The L word, or how an eight hour drive managed to stretch to almost twelve

Monday morning Miss Daisy and I left Melbourne bright and early for the trip home. There was counting on fingers (mine, as Miss Daisy has none): if I leave Kerry's house at 8am, I should be home by... mutter, mutter, count count... 4pm. With an hour for stops that would be 5pm.

Getting out of Melbourne was heaps easier than finding my way in (where it took over an hour to cross 5 pages of my 2003 Melways) and soon enough we'd left the city behind and were flying up the freeway.

We made it safely past the turn off to Bendigo, tempting as it was to make the diversion, visit Bendigo Woollen Mills and simply stay overnight somewhere and drive home like the clappers before work Tuesday. But I had stern words to myself along the lines of "do you actually NEED any more wool?" and we continued up the Hume.

First stop was Wangaratta where we visited Uniting Church and RSPCA op shops and spent way longer than planned chatting to the lovely op shop ladies we discovered there before heading into town for lunch and to check the Salvos again. An hour and a half later, we were on the road again.

It was OK. I should be home by... mutter, mutter, count count... 5:30pm. Only half an hour later than planned.

Drive drive drive.

Quick stop in Albury. Didn't make it to Vinnies last week so will stop for 5 minutes to check it out (not really worth it). Back in the car and out onto the highway.

Then I saw the turnoff for Lavington. Remembered that there was a Vinnies there too (and quite a good one, according to Taph). Quick calculation in my head: if I stop I should be home by... mutter, mutter, count count... 6pm. Still a decent hour. And so we pulled off the highway.

My frugalling nose found Salvos first. It was a nice big old style Salvos and my only complaint was they had their knitting needles in the crafting corner but the patterns with the books. I bought a couple of things including my best find:
which cost a whopping 50 cents!

The lovely op shop lady at Salvos told me how to get to Vinnies round the corner but forgot to tell me about the other op shop 5 doors up the road. It was very small and not worth a visit unless you're in the area for Vinnies and Salvos but I did find a couple of vintage Patons patterns for Taph at 20 cents each so was happy.

Vinnies was huge. And good. I knew I'd be a while when I spotted this vision on the top shelf:

And I was. But once again, was perplexed by the way they had knitting needles in with tableware, the wool in the next room with craft stuff and the patterns once again in with the books. Maybe it's an Albury thing...

We finally made it back on the highway at 3:30pm. Not to worry. I should be home by... mutter, mutter, count count... 7:00pm. Getting late but still OK.

Holbrook. Lovely place. Somehow Miss Daisy stopped outside Lady Gail's Bookshop and Curios without me really noticing what she was up to. There were a number of boxes of books on chairs at the side of the road and as I approached I noticed the big FREE sign on them. So this pile was into the car lickety split and will, at some stage, turn into crafty projects:Inside was an Aladdin's cave of booky and vintage treasure. I had the oddest experience, though, as I pulled out a book from the shelf and Lady Gail (that may not be her name but for the sake of this story it's kind of irrelevant) told me that although it was marked $1 it was actually free as she wanted to give it to someone who was prepared to pay for it. Sort of like a test that you really wanted it and weren't just taking it because it was free.

I wasn't sure I followed her logic but didn't argue. I managed twice to pick up a freebie book and also found some knitting needles for my collection and a handful of thread on wooden spools for $1 each.

I finally pulled myself away just before 5pm, filled Miss Daisy up with petrol and we were on the road again. I should be home by... mutter, mutter, count count... Oh who cares when you're having so much fun?!