John called in to our Motel about 7.30am to collect the paperwork for the NSW RMS to enable him to register the motorhome in Doug's name. As he left to drive it to Tweed Heads, we had our first glimpse of the real thing. We were excited, but it also didn't feel real!
Shortly thereafter, we caught a cab to the Europcar hire place in Clontarf - from which we had booked a small 5 door hatch vehicle for the day. After delivering our baggage to Dave's factory, we drove about 15kms to Westfield Shopping Centre at North Lakes - a huge complex in which we wore 1cm off our height trudging back and forth along the length of it buying in the supplies to set up the van (eg pillows, doona, crockery, cooking utensils - just a carload of the essentials!) We were at the complex by about 8.20am, and left about 1.15pm. We had morning tea and lunch there - it was like we'd moved in - well, we had our bedding and kitchen utensils, so why not? We also bought some basic non-perishable food, which turned out to be a good move.
Arriving back at Dave's factory, we were only about 10 minutes behind John getting back from the rego trip, so we were pleased with the timing estimate. Our motorhome is BS 84 ZR. Another couple on an investigation visit were being shown through it, so it was good timing for them too! We unloaded the hire car into Dave's office (it was a tad crowded in there!) with our luggage before Doug returned the car about 1.45pm.
Then things got serious. Dave did the tour of the motorhome's features and explained how everything works - it may be small but it took 3 hours. Robyn randomly loaded all the shopping into cupboards so we could drive safely without loose stuff everywhere - while Doug finalised things with Dave and bought the Comprehensive Insurance. When we were about to leave, we discovered the outside sensor light wasn't working and were delayed while Dave fixed it!
We had jokingly considered spending the night camped in his yard, but drove to Dayboro instead via the dam at Whiteside for a quick look before dark. Arriving at the Showground at Dayboro about 7pm in the dark, and shared the area with the caretaker in his van - so it was very quiet. We ate tea and spent until midnight getting all the shopping stuff in place, washing all the new crockery and utensils, lining the cupboards with the non-slip matting, unpacking our suitcases from home, made the bed and fell into it quite exhausted about midnight. (just under 11,000 steps today)
