Friday morning dawned bright and sunny as it had been for the last few weeks. Boy do we need rain!
We sent dad off to work then we helped mum get ready for our trip out west. We really enjoy going out west as we are allowed to chase the kangas and the emu's.
This was to be a special trip as SCRUFFY WAS AWAY and Daffy was going to come with us as Scruffy's deputy. Dad had gone down to the Olympic town to see a couple of people and Scruffy went to keep him company on the long drive down and back. He didn't come back. The Olympics bright lights got the better of him and he stayed with Mr Scott, (Uncle Warren's boss from the USA). Enough of that I am sure he will be writing his tales once he comes back down to earth.
Anyway as I was saying, we finally got mum organized and took her off to the bang stick shop to get all the stuff needed for the weekend. Mum started to panic a bit as mid-day was fast approaching and dad was due to arrive for the great drive west. She finally did get the car packed and ready for the take off but dad was late so we had plenty of time after all.
When dad arrived we jumped into our traveling positions for take off, sounds like a space trip, and mum got behind the wheel for the first stint at driving. We had to get out to St. George b4 dark as with it being so dry we were expecting to see heaps of bouncy things. We were not disappointed.
Our drive to Dalby was without incidence and once there we stopped at the petroleum shop to fill the car and to get our traditional ice-cream. We weren't allowed an ice-cream this trip as it was too hot and mum did not think we would scoff it quick enough, we were allowed to lick the sticks though.
After leaving Dalby we had to be very awake. Dad explained we all had to watch for the jumpy things, so we all positioned ourselves in good viewing and watched for them. It did not take long before we saw a hoppy. We could not believe how many we saw. Instead of seeing one in the whole trip, we saw more than one jumping across the road in the first viewing. Many times when dad was driving we had to slow down to allow for the prossession of heaps of Kangas to cross the road or even worse was when we would come across one sitting in the middle of the road, just doing nothing. What us apprentice Aussies, as we are, can't understand is why have these creatures never been taught any road sense.
Well we made it in one piece to St. George just on dusk. Really good timing , we are finally getting mum and dad trained proper. We directed our driver to our motel only to find that they had let some undesirables into our camp to stay for the weekend. When mum and dad checked in we rushed into the office to explain to the nice lady that they had really stuffed up in letting these humans things, from a club called Murrumba, into our camp.
Mum and dad went off for dinner, we stayed at home as we were too warn out from hoppy hunting all the way out. When they came home, after moaning about how full they were, we all hit the hay after watching a little bit of the Olympics on TV. We were hoping to see Scruffy but we didn't.
Saturday morning dawned bright, sunny and early. We all jumped into the car to rip off out to the range to see who was there. It had seemed like ages since I had seen everyone, and Daffy still had to meet heaps of people. It was good to see the usual there. Even Aunty Carol and Uncle Daryal decided to grace us with their presence. We had not seen them for ages as they had been too lazy to go to many of the recent shoots.
After everyone had eaten their breakfast, at a more leisurely pace to normal, dad went off to shoot Free with some others.
We sat around with mum, Aunty Pam and Aunty Carol, drinking tea and chatting. Every now and then one of the persons who were shooting Free would come back to give us all of their targets and complain that the ladies were making too much noise and disturbing them, they all got told, tough.
After having to score all the Free and Air targets the ladies then had to get ready to shoot. As normal even during the match these ladies, yes includes my mum, managed to chat as well. At least this time they let everyone finish shooting first.
As normal after everyone had finished their shooting, they all had the normal complaints but does anyone listen, nah, we were too busy watching another dog. A real one had turned up
. We found out that it belonged to Aunty Pam and Uncle John. Everyone had gone away from home for the weekend so they had to bring the snappy one with them. He does not have a lovely nature like me, he has to growl and snap at everyone except his mum and dad.
Mum along with her chatters only shot one match that day so they had plenty of time to talk and catch up on all the happenings. Lunch came and went during the day, the weather did not get any cooler, but at least there was a slight breeze to blow the pain in the ass flies away. They are horrible, cause they just stick to you and only ever around the face. Everyone hated them.
In the afternoon dad had to shoot his first part of Centre so Daffy and I went along to help.
Guess what, it didn't work. We will have to tell Scruffy it is not just him, it must be dad as we couldn't help him either. After that we wandered over to the table and sat with the ladies while, you guessed it, they talked. Aunty Pam got the nibbles so she went and got some chips.
It didn't take Daffy long to help her eat them. You should have seen the two of them fighting over the last chip.
As the day was so warm it gave some of the so called shooters an excuse to had a cold one after the shooting had finished for the day. Even mum had a cold one. Just don't know why we are never allowed to drink but I suppose someone has to stay sober to drive home. After a very nice dinner we all wandered home for a sleep. Sleep came easy that night.
Sunday morning came early and before time. You know us dogs and ducks need a good amount of sleep.
It was another beautiful day. We packed up and again ended up at the range in plenty of time for a casual breakfast. It must be Scruffy that holds us up in the morning so we end up having a very rushed breakfast.
We had to fight the other dog for the scraps this morning, I think that these animals should be kept under control, don't you?
Dad wandered off to shoot and mum went off with Aunty Pam to shoot something else. Seeing as they were going to be busy for a while Daffy and I went back to the car to have a sleep.
As normal after everyone had shot it was on to the next shoot as they had not done good at this one. About the only really exciting thing to happen during this day was while they humans were shooting a match on the short distance range a big brown animal came wandering down. Neither Daffy or me had seen one of them before, so we weren't sure what it was. Mum said it was a camel. They were OK, cause they lived there and no we weren't allowed to run off and chase it. We aren't allowed to have any fun, although when we saw the size of its feet we decided it was not worth getting stood on by feet that size.
All too soon the day was getting close to being finished as all the humans had put their guns away and were sitting around having lunch and you guessed it talking. Soon after the red people, St. George members, started their speeches. When that started Daffy and I started to fall asleep, but it didn't last too long as we soon got woken up by all the clapping when the people were going up to get their prizes.
Was not long after that that everyone was saying their good-byes and promises that they would see each other at the next shoot, but we were not to go home so soon. Aunty Pam had asked us to go back to their place to measure up the areas they wanted to put some of mum and dads plastic lattice. It means they won't have to paint it, so should leave more time for shooting.
We got to their place to be met by Uncle Ben, who looked still asleep after a hard weekend. We had our traditional cuppa then had a look at the problems they had to solve. Was really easy actually. With all that done and out of the way we headed off again as we still had a ways to go and it was getting late. We had to stop at Gundy to get petrol and found the new servo open. What a flash place.
We drove on from there hoping we would not get a front visit from a hoppy. Daffy and I were just too tied to do anything so we curled up on dads knee and had a snooze. We hit Warwick and tooted to Aunty Carol and Uncle Daryal as we drove past but they ignored us as normal. We stopped at Macka's for a quick bite to eat then headed on the homeward stretch. It was hard to keep an eye out for hoppys and hoped they had all gone to sleep as it was dark and we all would rather have been in bed snoring.
We got home without incidence. Next trip Scruffy will be home. Hopefully he will be back on this planet and will want to come with us. See you all there.