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| Erin's South Australia Journals - 12-05-02 Sure enough, we woke up too late to see Kylie off. I took a nice hot shower and joined the boys downstairs in the midst of breakfast. It was a lot of fun catching up with Andrew in his home town, and he really took care of us in a way only fellow travellers can - he even went to the RAA (auto club) and picked up a ton of maps for the rest of our Australian trip! So we earnestly invited him to come to our place (when we have one, of course!) and let us return the favor at some near future date. After waving goodbye to Andrew, we drove on to the Low's house at a bit later than we'd planned to get going and were lucky to find them home. They kindly allowed me to take the car and follow Glenn across town to return the rental crappy car we'd been using to get around, and returned to their house a bit after the assigned time of noon. We quickly all got into the car again and went to their bank (we'd get a cash advance and they'd deposit it straight to their account). Well, then all hell broke loose. I'd thought it might be better to get the cash the day before, just in case there were any problems, but Glenn justifiably didn't want to carry that much cash around even for an extra day. So when we showed up with the Lows and the card was rejected, my sinking feeling was almost expected. We asked if we could call the Visa company from the bank, but their procedure didn't allow this, so we had to go find a pay phone and call overseas from there. There was one right across the street, but when we tried it, we couldn't hear a thing and the phone card wouldn't hook up. So we walked a bit further up the street to the post office and a phone right outside there, and this time it worked. Well, the first couple of times we got through, the company required info that we had in one of our bags in the car. After running back and retrieving that, we were told that the hold was triggered automatically by the system and that it was now lifted. We returned to the bank and tried it again, and again it was rejected. Frustrated and embarrassed, we once again trekked up the street to call. This time, the Visa security branch refused to even talk to us, so we had to call Glenn's parents back in Florida to enlist their aid! We woke them at almost 11pm their time, but they helped out immediately and we were at long last able to get the cash advance. The Lows had waited patiently throughout this misadventure but were glad to see the money actually materialize. Next stop was the registration office so we could transfer title, which was done pretty easily (the only problem being the stupid Visa card once again being frozen, after just recently being used for the cash advance!!!). We dropped the Lows off at their new car and waved fondly. They are wonderful, interesting people and would be fantastic subjects for a biography! We will write to them and send a wedding photo, at their request! By now it was getting to late afternoon, so our wine-tasting afternoon in the Barossa Valley would not materialize. This didn't break our hearts, but was frustrating as the day could have gone much smoother. Now we just wanted to get out of town and relax again. So after an hour of driving and a quick stop off for lunch, we arrived at Nuriootpa, a small town in the Barossa Valley, and booked ourselves into a basic cabin at a caravan park. We've avoided these campgrounds before, thinking of the raucous partying at the Amsterdam campground where we'd gotten no sleep. But this place was great - clean bathrooms with hot showers, and our cabin was like a tiny apartment with fridge & tv and everything! We took a quick drive around the valley on some scenic roads, then picked up some dinner and took it back to the cabin for a lazy night in bed watching tv. |
| This pig - er, kangaroo - wouldn't let go of your hand till she was good and done! |