We’re having a different Christmas this year.
Christmas is a big deal for me. Every year on Christmas Eve we all get together – my kids, Doc’s kids, their partners, and our grandchild – for a big family dinner. My kids usually stay the night and we get up early (or at least I do) to open presents and have a special Christmas breakfast.
But this year Doc and I are going to Adelaide instead.
My parents live in Adelaide, as does my sister and her family. It’s been a long time since I spent Christmas with them all, and with my parents now in their 80s I figured now is the time to do it again.
So here we are, Doc and I off on another road trip. Of course, even at Christmas, or perhaps especially at Christmas, our road trips don’t always go according to plan.
The plan was to leave early on the 23rd, drive as far as Mildura to camp overnight, and be in Adelaide by lunch time Christmas Eve. Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve is our family tradition.
Now, even for us, 11.15am can’t be considered “early”, but that’s what time it was when we finally got away.
To be fair, Doc did work the day before, and his ute that we were taking with us was a fully functional work ute, with all tools, when he got home and had to be cleaned out to take the camping equipment (we’re driving home slowly, camping along the way), clothes and all the Christmas presents. And we did have family over for dinner the night before we left, and they did stay the night. So perhaps it’s surprising that we got away in the morning at all!
We were just about to get into the car, when I realised I hadn’t packed the food!
So our usual routine of running through the list of things we need took on an extra importance this time.
“Did you pack the swag” “Yes”
“Do we have a stove” “Two”
“Are the Christmas presents in the car” “yes”
“Have we got coffee” “yes”
Of course, it wasn’t long before we realised that we had forgotten something.
We were less than an hour into the trip when I had a sudden thought “I didn’t pack the pillows”.
Doc looked at me like I was an idiot, until he had an even bigger thought. “Is the swag made up?” he asked. There followed a 15 minute discussion about whether we had left sheets & a doona on the swag before we put it away last time we used it. Naturally we couldn’t agree, so decided when we stopped to buy pillows we’d buy a doona as well. Actually unrolling the swag to check was just too difficult in the main street of Goulburn where we pulled in to go shopping.
Even though the Doona was just for the swag, and we didn’t even know if we’d need it, and it was 35 degrees outside, we had to have a discussion about the pros and cons of various styles. Then we had to choose a cover for it!
And by then it was way past lunch time and we were both hungry. So much for getting as far as Mildura on day one!
Fortunately the rest of the afternoon was uneventful, until we were deciding where to pull over to stop for the night. I got onto google, and we were discussing different roadside camping areas where we could set up the swag and lie in bed looking at the stars when Doc got ‘that’ look on his face. “We don’t have any water.”
By then it all seemed to hard so we decided to pull into a camping ground at Hay, where we could get a powered site (Doc took the second battery out of the car and we still need to run the fridge), and use their taps for water for morning coffee.
We set up the swag (it was already made up), went for a swim in the pool to cool down, cooked dinner and discovered we need to add dishwashing liquid and a scourer to the shopping list, as well as insect repellant.
Then we got into the swag and looked at the stars through the gum trees above. We even saw a possum and two tawny frogmouths in a nearby tree.
Bliss!
