It's been a bit of a mystery as to whether the show would happen given the state of flooding and cut roads only 25 kilometres down the road from Parkes, but there was a clear road still open and so off on a road trip.
What should have been a 10 hour drive with stops along the way to stretch, fuel and eat, turned into a twelve hour drive from 0545 to 1830, including a few fuel stops and one stretch meal break. twisting and turning along roads through central NSW was somewhat interesting. the condition of the roads has been quite terrible once away from the main highways as all of the big trucks that usually stick to the main highways have had to divert off through the small towns and back country roads and they are just tearing the surface up as they are far to heavy. Some sections of the roads were down to 40 kilometres per hour so you could try to avoid the worst of the pot holes that have opened up and that was an effort to achieve I assure you. It rained most of the way up, well off and on, though more on than off so it wasn't a great run, though still interesting. The Count ran faultlessly, as usual, perhaps a tiny bit heavy on fuel, though not really a problem.
It turns out that some of the organizers of the show are staying at the same place as I am, next room actually and I heard them mention to someone on the phone not long after I arrived that "there was a little Morrie with Victorian registration, so you have no excuse", so it will be interesting to see how many people turn up tomorrow. If you listen to the news the whole place is underwater and everyone is trapped, so a lot of people have been scared off I bet. We'll see I guess...
Crossing the boarder from Victoria to New South Wales at Wodonga / Albury
The Murray flowing high and very well along the boarder
Boarder art. there were brief moments of sunny blue sky
Lots of water and paddocks under it out west
canola always makes for a bright image even in poor weather, though bit of sun here again
Parkes main street on a Friday night 9bad phone pic), Sir Henry on his corner
