Back in January , PTCDU(Qld) Prez Steve(Crafty) booked six rooms at the Country Roads Motor in Gayndah for the biennial Gayndah Orange Festival on the Queen’s Birthday long weekend and offered them on a 1st in – 1st served basis to the club members – this was due to the almost impossible task of getting accommodation in Gayndah for this enormous event.
We ended up with 9 PTs and our faithful “Dark and Stormy Avenger” .
After a lot of planning by some of the committee ,the weekend included the “Street Parade” as part of the festivities organised by the Club.
Other activities were Friday Wine and Cheese night followed by cook your own BBQ at the motel , Saturday night dinner booking at the South Burnett Hotel (which Bundy and Vice Prez Kev scoured the town and pleaded with the staff to get) -and some other suggestions of things to do and places to see.
Day 1 (Friday morning) – 6 PTs met at Maccas Goodna on an absolutely gorgeous Winters day and headed off at a nice leisurely pace towards our 1st coffee break at Blackbutt – but the main street servo was shut down . A local woman in a 4WD said there was a BP “up the road” – which turned out to be almost to Yarraman. So we mounted up again and headed there in search of a coffee and pee stop.
Then it was on to Goomeri where it was planned to stop for lunch and meet up with the North Coast cars Stormy and Shelby .We parked just through of town and everyone made their own way for lunch mostly at the pub and the bakery.
The roads were getting progressively worse after Yarraman ,and a lot of road works the entire trip - but everyone survived the trip virtually unscathed and the traffic was relatively light for the entire trip. We even managed to hold a convoy with hardly a break - and friendly banter on the CBs was a welcome distraction from the driving.(including a couple of pretty bad jokes).
Arriving in Gayndah at the motel , everyone set about unpacking and preparing for the wine and cheese followed by the BBQ – which Kevvie had BLAZING away in no time at all (the fat tray hadn’t been cleaned out and it caught fire searing everything on the grill) but everyone ended up having a feed and a few drinks as well as heaps of laughs , a few games and a great chat and finally a walk through the main street to look at the shop window displays and stalls.
Then it was back to the motel to settle down for the rest of the night’s gathering.
Lil Tub (and Jacquii in her Cynos) phoned in at 10-00pm , they were lost – the main street was barricaded off and they couldn’t find the motel . They had driven past and were now on the other side of town – a few directions later and they arrived back and settled in.
Day 2 (Saturday) Phantom arrived pretty early after staying over at Gympie overnight , and everyone set about dressing up the PTs with orange streamers and balloons , oranges , stickers and flags in preparation for the street parade which was scheduled for 12 noon start.
HelonWheels had organised a "Orange Hat" contest and we had some great efforts... everyone had a slip of paper to write down their vote and the one voted best would be announced at dinner.
11-15 am was the muster time and the PTs snuck around the back of town to line up at our 1st ever street parade – again the weather was fantastic. The PTs sparkled in the midday sun and were given a resounding reception by the crowd gathered in their thousands lining the main street (apparently the population of Gayndah swells to 50 thousand for this festival).
Bundy joined the crowd to video the procession along with Stormys who didn’t join the PTs in their Avenger – we did try to convince them but they declined.The video will be joining other videos in a “year book”.
After the parade , the rest of the day was left everyone’s own devices to see the sights and stroll the streets until the evening meal at the hotel.We were warned that there would be a wait for the food because they were really busy and crowded – and what with 25 of us to feed , there was a wait – an hour and a half wait in some cases.But during the wait the winner of the Best Hat comp was announced ... withShelly(Shelby) taking out 1st Prize with Alex(Shelby) 1 vote behind and Gillian(Gremlynns) one vote behind that. Great effort everyone and thanks for your participation.
Then it was back to the motel via the main street crawl through the stalls and sideshows for a few quiet drinks and a chat before retiring a touch earlier than Friday night.Merrilyn’s C-Breeze had an unexpected dress up which surprised her.(wonder who did this?)
Day 3 (Sunday) Bacon and Eggs for breakfast on the BBQ – this time, no fire! – Bundy started the cooking at a less frantic pace(and the BBQ HAD been cleaned this time) and everyone took turns at cooking their breakfast and helping with others as well).
This was a free day for everyone - but there was a rodeo on that seemed to be the attraction for most - most went out to the local sights beforehand (lookouts,museum,weir etc) but all ended up at the rodeo in the end.
When the sun went down , it really started to get cold – so no-one stayed for the cabaret at the completion of the rodeo events – so it was back to the motel.
Day 4 (Monday) Lil Tub packed up early and left (things to do at home).. the rest had breakfast , packed up and paid the bill, had a driver’s meeting and headed off for lunch at Kingaroy-not far out of the way from our trek back to Brisbane – stopping off at Goomeri for a pee stop and to say our goodbyes to Stormys who were going home thru Gympie to the north coast.
Not much open so we stopped off at a cafe and had a delicious lunch served by an astonished but very efficient staff – Phoenix and Bundy fixed their signs in front of the cafe .... and then off to the Peanut van for packets and packets of all types of peanuts—boiled, sugar coated, natural in the shell--- you name it – they had it , even down to the Chilli peanuts. Back on the road , into Yarraman and Phoenix was hit by a stone thrown up by a motorbike – nasty hit on the front screen , then just down the road a big highway smash with police/ambo and fire brigade – safely around that and on to Esk for our last pee stop before Brisbane. Local Dreddman was on the side of the road taking pics of the PTs as they entered town and followed us down to the park to say hello.
There was a black PT (that we had seen in a servo quite a few kms back) following us and pulled in along with our PTs to have a look ...they were so impressed with the cars that they signed up and paid their membership on the spot.
Off again towards Brisbane – almost home and the traffic came to a stop for about ¾ of an hour - crash at Redbank Plaza – by the time we went past the site it was all cleared away.... what a day!
What a weekend – thanks to everyone who supported our venture ,to those who participated in the street parade ,to those who put up with some of the inconveniences that occurred , and to those who put the whole weekend together – especially Helen (and Les) for your part in organising this wonderful weekend - and for the wonderful company of our PT friends.
There was so much that happened on the weekend that it would take 20 pages to tell it all so I have tried to condense it to the major highlights and have included a few pics – the rest are in the slide show if you would like to browse through and enjoy .
s277.photobucket.com/albums/kk76/Auzzie1...?albumview=slideshow
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