New Truck and a Mini Trip

for Dave and I

A couple of weeks back, 

Dave and I took a little trip over 

to the East Coast to look at a truck

to buy for the milk run.

The old Hino Dave has been using

has been slowly dying and was in 

bad need of replacement

(saying that, it's actually still

being used at present, as why have 

one new truck when you can have an old

one and a new one!)

Anyway, Dave and I flew from Darwin over to Brisbane,

(after catching a greyhound bus from Katherine to Darwin),

then we hired a car and drove 440km down to

the truck dealer. Praise the Lord, it was 

what Dave wanted and we were able to drive it away. 

We were quite tired after not having any sleep

since Wednesday night and it was now Friday afternoon.

(we had to catch a red eye flight to Brisbane after Dave had 

done his milk run in Katherine. Then spend 7 hours in Darwin 

airport. Yay. At least I got my youth group lists sorted out)

Well, I drove the hire car back to Coffs Harbour

and Dave picked me up from there in the truck. 

We were well and truly sick of the traffic and freeways 

etc and were glad to get out of the crazy city and head

to Oakey where we picked up some stuff for a friend in Katherine. 

We had taken a couple of sleeping bags

so we could sleep in the back of the truck. 

We had a chiller board (mattress) to sleep on

and were fairly comfortable, but hot. 

(the view from the inside in pic above)

Once we got away from the nasty

traffic and headed to Emerald to visit 

family, it was an enjoyable trip. 

Especially since we had air con, so 

we could actually hold a conversation without

shouting! Very nice for a change! 

Of course, I enjoyed snapping away

out the window and despite the windscreen

being bug splattered after the first night,

I still enjoyed myself and the scenery. 

The Lord always knows best,

and despite having a different truck

lined up for us to purchase for almost a year,

it fell through and God supplied another within

a couple of weeks and it worked that we could go

and pick it up. God is good! 

As usual, the clouds were phenomenal

in the outback skies and I just couldn't get 

enough of them. (I really could fill a whole

set of encyclopedias with the cloud photos I've taken)

Well, we were able to spend a night

in Clermont with Dave's mum and dad

and an afternoon with his sister and family in Emerald.

But, all too soon, we needed to hit the road

and head home to work again. 

Due to regulations in Qld and NSW, we had

to fill out a logbook so we were unable to cover

as much ground as we would have liked

until we crossed over into the Territory. 

What a wonderful sight  to see the 

Northern Territory sign! 

It meant we were closer to home and 

also that we could throw the logbook out the window!

Okay, so not literally. We really didn't! 

 The galahs take a drink in Toowoomba

The downside to owning a truck,

the cost of fuelling up! 

And this wasn't even full yet. 

It takes 800 litres.

And that $908 is the $$.  LOL

I have always loved the country in between 

Cloncurry and Mt Isa. Ahh. 

Pretty soon, we were home sweet home. 

We had driven 4000km.

Not counting the trip from Katherine to Darwin,

and the flight to Brisbane,

and the trip down and back to the truck dealer. 

But, it been a nice, brief little retreat 

for Dave and I. 5 and a half days. 

The open road continually calls me.

The outback skies sing me to them.

The clouds call my name. 

The dust in the air spells out my name. 

Psalm 148 

1 Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens: praise him in the heights.

² Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts.

³ Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light.

⁴ Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens.

⁵ Let them praise the name of the Lord: for he commanded, and they were created.

⁶ He hath also stablished them for ever and ever: he hath made a decree which shall not pass.

⁷ Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:

⁸ Fire, and hail; snow, and vapours; stormy wind fulfilling his word:

⁹ Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars:

¹⁰ Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl:

¹¹ Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth:

¹² Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children:

¹³ Let them praise the name of the Lord: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.

¹⁴ He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise ye the Lord.

Late News

Things have been a little crazy

round here, so I haven't caught up

with updates on family happenings!

2 weeks ago, Chloe got her Learners!!

Yes, that's right. The last one of the Holmes

 girls to be on the road!!

She doesn't like us saying she's the baby of the 

family, but, well, she is and it's kind of scary

to think that she's old enough to drive!

If I blink, I'm afraid it'll be Miriam next,

time goes by so quickly! 

EEK

Family Getaway

A couple of weeks back,

we were able to take a family trip to Darwin

for a couple of days. 

We stayed in a favourite place of the girls.

On the 12th floor, overlooking the harbour

and all the excitement down below.

(Dave especially loves this view, being able

to watch the barges being loaded etc) 

We took a couple of board games,

shopped and ate out and, of course, 

visited the beach to watch the sunset. 

(Chloe's favourite place)

So, after all the craziness of the 

wedding etc, and before the craziness of

another long trip for Dave and I,

(stay tuned for our whirlwind trip to the East Coast),

it was nice to take some time out together. 

Sit back and enjoy the photos

and dream of sitting on a beach somewhere,

taking in the sights, sounds and smells,

and breathe it all in. Ahhh. 

The girls try out a few selfies with Chloe's new Instamax Mini camera

And Dave waits patiently for me to finish taking photos...………….

Dirty Windows

Not a good photo, I know, but it has a purpose. Read on. 

This morning, as I walked into the kitchen, I noticed that the sun was shining through the kitchen window in such a way, that it lit up the window so brightly, that all the dirt shone through. My windows looked absolutely filthy!

Now, I'm not by nature an untidy person, and I try to keep my house neat and clean, but this window was disgusting! It was smeared, from a hasty wipe with a wet rag, it was spattered, from recent rains hitting the flyscreen and plastering the window with the dust that had settled there. There was a strange series of 'drips' that looked like oil or something leftover from cooking. Ugh!

I'm telling you all this because it got me to thinking about my life and the effect that the Son, S-O-N,

God's Son, has upon our lives.

The sun, S-U-N, had shone through my kitchen window and showed up the ugliness. But the Son,

S-O-N, is able to shine through the darkness and show us our sin. 

When God's light shines upon our lives, it shows up the ugliness that is in our life, it shows the condition of our hearts and highlights the areas that need cleaning up.

Psalms 90:8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.

God's Word has the ability to illuminate the problems that need dealing with in our lives. The Word of God shines into the darkest little corners and shows up the dust and cobwebs in our lives that need attending to. God's Word shows the state of our hearts.

We read in Hebrews 4:12 that the Word of God is sharper than any twoedged sword.

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

We know that God uses His word to pierce our hearts. God's Word can work in us like no other words can. God has the ability to see us through and through.

1 John 1:5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

I am so glad that God is light and that in him is no darkness. We need God's light to shine upon our darkness. God's light makes the darkness to flee. Sin cannot be where God is.

Psalms 27:1a The LORD is my light and my salvation;

So, despite seeing the filthiness of my kitchen windows this morning, I'm glad God shone the sun through at that particular moment, because it made me stop and think about the light of His Word. It made me pause and examine my life. It encouraged me to dwell on heavenly thoughts and had me praising God, that he would use a dirty kitchen window as an object lesson to teach me that I need to be pure and clean before Him. I want to be a clean vessel. A useable vessel. A teachable vessel.

Psalms 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:

Holmes Family Canning Stock Route Trip and Beyond July 2018

CANNING STOCK ROUTE VIDEO!!

LIVE AND AWESOME!!

I have finally uploaded a VERRRYYY long

video compilation of some of the Canning action

(and beyond, of course)

For the faint hearted and those with short 

attention spans, you won't be able 

to sit through the entire thing,

so feel free to just put it on and 

glance at it every now and then,

or skip ahead to the interesting looking parts.

(although it is ALL interesting, 

I'll have you know!)

But, whatever the case, I'll never know whether you

sat through the lot or not, so, suit yourselves! 

So, sit back, enjoy, and don't get too

'sea' sick with my very lame videoing skills

and the corrugations that also made it very difficult.

Just in case the video doesn't show
up down below, just copy and paste
the link below.

https://youtu.be/6ho7TWNUU2M

Our Trip

Days 21 to 25

The End

Well, the time has finally come,

that I am at the end of documenting our epic trip.

I have combined the last few days

as I didn't take as many photos.

After waking early in the morning,

mainly due to early risers all around us,

moving out to catch the sunrise over the rock,

we packed up camp, went to a lovely

café for some nice hot coffee and croissants,

then headed on our way towards Alice. 

One last lingering look at the rock as

it disappeared over the horizon,

and a bunch more photos of it's disappearing act,

and I turned my eyes forward.

We stopped down the road a little ways

to refuel out of our drums, that still held some

fuel. It was still very cold.

We drove along the Stuart Highway,

enjoying the different scenery

and passing by Mt Connor in all its glory.

We didn't stop at the lookout as I have a ton of

photos of it from a previous visit, so I just happily

snapped a few out the window as we went by. 

We arrived in Alice Springs late afternoon,

tired but excited at the prospect of 

some '5 star living' for a change.

But, first things first, we really needed to 

do some washing and get some clean clothes

on our backs. So, off we went to the laundry

to begin the mammoth loads of washing.

We planned to stay in Alice for 3 nights

as we had a truck that we were looking at

purchasing (which never eventuated).

We settled into our luxury accommodation

and that night we all had the longest showers

of the whole trip, trying in vain to wash the red dirt

stains out of the creases of our hands. 

We actually didn't sleep very well

being in strange beds and indoors, 

with no dingoes or campfire crackling

or camels roaming or birds chirping. 

Emilee's bunk bed squeaked so much

that she ended up camping on the couch. 

In the morning, we found another bag of washing

so we got that done and dressed in clean clothes

to head into town and do some shopping

and sight seeing and a little trip up to the lookout. 

We ended up having a nice, relaxing

time in Alice, not doing a whole lot

as we didn't really feel like going

off road to look at other sights

and Dave didn't want to put our old girl

through too much more dirt roads and corrugations. 

We went out for tea at a lovely steakhouse,

which was a real treat to sink our teeth into a nice, big, juicy 

steak. The first in a while. And of course, 

a Gloria Jeans Coffee each morning. 

Leaving Alice, we headed North.

We stopped by the side of the road 

to have some lunch and saw our old mate

from the Canning chase game, go by. 

He tooted and a little while later,

we caught up to him, and overtook him,

and the chase began again. 

Late afternoon saw us passing through

Tennant Creek, seeing old mate again,

then driving an hour or so until we

came to a nice quiet gravel pit to camp for the night. 

It was actually warm for the first time in ages.

Emilee and Maddy cooked tea

and I went off to explore on my own,

camera in hand and eyes to the heavens,

marvelling once more at God's beautiful creation.

It was a full moon, so I took

a few star shots, but because of

the abundance of light, they weren't the best,

so I was content to sit by our last campfire

and enjoy it while I could. 

It had been an amazing trip,

and I was quite sad that it was almost

over and we had to go home.

In the morning, we headed out,

passing familiar sights as we drove

and stopping for a nasty coffee at a little 

roadhouse along the way. 

At Hi Way Inn, we caught up 

with our chase friends for the last time. 

The road stretched on and on

and the sky was clear. 

All too soon, we were back in Katherine,

with memories made and many stories to tell. 

God is so good! 

And for those interested, here is a map

of all the roads we've travelled on 

in our life here in Australia. 

What an amazing country that we

are so blessed to live in.

And what a lot more there is of it to explore! 

Canning Trip facts:

6,433km travelled 

25 days total

We met 85 northbound vehicles on the actual track

and 2 dirt bikes and 2 bicycles. 

14 days on the actual Canning Stock Route

(and we could have easily have spent another week on it)

13 showers (I think?)

Countless delicious meals and cups of billy tea. 

Thousands of photos and videos taken. 

Billions and billions of corrugations

Thousands of sand dunes crossed

Heaps of memories made

Quality family time spent together

And one tired old cruiser, puff puff puffing 

her way home, but ready for the next exciting adventure! 

PS be on the lookout for my video of

all the action. (be prepared to feel sick 

with motion sickness whilst viewing)

Not to be continued...………

Except for the video

But more adventures planned for the future