Hi all,

That was my very first visit to a Grey Nomads site, I had no idea on what to expect, What sort of people I would encounter,

How friendly they were, or not, Are they really sociable, Or is it just a Forum Illusion that doesnt exist,

Well after 3 days at Greens, All my fears about friendly people was well and truly dispensed with,

I felt more than welcome, I found I was instantly one of the family,

I was offered meals and drinks, Which blew me away, I was not prepared for such Friendliness from Total Strangers,

It is a credit to you all, I take my hat off to all of you, It was very much appreciated, And I thank you all for the very pleasant time I spent with you,,

Meeting Keith and Alice with their Grand Villa, The first time I had ever seen another one, I gained much knowledge from Keith about his Coach, They looked like twins parked there,

It was nice putting faces to the people on the Forum, Having a look into peoples homes there, Regardless of the size, Its still Home to you, and eventually to me,

But I want to float around OZ first in my boat, then it will be full time in my coach, I need to flog the boat off first so I can afford to run the Coach,

Thank you all again for the very warm welcome I received,

yeoeleven wrote:

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A lot of this post has been covered in several threads but this is just from my viewpoint

    

The third week started with the Melbourne Cup and we had a fine lunch which we all contributed, some of us cooked and others like me bought something from the supermarket. My contribution was one of those crunchy salads consisting of a bag of salad some mayo and crunchy noodles, not very original but probably better than my cooking.


We had a ladies hat day and a sweep, in order to make up the 24 Julie canvassed other campers and as you would expect the first prize was won by an Italian couple who were not Grey Nomads, but they joined us in happy hours and gave some stewing meat to Patty for the dog who also benefited from the cook which we enjoyed for a couple of days.


Wednesday and we had a bonus when one of our new friends found wood left on the foreshore by departed campers. Julie and I went down to check it out and stayed guard whilst Brandt brought down his vehicle and made 2 loads filling his roof rack twice. He enthusiastically split the red gum logs and we got a large wood pile reminiscent of the Tasmanians back yard.

Later that day Brandt got out his 9 quart camp oven and created a mouth watering stew whilst Lorraine produced a fine pavlova and trifle, all of us dined royally that night thanks to Lorraine and Brandt. We sat around a fine campfire and I was too full to get out the jaffle iron so that is an indication of the amount of food on offer.



Thursday and I had a busy day, Billeee went to Shepparton and left his collapsible ladder and I got enthusiastic and cleaned the solar panels, did some washing and had a shower. Too much for one day and very little happened other than an extended happy hour till around 10pm. Friday was about the same but did get round to having the jaffles for tea, one of those small tins of chicken and sweet chilli just fill the middle of the jaffle iron followed by the customary banana, brown sugar and cinnamon.

We have had comings and goings all week and Brian arrived in his Grand Villa 36ft bus matching Alice and Keiths so there was much to be discussed between Keith and Brian and so the day rolled on with me being invited for dinner with Ted and Robyn followed by another extended happy hour round an open fire.


Sunday and I was invited out by Ted to visit the markets at Girgarre and the garage sales at Stanhope so an enjoyable morning followed by a quiet afternoon when I cooked another damper. Turned out well without burning the top or bottom but could have been improved by spreading the mixture across the bottom of the camp oven and making it flatter to avoid a doughy part in the middle.

It is Monday morning and nothing has been planned for the day and we have been reduced to 5 vehicles after Judy left early today..had to go back to work so we all wished her well and thanked her for contributing to our lifestyle via the taxation system. Current Grey Nomads are Keith and Alice, Julie and Billeee, Steve, Ted and Robyn and me. Who knows if anyone else will rock up today or what will develop but that is the beauty of our lifestyle..it really doesnt matter one way or the other.

Julie is our ambassador and single handedly has recruited several couples to join us as grey nomads and helped them gain registration to the site and make their first posts, we will look forward to their contribution as they move on. Don and Sue, Pat and Julie come to mind but there were others. It is unlikely that anything remarkable will occur during today but if it does it will be included in Week 4 at Greens.

      John

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 That camp oven looks familiar;