It was time to take a holiday and more importantly, to finally fulfil the 12 months old plan of taking my daughter and her family in holiday by relaying solely and entirely on Gigi.. After all, it was built to carry comfortably 5 people, so it was time to put it to the test..

But first I had to pay a visit to the dumping point in Oakey again.. I have come to the conclusion that a motorhome toilet is no difference that having a three years old baby that still wears a nappy.. Once in a while, you need to change the nappy.. It is not as bad as many people try to paint it, and I can think of several other worse things in life, that I wouldn’t want to have to deal with.. Empty the dunny, is not as bad as being next to someone smoking, for example, or some of my friend’s farts..

 After leaving work Saturday, I realised that I had actually used quite a bit of fuel to keep myself warm on those very cold nights.. After stopping at the local BP and having filled the tank up to the brim again, I notice how colour coordinated Gigi is… I mean, look at that picture.. It is ok, as soon a new paint job will happen..

Once in Oakey I connected the 90mm dumping hose but completely forgot to attach the rubber end that fit into the dump plastic hole to avoid spills.. Oh yeah, a little mistake that I will never repeat. I did manage to convert a simple 5 minutes job into a 20 minutes cleanup, as I wanted to leave the dumping point the way I found it..

Luckily I had all my hoses with me and there was a water tap available, so managed to clean up everything like it never happen.. I think you can guess why I didn’t take any picture.. I mean, who would want to see your three years old son having his nappy being changed?!? 😂

After that little “incident”, it was a smooth sailing all the way down to Brisbane..

I forgot to mention that last month I decided to replaced all the shocks on Gigi.. Reason behind was that, on the previous trip to Toowoomba, I felt Gigi being constantly going up and down, and I wasn’t sure if the problem was related to having the water tanks full or perhaps an issue with weight distribution. Nonetheless, something had to be done because it felt unbelievably uncomfortable, like being at sea on a rough windy day..

As I had never checked the shock’s status before, it seemed the logical first step, and boy I’m glad I did. The two front shock were completely worn out, while of the six at the back, two were still working.. When I first drove Gigi from Melbourne I honestly don’t remember it, being so badly and perhaps it wasn’t as it was empty with no load on it.. There is no way to have shocks so worn out in the small time I have being driving around, and there is no mention of them being replaced in the logbook, but I know they are not the OEM ones as they were red, and the OEM are Showa in black..

So a new set of Showa was ordered and installed (very easy job) and I’m glad to say that it feels like riding a magic carpet now.. Seriously, air suspension and new shocks are the only way to go as far as travelling on Australian roads, especially once you get away from the coast…

The trip to Brisbane went pretty quickly as with Covid and the mess of information that the media is releasing daily, no one really know anymore what is what, so I’m guessing a lot of people have given up on trying to follow the saga and just staying safe at home, leaving empty roads for the few that dare to move around a bit.. I remember laughing many years ago while watching a documentary of people in China having to wear a mask because of the pollution they created… Who’s laughing now???

Stuff that, I don’t even want to think about what has happened, so let’s move on..

 Upon arriving at the destination we (myself, my daughter and all the neighbours) quickly realised that Gigi was not designed to fit the new Estate where no even the council Bus can longer go because of those “useful” road island designed to slow down traffic. Luckly with Gigi I just had to push a button raise it up and simply ignore all those, once again, “useful” road island..

The driveway turned up to be not too long or not too short, but just right. Off course nobody else can use it ATM but at least we are not on the footpath..

Sometimes you think about lucky coincidence and these was one of those time.. My daughter house has the longest driveway on the street due to being on the Cul de sac (a.k.a. bum of the bag… you gotta love the French language). If she had bought anywhere else on this street, I would be parked on the footpath..

Upon arriving I was given a list, of what I thought it could have been a holiday list of place to see or things to do while at the beach, but I was so wrong.. It was that dreadful list of “Jobs to do” before we go.. That’s ok. I get one every time I visit. It is her way to say “I love you daddy, and I miss you so much”..

 So, it just happened that the first week was spent on replacing and fixing broken things…

Truth is, my daughter knows only too well how much I hated sitting down doing nothing, so she always keeps few things for me to do when I visit..

Now that I have my workshop with me, it does make even more sense.. I get to fix things, they get done properly, and my daughter can save time and money.

It is a good feeling, knowing that we can relay on each other when we need help while arguing about the most stupid things around us.. She hates it, but she is just like me… And that’s Karma… 😂

Beside all that, every time I get here, I get to spend sometime and get kissed by the most beautiful girl in the world!

Next week we are off, to somewhere, for an adventure..

Later..