2. The drive

I am so lucky to have friends that offered to help. (Patrick Kennedy and David Morris). Even luckier that they are big strong males prepared to put up with the fact that I had three car loads of STUFF to travel to Canberra with and not give me a hard time about it. I really appreciate your help!!!!

I should have taken a photo of the three cars! I will remember that for further posts! Take more photos!!!!

It was really nice to have company for the drive and my boys were considerate of my eye issues too. We met at mum and dad's at around 7.30am and left at around 7.45am after saying hello and goodbye to the parents. 

We set off on Jan 2nd (a public holiday), which I think was good for getting to the Hume Hwy. We planned out stops for Euroa, Albury (Jacinta was there from Darwin) and the dog on the Tuckerbox. Before we got to Euroa, rain poured heavily down upon us, like my mother's farewell tears. (Did you like that, I thought it was poetic. Mum did have tears, but not as much as it rained.) For a while, I thought I wouldn't see my boys again. Visibility was poor but just before Euroa, the rain cleared and we stopped at Cafe 56 in Euroa for a lively chat, coffee and scones with Jam and Cream. In case you are wondering, they don't do vanilla lattes here and the jam is raspberry.

On we travelled to Albury. What a great decision that was but we almost didn't leave! My beautiful friend Jacinta was home in Albury from Darwin for Christmas. I surprised her to say that I would be driving through Albury during the day and called her from Euroa. I met Cinty, while visiting David in Albury and she had also met Patrick before. Cinty's very stylish, friendly, welcoming, family certainly know how to entertain! 

Cinty, if you happened to take another photo, I will add it 😀

We were tempted to stay the night but after a really quick three-hour lunch, (and it had stopped raining) I made the decision to continue on to Canberra. 

Thank you to Mim, Rick, Tonia, Marlin and Cinty for having us 💖

The rest of the trip was less interesting. The rain continued once we were back in our cars but stopped at our obligatory next stop.

I think mine was the only car that needed petrol to make it the rest of the way. There were A LOT of people waiting at that service station. Patrick saw that there was a clear pump, so I pumped my petrol from the wrong side of the vehicle. The row that I had been in was still jammed up, so I was grateful that I had my scout with me.

We arrived at my apartment in Canberra at around 6.45pm. It probably took me 25 minutes to find the correct carpark, after giving up and calling my new land lady for directions. Then we were very smart and parked each car, one at a time, near the lift, loaded the lift, went up to level 1, David unloaded the lift and Patrick and I carried everything to the apartment. Seriously, David Morris was a champion! Legend! Super Hero! Patrick was too 😍 My boys deserved a dinner at the pub with a nice cool beer after all of their hard work, so we walked to the "Kingo" (the Kingston pub) that I'd remembered passing, for dinner before the kitchen closed at 9pm. I thought the "Kingo" had a nice vibe. I have since found 2 other pubs closer than the "Kingo" (which was not far at all). I'll introduce you all to the apartment, once I've finished unpacking. I'm sure that you can imagine finding room to store three car loads of stuff in a shared apartment is a challenge. Some of you may think it impossible. I will show you doubting Thomases 👀