Another milestone that occured the same day as my bday was our first full day in the campervan!!! Four girls, much too much luggage, one van and roughly 50 hours of driving ahead of us. We opted to get a GPS which we dubbed "Betsie" and if we were to have a MVP of the trip, Betsie would be first in line. She won our trust on our drive up the east coast from Sydney to Byron Bay when she took us around a highway detour... There were times when we were a little skeptical, especially when Brittany, who was driving, came to a tiny country road and a bridge that was barely big enough for us to fit over but she pulled through and got us to our destination and the scenery was absolutely beautiful! I can't believe Jodie and I ever wanted to save $90 and not get a GPS. Betsie has saved us from our own driving mistakes. Brittany and I make an especially bad team. When the two of us are in the front seat together we still manage to go off course, GPS and all... Imagine the wrong turns, fights, tears, and wasted gas if we were left to our own means.
There was a little trepidation when we were driving to pick up our home on wheels and my uncle actually ditched out before we saw it because he was so sure of our impending doom in regards of trying to fit all of our luggage and ourselves into one van. Luckily, it was bigger then the lil picture on the internet looked. In fact, after others had seen ours in comparison to other camper vans driving around, they dubbed her our 'Hilton on wheels'. Luckily we are all still in the laughing mode in regards to our little home for the next 30 days. We are being v. frugal (cheap) so we only plug in our camper in when absolutely necessary which has brought us much excitement trying to find a new place to settle for the night. Once in Byron Bay we infiltrated a local YHA hostel easier than we had thought. We lounged in their reading room, ate, showered and made friends with the staff there and within a couple days we had almost convinced ourselves that we were staying there. The only time we came close to getting caught was when our new staff friend (who rec'd free accommodation at the hostel) was remarking how expensive it must be to stay as long as we were (Byron Bay hostels are v. expensive in comparison to other cities) and asked how much we were paying each night.... Luckily, Jod is a quick thinker on her feet and stammered a deflective response and we remained under the radar. When it came to parking overnight, each night was somewhere different. One lesson learned; things always look completely different in the light of day. We would drive and think we found a great little parking space and then in the morning we would find ourselves a) right in front of a big "NO overnight parking" sign, b) 10 steps away from a campground, c) awoken by a cop and informed we were def. in a no-park zone.... Jodie (the early-riser that she is) wasn't there but the rest of us were passed out still when at 6 am when we heard a massive loud banging... We tried the whole "ignore it and maybe it'll go away" approach but the cop was not as dumb as we hoped cause he called out that he knew we were in there.... Danielle was the least stubborn of us and finally, she opened the door to get verbally reprimanded for camping overnight right in front of an elementary school... whoops.... Meanwhile, I was still blissfully passed out on the top bunk, the only movement I could muster was a lil hand wave when he asked if I was alive..
Everyday is an amazing adventure and i wouldn't change one part of it. Not one. Well, except maybe be home for Christmas. :) But we are so happy to have each other during this wonderful season and it's always good to try something new so we're all excited to experience our first Christmas on the beach and have a good ol' aussie barbie.
Cheers!
V
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