Team Thommo arrived in Broken Hill this afternoon. It's my son Ryan and I, and we took 3 days to get here. Unlike most of the Sydney contingent, we elected to take the southern route, doing Penrith to Wagga, then Wagga to Mildura, then the last leg to Broken Hill. So to get to the 19th Nationals we stayed in locations that were sites of prior events. (Since we live in Penrith, I'm not sure that counts, but we'll take it. That was 2001.) Wagga Wagga was the site of the 2nd Nationals in 1989, and Mildura was the 6th in 1997. There are a couple of other members coming this way, but most have gone the Dubbo / Cobar route.
And now we're here for Broken Hill 2023.
Ryan has never driven the FE before (and really doesn't have much experience with manual cars), but acquitted himself well. I think he has a new-found appreciation for my driving too, because I seem to be able to make taking off smoothly, keeping her straight and powering along at 65mph look effortless. It's the difference between 35 minutes experience with an old Holden and 35 years, I suspect! He was happy to back up for a second go today, and I was happy to let him, so it's all good.
So here we are under the funky green lights of our accommodation, and the Ol Girl is having a well earned rest. Fuel economy was better than I expected (we've got quite a bit of gear in the car, and we were doing 60-65mph all the way.)
All up we did 817.4 miles, and used 143.81L of fuel. That nets out to 25.84mpg, or 10.93L/100km. Pretty bloody good for a 67 year old car. She did well.
We're so looking forward to a great weekend with everyone.
cheers
RET
