although there are plenty of people out there willing to smash your body with exercise for a fee. I decided that I would fill the void of short term contract 'fit for your holiday' personal training.

For this I needed qualifications. So I enrolled in Canberra Institute of Technology which is a TAFE education centre, in Certificate III in Fitness, studying full time. Full time because if I had to do part time it would take me years and I am also the most impatient person ever. I had to stop growing my dog grooming business so put the word out I was not taking any more customers.

I also had to grow a studying brain and after 7 or so years of looking up dog's bums clipping out dags, toenails and washing dogs, my brain had not been required to work that hard so the first term of full time study and dog grooming was a challenge. I was also one of the oldest there at 40 odd. Its weird going to school at my age hoping to make a friend to sit next to. Most of the others were straight out of school and late teens/ early 20's. I did make a really good friend though, Sue was an ex school teacher who ran a cattery and wanted out of that. She was the same age as me but was more RPL's (recognition of prior learning) so didn't have to do as many classes as me. We became best buddies and still keep in touch today.

Then my husband broke his leg on the day that my Mum had to come to Canberra for an eye operation. She had to stay for 3 weeks before she could go back home to the coast. So Mum, Dad and the dog all stayed. It was a very interesting first term. Dad was great. He did so much at home for me whilst I was trying to get my head around the concept of studying. At one point I said to grumpy husband who didn't want a broken leg - nobody chooses to break their leg and if you don't stop carrying on I will fly you down to your mother's in Melbourne and you can stay there - so shut up! He did and it saved me an air fare.

I completed my Cert III then Cert VI then went on because I loved the study so much and the fitness part I did my Diploma of Fitness. After 2 years of full time study I was willing to take on the world and be the best personal trainer ever there was. Unfortunately customers weren't lining up outside my door to be coached in the virtues of fitness so I was still grooming dogs although I did get a few minor jobs which was great. They didn't last long. People were starting to mind their pennies. The economy was becoming very tight and people were saving their money. It didn't help that gyms were springing up like mushrooms everywhere with cheap memberships.  I could have got a job in any gym but didn't want to at that stage.

What people wanted was boot camp and boxing and yoga and stuff so I enrolled in a boot camp course. This was aimed at the insanely fit individual who had a lusting after becoming a commando who liked yelling at people type person. I'm not like that without a really good reason. I can't just yell at someone to do exercise. I don't even yell at my husband.

I then went on after passing my boot camp course to do my boxing certificate which I enjoyed so much. I did it with Thump which is a company out of Sydney and the dude that trained us was so much fun. It was exhausting but I was hooked on boxing for fitness. Even got my own set of gloves and focus pads.

Several change of events - which is a topic for another blog, happened and I realised my calling was with people who want to exercise but not necessarily to the point of sweat drenched exhaustion. There is a lot of merit in training and being at a level of fitness for what you might like to do.  For example your friends call and ask whether you would like to join them in a 20km bike ride to a really good pub for lunch and back. Or a 10km hike to see a really fantastic waterfall or something. You want to be able to do it without ending up in traction or walking like a cowboy for a week. Then if you know you have a big event coming up its a matter of tweaking your fitness not starting from scratch. Based on this theory is strengthening muscle groups that get forgotten until they need to be used such as rotator cuffs in shoulders or archilles tendons, ankles and knees can go bung at any time if not strengthened. Abs and backs also as these core muscles are so important for balance, falls prevention and because we need to protect our spine. Once you get a really bad back/neck, life becomes very uncomfortable.

I did a course in Heartmoves. It was designed by the Heart Foundation. It was originally designed as an exercise program for people coming out of rehabilitation after heart attacks. Its a exercise program intended to be medium to low intensity. Nothing too hard but all the same using all muscle groups, improving balance, not much cardio though for obvious reasons and some proprioception. Although recovering heart attack patients are encouraged, anyone can participate. I have some stroke survivors, knee and hip replacement recipients and people that just want some gentle exercise in a friendly environment.  I now have two classes per week, I just love teaching the exercise and twice a week is fun. Any more and I would be in danger of getting sick of it and giving it away. The people I teach are all wonderful and whilst most are older people, I have a few just a little older than me who simply want a social time and loathe gyms. It works well. We exercise then go somewhere for coffee. Coffee is always a good idea!