Day 12: Southport > Goondiwindi
Had we been heading west at the crack of dawn the weather on offer when we rose, an almost carbon copy of Tuesday's, would have posed a significant downer, but having pencilled in a departure some time after nine, we could live in hope.
There's a definite routine involved the morning we leave The Unit, one that's based around the fact that we won't be back for a while, so the place will need a surface clean.
There are also towels and bed linen that need a turn through the washing machine, and there's also the matter of getting the sheets dry and making the bed ready for whichever member of the family's going to be using the premises next.
We've got The Nephew (the eldest of the Gang of Four) there for the next few years finishing a medical degree, so I guess we could have left these matters to him, but since he'd just finished exams and jetted off back to Melbourne...
Two cycles through the washing machine runs to close to two and a half hours, so a start around a quarter to seven meant we'd be pushing it to get on the road much before nine-thirty, and it was just after ten when I found myself taking the lift back up to the unit to return the buzzy thing to a position where it'd be ready to let the next passing travellers into the secure parking in the nether regions of the unit block.
We'd neglected to fuel up earlier, figuring the Caltex servo on Smith Street would be the way to go, which, as it turned out, it wasn't. Every servo through to the back blocks of New South Wales was cheaper.
That gave Madam plenty of cause for comment as we slid through the rain, taking the exit onto the Motorway, and immediately selecting the next one off to take us through Nerang towards Canungra.
We'd been that way before en route to Stanthorpe, and while it has its ups and downs it's an easier drive than the alternative route across the top of Mount Tamborine.
We weren't optimistic on the weather front, noting showers that seemed to be delivering precipitation to seas we were going to be passing through, though the roads, once we were through the first ranges, were almost invariably dry.
The run through Beaudesert and Boonah went more smoothly than the previous one, removing the excuse to pull in to the winery at Kooroomba, which would have been dismissed on the grounds of expense had I suggested a detour, so we kept going towards Cunningham's Gap, where the perennial roadworks produced a lengthy delay just short of the summit.
Still, apart from that, it was a clear run, and we pulled in to the car park behind the Information Centre at Warwick just after one, pausing briefly to check the known lunch options. We ended up opting for Thai, which turned out to be the wrong option as far as Madam was concerned, with a chicken Pad Thai requiring a doggy bag due to quantity and perceived lack of quality. My Padt Chilli was, on the other hand, rather satisfying, and I wolfed down the lot, clearing the sinuses in the process.
Back on the highway having fuelled up, the next two hours took us through Inglewood on the way to Goondiwindi, where the iPad's Maps app had the Gundy Star Tourist Park in the wrong place.
Finding the right location wasn't, as it turned out, all that difficult, and we were ensconced and rested when Madam decided she wanted a squiz at the sunset (for photographic purposes, you understand). That little excursion wasn't as successful as it might have been, but it served to put off dinner for a bit, which was fine as far as Hughesy was concerned due to quantities of lunchtime Padt Chilli.
We'd loaded the esky with various odds and ends from the fridge in The Unit, and a vegetable stir fry (nothing flash, a couple of spuds, some broccolini, a few mushrooms, an onion and two cloves of garlic) went down rather well with a bottle of Pikes Damside Chardonnay and a musical accompaniment from the iPad.
You can add having a speaker that contributes reasonable sound in a motel room situation to the iPad's lengthy list of practical uses.