Australia here we come!

27/10/12

We were on the road by 9.00am and had a quick drive around Parkes before heading for Forbes. Forbes is not that far from Parkes and we arrived about 9.45am. Our first stop was at the Visitor Information Centre situated in the old railway station building. They have plenty of arts and crafts and a Ben Hall exhibit. He was a famous bushranger in the district around the 1860's.

The girls wanted to stay at the Big 4 caravan park because a brochure stated they had free washing machines there. I wanted to stay at the Apex Riverside Tourist Park because it is the park I always stay in when I visit Forbes.

We went to the Big 4 and the lady there told the girls that there were no free washing machines. It's a 'no brainer' where we then decided to stay. *(see note below from Karen & Mary-Anne)

After we set up in my favourite caravan park in Forbes we went for a drive out along the Wongajong Road in a hope of finding the area where our Great Grandfather had a property called 'Pine Hill'. We may have passed the location without knowing but it was fun trying to find it.

We then drove into town and went to the Forbes Family History Society. There we found a lot of information on our great great grandparents and a little about our great grandfather. We came away with reams of paper full of family history.

*We parked the caravans in the driveway of the Big 4 while we went inside to book in for a couple of days. Michael stayed outside with head and shoulders drooped walking around complaining about the kids in the park making noise on the jumping pillow. When we discovered that the washing machines were not free, there was no other option for us but to change our plans and go to Michael's favourite caravan park in the whole world, the Apex Riverside Tourist Park, where he always stays when he visits Forbes (even though that has only been ONCE before!). We swallowed our pride and asked the Receptionist if she could open the boom gate to allow us to turn our caravans around in the Big4 park to save us having to back them out. We were blocking their driveway! After a while she found a key to open the boom gate for us. Meanwhile, on discovering that we were going to the Apex Riverside, Michael was beaming with joy, was in the car in a flash and was revving the motor at the gate waiting for it to open. It's a wonder he didn't break it in his haste to leave.