Welcome to Stopped for a While. You’ve had a long drive, and you’ve landed at the peaceful place on the Fraser Coast, just north of Hervey Bay. Once the tent’s up, the caravan’s level, and you’ve got a cold one in your hand, the stories wander down the road. Laughter’s never far off, and the facts sometimes take a detour.

That’s just the way we like it around here. This is the podcast about the folks who roll into the peaceful place, and the stories they spin. Did it all happen just like this, or is it another one that just got away? That’s half of the fun, isn’t it? It was hard for me, ’cause being a fisherman too, you’re always used to the sun coming up in the east. And it was a little bit different. It was like, wow, this is– Where’s the sun? Where’s the– Oh, there it is. It’s come now. Yeah, but it was on the other side. Why is it coming up over there?

Wayne, Vikki, and Astro were absolute legends at the Peaceful Place when they stopped for a while. I was doing my usual lap of the park. I poked my nose in and tossed out the classic question, “So, where have you been, Wayne?” Well, he was off and running, so I had to just, “Oh, s- keep your powder dry, young man.

Come and join me in the Stopped for a While studio.” That’s the fancy name for the barbecue table, in case you were wondering. His story’s coming up, so don’t wander off just yet

At last, all the gray nomads have rolled in and the place is buzzing again. We had a couple roll in with a beautiful big dog, an Akita. His name was Kuma. Akita’s a Japanese, I think. Mark and Jenny brought the big boy for a three-week stay. Kuma is a real gentleman, well-behaved and polite. He’ll do just about anything for a piece of toast.

Who can blame him? Like any decent park, we always are happy to have well-mannered, quiet dogs, and the rowdy ones, well, they’ve been getting a talking to from Kuma. Now, we also had a luxury motor home roll in, complete with three little sausage dogs. They spent most of their time guarding their patch from the day bed, where it’s comfortable, while Mom and Dad got stuck into their books.

So even the dogs know how to relax around here. And in case you missed it, Cath and Brian from a couple of episodes ago, they’re off for their granddaughter’s fifth birthday. Good on you both. Hope you survive the sugar rush. Wayne and Vikki turned up at the peaceful place for a little bit of R&R. Once they started telling me where they’d been, we just had to sit down for a proper yarn

That’s a hell of a list you’ve got there, Wayne Oh, oh, she’s a big list, mate. So are you, are you traveling? As in, as in- Yeah, yeah, full-on time full-on, full-time Full-on traveling, yeah, mate. Yeah Do you own anything? Any property anywhere? No. No more. No? No. No. So it’s, that’s your home? That’s your home Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nice We lived in a little place called Copacabana down on the coast Oh, right. Okay And, um, what happened was when COVID come- Hmm the people from the North Shore, don’t blame them, all the 30-year-olds, all the, all the workers obviously- Yeah all the techs and that, um, decided to sell their house on the North Shore and move an hour up the coast to where we lived.

And they sold their houses for 2 million and bought one point, 1.2- Yep right on the beach. Oh, lovely. Yeah So, but, and it forced all the rents up. Yeah And my kids couldn’t even afford to rent there anymore. So- That’s real sad the kids were living with us, and then, uh, they all moved out, and then COVID come, and they couldn’t get anywhere, so. They’re still on the coast, but they’re not where they were brought up, 20 minutes down the coast At, at least you’re still on the coast Oh, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. At least you’re still on the coast Yeah, I’ve got one on the east coast, and I’ve got one on the west coast Oh, okay. Yeah So there’s a fair bit of traveling for you to do Fair bit, yeah.

That’s why we do a bit of traveling. Just do it around and- It keeps us going, that’s for sure Yeah, of course it does. Yeah Of course it does. Let’s go back to the very start of, of Wayne. Where were you born? Uh, Sydney Yeah? Yeah, yeah Another Sydney-ite Another Sydney-ite, yes The amount of Sydney-ites through here- that have come up north Yeah, yeah. Yeah, originally born in Sydney. Yeah. Um- And you came up here at what age? Uh, I ended up- 19, I ended up going to Yamba. Mm-hmm. Um, and I was, uh, working as a professional fisherman. Mm-hmm. I used to skipper prawn trawlers- Oh, okay. Yeah in the ’80s to the ’90s. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I met my beautiful wife.

Yeah. And it’s not a, it’s not a, a… To me, it’s not a, a family sort of employment. You’re away all the time and- Yeah, fishing’s- stuff like that. Yeah. The, the trawlers is- On the trawlers and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So that- Hard work so we, I gave that away and ended up going back to Sydney. Yeah? Yeah. So went back to Sydney, lived with my wife and her parent- Mm for, oh, maybe three or four years, then we bought a house down there. We ended up selling the house in Sydney and moving to Copacabana on the Central Coast. My dad lived there. Yeah. Yeah. So, and he was getting a bit older and stuff like that, so we ended up heading up that way. And, um, yeah, so we stayed there un- until now.

Until now. Yeah. Decided just travel and that’s it. You- Yeah. Yeah. Oh, Dad passed- And you’re done Dad passed away. Yeah. That was, that was pretty well set up, so give us the opportunity to be able to go and do something. And being the age I am at the moment, I thought, “Well, I might as well do it now.” That’s it. Otherwise, I mightn’t get to do it. That’s it. And you, and you’ve seen all the places around- Oh, yeah and you can go, “That’s the spot”- Yeah and go back. That’s right. Yes. And, and finish up there. Yeah. Yeah. So- So at the moment we’re still enjoying what we’re doing. That’s good. It’s been, uh, I think we’ve been doing it for about 16 months now, maybe.

16 months. 16, 18 months. That’s, that’s not a bad, that’s not a bad run. Yeah. Only up the east coast or have, have you been out west? No, no, no, out west as well. Yeah. I see you’ve got a big list there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And to go through them all would be- Oh, it’s- probably hard yakka, but- Yeah. But, so we- Some of the highlights. Um, was probably, I’d never done the Nullarbor before, so that was a highlight for me. Mm-hmm. And South Australia. Yeah. I like South Australia, the bottom, the peninsulas and stuff like that, I really enjoyed. It was more like, um, a bit more like the East Coast- Yes, yes down there. Yes. You know, the beaches and stuff like that.

Um- So that’s the Mount Gambier area right through- Yeah up through to Victor Harbor. Up through Victor Harbor and, um, yeah. So when we first went over we sorta like went through Yass. Yeah. Yass, um, and then down to, uh, Horsham, and then back up- To Robe, Whyalla Oh, Robe. Yeah, Robe. Yes. Yes. Robe’s a nice little place. It is a lovely little place- A nice little place there so I have heard, yes. Yeah. Very nice through there. Yeah. And then you, then you hit the Nullarbor. And then we hit the Nullarbor. How many stops did it take you over the Nullarbor? Um, over the Nullarbor? ‘ Cause you wouldn’t have… You maybe stopped for a day here or there- Well- or, or not the Nullarbor we, um, so we did the Nullarbor, um, Roadhouse. We got stuck there ’cause it was, the, um, headwind was just too much to go anywhere.

Oh, right. So common sense says don’t even try. Yeah. It was, like, blowing about 50, 50 Ks. So there was no way. So we just spent an extra night. Like that, that’s the good thing with us too because we haven’t got a schedule. Well, that’s right. We don’t, we don’t set a schedule. No. We just- Decide to stay and wait it out we just get up and off we go. Yep. You know what I mean? Yep. So yeah, and then, uh, Border Village, and then we took off up ’cause I wanted to go to Kalgoorlie and Boulder. Mm-hmm. Of course you do. So, so from- If you’re going that way, you may as well exactly. From there we, um, from there we headed up to, um, Kalgoorlie, obviously Norseman, Kalgoorlie, Boulder, and then we headed to, um, Merredin, Fremantle, and sort of like into- Yep into, um- Yeah into WA. It was, it was- That was a trip one thing I noticed, but we didn’t see a lot of roadkill.

No? No. No. And- Snakes. We thought we’d see a lot more snakes, ’cause we were there in the summer. Yeah. Didn’t see a snake. No? Not one. Wow. Not one snake on the, like crossing the road or- Yeah on the side of the road. You know, I used to joke with Nick and go, “Look, black rubber snake.” From all, from all the tar, tar straight off the- That’s it off the road. I go, ” Look, black rubber snake.” Black rubber snake. You know. And, and yet you’re driving up the road here and I can, I can probably remember two kangaroos- Yeah just locally here that, that, yeah- Yeah that get the bang. We had more problems with emus. Yeah. Plenty of emus. Oh, plenty. Yeah, yeah. Wow.

No, we had, uh, plenty of goats and– But no, no, no roadkill. No roadkill. It was really strange, eh? Yeah. We thought we’d see a, a hell of a lot more roadkill- Yeah you know, for the distance that we’d, we’d, we were traveling and- Yeah where we’d been and stuff, but very, yeah. Doesn’t mean they need to- That’s the way it goes. Yeah doesn’t mean they need to write, write the front end of your car off- Yeah, exactly. at the same time as you’re writing off a kangaroo or something. Yeah. Did you do the bottom end down t- at Bunbury? Yeah, yeah, yeah, we done the whole lot. ‘Cause they say that’s fairly- Yeah, brisk, chilly fairly, uh, windy, should we say.

Yeah, we did all right there. Yeah? Wasn’t too bad. Yeah. South Australia we copped it. We absolutely copped it in, in, in South Australia. Yeah. We were nearly about over it. Uh, I, I- It was just that windy. We just could not get away from it. Went down to Apollo Bay and nearly got blown back to- Yeah back to Kalgoorlie.

There’s, there’s a, there, there’s a thought process when– ’cause we lived in Murray Bridge for a couple of years, and even inland and down on the Murray it was, came up through Strathalbyn, Vic- Victor Harbor, Strathalbyn- Yep and through there. Yeah. And it was, it was fairly, um, blustery at times. Yeah. And we thought, “Well, why, there’s a big hill over there.

Why aren’t you putting wind turbines up there?” They’re not the prettiest things. No. They’re not the ugliest things either. No, no. There’s lots of power generation opportunities down that- Yes, yes down in the southeast I’ve been into, I’ve been into that side of the business. Yeah. I’ve done a few solar farms and- Yeah wind farms. Yeah. I’ve done a lot of, um, when I finished fishing and I ended up, um- Getting into tunneling, like crossroad, like under- Oh yeah undersea tunneling. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, and which is- But, um- Which pays very good. Oh, I bet it does. Um, we made, we made some radio commercials, but it w- and they were based around it was a boring job.

Yeah. Very, very well put. Yeah, I spent three years in the tunnels and- Yeah yeah, um, then after that I ended up getting onto, um, solar farms. So that was really good. That was in… That would’ve been interesting. Yeah, that was out, out west, out at- Yeah um, Dubbo. Yeah. Um, Wellington. Yeah. That was really good. Spent a couple of years doing that, and the last job I had, I was working for Sydney Water, um, out at the new, um, airport they’re putting out in, um, in the western suburbs. Yep, yeah. So we’re out there putting in all the new water structure for 150,000 homes. Crikey. That’s there. That’s how many homes are Going out near the new airport Yeah.

Okay So we had to get all the water infrastructure in two years before Before they could even- Before they could fly it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, of course. So yeah, we got all that in and- Yeah yeah, and then I retired from there, and that was it for me, mate. You and you were done. Yeah. You were done. So let’s- I reti- I retired on my 59th birthday Oh, there you go. On the day On the day? On the day, mate. Ah. I said to them, I’m going, ’cause I was supposed to go six months earlier and the, the, the, uh, superintendent didn’t want me to go. He said, “Can you just finish this project?” ‘Cause every, every stage is a project. Oh, yeah. You’ve got different projects going.

Yep, yep. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. And this one was a, I had six months to go on it and so I finished that for them and that was it. That was it. You were done. You were out of there. Out of there, mate. Yeah. So let’s go back to WA. Yeah. Where did you go? Do you, have you been up north up to, up to Port Hedland? Yes. Yeah, yeah. We got as far as, um, Exmouth. Yeah. So we did the whole, the whole coast, ’cause obviously me son lives there. Yeah. So it made it a little bit easier. Um- He, he’s up in Exmouth He’s, he’s in, um, Fremantle. Okay. Yeah. So that made it a hell of a lot easier for us- Yeah from there. Um- I’ve never lived on a west coast.

I’ve only ever lived on an east coast- Yeah or been east coast holidays. Me too. Even, even staying in a holiday resort on the Gold Coast where you were facing so that the sun did set in the west and you were, and it was on the left-hand- Yeah side of you.

Yep. How, how did that, how did that- It was a, it was a bit different, yeah ’cause y- the, we, we walked down to, to the end of the street here, even this morning, cloud cover, but the sunrise was beautiful. Yeah. Sunsets over there are the ones. Yeah. Yeah. And they last a long while. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, it was hard for me ’cause being a fisherman too- Mm you’re always used to the sun coming up in the east. Yeah. And it was a little bit different. It was like, wow, this is… Where’s the sun? Where’s the… Oh, there it is. It’s gone now. Yeah, but it was on the other side. Why’s it coming up over there? Yeah, you put your spinnaker up on the wrong side. Exactly right. Yes.

Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, we did, um, sort of like Fremantle, Bunbury, Margaret River, Augusta, Albany Uh, Bremer Bay. That was nice Nice That’s a nice little spot there. Esperance. And then we took off again back up to Kalgoorlie again. Yeah And then we cut across, going, um, back in towards Perth. Yeah And then we took off from there, and we started heading up from there. So, um- Did you plan any of this, or is it was just a standing, standing- It’s a standard thing. We- Standing in the middle of Kalgoorlie and going, “North, south, east, or west? Flip a coin.” Yeah, we have a little, we have a little bit of an idea. We- Yeah we don’t We’ll go, we’ll, we’ll get to, um, Exmouth.

Yep And then we just fill in all the gaps in between. Okay. Yeah. So we’ll set a destination- Yep and then we’ll just fill it all in on the way. That’s amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Which, um, Vikki does a lot of that, my wife. Mm-hmm. She’s pretty good at that. She, um, organizes all the, uh- accommodation and everything. I do the driving. That’s Well, that’s it. Exactly. You know. Um, you can’t be doing everything. No. No, of course. And it, and it comes in very handy. We generally do at least a week- Mm where we go. Yeah Just so if we wanna go somewhere and check anything out that’s around the place or anything. Like, we did a lot of When we were in, uh, Margaret River and that, my kids come over.

Yeah So we had a, a big get-together down there. And, um, we didn’t actually go from there. We didn’t take the caravan down there. We just parked the caravan up, and we all just drove down to Margaret River- Oh, yeah and we had a house down there. Yeah Which was different. Hadn’t been in the house for a while. That’s right. Exactly. That’s right. Them with kids. Oh, yeah. What? Grandkids? Grandkids, yeah. Oh, hello. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. All the parties at once. Oh, yeah. So that was good. Good catch-up. Yeah. Uh- And good thing you can hand the kids, the grandkids back to the parents and go- Oh, we got another one “We’re going, we’re going to bed.”

We’re heading back home now, back down the coast. So, our daughter’s having another baby. Mm-hmm. So we’ll go down there, and it’s She’s due in August, so after August we’ll Um, I think we’re gonna head back over to WA, I think Seems like a magnet to you, the way you’ve been talking about WA. Yeah, it’s nice. Yeah. Yeah. Got my son over there too. Of course, yeah. I don’t mind WA. It’s, it’s not a bad, not a bad vibe. Not a bad, yeah. You know, Fremantle’s, guys, Fremantle’s- Yeah, yeah a nice place to- Got some friends down over that way really nice. I like, I like Fremantle. Yeah. And my son’s only five minutes, uh, out of Fremantle. So I think we spent a, oh, a month there- Yeah over Christmas last, last Christmas. W- so we spent Christmas with him last year.

Yeah. Very nice. And we’re just deciding what to do this year, where to go. For Christmas? For Christmas, yeah. Yeah. First Christmas you’ve gotta be with your, with your new- New one grandchild. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, that’s, that’s their thing. Well, my daughter’s talking about flying over to WA anyway to see- There you go see one of her friends. So- Uh-huh we’ll most probably see them over there or something. That’d be nice. Yeah. That’d be- Yeah very nice. Yeah. So you said you’re going to Coolum from here? We go to Coolum from here. I’ve got a mate down there- Yeah so we’ll catch up with him. I haven’t seen him for a couple of years- Yeah from the solar farm. Yeah. So we’ll catch him He’s the head chef at the Surf Life Saving Club there Oh, nice. Yeah, yeah Good food.

Yeah, he runs the- Good he runs the, uh- Been there a while I would imagine Uh, he’d been there now about a couple of years now. Yeah. Yeah. ‘ Cause we, we had a feed there about 12 months ago- Yeah with a good friend. He’s now living in Canada, and still good food. Yeah? Still good food. Yeah. Lovely service too. Oh, well, I’ll tell him that. Love, lo- No, the, the, the people in there are just- I’ll tell Dave that are just lovely. Excellent They’re just really lovely. Yeah. And then you, you’ll, you’ll just spot a place here and there between now and- And on the way home, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Won’t stay long this time, will you? Well, I’ll go down to the- ‘Cause you’ve got, you’ve got a bit of a deadline I’ve got another son on, um, the east coast. He lives at, uh, Red Rock.

Red Rock? Red Rock. Corindi Beach. It’s, um… How do I put? Uh, in between Coffs Harbour and Yamba. Oh, yes. Yes, yes. Yes. Yes So Wooli and all- Yeah those little spots there. All th- Yeah, yeah. So he lives there, so we’ll go there for a week and see him on the way home- Yeah and see his, see me granddaughter there and- Lovely. My sister-in-law’s still at Yamba. Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah I lived in Yamba, mate, when there was 1,000 people. That’s 40 years ago. I bet it was. And we all lived on the hill. It was small. Yep. There was no shopping center. No. There was nothing. There was- Hey oh, just up on the side, just up around the back there.

Yeah, everyone lived on the hill. Yeah, I can see. Yeah. I lived, I lived right on the top of the hill- Yeah straight across the road from the pub- which wasn’t good. Wasn’t, couldn’t have been healthy. Yeah. It’s actually- Was a little bit too close. Yeah, it’s the first place I’ve seen anywhere in Australia where you slot machine for, for meat at a butcher. Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah They’re down the main street there- Yeah out the side of the butcher- Yeah, I seen that last time I was there yeah, it’s- Yeah it’s the first time I’ve ever seen that. Yeah I thought, ’cause he, he shuts at midday. I mean- Yeah, yeah nothing, nothing to do Saturday afternoon- No apart from maybe wandering down and watching the local footy or- Yeah whatever it might be and- Play golf. Go to the golf club. Play golf. Exactly. So yeah, uh- I remember, I remember when the golf club first started.

Really? Yes. Yeah? Yeah. Was it big? That’s how long ago. No, it was a little shed. Was- Yeah, now look at it I was gonna say it was, I was gonna say it’s a little place and it… Was it big, and was it just barren? Uh, yeah, yeah, they just made the p- Open and barren and- Yeah, yeah. Just a couple of blokes started off the golf club. That’s going back a long while. There’s like the… There’s a, isn’t there a golf club out of Alice Springs somewhere like that, that’s, that’s basically rubble? Oh, I’ve never been out that way yet. Yeah. Nah. Nah. They have the one on the Nullarbor They have the one on the Nullarbor- Yeah where all the road houses have a one golf, one golf, um, hole.

One hole? So everyone, yeah, everyone you go to, you play. Play a hole. Yeah, you can play a hole all the way. Oh, wow. I- Yes. Yeah, yeah. What a great idea. Yeah, it’s a great idea. Yeah. Nullarbor’s got one out the back near the air- near the airstrip. Yeah. They got a hole out there. Yeah. When I first got there, I’m going, “Where’s the rest of the golf course?” 200 clicks that way. And then I realized what it was all about. My wife told me what it was all about. Oh, that’s amazing. Yeah, that was… Yeah, that’s, that’s interesting. You see a lot of people doing it too. I bet you do. Yeah. It’s, it’s a- I bet you do it’s apparently a, like, a tourist thing- Yeah to go and do.

Yeah. Yeah. I’m surprised actually coming through here, there aren’t more golfers. There’s lots of fishermen- Yeah because there’s, like, we’re on a little peninsula. Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. We’re almost there. But I’m surprised there’s not golfers- Mm ’cause there’s what, two, two courses in the bay? Courses. Yeah, I know. One at Burrum. I know. There’s heaps of golf courses. So you’d think there’s- But we’re in the middle of, we’re in the middle of no man’s land, and there’s golf courses. Yeah. It’s like we’re out in the middle of the bush. There’s a golf course. We’re like- There’s a golf course, Mick. Lots, lots of business- Yeah, yeah, yeah has been done on a golf course.

Yeah. Yeah. It’s good. The radio, the radio network I used to work for, the initial, the initial purchase of that from the original owners was done on a golf course. Yes. Yeah, there you go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And the thing is, is the bloke that bought it wasn’t very good. Mm. Which is probably a good thing, so. Yeah, it’s a bush hack. A bush hack. Yeah. Exactly. It’s a good enough for me. So in, in all, in all your travels, throw this one at you. Do you know how many Ks you’ve done? I have done, I’ve worked that out, over 50,000 Ks. In that 18 months. In that 18 months. ‘Cause we, we do a lot of sightseeing a- Of course, yeah after we pack up and that. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We’ve done some Ks. And you’ve done it in the- Yeah, in the HiLux. Yeah. In the HiLux? Yep. Yeah. Never, never missed a beat? No, I, I haven’t had a problem. I’ve been pretty lucky. Touch wood. Well, you look after the car. Yeah. Yeah. And they, and they, and they stay like that. I get serviced. Yeah. You have to get your car serviced. That’s right. If you’re gonna do this sort of stuff, you look after your vehicle. Yeah, ’cause it’s your life. It is. Yeah. You don’t wanna be breaking down somewhere, and all of a sudden you’re in the middle of nowhere and, you know- Yeah no one’s around or anything like that. At the time of recording this podcast, we had a phone call yesterday from a lady named Faye, and she had a Land Rover Discovery, and she was coming here to stay for a couple of nights.

She got caught about 90 Ks north of Gin Gin. And they don’t know what’s wrong with the car Oh, wow It’s a Land Rover, so it’s gotta go to the Gold Coast Gold, yes Poor bugger, and she’s, “Where do I put the van?” You know, they’ve taken it to the showgrounds, so- Oh, good, good no, but she could be there three weeks- Yeah four weeks. Who knows? They come in handy, the showgrounds Yes, they do Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I’ve stayed in a couple of them Yeah You know. I, I don’t mind them A- and they only have to get out for a couple of weeks a year Yeah, yeah. That’s when they have the show Yeah, when the fair’s on. Yeah That’s exactly right Yeah That’s exactly right.

And the Supreme- Yes is a caravan? Yes, it is So how big is it? That’s a 21-footer. Yeah. Yeah. Just, uh, it’s a, uh, tourer Yeah So it’s a semi-offroad Yeah. So nice- Yeah, it’s got- nice and high it’s got everything that we need. For us, I’m not a- I’m not a dirt chaser. I’d rather stay on the bitumen. Mm-hmm. Um, I think to myself, at my age, you know what I mean, if anything goes wrong or we get stuck or- You don’t want- You don’t, I just don’t want- You don’t wanna get hurt I just don’t wanna do it, you know? And, and you bought that- Brand new van brand new to do what you’re doing? Yep. So, was it, is it two years old, three years old? Uh, two. Yeah, two years old. Yeah, she’s, um, got everything. 200 liters of water. She, she’s 200 amp solar light solar, so we can go off grid easy. We haven’t really been off grid with this, to tell you the truth.

No? No. That’s- No, we’ve always had power- Yeah and water and stuff like that. Same with us. Yeah. With our, our, our thing it’s just a, it’s there, and you actu- Hang on a minute. Is there a power cut? Yeah. Because all the lights and the few things around inside run off the battery, which is run, which is done by the solar. Yeah, so- So you don’t know- Yeah there’s a power cut until you, she shouts out, “The telly’s turned off.” Yeah, yeah. You know, like, I’ve really enjoyed it. Yeah. Really enjoyed the traveling. Yeah. I didn’t know how it was gonna go, especially working, you know, all my life. Yeah. And when I say work, I mean 12-hour days, six days a week.

Yeah. Sometimes seven. Yeah. Yeah. You know, but I’ve, I’ve settled into it. It took me a while. Did it? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. To settle into it and think, you know, what the hell am I doing? Mm. Yeah. Um, but once it, once I- ‘ Cause the way you’ve described it, you w- didn’t have itchy feet to travel. No. It was a, a decision to, that was made around after retirement. That’s it. Yeah. Yeah, it wasn’t a decision. I’ve always wanted to do it- Mm sort of thing, but I never thought that I’d get the opportunity of being this young to do it, you know what I mean? Okay. I thought I’d be too old to do it. Yeah, yeah. As I was saying, I was pretty lucky.

Yeah. You know, I’d had the opportunity, and I took the opportunity. Yeah. Um- You’re a lucky man to be able to retire at 59. Oh, **** yeah. Rather than, uh- You know- my aim was always 65. Yeah. And then they moved the bloody goalposts, didn’t they?

I watched my, I watched my dad and, being a single man, um, and pretty well off, just not do anything. Just sit in his house, in his big house, and do absolutely nothing. With all the money in the world, like, to do whatever he wanted to, but did nothing.

And I swore to myself I wasn’t gonna do that. Wasn’t gonna do that, no. No. No. No. So that’s why I made the decision and- Yeah thought, well, I might as well do it. And it’s a- I’ve got the opportunity to do it. That’s right. I’m gonna take it. And, and you’ve got a good booking clerk. Vikki’s doing good. Oh, yeah, she does well, mate. Yeah. She does very well, mate. Yeah. Hey, thanks for having a chat. Not a problem. It’s lovely- Thank you, mate to talk to you. No worries, mate

As the travelers move on, peace settles in, at least until the next character swings by, parks up, and can’t resist sharing a tale or two from the road. You know, there’s always room for another yarn around here. So Peter and Marian pulled up for a breather while their house was getting built. Let’s just say it wasn’t a quick job.

Next time, Peter’s promised to spill the beans about his Navy days. Should be a ripper. Might be a lot of editing, though. Stopped for a While is brought to you by MacMouth Media, music by Ben Clayton, and a tip of the hat to Rob Laffer, Serenity Caravan Park’s very own legend. If you’ve enjoyed spinning a few yarns with us, hit subscribe so you don’t miss the next one.

You’ll find us at stoppedforawhile.com.au, plus Facebook and Instagram. Now it’s time for another cool drink. Thanks for pulling up a chair at Stopped for a While.