Spend Your Kids Inheritance

 

Words by Ann Wenn, N38099
January 2008

From as long back as I can remember, my husband Ken and I always planned to travel around Australia. In fact, the day Ken proposed to me, he did so by starting to speak about when we would buy a caravan and travel around Australia together, which then led to the proposal.

Like most, we planned to do this when we retired, but as is often the case, fate steps in and changes lots of people's plans. Ken passed away very suddenly and very unexpectedly 13 years ago, before we reached retirement age. So that put a stop to a lot of plans.

From time to time, after I retired and moved to the Gold Coast with my disabled daughter, I would dream about our plans to travel Australia, and thought this would never happen now. One day whilst discussing travelling with a friend who was setting off on a trip with his wife, I mentioned our lost plans and he said, “There is nothing to stop you, there are plenty of places to see and things to do. It is quite safe nowadays, there are many women travelling alone”. The seed was planted.

A few months later the seed started to sprout. I thought that maybe I could buy a campervan and along with my daughter Jan, take the cats, Misty and Tuppence who own us, on short trips away.

Spoke to several people and they all seemed to think I could do this. But the same friend who planted the seed said I should buy something of a decent size, as one day I may decide to do that trip, and might as well have the right vehicle as I wouldn’t be comfortable or happy with a small campervan. Now why would I buy something larger, most of the time we drive a Daewoo Matiz and you know how small they are (ours has a 760cc motor). I had never driven with a trailer, let alone a caravan on the back of a car, so didn't fancy the idea of buying a caravan - felt I was too old to start learning at this stage.

The search commenced. We must have looked at a hundred vehicles, and nothing seemed to be right. I had just about given up when I saw a campervan advertised in Melbourne and decided to ask my brother’s advice. The vehicle sounded perfect, right price and more importantly right size - a Toyota Hi-ace, and not far from where my brother lived in Koo-Wee-Rup. I felt a lot happier with the idea as he had been involved with vehicles and trucks all of his life, and knew more about them than I ever would. I explained that I felt I could manage this type of vehicle, so off he went to look and test. I don’t think he even had a test drive before he decided that I needed something bigger. He picked out several other vehicles; one that he thought would fit the bill was a Mazda 3500 bus type, so I flew down to Melbourne, took one look at this huge vehicle, and was much relieved to find it had been sold the night before.

Still thinking a campervan would suit, although brother had other ideas, we looked and we looked and we looked. It was either the motor wasn’t big enough to pull the ’home, or the ’home wasn’t anything like we needed, and so it went on. As we looked I saw more and more disadvantages in having a campervan and began to realise that my brother might just be right, something bigger would be far better, even though I was still shaking at the thought of driving a larger vehicle.

I had originally intended to be in Melbourne for the weekend and now, two weeks and several dozen vehicles later, decided it was time to go home. Brother said, “Well I think I know what you are looking for now,” (glad he did cause by this time I never wanted to see another motorhome or even think of travelling!!) “so leave it with me and I will keep searching and buy one if anything turns up.”

The next morning, Wednesday, I booked a flight home for the Sunday. Brother was sitting reading through yet another motorhome mag when he saw an ad for a Toyota Dyna/Safari outfit, passed the book over and said he thought it was exactly what I was looking for. I read it and said, “That’s fine but it is in Sydney.” Did that deter him? Oh no, he phoned and asked all the right questions, and was even more convinced that this was what I wanted. We looked at another few vehicles over the next couple of days but he kept referring back to the one in Sydney.

On the Thursday night we went to my niece’s home for dinner and my brother told them about the Toyota. My niece said Terry (husband) would be driving through Sydney the following Monday, he could drop in and look at the vehicle and if he thought it was a good buy I could fly up then. Brother jumped at this idea and promptly phoned Sydney again but was very upset to be told it was sold that morning. By this stage I was quite relieved, I was becoming more and more convinced that there was no way I could drive a monster that size, and beginning to worry about my mentality. For goodness sake I was well on the down side of sixty, where did I get the idea I could do this in the first place. Retirement to a large comfortable armchair in front of the telly was looking better and better. End of story…. Nope! Brother was a man on a mission and told me not to be stupid, of course I could drive a motorhome. So came Friday night, he back to the magazines, me curled up very cosy in a recliner with a good book, when suddenly he said, “I think I phoned the wrong number last night, that was another motorhome.” Before I could blink he was on the phone to Sydney and not only was the vehicle not sold, but the seller had dropped the price dramatically. Brother said, “I will phone you back.” Hung up and said to me, “You have to go and look at this. It is an automatic, which are scarce as hen’s teeth, has a fibreglass body, so you won’t have any worries with rust, and it will be in the paper tomorrow with the price reduced by several thousand.” “Sounds great,” I said, “but there is no way I am going to look at a vehicle by myself and drive it out of Sydney, even if I do like it.” “How much will it cost me to fly to Sydney?” he asked. “Nothing,” I replied, “it will cost me, not you, and as long as you are prepared to drive home to Tweed with me I am happy to look at it.” Yes, you are right, in seconds he was back on the phone asking the seller if he would hold it till we arrived, guaranteed the guy that if it was as good as he said we would buy it. Before I had taken another breath we were booked to fly to Sydney the next morning.

Sounds like it should have been easy…. no way! Instead of arriving at 10am as planned, aircraft breakdowns, changed schedules, constant phone calls
to the owner etc etc saw us finally arriving in Sydney after 3pm. My brother as cranky as, and me thoroughly worn out and sworn off motorhomes for life.

The owner picked us up at the airport and shortly after we reached his home in a Sydney suburb, my brother decided it was perfect, a 1989 Diesel Auto Toyota Dyna, 6 metres long. I was absolutely terrified, how could I drive something that huge (don’t laugh you owners of really ‘huge’ rigs). My brother assured me it would be a breeze. By Monday morning I was the new owner of a ‘Big Baby’. (Sorry kids, there goes the first of your inheritance.)

We started off home at around 10ish, travelled about 10km when suddenly brother started to pull over saying we were in trouble. At the same time, what I thought was smoke poured out from the engine which was under my seat. He stopped and we jumped out, lifted the seat - well brother did, I was well away by this time; fortunately it was steam not smoke. Apparently, when the vehicle had a service and roadworthy done the day before, the radiator cap hadn’t been closed properly and had lifted, and the radiator boiled.

Picture this: peak hour traffic, main clearway, no water (electric pump), no house closer than 200 metres, the only container in the vehicle an electric jug, and Ann running back and forwards with a 2 litre electric jug full of water. The drivers passing were not impressed and their language and signs were not nice. (Later I was able to laugh, as I’m sure they thought I was getting water to make a cup of tea. Laughed even more when we discovered there was a full 4 litre container of water in one of the cupboards.)

Fortunately, apart from frightening the life out of us and upsetting a lot of Sydney drivers, no harm was done and we were able to continue on our way, brother still driving of course, which he did for the next two hours, then pulled over and said, “Your turn.” Well I drove, and by the end of four hours was sore, stiff and tired from holding on to the steering wheel so tightly that I didn't think I ever wanted to drive any type of vehicle again. The next day the same thing happened, he drove several hours and then I took over until we got near home. I still didn’t feel any more confident or liked motorhomes any better, and there was no way I could drive the vehicle up the very steep narrow hill we lived on, so I begged brother to take over from me. He agreed, but only on the condition that I promise to take it out the next day. I didn’t manage to do that until 2 days later and, only after a couple more days and a lot of practise, began to feel more at ease and confident that I could drive this big monster safely.

First thing we did was join CMCA, and insure the vehicle with Ken Tame & Associates. Both were the smartest moves I have ever made - doubt I would have gone past the first trip without their help.

Took a few weeks but finally decided this was it, we were going to have a trip away. Fortunately the CMCA Village is only 150km from where we live so decided that would be far enough; another wise decision. We loved the Village, and the help we received from CMCA Members was invaluable.

We didn’t even know how to undo the awning; the vehicle didn’t come with any instruction manuals. Each time we asked the previous owner how something worked he said, “Dunno, never used it.” He obviously wasn’t happy about selling the vehicle, but the wife said he had to!

We had a wonderful time and were made feel very welcome by the Village managers and the Club Members.

The seed had grown and the flower bloomed, we were hooked. (By the way, the cats hated it. Slept all day and kept jumping on us all night, cat sitters from here on.)

Time for the ‘Big Trip’! We were off to Tasmania to see my son and his family and to spend Christmas together; my married daughter and family who live in Queensland travelling with us in their family car.

On the 15th December we left for Melbourne. Flooded roads all the way to Dubbo with constant rain and storms, but arrived safely, then drove onto the Princess of Tasmania for a pleasant trip across ‘the pond’. On landing in Devonport we headed for Launceston to visit with son and family, and then to tour Tasmania for three weeks - what a delightful place, but I have never been so cold in all my life. The Tasmanians laughed at me trying to buy a heater in December, asked why would we want a heater in the middle of summer? WELL, 10 degrees is not our idea of a summer day and 5 degrees at night was a little chilly to say the least. Fortunately, a little hardware store along the coast had one in the store room, so our nights improved.

We really loved Tasmania; there is so much to see. Three weeks was not nearly enough, but a delightful trouble free trip was had by all.

Back to Melbourne, where we caught up with all the rellies for a couple of weeks, then up the coast road, revisiting places we had been to many years ago, and recalling many beautiful memories as we drove closer to Sydney. I certainly had no intention of driving through Sydney, but neither did I want to travel right out along the bypass over more hills. I’d had enough of hills in Tassie, so it seemed a good idea at the time to do the ring road. Now that was a delight I could have lived without! One would wonder why one who doesn't know the Sydney roads at all, would do something that stupid. Janice sat in the passenger seat very quietly as we were surrounded by huge trucks, finally saying, “Mum do we have much further to go with these trucks? I think we are going to be squashed.” Not sure what I replied, was too busy trying to keep out of their way.

But we made it, apart from being lost once and making a U turn in peak traffic. My dears... the language (not mine) was illuminating, even though I felt it was done quite safely. In hindsight I realised it was probably quite illegal, but we survived and managed to get back onto the freeway.

We stopped at a couple of beautiful places on the coast, the weather perfect, and thoroughly enjoying ourselves. We left The Entrance and were heading to Port Macquarie, very pleased with life. Having travelled for 5,500km without a mishap, we were congratulating ourselves, and I was particularly proud of myself. Who said I couldn’t drive a huge monster, surely not me!!

Spoke too soon, not very much further along the road that all changed. There is a delightful old bridge at Coopernook that many of you would know. I approached this very narrow bridge gingerly, felt I had plenty of room to cross, even with a truck coming in the opposite direction. All went well until about halfway across, another semitrailer drove onto the bridge and decided he needed more room; both his wheels came across the double white line. The automatic reaction of course was to move away from him, which I did - bad mistake on my part as I had forgotten that the bridge was enclosed. (Panicked perhaps?) There was a crunch and Jan said, “You have hit the mirror Mum.” We then felt another bump and I knew I had done more damage than that.

By the time we found a place to pull off the road safely all the traffic had gone, including the truck. When we got out to see what damage had happened, found that the left rear vision mirror had been smashed and the roll-out awning had been ripped off one end and was just swinging from a couple of bolts.

Being a Saturday afternoon nobody wanted to know us and I was very concerned about driving without a rear vision mirror on the left-hand side. Thankfully, a young guy from a nearby shop helped take the awning off and put it inside the motorhome. We had no choice but to slowly proceed to Port Macquarie, fortunately we didn’t need to make any left turns or change lanes. We finally arrived in Port Macquarie and found a park with a vacancy (school holidays). The manager was very helpful and caring and stored the awning in his garage so that we had room to move inside. The next day the rain started and we discovered that there was a leak; obviously the knock had done more damage than first realised. We waited in Port Macquarie until Monday to see if it could be fixed, but it would have taken three days to get parts.

It didn't help to hear that there are at least three accidents per day on the Coopernook Bridge and, because of this, Toyota didn’t have any mirrors in stock! Fortunately O’Brien Glass was able to make up a mirror for the vehicle so, after that was done, we decided to go home. The leak was right over my bed, the weather was getting worse and we couldn't see any improvement in sight. We drove straight through and arrived home at seven o'clock that night after 7 weeks away.

A happy ending as the staff at Ken Tame’s were extremely helpful and I was able to have the vehicle repaired promptly.

Apart from that little hiccup we had a great trip, a great adventure, and a great experience. What a magnificent country we live in, and how fortunate we are. Certainly makes you count your blessings. Spent heaps of money and started planning our next trip within days. (Sorry kids, there’s more of the inheritance gone.)

Three years down the track and we’ve driven as far as Broken Hill inland, as far south and as far north on the east coast as possible and, along with the good times, a few experiences we could have lived without, such as suddenly having oil keep running out in the Dyna to find rings gone and had to have the motor reconditioned. Other minor problems, that maybe to a mechanically minded person may not have worried them, such as suddenly finding the motor can’t pull up the hill – dirty petrol etc. At the time all were major concerns, but afterwards written off to experience.

After last year’s trip to Cooktown we decided that this huge vehicle was quite small and that the layout was OK but not really what we wanted, although we had loved it and enjoyed our travels. Thought long and hard before we sold it, but yes, we really wanted something just a bit bigger.

The search started again, and dozens of vehicles later we bought a 1983 Toyota Coaster (brother wasn’t available this time). It’s not only bigger but a manual, and after driving automatics for years here was another challenge to overcome. Knew that it would need a few things done but to me it seemed and sounded alright; being a trusting person took the seller’s word. We did a trip to Tangambalanga (Vic) and back, which went fairly well except for two blowouts (the 1st one nearly gave me a heart attack; have never experienced that before) and gearbox problems, but that’s another story. Think I will write a book of hints on how to buy a second-hand motorhome, such as take a ladder or someone who can climb on top to check for rust, and someone who knows that good-looking 2pac thick paint can hide rust long enough to get it sold, and also knows thick enough oil can cover up serious gear box noise and problems.

We arrived home safely and much wiser. Now, with the help of some great tradesmen and a badly dented bank account, it’s ready and waiting for the next trip.

Currently planning a bigger trip to Darwin, Broome and WA sometime next year. Maybe after that the recliner will be looking good, then again maybe by the grace of God we will start all over again.

The moral of this story is: no matter what number the birthdays say… You are only as old as you feel, accept the challenge… Realise you can do anything you want to do… Get out, enjoy life in this wonderful country…