Disappointments and Stunners

I haven't been on the bike in weeks .. that's disappointing, but not the most disappointing thing to happen this week. It's heart wrenching when lollies are the most disappointing thing in your life at the moment. But then I found something else that made it all worth while .. pretty views, kangaroos and cows make up for a lack in lollies.

I guess I should start at the beginning. Last weekend I was suffering from the tail end of my annual cold. Yep every year I get a doozy and this year was no exception. We'd planned a trip to Wagga Wagga to visit with Terry's son but I just knew there was no way I could make it all the way there and back on the bike, not to mention the risks involved with sneezes and full face helmets. I don't think I need to say anymore, we can all guess that I stayed at home last weekend while Terry went off gallivanting.

Well to make it not a complete waste on Saturday I decided to take Gizmo the amazing Staffy for a ride in the car. She loves the car and doesn't get to go for as many rides now that we tend to take the bikes when we go anywhere. So Giz was excited! And my choice of destination had me excited too!

We were going to a little bump on the map called Lucknow. Yep it was a gold rush town way back in the day .. hence the name. The best thing about it now is the fact that it has a Lolly Shop. I love Lollies!! I have memories of the lolly section at Grace Bros (which no longer exists) in my childhood, with rows of lollies sitting in little baskets and you just went along with a little paper cup and scooped them out then took them to the counter where they weighed them and told you how much they were. It's one of my best childhood memories as it was a treat to go there and so exciting. I had visions of this type of shop when I heard about the shop in Lucknow, I've had people telling me all about how wonderful it is .. how it's full of wonderful stuff. I was itching to get there and now was my chance with no husband to curb my spending spree!

It's about an 2 hour drive, and it was a relaxing one too. Just me and the dog, and she slept most of the way. We just kicked back and enjoyed the ride. When we got to Lucknow I had already decided to take Giz and have lunch at the little cafe I knew they had there. I'd been told they had outside seats. first disappointment of the day, the outside tables were not accessible from outside, you had to walk through the whole shop and cafe to get to them, Giz couldn't join me :( So I thought I'd just take a quick peek at all the lovely sweetness while Giz waited in the car, it wasn't hot but I didn't want to leave her locked in the car for too long, even with the windows down. I went inside and got my second disappointment. The lolly shop. There wasn't much of a range, mostly it was the commercial stuff like Hershey's and Willy Wonkers. These things weren't even heard off when I was a child and it just didn't give me the buzz that I was looking for. They did have some of the old lollies that I remember, like fruit drops and flying saucers and black cats, but they were in neat little packets that were indeed little and way overpriced in my view. Oh well I bought some and headed back to the car promising Giz that we'd head back to Orange and have some lunch in the park there.

As I pulled out of the lolly shops car park I spotted a shop I'd often seen and wanted to look at.

Yep it's a junk shop. I love poking around in old shops like this, you never know what treasures you will find!

They even had a bike :-D

I didn't spend long in here either, not just because Giz was again waiting in the car, it also smelt really bad. Honestly did I never notice things like that when I was a kid? Even so this wasn't as much of a disappointment to me really, it was exactly what it purported to be .. a junk shop is supposed to be full of interesting junk isn't it.

We headed on our way, grabbed some takeaway in Orange just 10 minutes down the road and ate it in the park. Giz loved that, not only did she get hand fed some rubbish food that tasted yummy, she also got to go for an adventure exploring a new place.

Soon it was time to head home. I decided that I was going to check out some things that have always interested me along the way. First of all there was a sign on the highway that pointed down a dirt road to someones grave ( I don't remember the name now but it has an aboriginal sound) it's always seemed like it might be interesting so we headed down the road, past the paddocks with some very interested cows in them, to a gate. The gate was closed but not locked and the sign to the grave pointed down there but .. there were a lot of cows just on the other side of the gate. Now I'm not a country girl, and while I like cows, I find them intimidating up close. The thought of going through that gate and trying not to let someones cows out kinda worried me. Actually the thought of having nothing between me and one of those huge creatures (as gentle as they seem) almost terrifies me. So we did a U-turn, that's something we'll try another day.

On the way to Lucknow I'd noticed a sign pointing to a Lolly Shop in Molong. Hmm maybe that will be better, at least Giz and I can get a cuppa at Molong. So we stopped at the coffee shop there, I had coffee and Giz had a water, we sat together in the sun at the outside tables and Giz got lots of pats from the locals. Then we went for a wander looking for the Lolly Shop .. didn't find it. I did find a little local craft shop and got myself a very nice scarf that will be perfect for the bike in the next month or so.

Ah well, the next thing on the list of things I've always wanted to check out. Just past Wellington is a sign pointing to a place called Ponto Falls. I've always wanted to check out what kind of Falls they have here. So After stopping for a couple of lovely ladies who needed help getting their wheelchair back onto the top of the car after it had fallen off on the highway, then missing the turnoff, Giz and I finally made our way down about 8km of dirt road to find ...

Where there were birds enjoying an evening dip ..

And some gorgeous old trees for them to frolic in ...

The 'Falls' didn't amount to much .. but it was still pretty as the sun set ...

As we headed back towards the highway, with it really starting to get dark, we encountered one of the biggest black kangaroos I've seen in a while ... jumping across the road in front of us. Then we turned a corner and spotted the moon just coming over the tops of the trees, reflecting the sun with a stunning display ...

There are more kangaroos in that paddock too, unfortunately they are extremely well camouflaged .. well they are too far away for a good photo of them in this light. And that goes for the next two groups of kangaroos we came across along the road, one group even hung around long enough for me to get my camera out, but not long enough for me to turn around and focus on them unfortunately.

A little bit further up the road were some cattle .. actually there was a huge bull right next to the fence and in the paddock right next to him was a cow and her calf .. all of whom were very fascinated by me and Giz .. Giz on the other hand was still sleeping. She missed it all. Unfortunately no photos of those guys either, I tried but the light was just too bad and all I got was a really good shot of a fence and some red eye glowing in the back ground .. might have to invest in a better flash.