What I Did On My Holidays Long Weekend

Which I actually got to have. Impressed? I was. I had from Wednesday to Monday off. Which isn't so good when you think about the three or four weeks of nightshift without a day off that preceded it. Ah well. Feel sorry for me? Callous bastards. Anyhoo, on the first of thge days off I did quite a lot of sleeping, serviced the ute, fitted a set of UN approved blue light driving lights which are OK, but I don't really think they are that much of an improvement over the old style ones. Maybe I'm just old skool. So old skool, in fact, that I spell old school 'old skool', all NWA stylee. Oh yeah, I also got really drunk with the Irishmen (we've got a set now).
Thursday I headed for Gladstone. No particular reason, I just wanted to get away from the farm. The farm is on the west side of the highway. I have a time honoured technique for deciding where to go when I have time off - on the way up to the bitumen I let go of the wheel. If the old girl pulls to the right I go down into the sin and iniquity of NSW, if she pulls to the left it's sunshine, lollipops and Qld. I left my run a bit late so didn't stop and take piccies on the way up. I should have, the area between Roma and Tarroom is pretty good looking.
So I get to Gladdie (unannounced, as usual) and stay at a friend's place. Only to find that it is their daughter's sixteenth birthday on Saturday night. So I'm already down the price of an ipod and didn't even get a hangover yet. My little mate Dan's worth it, though. Sometimes I wish I had kids. She had a party at some sort of teen hangout thingy that had teen stuff in it. Rumour was that there was going to be a bunch of gatecrashers so I got elected bouncer. Pfft, what a gyp. Only about half a dozen gatecrashers and only a couple of those even put up a fight. Ripped off. although why you'd put up a fight to get in is beyond me.
Anyway, photo time.

Every time I go to Gladdie I go to the marina to check out the boats and dream. Not so much about these sort of boats, though.





More like this one, or this one.





Of course the marina's real pretty, but 'sep for the coal loading facility in the background.





The harbour is very pretty, even though it is also Queenslands busiest port.





On the way home I took the scenic route through Many Peaks to Monto, including this killer climb. Through Monto and Eidsvold Cracor, then to Theodore and the quick way home.





Bloody Hell, I nearly forgot! If you click on the link for this photo, have a look for the large building near the top of the hill with the blue fascia around the top. It's the Reef Hotel. I worked there for about eighteen months when I first went to Gladdie. It's a dive, but we had a good time.