The Big Blue Van goes around oz: Day Three

I've been meaning to update my blog over the last 48 hours but I've either been drifting in and out of mobile broadband reception or have been too busy driving like a man with a purpose to stop and take the time to write anything. I've finally caught a minute, sitting in our friend Geoff's computer room in Mt Beauty in my flannel pyjamas and dressing gown listening to a mixture of lounge jazz and Geoff's ramblings coming from the lounge room.

Before I start telling you what I've been doing since I last checked in I want to share a thought. During my hours of arse-numbing driving I've been wondering how to write about Blue. I was fixated on the pathetic fallacy writing technique where you give life to a lifeless object, like when the dish ran away with the spoon, or John Howard's memoirs, and though that this might be the best way to bring the car into my writings. Blue then said that I was thinking into it too much so we just went on playing I Spy (he later said that if I ever refer to him as 'the car' again he'll have someone install ejector seats).

It's been great since I last checked in. Blue loved Mt Gambier (I think it had something to do with the big blue puddle in the middle of it), and the drive to our next stop was beautiful, even if every possible place to stop down the Great Ocean Road is occupied by bus loads of camera-happy tourists.

After a sleep in the most random, isolated little caravan park in the middle of the Great Otway National Park for day two, I took off again at the crack of nine to get to Jess's arriving airport in Avalon by mid afternoon. I blame it on the one hundred and twenty eight straight Nine Inch Nails songs, but I made it to the neighboring city Geelong with a few hours to spare. Knowing that it was only twenty minutes to Avalon I needed to make a pit stop otherwise I would get bored and probably fall asleep somewhere, possibly while driving.

What does someone do when trying to kill a few hours in a town that they've never been to? Why, go to the local maritime museum of course. After paying my four dollars entry fee you'd think that I would be able to roam around and look at all of the displays and half broken mannequins, but you'd be wrong. I had to stand there as the caretaker went into the history of sea travel and the wonders of today's aviation for the next twenty minutes with this monotone voice that put my ninth grade history teacher to shame. I looked around, took some photos and left hoping the whole time that because I was the only person in the museum he wouldn't get bored and give me a personalised tour. Twenty minutes later I was asleep in the Avalon Airport's car park. An hour or so after that I was grinning like an idiot as Jess was walking through the terminal. After the hello's and how-are-yous we drove, and that's almost an understatement. We had four hundred kilometers to cover from the airport to Mt Beauty by dinner otherwise we might miss out on Geoff's dhal, and if we were going to miss out on that we may as well have not left Adelaide in the first place.

Sorry to leave you on a tasty cliffhanger (all puns intended) but the rest is for tomorrow. It's now four thirty five and I'm three beers in, wanting to go back and play some more Rummikub. I'll say goodnight on behalf of Blue, Jess and myself and check in again as soon as I can.