Day three of serious op shopping was about to begin and we had Toowoomba in our sights. However, the first stop was a brief visit to the Garden of Remembrance to visit my aunt and uncle who died within six months of each other. I had attended both funerals but not seen the grave with the double headstones.
The girls were a bit dubious about my ability to find the grave quickly but I drove straight there. It brought back wonderful memories of marching with my Grulke relatives in the Anzac Day march the day after Uncle Merv's funeral, wearing Dad's medals, the only time I have ever done that.
The first shop we tried to find, Metro Care, proved elusive, but we did manage to locate Drug Arm in Southtown. It had a lot of stuff in quite a small space, so moving around was complicated. Jo bought almost a whole dinner set there for $25. The next stop was Vinnies' Madonna House shop. The entry next to the car park was to a large undercover area, where we found the trip's Mystery Object. We worked out fairly quickly that you didn't cook anything in them, because they wouldn't take the heat, but after that we were stuck. A poll on Facebook eventually identified them as escargot servers.
I had noticed a strange absence of clothes at this place, but eventually spotted a door in a corner that hid a stairway ... to heaven! Upstairs was huge, and light and airy. It's actually S-shaped so this photo doesn't show the large area of clothing to the left, nor the section to the right at the end of the yellow wall. I tried on many things, but sadly nothing was quite right for my chubby body.
Our next stop was Queens Park Gardens. Last time we were in Toowoomba, on Road Trip No 2, it was the weekend after Carnival of Flowers, and we had done it again. We wandered around for ages, and eventually found another visitor who was happy to photograph us wearing our flowers, amongst the flowers.
As we did in 2015, we then drove to the big Lifeline Emporium in Ruthven Street. It was there that I made my most expensive purchase of the trip, a watch for $14. I was worried that the band on my Kmart watch would break at any moment, so I lashed out. As I write this five weeks later, the band is still holding together, but I like my new watch.
We found a nice little cafe nearby for lunch, called Milk and Honey, which meant we could stay in the Lifeline car park. Then it was off to the Orphans and Widows shop in Russell Street. In all my years of visiting my Toowoomba rellies, why did I never discover Russell Street and its lovely old buildings. I was particularly impressed with the public toilet built in 1919.
The Orphans and Widows shop is long and narrow. When you pass through the clothes and accessories and get right up the back, you find a door that leads to a second area exactly the same size as the first, that occupies the shop next door. This is where all the books and bric-a-brac were hiding. We had to be quick, as we only had coins for half an hour in our metered space, so I didn't find anything there, although the other two did.
Time was ticking away, as we needed to get to Oakey before the last oppy there closed. We had given up on the one that was only open till 2pm. Jo needed a couple of emergency groceries, so we headed towards Wilsonton. It was on the way, and the Lifeline there is in a large shopping centre. The shop is fairly small, but this time the results were reversed and I was the only buyer. Adding to the excitement was the large storm approaching us, according to the BOM radar.
Thus ended our second visit to Toowoomba, but there are so many op shops there, that I doubt if we have visited half of them yet. According to my research, there are seven Lifelines for a start. We'll be back...
We unpacked in the family room in Rudd's Pub and checked out the beautiful bathroom. It has a claw-foot bath, which I intended to try out later. However, our first task was to change into our second dress theme for our evening in the pub: the theme was BLING! Jo's top doesn't look much in the photo - just a silver square - but if you stroked it, the sequins flipped over and were white on the back. You could make pretty patterns.
We fronted up for dinner and are sure we raised eyebrows amongst all the other diners, who were free campers from their mobile blocks of flats parked over the road. We had fun though. Rudd's Pub is famous for its food, and we almost crawled back to our room, full of country cooking. And then into the bath.
Next morning, we were up early for our full breakfast, which was included in the tariff, and it was then that we really had a chance to talk to the (new) publicans. They used to run the Crows Nest Caravan Park. Gayle and Evan could not have been lovelier, and answered all our questions about the pub in general and Steele Rudd in particular.
Nobby's other famous resident was Sister Elizabeth Kenny, who revolutionised the treatment of polio. Michael and I had visited her grave in the cemetery but hadn't discovered the museum dedicated to her. "Here's the key", said Evan.
Well it's pretty impressive I have to say. There is even a framed letter sending congratulations on its opening from actor Alan Alda, who was once a polio patient treated using Sister Kenny's methods, which involved heat packs and exercise, rather than immobilisation.
We spent way longer in there than we intended, then returned the keys. We were dressed in our third theme which was FLOWER POWER. Gayle photographed us behind the bar - an offer we couldn't refuse - but we managed to find a better setting to show off our florals later in the day.
We were sad to leave Nobby. It might not have an op shop but it has a whole lot more going for it.
As we headed east towards the highway, Jan decided she had left her phone charger behind. Panic! Screech of brakes! False alarm.
Our next stop was the little town of Walloon, whose claim to fame is that it was mentioned in a poem by Henry Lawson. The Babies of Walloon tells the sad story of little sisters Mary Jane and Bridget Kate Broderick who drowned in 1891 when sent on an errand, presumably attracted by the water lilies on the water. Their dad was a railway worker, like my grandfather.
The memorial is in a lovely little spot called Henry Lawson Bicentennial Park, which even has part of the poem across the toilet block. You can read it in its entirety here: http://www.ironbarkresources.com/henrylawson/BabiesOfWalloon.html
Another section of this lovely little park is a Garden of Reflection welcoming every family who has lost a child; honouring Hannah's Foundation, a charity for drowning prevention awareness and support. So Walloon has created a little treasure that is way more than just a toilet stop.
Mind you, the peace was shattered when a couple of fighters from Amberley RAAF Base buzzed overhead.
Here are Jo and I attempting to replicate the poses of the two little girls. Jan's idea.
On to Rosewood where there are supposedly two op shops. We found Vinnies, a big, beautiful shop staffed by cheerful and ever-helpful Bruce, who told us the Blue Care shop was shut. Not sure if he meant just then or forever. He was happy to take a photo of us in our animal prints displaying more animal prints. We later voted it best shop of the day.
Onwards to Laidley and lunch. We found three oppies there plus a little gift shop that sold some retro stuff. The Second Chance Clothing one was first on the list and it was the best. It had an impressive foreign language section in its book collection, and a surfing selection amongst its DVDs! Next was the Blue Nursing shop and it was the worst (in Laidley and of the day). Around the corner was the more eccentric Pass It On op shop which fell between the two. Certainly the constant animated conversation that went on between the two young men behind the counter made it interesting.
After a bit of emergency shopping at the IGA, we headed for Gatton via Forest Hill, which has no hill. What it does have is a beautiful pub - The Lockyer - and an impressive war memorial. One of the names on it is C (Charles) Neilsen, Dad's mate 'Snowy' who was killed near Messines on 20th December 1917.
Next it was the op shops of Gatton, which we first visited on Op Shop Road Trip No 2, three years ago. The Vinnies and the Red Cross were as we remembered, but the Salvos had vanished. The woman in Vinnies told us a car had driven into their shop, so they were in temporary premises in the CWA hall around the corner in North Street.
We walked and walked without any sign of a hall, so I volunteered to go back and pick up the car. On the way, I discovered a completely unmarked little building with a CWA badge in the window. And it was closed. I rang the girls on the mobile and told them to stop walking.
The final stop in Gatton was the cemetery, where I wanted to show the girls the graves of the Gatton Murder victims.
If you don't know the story of this notorious unsolved crime, you can read all about it here. https://mypolice.qld.gov.au/museum/2013/10/15/from-the-vault-the-gatton-murders-26-december-1898/ The big surprise was the crocuses in bloom all over the cemetery. Unfortunately, there was a storm headed our way and at this point the rain started. This meant I couldn't show the girls the astounding Lights on the Hill trucking memorial!
It was time to leave the Lockyer Valley and head up to the Darling Downs. We drove up the lovely Heifer Creek gorge, where there was no water in the creek, but we saw a lot more patches of crocuses. The rain petered out by the time we reached the top, so not much drought relief there. We had hoped to make it to Clifton before its op shop there closed but we were too late. We'll get there another time.
Just up the road is the delightful village of Nobby, where we were booked in for the night at Rudd's Pub, in their lovely family room.
We unpacked our goodies, including my second and last entry in the Interesting Book Competition. I found this one at Vinnies in Rosewood, but after that I gave up, because Jo kept finding all the good ones. Once I had seen the author's name, I had to buy it! If you hop onto Youtube, you can hear Stormie's vocal efforts.
Day three of serious op shopping was about to begin and we had Toowoomba in our sights. However, the first stop was a brief visit to the Garden of Remembrance to visit my aunt and uncle who died within six months of each other. I had attended both funerals but not seen the grave with the double headstones.
The first shop we tried to find, Metro Care, proved elusive, but we did manage to locate Drug Arm in Southtown. It had a lot of stuff in quite a small space, so moving around was complicated. Jo bought almost a whole dinner set there for $25. The next stop was Vinnies' Madonna House shop. The entry next to the car park was to a large undercover area, where we found the trip's Mystery Object. We worked out fairly quickly that you didn't cook anything in them, because they wouldn't take the heat, but after that we were stuck. A poll on Facebook eventually identified them as escargot servers.
I had noticed a strange absence of clothes at this place, but eventually spotted a door in a corner that hid a stairway ... to heaven! Upstairs was huge, and light and airy. It's actually S-shaped so this photo doesn't show the large area of clothing to the left, nor the section to the right at the end of the yellow wall. I tried on many things, but sadly nothing was quite right for my chubby body.
As we did in 2015, we then drove to the big Lifeline Emporium in Ruthven Street. It was there that I made my most expensive purchase of the trip, a watch for $14. I was worried that the band on my Kmart watch would break at any moment, so I lashed out. As I write this five weeks later, the band is still holding together, but I like my new watch.
We found a nice little cafe nearby for lunch, called Milk and Honey, which meant we could stay in the Lifeline car park. Then it was off to the Orphans and Widows shop in Russell Street. In all my years of visiting my Toowoomba rellies, why did I never discover Russell Street and its lovely old buildings. I was particularly impressed with the public toilet built in 1919.
The Orphans and Widows shop is long and narrow. When you pass through the clothes and accessories and get right up the back, you find a door that leads to a second area exactly the same size as the first, that occupies the shop next door. This is where all the books and bric-a-brac were hiding. We had to be quick, as we only had coins for half an hour in our metered space, so I didn't find anything there, although the other two did.
