WEATHER: On and off rain. Highs in 50s
George is happy to be wearing a new sweatshirt that our friend brought him from the USA. It is a hand-me-down from our son-in-law who lives near her.
Notice the beautiful door.....the homeowners used a lot of period furnishings when they restored this house. Also, the Uggs boots are keeping his tootsies warm.
We drove into Ballarat to pick up our rental car. George drove Old Smokey, the owners' utility pick-up into town. The plan was for me to drive the rental home, and George would drive the truck back.
First, though, was lunch. Ballarat has a ton of coffee shops with great looking food, ethnic places, and gourmet restaurants. We went to a pizzeria recommended by the homeowners. It is in an old brick warehouse-type building with a huge wood-fired pizza oven. We shared a yummy pizza.
We walked around Ballarat a bit, then drove to Hertz to pick up the car. I was so nervous that I almost made myself sick. I haven't driven for about 8 months, and have never driven on the left. And, it is always scary driving an unfamiliar car!
The Hertz man painstakingly scrutinized the car and documented every little scratch and bump for the record. Why bother? I thought I'd be sure to wreck it thoroughly.
We decided that George would lead, and I would follow him, to a brewery where he wanted to buy some beer. He turned out of the Hertz parking lot into traffic, and I immediately lost him. There are a ton of white pick-ups on the road that are identical to the one he's driving. I was supposed to take the round-about around to essentially make a u-turn. That didn't work......I just went round and round a few times. No sign of George. But.....I have the GPS, and it was set to go to the brewery, so I just followed the directions, I figured he would find it on his own, and we'd meet there. Ballarat seems to have a LOT of roundabouts, which are especially tricky driving on the left. I made it through 2 or 3, and started feeling a bit smug, until an angry driver behind me started honking and flashing his bright lights, then gave me the finger as he passed me. Hmmm.....guess I wasn't handling the roundabouts as well as I thought!
About 20 minutes later, after several u-turns with the GPS lady "recalculating", I made it to the brewery, but George wasn't there. I waited about 30 minutes until it started to rain hard. I didn't want to be driving in a storm, so I set the GPS for home, figuring George had given up on the brewery and would just go home. I set off again, only once forgetting about driving on the left, and a kind semi-truck driver paused while I got out of his way!!! After several unplanned detours and another 30 minutes, I happily entered our driveway. But.....no George. I had to wait in the car as I was locked out of the house. I began to think he had had an accident, or that the truck had broken down. No phone, no internet. What to do? After about another 30 minutes, just as I was planning a drive back to Ballarat to visit the police station and hospital, he pulled in. What a relief! He had tried to find me in Ballarat along the route, then he got lost trying to find the brewery, then he had to wait to be served at the brewery. (Yes, he did buy beer),
We realized that we should have had some contingency plans.
I celebrated my survival with a glass of wine. George had one of the beers he had bought at the Red Duck Brewery. 
We hired the rental car so we could make some longer trips. Tomorrow we are going to visit some nearby villages, then on the weekend, we are going on a drive along The Great Ocean Road.
DINNER: Chicken, navy beans and veg.
Your trip to Australia sounds like so much fun. As Americans, we are not used to so many roundabouts in our roads, are we? I'm from Maine, though, and we do have more than some parts of the country. One town has two right next to each other. They are scary for people who don't understand the rules of right away!
ReplyDeleteJeromy @ Fiesta Kia