It was a Rough Trip Home

Returning home from Carterton last Sunday was certainly a trip to remember.  We were just departing the camp when shouts and people waving their arms stopped us in our tracks.  Seems we had left one of the steadies unsecured – thank goodness our caravan club buddies had noticed before our two hour drive home.

Then, would you believe, we were just heading north from Carterton when a car pulls in front of us, tooting the horn and waving wildly at us.  Something was obviously wrong, so we pulled over to the side of the road to find out what was happening.   One of our outside locker doors had come undone, and the people in the car reported seeing our fold up chairs hurtling out onto the side of the road.  Oh dear – I was to blame, and remembered locking those doors myself.  But it seems that I hadn’t made sure the doors were  firmly closed before turning the key, so they weren’t really locked at all.  So we turned the van around, looking closely on the road side till we found the missing chairs.  They were slightly damaged, but not too bad.  Surely nothing else will go wrong?

The weather started to deteriorate, with showers sweeping down from the hills, and then the rain set in.

Here comes the rain

Nearing Mt Bruce, the rain lashed down, and the wind blew fiercely, fierce enough to rip the cover off the spare wheel on the 4WD.  It is often a bit rough passing through this area, and it was fortunate that Robin spotted it in the rear view mirror as it was happening. Oh dear, now what?  We had to find an area to stop, turn the caravan around, and travel back till we found the cover looking sodden and forlorn in the middle of the road.  I climbed out in the pouring rain to retrieve it, watching carefully for oncoming traffic, while Robin drove on a little, to find an area to turn around once again. 

The rest of the trip home was rather subdued, as we battled wind and rain, but luckily no other disasters happened.  It certainly was a rough trip home!

The spare wheel cover has since been replaced as the old one was damaged beyond repair.