Australia Sunday August 24, 2014
Dear Family and Friends,
What a wonderful, full week.
No wonder it went by so fast. I
will tell you about the weather first.
It rained most of the day Monday and Monday night it poured rain, and it
sounded like hail hitting the bedroom window it was so hard. The forecast was for 90% rain for 7 – 14
days. It had let up a little when we left
for Agquip around 7 Tues morning and then just sprinkled throughout the
day. Wednesday was cloudy but no rain, a
little rain Friday, and a little Sat but mostly cloudy. A little today but mostly sunny. I guess we will see what this week
brings. Everything is really green
now. We needed the rain so much and need
more. One of the cards this week was a
cute name, she died the 27 May 1917 at 4 months and her name is Loo
Loo Irene Bell.
Monday the Smylies left around 10 to take Kailee to the
airport to go the Fiji. She was very
excited. Mark is having the records
preservation couple show her around until Friday.
We were going to leave for Agquip around 6 to beat the
traffic but it was raining so hard we decided to wait until 7. We had just light rain until almost an hour
into the trip when we just got poured on.
We were thinking we were really going to be in mud all day at the show. Then we just had light rain all the way
there. We got to Gunadaugh about 11 and
found where the show was outside of town.
It was huge, about 80 acres of just equipment and tents and food
booths. There was no cost so we just
walked in and started walking around.
They had the biggest equipment we have ever seen. Dad got tons of pictures. We found the Case IH tent and went inside and
Dad talked to a couple of salesman. All
of the tractors and equipment are made in the United States and the smaller
tractors in England. I walked around the
tent and looked at all the things they had to buy. I got a couple of shirts with a big tractor
on it with the Australian Flag. They are
pretty cool looking and they only charged me $5.00 a piece. She said they want to get rid of everything
so they don’t have to pack it back up.
The other lady said she would have charged me $13.00 each. They gave me some freebies, including a
couple of rain poncho’s with CaseIH on them and when we got outside it was
raining a little so we opened them up and put them on. We walked around until about 1 and then found
a food booth with pulled pork sandwiches so we each got one. I sat on a bench while Dad walked around for
about an hour, then he came back and got me and we went to a large tent at the
other side of the show that had clothes, jewelry and other western things in
it. It was fun to see all the things
they were selling. We started making our
way back to the car past isles we hadn’t seen yet. It started raining lightly again so we went
inside a tent that had planters, so Dad talked to the salesman about onion
planters for about 10 minutes and then the rain was over. We continued walking and bought a magnum ice
cream bar. We made it back to the car
around 4:30 and decided to go find our motel, it was about an hour away which
was the closest I could get 3 weeks ago.
It was in a town called Coonabarabran, and it was called the
Warrumbungles Mountain Motel. We didn’t
eat any dinner because we were too tired to drive the half hour back into town,
but we were fine. It was in the
Warrumbungles National Forest and it was a beautiful drive. It was pretty cool by the time we got there
and when we got up in the morning it was 46 degrees. On Tuesday the temp was in the high 50’s but
we were comfortable with a sweatshirt and jacket. I had my CaseIH sweatshirt on, they call them
jumpers here, and the salesman said they are bringing shirts and jumpers with
the farmall tractor on them again. You
can tell how old mine is. Wednesday the
sun was shining all day and it was just beautiful and in the high 50’s. We left the motel around 8 and drove into
town to get gasoline, and found a little café on the main street of this cute,
quaint town. We went in and ordered the
special breakfast which was eggs, bacon, sausages with baked beans and grilled
tomatoes. It was sooo good, and we
didn’t have to stop anywhere for lunch on the way home. We decided to take our time coming home so we
went through all the little towns, and lots of beautiful farm ground. There were several fields of bright yellow
flowers, and we found out it was canola.
They looked beautiful against the green pastures around them. We saw lots of sheep and they all had been
sheared and had new babies. We saw lots
of cows but they haven’t started calving yet.
We drove down several lanes to see the houses and get pictures of the
typical farmhouses over here. We stopped
in a couple of towns to walk around and went in one country store, they sold
hardware, feed, fertilizer, groceries, fresh fruit and veggies, ice cream and
had a little meat shop. They had some
very quaint looking buildings in these little towns. We got lots of pictures of course, and took
the time to stop and take pictures. It
was such a fun trip. We finally got on
the freeway and got home about 5. Mark
told us to take 3 days but we need to get back to work. We are
on a deadline to get the cards done by the end of October.
When Elder Smylie came in on Thursday, he told us that
Sister Smylie had been sick since we had left with the terrible cough, headache
and chills that she had the week before.
She still didn’t come in on Thursday and when he went home for lunch he
said she was still asleep and didn’t want to eat anything. We had to go to the store after work, so I
decided we would get the things to make a chicken soup and take to them. As we were leaving the office Elder Killebrew
called to say that Sister Smith hurt her back at the gym on Tues and was flat
down so would we take dinner to them. I
said sure so when we got to the store I called Elder Smith to tell him we were
bringing dinner but he said he went home early and had just fixed
something. We came home and put the soup
together and took it up along with some rolls.
Elder Smylie was very grateful and said she was still asleep. It was pretty good soup, chicken and brown rice,
onions, carrots, celery and very easy to make.
She came to work on Friday and said she was feeling better, she had
slept about 35 hours. She is still
coughing though. They left around noon
to go get Kailee at the airport and it rained the entire time they were gone.
Saturday morning we cleaned the flat, and packed and left
for Ulldulla to speak today. It is a
little over a 3 hour drive and we decided to go through small towns on the
coast that we hadn’t seen before. A
little after noon we stopped at a little bakery in Port Kambia and had a fresh
meat pie and a slice of cheesecake. They
had signs in the windows that they were the best bakery for 3 years in a row,
and it was really good food, He sold lots
of cakes and cheesecakes while we were eating, and most of the orders were for
over $75.00. In a lot of the towns we
stopped to watch the surfers and pick up shells. The surf was pretty high so it was fun to
watch them ride the waves. We then
headed out and went over the Cliff Bridge and got to Ulladulla around 3 and
checked into the motel. We then drove
and found the lighthouse and took pictures, then Dad walked down to the beach,
I didn’t even try it as it was a really steep climb. We then drove to the harbor and there was a
little beach that was pretty rocky and Dad found an entire quart size bag full
of shells. They were really pretty and
all sizes. We decided not too many
people come to this beach as it isn’t good for swimming or anything. At dark we went and found a fish and chips
place and got an order to go as it was getting a little chilly to eat
outside. We took it back to our
room.
This morning we left for Church about 9 for the 9:30
start. It was just down the road at the
Civic Center. They rent a room in
it. There were 11 members there plus the
2 of us and 2 Elders. They have 1 13yr
old boy and that is the only youth. The
missionary from the Philippines played the piano, and the other one from
Springville took care of the Sacrament.
What great people!! They have
Sacrament Meeting, and they are so excited when other people come and
speak. Then they have Sunday School, and
then they had a luncheon for us at a members home that lives in town. The Branch President and a couple of others
live a half hour away or more. It was a
wonderful lunch with casseroles, creamed potatoes, meatballs, sausages, salad,
relish tray, fruit, rolls, bread, drinks, and 4 different kinds of desserts and
ice cream. It was so fun being there and
visiting. We left around 1:30 and went
through the rain forest and Kangaroo Valley.
This is the last time we will be going down South so we wanted to see
that area one more time. It is so
pretty. We have so many wonderful
memories to bring home of the lovely Saints we meet in these small branches,
and the beautiful country this is.
It is almost 10 so we had better close and get ready for
bed, 6 comes very early in the morning.
A very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Camryn on the 26th and
Amanda on the 27th. Amanda
will be celebrating in Yuma with Kaylee and Ezra.
We Love you All and Pray for you!
Mum and Dad
No comments:
Post a Comment