Rockhampton to Brisbane

Wednesday we drove to Townsville where we had a zone conference on Thursday morning. We stayed in a Mercure hotel and the room was a cracker box and dingy, probably the worst room on our trip. I got up in the morning and went for a walk by the lake that was on the property. It stepped in some water, my feet went out from under me and I landed flat on my back and hit my head. My thoughts were, "Please don't let me pass out!" I got up, was stiff but had no other symptoms so I finished my walk and returned to the room to get ready for the Zone Conference. They could not put us up a second night and becaue Jay did not feel well, we changed hotels to the Ibis closer in to town. On Thursday he talked at the Zone Conference, then we checked into to Ibis and he slept the afternoon and I rested my stiff body.
We got up on Friday morning and headed for Rockhampton. We arrived late in the evening, just in time to do two loads of wash and fall into bed.
Saturday we drove into Brisbane, about 675 km. It was a beautiful sunny day and the road was well travelled with people getting away for the weekend. On the drive we were pulled over 4 or 5 times by police cars so that wide loads travelling towards Cairns could pass. Believe me when I say they were wide loads. One of them took up all of the two lanes of the highway and we were hugging the shoulder in order not to get hit.
Our goal was to make it to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo in time to visit it. We made it at 4 pm and they close at 4:30 pm. After reading about it and visiting the gift shop we decided that we had already seen all of the animals we would see there in Sydney and other parks so we would not spend the money to come back. We did take the picture of the billboard!
We also stopped at the Ginger Factory, a fun place with a train, shops, food. It looks like an amusement park of sorts but we only got as far as the gift shop. We bought gingerbread cookies and cookie cutters then were on our way to Brisbane.
Steve Irwin
Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo.
Ginger Factory.
Ginger Factory
Super wide load.
Wide loads.
Police motioning motorists off the road.