When you’re planning a trip it sometimes seems as though the day will never get there… then before you know it, you’re pulling out of the driveway with that wonderful feeling that the whole trip lies ahead of you.

Before we set off this time, we had one final task to get the caravan ready: get the camera in the rear of the caravan hitched up to the BT50 so we could see the road behind us in the rear-vision mirror. To do this we were able to find a mobile auto-electrician – much more convenient than having to drag the caravan somewhere to have it fitted.

That’s one of the features we really like about the BT-50: the reversing camera (as in a lot of modern cars) is part of the rear-view mirror – and it has two modes, so we can switch from the camera on the back of the BT-50 to the camera on the back of the van. All neatly taken care of through the rear-vision mirror. (We opted to have the camera set to see the road behind as we’re driving rather than set for backing on to a site. After all, when you have Marg to steer you on to a site, what else do you need? (*cough cough*).

Monday morning came, and we were off.

Now, you’d think after all this time I’d have learned to consult a checklist. Especially the ones I’ve jotted down as the week goes by.

But no.

• Halfway to Junee, I realised that I’d forgotten my knitting. (Not a catastrophe, because I can buy yarn and needles along the way – but my current project will languish in the cupboard at home.)
• After setting up at Junee, the wind came up and I went to get my lightweight cardy from the drawer… oh. Um… not there. I’d remembered to pack a zippered tracksuit jacket and a lightweight favourite with Shelharbour Surf Club splashed all over it – deep blue with a red and yellow design – but nothing remotely dressy. So I’ll have to look like a dag in sports jackets if we go out to a club on a cool-ish night.Do I really care? Nope. 🙂

Wonder what else I’ve forgotten? Guess I’ll find out soon.

Simple Spending Expense Tracker

I’ve also downloaded a handy little app to my Android phone: Simple Spending. It allows you to add different categories, view total spending across all categories, or spending in one. You can also view the results as a graph. There are other apps that allow you to download the results in a file (e.g. Expense Tracker) but we liked the simple interface of Simple Spending.

Let’s see how we go on our projected budget of $88 a day (based on 75% in caravan parks and 25% free camping). That was Rob’s estimate of how much we’d need with park fees, fuel, groceries and a 10% allowance for side trips. We’ll keep you posted!