May 19, 2011- Day 24
Where: The Gold Coast (at The Spit)
Dinner: Roast beef sandwiches with blue cheese, honey and tomato. Side of broccoli.
Such a dumb day.
I hate to admit what we did today because it really seriously ended up being a waste of a day and of gas. This morning we woke up and it was pouring rain. We needed to take showers and there were some good private ones at the beach where we were. Pat thought it would be fun to get in our swimsuits and walk down to the beach. He thought if we were already wet then it wouldn't seem cold to get into the water. It had pretty much stopped raining by the time we got our suits on and got to the water, so we didn't get very wet. The ocean really didn't feel too cold, but being in the ocean when it's all gray and cloudy kindof creeped me out. The waves weren't too big, they we were very crashy (if you can use that word as an adjective.) I only mustered up enough courage to get in up to my waist, while Pat ended up diving in. I wish I weren't as afraid of the ocean, but it's really hard not to be! I have gotten much better about swimming in it, but clearly not good enough to get in with choppy waves. How will I ever manage to surf with these fears! I really want to try at some point. We only stayed in the water for a short while before running back up to take our cold showers. The cold shower felt especially cold to me today (so much for our plan!) but it's always nice to be clean at the end. I'm looking forward to the days when showering will be enjoyable again and not a chore! The rain picked back up again and I ended up standing out the back, under the back hatch door making oatmeal and coffee while the rain poured down around me. Luckily it wasn't really cold, just wet. We have really good fresh roasted coffee from a little place in Bellingen, so that was a highlight of the morning.
Because of the rain we felt like having an “around the house” sort of day, but we obviously don't have a house to kick around in for the day. I think it was at this point in the day that we made out first mistake which was not making a good plan. We decided to continue driving north towards Brisbane. Because it was raining we didn't end up stopping anywhere as we drove, as the most obvious activities in the area involve the beach. We ended up driving to the outskirts of Brisbane (about a 40 min drive I think) at which point we realized we didn't really have a plan. We didn't want to go into the city because we would have to pay to park and we wouldn't be able to sleep anywhere in the van in the city. We thought if we found a train station we could park in the lot, take the train into the city then come back out and find somewhere in the suburbs to sleep, like near a park or something. It was around 4 pm at this point which really is too late to be arriving in a new city. It was also pouring rain which make the idea of going into the city rather unappealing. I will admit that it was my insecurities about parking in random residential areas that ultimately doomed our evening. We spent too long driving around looking for somewhere good to sleep, while I looked online for cheap caravan parks to stay at. At this point we were both incredibly sick of sitting in the car driving aimlessly, and we were both getting really frustrated with each other and our inability to come to an agreement on what to do. For reasons which I'm not even sure we understand, we ended up leaving the Brisbane area and driving back south. Perhaps it was travels fatigue that lead us to this conclusion. We were searching for a rest stop to stay in, but the only thing we found was a “rest service station” with gas and food, but you could only stay for 2 hours. In an attempt to improve our morale I bought an oreo McFlurry from McDonalds. It made me feel better but it gave Pat a stomach ache. Is it only girls who use food to fix their emotions? Haha, whatever works.
In an anti climactic finish to the day, we literally ended up back at a park that we had stopped at before leaving town in the morning. We stopped to make the tasty sandwiches that Pat had been imaging all day. Roast beef with blue cheese, honey, and tomatoes. As we were eating a City Council truck pulled up and informed up that the city code forbids us from sleeping in our car in any parks along the Gold Coast. Great, so much for our final resting spot for the night. Last night we slept in a park parking lot and no one said a thing to us. This is one thing that bothers me. There are lots of signs saying don't park overnight, but every night we see vans parked there and they are almost always still there in the morning. It makes it confusing if the laws are only occasionally enforced because how do you know if you need to follow them or not?! I know, you're always supposed to follow what the signs say, but that's pretty hard to believe when you know that people are disobeying them all the time and getting away with it. Anyways, we moved out to an extremely out of the way area called “The Spit”. It's like a beach peninsula or something. We certainly aren't disturbingly anyone, so hopefully they won't disturb us either! Oh yes, and Pat and I ended up feeling better with each other after we just decided on what we were going to do. I'm surprised we haven't had any other major disagreements yet, as we are together all the time. We're actually getting along pretty well I think. Tomorrow hopefully it's funny and we'll be able to enjoy the Gold Coast in the sun.
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