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.