Solar Batteries ...Ooops

A It really is a small world, although I would not want to paint it……. We were talking about our stay at Kangaroobie with Liz and Ken and it turns out that his jazz band played at Matt’s sister Kez’s wedding last year, at Kangaroobie. What are the chances? It was a lovely stay at Werona then it was off to Lockwood via Maldon where we put in 100 litres of diesel at $1.37 a litre. Lockwood is about 10 km from Bendigo and we are parked at Robyn and Phils place, the people we bought the bus from, they are quite similar to us in many ways, and we received a warm welcome. I had quite a few questions for Phil about the bus, mainly just little bits and pieces, he is a very clever guy who installs solar energy systems. He told me many things when we first bought the bus but didn’t tell me about the maintenance that our bank of solar batteries required. Our freezer was not working very well, some things would be semi frozen in the morning. Phil was quite horrified when we lifted the cover in the floor of our bus and he looked at the condition of them, there are 4 x 6 volt batteries which make up the 24 volt system. The terminals had a lot of corrosion on them and the batteries were very short of water, 5 litres in fact, we have our fingers crossed that we have not stuffed them up. Phil did a great job cleaning them up for us, thanks for that Phil, much appreciated. We all headed into Bendigo for dinner together, passing through Kangaroo Flat on the way, I love the mental image some of these place names seem to evoke. It is nice to be able to get a parking spot right outside the restaurant on a Saturday night in the middle of the city. We had a nice pizza and pasta, Jarra was pretty full on so I took him to watch the pizzas being made. He was imitating the dreadlocked girl who was making the pizzas, patting them into the pan, so she went and got him some dough and a saucer so he could make his own, this kept him occupied for a few minutes until he decided that it would be more fun to eat it instead…… There was some entertainment on at the Town Hall in the block behind the main Street, a big screen for the Games and a stage where there seemed to be some sort of bad Karaoke night. There was a rapper in a long red shirt, black baggy pants with the right leg tucked into his sock just below the knee who thought he was Eminen or such, but he was just Effinbad. “Yo Bendigo, are you ready for some wicked shit?”. Mate, I don’t think Bendigo will ever be ready for you. Mum had told us that Rory would be appearing there. Rory is a 9 foot tall Scotsman who plays the bagpipes, he has his 9 foot girlfriend and his huge shaggy dog with him, quite a funny sight but would not have wanted to have travelled all the way from Melbourne to see them just wandering around the crowd and asking “Alright Shorty?” to anyone shorter than 9 foot. We will spend a few days here having a look at a few things around Bendigo and sorting out a few problems with the trailer. The car keeps shifting backwards in the trailer and the tow bar has rubbed a hole through the fold up ramp at the back so will get some chain to hold it in place. Phil also explained why we keep blowing the lights in the trailer. The bus is 24 volts and the trailer was set up with a 12 volt system so all the lights are receiving way too much power. Phew, is very warm tonight, a nice clear starry sky, and plenty of flies and mozzies about. We would like to send our best wishes to our mate Aaron Hammond, local computer wiz who has spent some time in hospital with an infected knee, hope you are up and about soon. I have always advised him that PC users are much more prone to viruses than us sensible Mac people, but he has always totally disregarded my advice.