A Busy Weekend

Over the long three day Wellington Anniversary Weekend, our Caravan Club was running the bi-annual Regional Rally, and we were joined by Wairarapa and Wainuiomata clubs.  This was held at Naenae College, the weather was  hot and sunny, and we were grateful to have several large shady trees to sit under.

Some of the vans at Naenae College

Our caravan club members

The highlight of the weekend, as far as I was concerned, was the mystery bus trip to Taylorville – I’d never been there before so it really was a complete mystery to me.  The bus arrived and we all climbed aboard – we had been instructed to take a packed lunch, water bottles, and cups, hot drinks to be supplied. Taylorville is the dream collection of a workaholic retired transport operator with a love of early American cars on a two acre section.  Mr Taylor has collected and been given all manner of mementoes of the past.  The owner gave us a talk about how it all started, then we were free to wander about, admiring trucks, cars, and all manner of things which took our fancy.

Horse drawn transport

Oh, look what I found, a laundry from days gone by.  Not quite what I’m used to, with a big copper to fire up to boil water,corsets hanging on the clothesline, and a peg bag made from a sack.  No wonder it took our great-grandmothers all day to do the family wash.

Doing the laundry the old way

And then there was the diner.  With red counters and furniture, a jukebox, black and white lino on the floor, and Coco Cola emblazoned everywhere, it was like stepping back into Happy Days TV programme.  Look, there’s Elvis, waiting for me to get my photo taken beside him!  We sat for a while on the bright red seats, escaping from the hot sun outside, and soaking up the ambience.

The American Diner

Next I found a replica cabin, with a quilt on the bed, no less.  The tiny kitchen was choc-a-block full of old fashioned utensils, it was very nicely decorated indeed.

Little old cabin

We ate our lunch inside the cozy saloon, welcomed by one of the dancing girls.  Willie Nelson serenaded us and we admired the western furnishings – cartwheels hanging from the ceiling, calf skins scattered everywhere, antlers and western paraphernalia displayed on the walls, this place screamed “Wild West”.  This was my favourite place at Taylorville.

Taylorville Saloon

Back in the bus we climbed, and due to a couple of earlier road accidents the trip home was rather slow.  As we were crawling along the road we could look down onto the cars in the inside lane and were appalled at the number of drivers we saw texting on their phones.  Younger drivers, all of them, us oldies know better, don't we?

Back at the rally we had a free afternoon the following day so took a trip to Pete’s Emporium in Lower Hutt.  There I purchased some cord for the draw string bags I make and donate to Foster Hope.  The children taken into care use these bags for toiletries, or pens and pencils.  This cord should keep me going for a while.

Cord for drawstring bags

While I’m busy blogging away in the caravan, Gemma likes to help too, and takes her duties very seriously.  She lays in the lap top bag to keep it from escaping, what a clever girl.

She’s helping too