Day 11 - Reflections so far

Today we were quite relieved to get out of the Olney State  Forest. Not only to be shot of our Wolf Creek neighbor but relieved Vanie started and ran OK, given the day he had yesterday.  An easy two hours across to Newcastle and then up the coast to Forster. Found a terrific little family caravan park with a pool and no crazies for just $35 for an unpowered site.  May stay a couple of nights as I understand there are a couple of nice beaches nearby and a massive sand dune that you can surf down on your boards.

On another note I thought I would update the blog on how the whole journey into manhood idea was working.  First let me start by emploring you, if you get the chance ..... scrub that...... I emplore you to make the time to do something of this nature with your kids.  It may not be a surf trip in a van and it may not be for a whole month,  but just spending one on one time together away from your normal environment has been so worth the investment of time and may very well be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

The conversations I have had with Quid and the things I have been able to teach him have been an incredible and golden experience for me as well, I hope, for him.  Some of things are quite basic like filling up the car with fuel, checking the air pressure in the tyres, topping up the oil when the warning light came on.  These are all things I take for granted but Quiddy asked a heap of why and how questions, including how I knew all this stuff.  I had to think for a minute and then realized that my Dad taught me.  And now I am teaching my son.

One of the things I most wanted to teach Quid was to take responsibility and become more independent in respect to doing things he has always had done for him in the past. (Poppy smashed this bit in his letter)  Life is so busy sometimes it’s easier to do it yourself than teach your kids to do them.  This is crazy logic and totally wrong.  It’s the whole give a man a fish or teach a man to fish thing.  On this trip we have nothing but time, so Quid gets to do a bit of everything. Even if it takes longer to get done.  He cooks (a mean bacon sandwich), he cleans up, makes and breaks camp and  maintains Vanie.  

But it’s amazing what topics of conversation come up when you have hours of time together, whether driving or lying in van at night out in the bush. Quiddy has to read a book about the holacaust for school so we have been discussing that as well. It’s not a bad start and we are really only half way through our journey......

This is one of the most rewarding holidays I have enjoyed and still have two weeks on the road and a week in Byron with the whole family to go. I am so looking forward to the rest of this trip and am already starting to plan a special trip with my beautiful daughter Scarlett. I am not sure weeks in a van will be her thing but I am confident I can come up with something that appeals to her.

Oh yeah remember that pink shirt I undertook to wear each day of the trip.  Well it was starting to get a bit funky so Intook it surfing this morning then dried it out the window of Vanie.  It’s like brand new.  Which is good because JEM,  you may be getting it back for Christmas next year !!!!!!