Christmas Road Trip 3000+km

 MOOSEMAS

With a lot of confusion on if Christmas would even go ahead this year after more COVID cases were coming out in Sydney etc we just continued normal keeping an eye on the news. First off the bat was Moosemas, as Lisa and Andrew both shift workers had a vert small window to celebrate with them. They came to Griffith and we were able to get Tony home. He was the most down I have seen him to date, not caring about much going on and not eating the home cooked meal!! Was a good catch up none the less and Ruby of course was spoilt. I got a little excited this year, with the house also being my work place I decorated to the nines. It was a lot of fun and even had to RUN to get a Christmas tree before they flew off the shelves. 

1 of 5 awards in the school awarded to Ruby! 

The naughty elf Lauren runs a muck

MUM

Sydney started segmented restrictions due to more COVID cases though it allowed us to still get to Central Coast. With the new underpass we smashed it to Morriset no worries and stayed in a BnB Steve had organised. First time we haven't stayed at G'mas Christmas eve, first time Ruby has come to my Christmas and first time without Aunty Bub! But it was great to see everyone and do the usual crazy present ceremony. Thanks to mums gift of a large thermos to Damien who could fit 2 beers in it, he got a little tipsy! Thanks to John who drove us home that night. 

My gift for Myles

The questionable cocktail with Steve getting a fever after drinking them... 

DAD

As soon as we arrived at Dads. Steve said he was feeling unwell and low and behold his temp was high!! So off to get a COVID test he went while we all stayed iso at Dads. Brad and Jess stayed away also, meaning Ruby had to wait for present giving time. Of course the test was negative and his fever went down so we had the freedom to get out and about and give gift etc. I was exhausted by this point not being able to catch up on sleep etc and not eating right for a few days. Most of the house being EARLY risers had done the activities for the day, like going to the beach before I even got up about 7:30am. Nan and Pop were pretty smitten with having a Grandchild in the house, showing him the train set, teaching him to walk more, taking him to the beach unassisted! Was different having Ruby with us who got a bit bored with no other kids to hang with and full of sugar! However she was pretty stoked that Dad and Jenny gave her cash fro Christmas and a promise to go to shops! Which she spent on socks, sunnies and VANS (that are too small now).... 

Testing out the new glass house 

tradition games!

Traditional bath in the sink

Not having much luck my tire popped at the same time we got a flat battery! Dad to the rescue 

HARVEY BAY- PA

Next trip was to make the journey to Harvey Bay to see Damiens Pa, who 3 days prior had moved into a nursing home with rapidly declining health due to bowel cancer. We sent Ruby for the nigth at Grandmas to go back to Griffith with Mum and John. We thought we'd book a nice place in Coffs which ended up being a bit of a dud room with none of the facilities we thought it has ie swim up bar was a kiosk next to the kid infested pool. We took an uber to town where everything was booked out being NYE, however finally got a small table out on the gutter for Mexican. At that point we took whatever we could, and after a few cocktails we ended up having a great night. Asleep by 8pm meant we were up at 4am to get through the QLD border, something we thought was going to take us hours, but was a cinch! We ended up in Brisbane asking what caravan shops we could check out only to realise it was only 7am! 

Obligatory banana shot

lined up for ages for this! YUM

Thomas Maruskanic aka Pa

adjusting 3rd day in a nursing home not going well 

was so windy the line just blew out of the water

Stepped on some coral! Ended up in ED

Lisa flew up to see Pa so we made a little holiday out of it, staying at Pa's was helpful and drove around seeing the sights though SO hot and humid! Maryborough just out of town has the Mary Poppins museum as she was born in that house.  We had fish and chips at Pa's fave takeaway joint and visited him each day. Pa has since passed away and was cremated in QLD. 

We thought we should see Fraser since we were all the way up there already and were both spewin we didn't have the rover (a first for me). We booked ourselves a bus tour and played tourist which was a quick glimpse of the main sights and off you go again. The driver absolutely smashed it over the bumps trying to get us back to the barge in time. Damien loved it though the tourists were all screaming, they're pretty amazing powerful busses. 

We said goodbye to Pa and headed back through Brisbane stopping at the Bruder warehouse, these are 100-100K camper trailers and caravans! It is the bees knees and they are awesome! We are 100% not buying one but we can have fun pretending. Little did we know this stop over meant we had to iso for 3 days when we returned home. We spent a few days in Brooms Head, where Amanda's dad lives and visit frequently with Suv and the kids. There is not much of a town, mainly a caravan PACKED on the beach and a kiosk. They love RIGHT on the cliff edge as in the pics! AMAZING view, very relaxing atmosphere. We really needed the time there to relax from the mammoth few weeks. We made the 12 hours home from there in one hit, arriving home at 11:59pm trying to make before the next day. The house smelt like mice and the grass and plants died a bit BUT 3 days in iso at home to recover was awesome. 

Pretended we were rich at Bruder