Quite overcast. Couldn't find my gaiters. Devised some plastic bags to try to keep the water from trickling into my shoes. Finishing some breaky, around 7:30am, wondering when I'd need to put on my rain pants.. and I met Vivian from. Brisbane, who came with her husband yesterday when I did…
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Photo at the pub.. as we talked the pitter patter on the roof started.. but stopped before I got my rain pants on..
Murry & Liz, Peter & Vivian,
And yesterday I met their friend Eric (no picture, sorry) at the counter ordering dinner, this morning Eric checked a loxked gate for me, and I waved to his wife (Annie) and Poh the dalmation (& neighbour at the camp site).
Liz kindly took a photo of the rest of us on my phone.
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8:12am, I got out to the Highway. Overcast, but the rain had stopped.
1 or 2km down the track, at the Goondiwindi turn off, I was fishing in my pocket for something… and found..
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much to my chagrin.. my room keys from the Nindigully Pub! So.. tied up the trolley, and tramped back, found a bunch of happy campers out the front of the pub, including those above. They offered to drop me back at the trolley.. how very thoughtful and kind. I accepted, gladly. I stuck the key in the door, and they dropped me off at my trolley on the Highway.
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Thanks Murray, & Liz, & Peter, & Vivian! .. and creative love!
Came to some public loos, where I dropped something off. Cean and tidy. And then this sign from above:
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On we go! How do you eat an elephant, or a 747 jet for that matter?
Must have seen about 50 bikers go by, in small groups or lots of ten. A lot of folk touring. Stopped at about 11 (at the end of a straight stretch. I said to myself, you can have morning tea woth those nice bickies Vivian gave you, when you get to the trees you can see in the middle of the long straight road ahead. I think that road was about 270km straight. But anyway I did get to the turn in the road, put my feet up against a fence, and I said to myself "You can have just one of those bickies."
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But when I was finished one, I forgot any reasons for not having another one right then & there. You are right Vivian, they are.. (jokingly) "to die for", and the spicy cheesy ones are pretty nice too. Thanks again.
Meditation time:
Then, I'm trying to think of why I don't (& I've talked to quite a lot of people who are in the same boat), like the word "God" much. Creative love describes who I have been walking with. But "God" seems to bring up a whole lot of excuses for buggerizing little kids, and power mongering, and despotic ego centred jealousy, from the way a lot of people talk about this one. And since I've been getting to know creative love, I find that none of those other side-effects are anything to do with creative love, so it seems a pity to tarnish creative love with those nuances. The concept of (not religious, but actual) holiness, meaning "nothing like what you are used to", or "decidedly/ determinedly good" works with creative love. Not much like something I've tasted in circles that justify themselves by often saying "God… told me", or "In the name of…" etc. Creative love help me through this… this is what came to me thinking of what creative love is really like.
Walking on
My day is smattered with meeting friendly folk.. Bobby, in a car with a lady driving him (who didn't want her picture taken), stopped to check if I had food (etc. & was ok, i think)..
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then ol' mate Wayne, from Thallon, stopped to jokingly "ask if i needed a lift", on his way to St. George, in his ol' white ute. A little yarn, and we move on.
1:36pm, i can hear a vehicle coming up behind me, slowing down. When it stops level with me a lady Jace, in a four-wheel drive stops and says "Hey, do you want some water?" I say "No, I think I'm right, just now. But thank you."
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She says "They told me about you in Thallon… at the Pub". We smile, and she drives off. Another friendly soul.
Well, about 1:50pm Bill (the contract tractor-mower driver from yesterday) pulls up from behind me, and says "I've had two punctures in the tractor… that's why I'm late." He says "It's forecast to bucket down tonight. … but not much tomorrow… I could drop you back here before golf tomorrow morning.."
That settles it.
Yes, if he can take me and the trolley to a pub in St. George now, then drop me back (without the trolley) tomorrow morning, with minimal rain, that's great!
So we load the trolley in the back of his ute. And we drive off. Bill out-lines a shortcut which cuts out St. George, on the way to Roma. Have to look into that. Bill gets me there, gives me a quick tour of St. George, the weir on the river etc, and waits at a pub to see if they have a room for me. … Yes, Chris at the Cob n Co. Pub has a room (twin share).. I'm booked in now for Fri, Sat, Sunday nights. Bill helps me carry the trolley up the fire escape onto the verandah, and drives off..
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He'll pick me up at 8am tomorrow. Should be walking on the road by or before 9am. How good is that? Thank you Bill. Thank you creative love.
There's too much good that happens in a day … this is only the tip of the iceberg.
