Our Trip to Goondiwindi

Hello All.

So, we have been and returned from our wonderful trip to Goondiwindi.
We (Micky, Miriam and I) had sooooooooo much fun. We met so many great people, saw things we have never seen before and just had a fabulous time.
We did have a reason to head to Gundy, we went for our RECKY to check it all out for The Handmade Expo which will be held at the PCYC on 4th April.

We left Ipswich at 7:45am on Friday morning...on the way, we picked Miriam up from Toowoomba and left Toowoomba at 9:00am. We then arrived in Gundy at 11:20am. So it took very close to 3.5 hours from Ipswich and 2 hours & 20 minutes from Toowoomba. We had a great run. We could not believe how many ROAD TRAINS (they are 36m long - check out the 2nd photo) were on the road. We had a bit of fun...check this photo out of Liesa trying to get a trucky to toot his MASSIVE horn. Liesa was lucky enough to score 2 at the same time...one from each direction. CRAZY!!!!


Getting ready for the double tooting


Proud of the double tooting

From Toowoomba, you will also travel through Millmeran, a quaint little town with a TEEPEE, HORSES AND UNUSUAL TOILET SETUP (which we were too scared to use)!


MILLMERAN


WHO DARES WINS


THE TEEPEE TOILETS


Miriam and Liesa on the TEEPEE


Miss Princess and Miss Beautiful (we gave them names)

Now, the things that we have never seen before include:
1. WILD EMUS...you have to keep your eye out for these, we saw Mum and chicks (whilst doing 110km - which is the speed limit, we weren't speeding). We couldn't take a photo, but through the John Farnham tunes blaring, we were in oar of this.
2. Prickly Pears. This is certainly not a plant that you come across everyday + it's amazing how you just stop seeing them. You really feel like you are out west with these:


Prickly Pear

So, once we arrived, we headed straight to the PCYC (which we forgot to take a photo of) and met up with Sgt Dave Lynch. What a great guy..this is him:


Dave

Dave has been nothing but positive and supportive of The Handmade Expo going to Gundy. He even spent ALL day with us on Friday. Friday was a massive day for us. We headed out for lunch to get acquainted, a nice little coffee shop called NEENS, actually situated BEHIND a jewllery shop. We recommend having coffee or lunch here..YUMMO. Then we hit the main street. We went into almost EVERY shop with our brochures in hand and asked them if they would be so kind to place one in their window. We had an awesome and very positive response to this excerise.
We also headed to every motel and caravan park in town to let them know that WE ARE COMING. We will have business cards in a later post. So if you are staying, you will have a wide variety of accommodation to choose from. We also went to the Tourist Information Centre, and they were very helpful and friendly their too.

We of course had to do some site seeing:

This is The Goondiwindi Grey. A racehourse. You can read about him here:

www.goondiwindi.qld.gov.au/visitors/gunsynd

"He won a string of other big races among his 29 wins and was placed in the Melbourne Cup burdened with the massive 60.5 kilos but it was his character and lovable antics that saw him adored not only by the racing fraternity but also by people not remotely interested in the sport who flocked to the tracks to watch him perform"


Micky & Liesa with The Goondiwindi Grey Statue

From there, we headed to the NSW border which was only 400m down the road, over the Border Bridge which was built in 1914. "The Border Bridge spans the MacIntyre River and was the main hub for freight crossing the border between New South Wales and Queensland where duties were collected by Customs". So, if you havent been to NSW before, this is your perfect opportunity. Had to get some photos:







So, after this big and rewarding job, we then went and checked into out motel. Mind, you, this was at 4:30pm. Dave asked us if we wanted to head out for dinner to the Railway Hotel. Once again, an awesome feed at a reasonable price. We met up with Dave, wife Fiona and gorgeous little Matthew. From there, we headed back to the motel. Very comfortable.

After a full night sleep, away from babies and husbands, we had a sleep in of 8am and headed out for a good old country breaky at the Gunsyd Cafe. Well priced. From there, we scooted around the main street again to see our brochures in windows...what an amazing feeling this was, knowing we had the support of the local shopkeepers and community. THANKS HEAPS.

We met up with Bec from Coffee on the move...she will be providing us with our coffee fix..we all know how much we love and need it!!! So it was great to put a face to the name. We of course had to also hit the shops. They have the best little shops in country towns and we plan to go back in April with a list...and we recommend that if you have time, you do this too.

Finally, we headed back to the PCYC on late Saturday morning to do a final parade! of the venue. Let me say that we can fit approx 120 stallholders into this venue. It is MASSIVE and very well ventilated. It was 38 degrees when we were there but it felt much much cooler inside the PCYC.

So, in saying this, we love Goondiwindi and we are so excited to be taking The Handmade Expo there. A fabulous little town, very community minded (just like we are)...We know we are going to fit in very well.

Bring on the 4th April.

From the travelling Expo Chicks.
Liesa, Micky & Miriam