After two months in The Garden City

I wanted to write more often than once a month, but in all honesty, time has been very scarce lately, as having only weekends available to take care of all the mundane duty, it just doesn’t leave much time for sitting down in front of the computer..

Speaking of time, I have now being living in Toowoomba for two months, and I love it! The town, the people, the food, the weather… Well almost all the weather..

Three weeks ago, one evening, we got hit by hail, and while the sound of the ice hitting the roof was loud enough to get me extremely worried, luckily Gigi didn’t sustain any damage and neither the solar panels (that was my biggest concern). Still, I can only imagine the fear and how scary must have been for the people in Springfield last year in November.. Beside being the first time that Gigi got hit by hail, it was also the first time for myself since I have being in this country.. One thing that I’ll never forget for sure, it is the sound the hail made on all the tin’s roofs around the area (all large sheds around here)..

Works is great. This workshop is extremely busy all the time, due to the owner popularity in the country, and I’m continually amazed by how much things have changed in the industry in the past thirty years.. While the vehicles have gotten more and more complicated, the repairing procedure has being streamline to simply replace entire components, thanks to the “trow away” society that we have become.. Mind you, no one complains, as it seems to be cheaper anyway..

Sometimes a customer leave his companion at the wheel while we work on the vehicle and sure enough nothing goes unnoticed as he looks at us through the windscreen, wondering if we are really friends or foes.. Dogs have long being part of the trucking industry.. MACK started this trend, and it is just normal for most drivers to seek companionship especially for those long interstate trips where they are away weeks at a time from their families..

One thing is for sure.. Here at MTR everyone does their best every day to satisfy and fulfil the customer’s requirements.. As you can see from the pictures, some of us love to work with the engines and really stay on top of things.. 😂 Nah.. In all honesty, sometimes to reach some bolts and nuts, you really need to get “intimate” with the vehicle.. 😎

While being in Toowoomba, I did went to check out the public dumping point in Oakey. It is large and easily fit A class Motorhomes. There is also a very short hose with non drinkable water.. The site is clean, functional and above all free.. Funny thing is that just 10 metres to the left, they have the council potable water filling station for water cartage trucks. I feel that the Oakey council has somehow missed an opportunity here as they could have easily implemented the new water Keycard operated dispenser like for instance in the Somerset Council where you can buy 200 litres of town water for a dollar..

I’m tankful that we have more and more Dumping Point in Australia, but if you think about it, most RV do also need water, so it seems that this two operation, (the dumping and the refilling of water) do go hand in hand and some councils are seeing the advantages of providing both at a small cost for the consumer..

While in town I did stop at the local servo and asked the attendant if they had a tap with drinkable water available. After explaining the problem of the lack of water availability at the council site, she offered me to use their water tap outside and to take as much water as need it.. I thank her and did appreciate her offer as it is not uncommon now for lots of servos not to have water taps available for RV any longer.. I blame for this those people that did take advantage of those taps in the past and as usual abused the system by making a mess or even trying to wash the vehicle at night.. It doesn’t cost too much to ask first if you can use the tap, and most owner/operator do appreciate that as it shown a sign of respect..

Finally, I have it on good authority, that Charlie managed to escape the WA borders restriction, and he may be at large somewhere in NSW or QLD.. But more on Charlie next time, if he makes it alive…

“Come on Charlie, you can make it, and we are all missing you up here..”