Saturday

We are naturally curious so it was no surprise that we wondered what was happening when we saw more people than usual at the Blacksoil service station; a photographer by the side of the road (near what was Roses Cafe and is now The Girls Cafe at Marburg - I think that's right) - a man with a serious camera with a lens that I envied all wrapped in plastic because there was a light rain falling; a group of people by the side of the road, some sitting, obviously waiting for something; and then, at Laidley, a larger group of people, standing on the traffic island, camera on tripods. We resolved to stop and ask the next lot of people we saw - the group at the car had been flying a flag so we knew what to look for. S, with her amazing memory, had already started working on it, though, and suggested that it was something to do with a Truckers Memorial ... and she was right. On the Gatton ByPass, a convoy of trucks, led by a police car with lights flashing, passed us. Hmmmm, that answered part of the riddle, but not the other - the people we had seen with their cameras all pointing the other way. A search of the interweb provided the answer - the Lights on the Hills Truckers Memorial was being held at Gatton and a convoy was coming from Toowoomba (the one which passed us) and one from Archerfield in Brisbane - this was by far the larger of the two - and given the one that passed us seemed like a hundred trucks, it was no wonder people were out to see the other one!

Toowoomba was cloudy, foggy and wet. The family was good and it was great to catch up with my sister again (who has recently moved back from Mt Isa). We spent the afternoon playing UNO (which should be followed by a Registered Trademark sign but can't be here because I don't know where it hides on the Apple keyboard) - and I won - if you call getting to 500 first "winning". The others looked at me strangely when I suggested this. Of course, I was helped by having the opportunity to pick up 14 cards in one go (I started it with a +2 so it served me right) - which gave me 218 for that hand. But it was good to have a games afternoon!