900kms, 2 days, 2 cars, 2 trailers, 2 kids…

A BIG adventure, this is what we bribe the kids with anyway…now how are we going to keep Charlotte and Billy happy and amused on a 900km roadtrip in 2 cars towing 2 trailers over 2 days? CD’s, iPods, drawing books, games, lots of yummy nibblies, the promise of new and different country to explore all do the trick!

We set off Sunday afternoon (right after June Breakfast Club) en-route to Myrtleford for an overnight stop which would put us about half an hour from our ultimate destination. We were on a mission – one which we had been planning for the last month…to collect the new toy! I am now officially a BMW Mamma and I am in love already with this gorgeous car. More about the car in later posts…

Billy rides with me and Charlotte goes with Mike. Each car is stacked with “provisions”…CD’s, iPods, bags of nibblies etc. I fill the MultiVan with fuel (holy hell – one expensive roadtrip this one will turn out to be with Ultimate running between $1.68 and $1.75 a litre!) and Mike checks over the trailers, replaces a globe and all is well (lack of use for both plagues us electrically the entire weekend; even though both were checked prior). Off we go again, along the M1 and hit the 80kph roadworks zone which continues from the outskirts of Melbourne and through town – BORING and in most parts limiting the speed limit is unnecessary. An hour and a half later we stop at Kalkallo and Mike fixes a blown globe and bad connection in the tandem for me. Then we set off again and Billy says to me “how much longer Mummy?”. “Um, sweetheart, we’ve got a way to go yet. You know how long it takes to get to Winton, right? Well we have to go past the Winton turnoff and just keep going. How about we listen to a CD or something, eh?” “OK Mummy, this is going to take a long time isn’t it? Can we open the lollies now? Can I put Billy Thorpe on?”. “Good man – what a great idea!” I say. Meanwhile, Charlotte is busying herself taking photos out of Mike’s car along the way.

Dusk starts to fall and my mobile goes off. Mike is asking me to pull over as his dash lights have gone out, the parkers are off and with that no lights on the car trailer. Okey dokey, so we pull up and Mike changes a blown fuse. Bloody things go out again a few Ks down the road so I take up the rear and we decide to soldier on into Wangaratta where we can stop and assess the problem. By now it is dark and the wiring issue cannot be fixed on the side of the road. So we buy a handle of fuses, and Mike keeps chucking them in the fuse box to get through the town with lights still working. We pull off at the Myrtleford turnoff and Mike ‘yanks’ the trailer plug so the fuse won’t keep blowing and he has some lights at least. Then I look at the tandem. I have stopped with the left indicator on and nothing doing on the trailer! I try the right one, no-one home there either! “Stuff it” I say. “Let’s just get to the Motel and we’ll tackle them both in the morning”. The kids by this stage are hungry and sick of sitting in the car (so are we) so we hustle to Myrtleford as quickly as possible!

We arrive about 7.00pm, making the trip with all the stops about 5 and a half hours which isn’t too bad. We check in at The Golden Leaf Motor Inn, leave the cars and trailers on the street and stroll down the main drag to find the Pub. The food at the Myrtleford Hotel is excellent, we sit by a roaring fire and the service is just as warm and friendly. We all clean our plates, go for the dessert menu and stroll back to the Motel in very nippy conditions with full tummies.

Monday dawns and Mike and I are up and organised early so we can get a look at the trailer electrical gremlins (he looks and fixes, I run bags out to the car and cups of tea to him and hustle the kids into action). We had been hoping to be up at Coral Bank by about 8.30am, but the trailers take some time and we don’t hit the road until 9.00am. It is the most beautiful drive from Myrtleford into the Kiewa Valley, the roads are fantastic (would have been awesome without the trailers) and the weather is kind to us. I am finally getting butterflies in my stomach…I am so eager to get there that I overshoot David’s driveway and have to manoeuvre the tandem to make a u-turn on a windy piece of road (challenge successfully completed).

David is waiting to greet us (having heard the trailers go past and turn around to come back) and I jump out of the car to take this gentle man’s hand in both of mine and we greet each other like old friends. We have had emails coming and going between us for weeks and we both feel like we have known each other for years. Before we all go to look at the car, we stop to admire the panoramic view of the ranges surrounding the Valley; we can see Falls Creek shrouded in clouds, the Kiewa River is running below us, David’s and Rae’s herd of very fine Black Angus come to the fence to check us all out and “Moo” their greetings. I know then and there we aren’t going to be rushing to get out of this Heaven on Earth; it is simply the most beautiful place to be on a holiday Monday morning.

Finally, David pulls me away from the view and suggests we go and survey as he put it “the damage”. David is genuinely concerned that I will have some reservations once I see the car, even though he had previously gone to great lengths to describe it to me accurately. Mike and I walk into the shed and we both break into huge smiles…out of my mouth comes a breathy “WOW”. I walk around the car and then around the piles of parts, picking things up, putting things down…David is getting concerned and asks me several times if I am happy. I finally link my arm through his and tell him yet again I am VERY Happy and know that I am truly lucky that he agreed to sell such a beauty to me.

We set about pushing the BMW out of the shed to prepare for loading on the trailer. The calipers are binding, making it hard work. Neighbour Les arrives just in the nic of time to lend a hand. We get chatting, only to find that Les is a car collector too. He points to his sheds over the road and lists the numerous Minis stored in them! Turns out Les sold two Minis to a friend of ours in Melbourne not so long ago! We end up exchanging notes on all the people we know mutually through cars – David throwing in that he once owned a yellow ’65 911 that has since been competing in Group Sb. Mike and I know the car instantly – the world of cars and car people is such a small one!

Once the car is loaded, we tackle the vast pile of parts. David fires up the tractor and we chain up the engines etc and load them in the tandem. The cows come running every time the tractor starts, looking hopefully at David and mooing belligerently when the hay they are expecting isn’t duly delivered to them (they had been fed already!). We wrap, box, load and repeat the process several times…well mostly Mike does whilst David and I chat. Thank goodness one of us is focussed on the job at hand otherwise we’d still be there.

David has a pile of manuals, magazines and a period correct Alpina steering wheel sitting on the bonnet of his 635 BMW. The 635 is a whole other story… I stay determined not to check this car out too closely as we may have needed to plan another trip, build another shed, take another mortgage if I do! Stunning car…lots of grunt potential…I am NOT buying it…I WILL resist temptation… I keep my eyes firmly on the prize of the manuals etc and David and I struggle to determine a price that is fair. Neither of us are really sure. I want to pay their worth; but how to determine that? In the end I use examples of like items in the Porsche world and we settle. The rare and complete manuals, the mags and other bits plus the gorgeous Alpina steering wheel get boxed and put in my car where they are safe for the trip home. There is a massive file for the car as well – I cannot wait until I have some time to go through it.

Finally everything is loaded and a sprinkle of rains starts as Mike and David tie down the trailers. We chat some more, have coffee and cake courtesy of Rae, chat some more…eventually we have to leave. It is early afternoon and we have a long drive home. We say our goodbyes after David takes some pics and as I get in the Van, I catch the wistful look on David’s face. My heart is cracking for this man I have just met. I have been there before myself and I know exactly how he feels. I make David a promise that we will come up with the car for a trip when she is finished. That is one promise I will not be breaking.

The tow cars both cope very well with their respective loads, the Van pulls like a train and copes with most of the big hills without issue. The Ute struggles on a few of the biggies and I lose sight of Mike a couple of times climbing out of the Valley. But for the most part we are amazed at how effortlessly both the cars are towing. We stop at Glenrowan in a huge queue of long weekend holiday makers for petrol and succumb to late lunch at McDonalds (ugh). We make good time down the Hume and stop for fuel at Longwarry and are home around 8.00pm. The lights on the car trailer finally lay over and play dead about 5km from home! The tandem goes away in the carport and Mike and Tom take the BMW to work for unloading. I shoot off an email to Rae and David to let them know we are home safe. By 9.00pm the household is in normal mode again.

900kms, 2 days, 2 cars, 2 trailers, 2 kids, the BMW baby home safe, new friends, a fun adventure. Couldn’t think of anything better we would have wanted to be doing.

Thanks to Charlotte and David for the photos…