083. Day 88. Tuesday 9th June 2009. We discover an anchor on our motorhome…

Paul’s parents, Gerry n Pam are friends of ours who are members of the same MH club as us and also have a converted Coaster. They are looking for a bit more room and comfort so are eager to take a look at our winnie. (we are still looking for a name – cannot keep calling it winnie)

We have a few errands today, one of which is to find a TV repair man. Finding one in Airlie is impossible and it seems Mackay only has two reliable repairmen.  My worst fears about the TV prove to be true. The TV  distributor in Oz has gone out of business. From the description of the fault the repairman say’s it is most likely a mainboard fault and there are no parts as there is no distributor. He could hunt around and find another repairman who has salvaged old parts from broken TV but that would be time consuming and expensive. Start at $300 and go up he said. The TV may be useful as a short term anchor if we had a boat. Anybody need parts for a Conia TV? Now I know why the RV Centre changed TV on the day we picked up the MH. They know we live in Airlie and by the time we realise the problem it is unlikely we will call back on them to complain. After a bit of grocery shopping we head over to G & P house to stay the night. Mackay is undergoing a huge multi story riverside redevelopment programme with a second bridge beside the existing Forgan Smith Bridge. It all adds up to huge traffic delays especially at 5pm on a Tuesday afternoon. Trust us to always find a way to be travelling at peak hour.

Sigh! We have to learn to be camped up at happy hour – 4pm, not messing around in traffic!

Pam puts on a wonderfully hot and filling Cottage Pie for dinner although we all go back for seconds then out comes dessert and later we groan about full bellies!

After dinner, Donnis convinces Pam to stay up to watch Grand Torino, a Clint Eastwod movie. Gerry wanders off to bed. I write a few notes and sort a few photos then hit the sack. We did not do too much today but it sure tired me out.

Getting closer to home each day but not travelling far.