The Reckoning

This was the first time that John had been our judge. Jan won the original Quirky Book competition and I won the first Quirky Object one.  This year, we had both categories.  The books were judged first, and this time, our judge ventured inside the covers as well as outside.  He rejected my Pride and Prejudice and Zombies for its lack of pictures, and didn't really inspect Why You Can Go Out Dressed Like That due to his lack of interest in fashion. He has no idea what he missed.  My daughter-in-law has already borrowed it.

The eventual winner was Jo's Creepiosity, which is truly wonderful and includes such things in its list of things that are creepy as  "Lucille Ball in colour".  I can't argue with that.  The clincher for John was "Guys who look like Santa Claus but aren't the actual Santa Claus" because the photo looked like my MIchael.  How could I argue with his logic?  So that was a win to Jo, her very first. 

The three entries in the Quirky Object category were my toilet paper,  Jan's metal dinosaur, and Jo's Prince Charming.  I'm in with a good chance here, I thought.  But wait!  John rejected my loo wipes because they were made in China!  Surely it must be the VERY quirky dinosaur, But no, he went for Prince Charming; a surprising choice.    So Jo won the double.  What will we do next year? 

I stayed at Carters Ridge that night and drove sedately south in the morning.  As I still hadn't found that egg beater, I drove via Nambour and dropped in briefly to the big Neighbour's Aid there.  No beater, but I found two treasures: a classic Viewmaster and a collectors edition of America's Cup placemats and coasters. Did I mention that i was looking for placemats?  Op shops used to be full of them, but now they are a rare breed.

My final haul: 8 tops, 4 skirts, 2 shorts, 3 jeans/long pants, 5 pairs earrings, a bra, reading glasses, watch (non-functioning accessory), underpants, 2 hats, 2 Santa hats, shower cap, 8 cakes soap, hand beater, a bamboo bathroom stuff holder that sticks to the wall with suction cups, small paua shell frame, a glass, Halloween spider webbing, packet of envelopes, travel Monopoly, 3 jigsaws, 2 postcards, 4 books, an egg cup, super hero toilet paper, 1 dozen eggs, and 2 bottles of honey. For my granddaughter: 5 wooden puzzles, a pair of shorts, a t-shirt, a bag of bath toys, and 3 books. Total outlay: $131.  This does not include Dave the Dung Beetle, the children's book written by a Biloela woman, that I bought new in the cafe in Gayndah; nor the goodies from Nambour, because by then the trip was over.  I think my favourite pickup was the $2 reading glasses from Vinnies at Maryborough.

Accommodation, fuel and some of the food cost us each $232.

What did I learn this year?  Jo always maintains that every op shop has knitting needles and I can't argue with that. Now I believe they each have at least one whisk.  I also learnt that no matter how many bras you bring or buy, if you have a rib injury, they are all uncomfortable.  And accommodation with we top bunks is now out of the question forever.

Jan's favourite buy was a black and white cow egg timer, from she-can't-remember-where. And here endeth Op Shop Road Trip Number Seven. 

The Last Day

Our first stop for the day was to be Monto but I wanted to find a geocache first.  The first one I chose turned out to be on the wrong road, but there was a likely candidate near a rest area in Coominglah State Forest.  I left the girls at the car and went bush.  The cache turned out to be near the highway cutting nearby.  I had just found it when I spotted a reason for us not to rush back onto the road to drive down the range.  Meanwhile the girls were panicking because they had lost sight of me.  By the time we found each other enough time had passed for the roller to get a bit ahead of us.

Vinnies at Monto and the coffee shop nearby were both familiar territory from a previous trip, but there were a lot more people about.  We finally spotted the town's free camp through the shrubbery and it was full of vans.  Since we were there last, the silos at Three Moons just south of town had been painted beautifully.  Sadly, the Mulgildie pub was closed and for sale.

Mundubbera was next, where once we were entertained by the cheerful ladies at the Anglican oppy, but were unable to visit the Uniting Church one, as it doesn't open every day. Jo had timed the trip so that this time it was open, and it is a beauty. The handbag collection has been turned into decor, strung up across the room.  Once Jan had revealed that she works at the Cooroy Lifeline, she and one of the women talked shop for quite a while.  Example: For how many years do you hold stock? Jan: Six weeks!  We found various goodies and were surprised to find that they sell eggs.  Jan and and I bought the last two dozen and discovered that each one contained one green egg. I had never seen one before.  I was relieved to discover that they are not green on the inside.  When we were back home, I ate mine with ham, of course.  Jan's new best friend was happy to take our daily photo, the day's theme being Skirting the Issue.

We headed for the Anglican next but couldn't find it.  I discovered later than it had moved up one block and onto the other side of the road, but by then it was too late. Gayndah was the last oppy stop and we revisted the same two that were there seven years ago, Lifeline and Gunther Village.  The woman in the latter shop explained to me in great detail that she would never allow elephants in any shape or form in the shop with their trunks down, as they are back luck. Trunks up, or not at all!

In the Lifeline, Jo found a treasure.  It is a Brownie Downing wall plaque and these are very collectible kitsch.  It may not look like much, but I found a similar one on sale online for rather a lot.  "How much do you want for this?" says Jo. "Oh...$1".  "I'll give you $2".

We had lunch at the coffee shop that used to be the ANZ Bank, and mine was the best frittata I had ever tasted.  Then it was time to head for home.  Once we reached the turnoff north of Ban Ban Springs, I had travelled the entire length of the Burnett Highway during the space of eleven days, following MIchael's and my trip to Mount Perry on the long weekend.

My last river crossing was the Mary (for the fourth time) on the Wide Bay Highway.  The total river count was fifteen: Pine, Caboolture, Maroochy, Mary (4), Burrum, Cherwell, Isis, Elliott, Burnett (3), Kolan, Calliope, Fitzroy (2), Dee (3) and the Don.

We reached Jan's home at Carters Ridge at 5pm, and it was time for her husband John to judge our quirky items.

The Last Pub

The Biloela Hotel has been recently refurbished (nice paint job) and some work is still going on downstairs.  Our host showed us the upstairs common area and said they had decided against putting in a kitchen.  A bad decision in my opinion.  In the last seven years, we have stayed in a number of country pubs and some of them have great kitchen areas, one even providing cereal.  

The common area here has a lounge, a TV (the remote control didn't work), an electric jug, coffee, tea, wooden stirrers and UHT milk, two mugs, a few cups, and that's it.  So how do you fill the jug?  The sink in your room?  Jo's room didn't have a sink (but it had a chair).  My room had a sink 

and a mirror (but no chair); Jan's room had all three.  But the jug won't fit under the tap in the sink.  Off to the Ladies' then.  Jo's room was a long way from the Ladies'.  Or you could fill up the water glass in your room and bring it to the jug; except there were no water glasses in the rooms. With only two mugs available - presumably the others were in people's rooms - I was glad I brought the camping set.  So you make the coffee and leave a ring on the bench. You can't wipe it up because there is no water or Chux available (as there would be, in a kitchen).

Each room did have a fridge, but despite our rooms having been booked in advance, these were not turned on.  I turned mine to a cold setting, as the milk and other coldies had been in the cooler compartment of the picnic backpack all day.  Jo asked if we could have an iron and ironing board, and a brand new one of each appeared quickly.  Maybe no-one had asked for them before, but Jo remains convinced that they raced out and bought them.  We then went down to dinner and forgot about such mundane things as fridges and irons.  The meal came quickly and was quite yummy.

I slept well and it was time for breakfast. My milk, banana and yoghurt were all frozen.  I blamed myself, but Jan's food was all frozen as well, and she had simply turned on her fridge. Maybe the room's previous occupant had had the same idea as me.  I decided I would have a shower while they thawed.  The individual shower was not operational, just the one over the bath.  The bath had permanent stain marks in it, but I can live with that. The toilet, however was gross.  I realise that bore water or dam water can turn the water black, but this loo needed a really decent clean.

As we ate our breakfast we made a decision: it was time to ditch the country pub stay on future op shop road trips.  This was actually the most expensive night of our stay (I realise Billo is a mining town), and the facilities were by far the worst.  We are too old for this nonsense now; no more shared bathrooms.

We entertained ourselves for a while watching the elderly gents from the local services club load up all the empties that were redeemable for cash (their truck had parked us in) and then we were off on the last leg of the journey.

A Bang and a Beer in Billo

I was sad to leave Mount Morgan but Biloela and its new op shop beckoned.  The last time we were there, on the very first trip in 2014, we were astounded that a town of that size had only one op shop, and that was tucked away in a back street, requiring local knowledge. Now there are two, the newie being Loved to Reloved and it only opens on Thursdays and Saturdays.  Jo drove like a champion, past distant fires and open cut mines, and we made it at 2.40.  Next to the Lutheran Church, it, too, is buried in a back street.  We only got lost once.  "Does that sign say it closes at 4?" asked our driver.  It turns out they had extended the opening hours a couple of weeks before. Why weren't we told?!

It had quite a lot of stuff crammed into a small space and cheerful staff.  I found a rather nice dress featuring dragonflies, and needed to try it on. One of the women guided me to a back room with access to the outside, so it was kind of her to lock the door.  It was an interesting multi-purpose room with nowhere to hang clothes except the doorknob and the fridge.  The dress was a success though, and I later wore it to dinner at the pub.

Vinnies had relocated to much larger
premises right on the main road, with seriously impressive signage, and we now had plenty of time to browse.  Jo parked out the front, and later, when she and I were waiting for Jan to finish chatting to the staff, a van parked quite close to the front of our vehicle.  I wasn't surprised, therefore, that Jo backed up quite a way to get out of the parking spot. The sound of her hitting the car behind was more unexpected.  The funny thing was that she had told us earlier in the trip that every prang she had ever had in any of her cars had occurred while she was backing.  I think she needs a reversing camera for Christmas.  Fortunately, there was no damage to the vehicle behind us.

It was time to find the Biloela Hotel, following our tradition of always staying one night in an old-fashioned pub.  We discovered that it backed onto an one-way alleyway, so once we found the right end to enter, we were soon parked next to the bottlo.  Once inside the beer garden, we were greeted by the publican but he was a bit busy, so we dumped our stuff and had a drink.  The decor consists of vertical gardens made from old wooden pallettes, which is both attractive and creative.

While the girls were having a beer, I attempted to recreated the photo of the two of them out the back of the Theebine pub on the last evening of our first trip.