Friday, September 30, 2005
Tearing Through the Trailer Parks
As written in the previous article, 'A Day Without a Backpackah', Australia is home to quite a bit of vagabond sub-culture, given its' vast size. We've found this to certainly be true as we cross the countryside. What we did not account for, however, was the actual demographic that makes up the majority of the population.
We've been staying, for the most part, in 'caravan parks', which are comprised of mobile accomodation vans and stand-alone cabins. There was some apprehension initially, as the trailer parks in California are generally crime-ridden drug havens. Here, these caravan parks are both clean and family-oriented. Not a roach to be found, which is more than we can say for our home town of Bronte.
For about forty dollars, you get a small trailer containing a queen sized bed for the parents and a triple set of bunk beds for the kids. For all of our mormon readers out there, that's a family of five facilitated nicely for not much coin. You're provided a small sink and kitchen with supplies, which Macaroni & Cheese looks to be the most complex of an attempt one would want to make given the provisions. You supply your own linens, but there is a shower and an 80's-era TV. Most we've stayed in have been entirely assembled of vinyl siding.
From a kids' perspective, it looks like an absolute nightmare. Stacked like chickens in a coop with your siblings, your parents on the other side of the room, separated only by a small curtain used to feign some sense of privacy. Hot plate meals served on government issued pots and pans.
Despite these passages, we've found them to be consistently clean and safe. People look like they are actually travelling somewhere, not just waiting around for the next tooth to fall out. We'd like to personally extend a measure of thanks to all of the methamphetamine producers in the U.S., for not infesting this innocent society with their poison. Better a family holiday environment than a meth lab any day.
Rising oil prices have been a hot topic here, with truckers blockading freeways in Queensland to protest. The government withdrew their national tax on petrol, causing prices to fall 10% overnight. Big news for us on the road, since we go through a tank each day. Word is that they are planning to extract crude from Prime Minister John Howard's eyebrows.
We've had a bit of stomach indigestion following our venture out to a Middle Eastern restaraunt last night. Hummus has claimed responsibility.
posted by ncawthon at 8:54 AM
<< Home