Over the weekend Clan Jones motored on down the Hume Highway to Goulburn to go to the speedway. I was very sceptical initially but it turned to be an awesome night and all 4 of us had a great time.
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Starting at lunch time Saturday ....
It was pretty warm and a very serious burst of concentration saw yours truly finally remember where we put the plugs for the wading pool. LGR claimed he knew where they were all along and was just tricking us. The jokes on him however because Mrs G couldn't find them on Friday and the kids missed out on an afternoon swim :-)
We had a swim. It was hot and nice. No breeze at all and lots of sun and games. Eventually we clued up about the time and started to get ready for our adventure. We had literally just finished putting our stuff together when Aunt LJ, UA and Nanna arrived at our place. We travelled in a small convoy passing several broken cars.
Soon enough we were also a broken down car!! For some reason the car started lurching really badly and was really struggling whenever I applied power. When it got to what seemed a suitably appalling state we pulled over in a relatively shaded and wide section of the road. We left the motor running but it kind of gasped itself to death less than 2 minutes after we got out ...
The NRMA arrived in pretty good time (specific mention of the 2 and 4 year old children were made when placing the call ...) but in the interrim we had gotten out the picnic mats and were lounging around somewhat comfortably in the shade.
Somewhat predictably the car started perfectly when the NRMA guy was arrived and drove like a dream all the way to the speedway!!! Grrr .....
The speedway itself is quite picturesque. It's on the side of a hill so forms a natural ampitheatre. Visibility is excellent and as you sit on the embankment you have great views of the hillside and paddocks behind the track. Very beautiful (in a dry sort of way) and quite serene.
Until the cars start.
LGR was very excited. He loved the noise and the speed and took many, many photoes. What it made more thrilling for him was that Uncle P was racing. LGR got to see Uncle P in his racing kit. Uncle S was also in his kit but LGR was not quite as awestruck by this ... It is quite apparent Uncle P is LGR's real life hero.
The evening turned out to be very pleasant. Once the sun had disappeared behind the mountain a lot of heat went out of the day and everyone felt just a little more relaxed about things.
The racing was cool; but even better was the small town feel to the whole thing. Everyone tried hard but it was quite obviously an amateur event. The drivers were out mixing with the crowd, folks were sitting in the back of their utes and wagons which they'd reversed up to the fence and there was plenty of space to do whatever. The commentary was quite laconic and the whole kind of placid in spite of the occasionally violent nature of what we were watching.
I love country sport. It's so much more sociable and family oriented than mainstream professional sport and 9 times out of 10 I'd choose to watch country sport live over professional sport.
We didn't manage to stay for the whole evening - by about 10:15 Hayzey was almost unconscious. She fell asleep within seconds of being put in the car. LGR was asleep before we'd driven the 500m back to the highway - in spite of assuring he would stay awake for the whole trip.
Last but not least I'm very pleased to inform my dear readers that there were no repeats of the car issue. The trip was very smooth, very quiet and and a very placid way to finish off a great evening.