It's Saturday afternoon 30th October 2010 and I am sitting in the van writing this post, listening to some 60's music whilst Maree is counting zzzzz's (gramma nap) after what has been a very exciting week for us.
We decided some time ago that although we wanted to retire we would not be completely ready to do that financially until I reached retirement age in about 18 months or so.
Also in the back of our minds was the fact that we would not be totally prepared psychologically unless we made a transition into retirement and that we would need to also keep our minds and bodies active.
As I mentioned in an earlier posting a set of extenuating circumstances forced us into an early retirement for which we have not been completely prepared.
The opportunity arose here in Barraba for us to purchase a small business, a school bus run, which we thought would well and truly fit into our retirement plans and we feel that this will be a perfect way for us to move slowly into retirement and at the same time be able to pursue our travelling dreams.
So we have taken the plunge and purchased the business which was finalised yesterday 29th October 2010. Over the last week we have been training to enable us to take over the run on Monday 1st November 2010 and here is a shot of our new "pride and joy" called "Mountain Home". More on the name shortly.
We picked it up today and it is parked in front of our caravan where it will be housed when not in operation. It is very convenient as we walk out of the caravan at 7:00am each morning and at 3:00pm each afternoon and step into the bus and we are at work.
Our training has now concluded and we will pick up the school kids from Monday onwards. We have met all the kids and some of the parents and we feel that we will be successful in delivering top class service and managing their perceptions.
The main reason that we purchased this particular business is so that we can continue with a lot of the travelling we want to do into the future.
We will get all of the school holidays off and travel during those times which will enable us to perfect our caravan and towing vehicle prior to taking off on our major tripping around Australia in about 18 months or so. We will use Barraba as our base.
The bus run is called "Mountain Home - Barraba" school bus run and is a 97km round trip each morning and each afternoon.
It winds around the mountains surrounding West Barraba and moves through some of the most beautiful country in NSW.
Currently the country side is as green as I have seen it as Maree and I have been coming up here on and off for over 25 years and it is beautiful.
The kids range from Kindergarten to Year 9 across all age groups and currently we have 15 kids that we pick up and drop off on the run.
We have a disabled 12 year old on our run who is assisted during the trip by a registered carer and she lights up our day when we pick her up each day with the biggest smile I have seen on a kid in many years. She is our first pick up each day and last drop off each afternoon.
There is 5 pick up points along the trip and our first pick up is 37km out of Barraba at the top of the mountain called "Mountain Home" which is an actual homestead. Hence we call our bus "Mountain Home".
We complete the run from point to point in 1 hour and 45 minutes and must adhere to a strict time table so that all the kids are picked up and dropped off to school before start time and get home in a reasonable time.
Due to the road conditions, which range from dirt roads to tarred roads and flooded causeways and gullies we reach a top speed of about 80 kph and on some of the mountain roads a slow speed of about 15 to 20kph.
More about the run as we get more experienced with it. Next week I will get some photos of the country side to show what good rains can do to this country of ours.
Barraba is a lovely little town North West of Sydney and about 80km North West of Tamworth.
The weather over the last 10 days has been as erratic as Australian weather can be and has ranged from cold, foggy mornings to 29c heat, to beautiful cool breezes to hail and heavy storms. The drought has broken up here and the country side is in a beautiful green lush state.
But the nicest thing that we experience is the sunrise over the front of our van.
This week has flown and apart from our training we have managed to get our caravan set up the way that we are comfortable with and commence sorting out the stuff that we really need in lieu of all the stuff that we brought with us.
It is amazing how we fitted everything into the caravan as it is only 17'6" long internal measurements and half that size wide but somehow we fitted in stuff that we will probably never use. Some additional culling is required I suspect.
We also managed to spend some time with my sister who owns the post office here in Barraba and do some mail stamping and sorting and on Fridays we get the privilege of sorting all the junk mail that the postie and run drivers drop into people's letter boxes - whether they want it or not!!!!
We generally get home each morning about 9:00am and the day is ours until 3:00pm so I get to spend time with my two birds as shown below.
This shot was taken after work and not during the day.
Fridays are our end of week relax time where they have raffles at the local bowling club where we go and try our luck after the run. We won two meat trays last week but nothing last night.
By the way the bowling club is our local watering hole which of course is just across the highway from the caravan park.
The local watering hole.
Each day we walk up to town after the first school run and spend some time with my sister and niece at the post office and then return just before lunch at which time we do all of our paperwork and relax before the second run.
I will explain the run over the next few weeks as we get used to it and identify land marks and points of interest which I will post on the blog.
It's amazing some of the people and their rigs that you meet when you are on the road. The photo below shows a home away from home as the owner describes it.
It really is a mobile home. It is fully equipped with all the modern cons dishwasher, washing machine, dryer, shower, toilet, full size lounges, modern kitchen and queen bed plus bunks for kids.
The people who own it are middle age with a toddler about two or three years old and are just wandering.
A great way to see the country before they get too old and the kids have to go to school.
Thats all for this week and I will update further next week as we commence the next phase of our plans.
See ya soon - Bill and Maree
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