Chicago Staff Band | Portland to Geelong

Wednesday, June 21st 2006

Portland to Geelong06/21/2006 07:24 PM

Location : Tour Bus

It's Thursday here in Australia but I need to catch you up to date on our travels yesterday from Portland to Geelong. The day in Portland started out cloudy and we had breakfast at the hotel before boarding the bus for our 360 km trip to Portland.

As I think I'd mentioned before, Peggy hasn't been feeling well and it was decided it was time for her to see a doctor. Arrangements were made for us to stop and see a doctor en route to Geelong. On Tuesday night in Portland Dr. John Philpot, a Salvationist from Warrnambool was seated just a couple of rows from Peggy. Our liaison, Alan Collett made a telephone call to Dr. Philpot who agreed to see Peggy on our way through his town. We stopped at a McDonald's near his surgery (office) and he was very gracious to see both her and Heidi who was having some pain from her recent wisdom teeth extractions. We waited at McDonald's for about an hour and a half while they saw the doctor and then went to the chemist (pharmacy) to get prescriptions. It was diagnosed as bronchitis for Peggy and after a day resting on the bus, a night of sleep she is doing some better. She did play the concert last night but passed on her solo.

Alan Collett shared that when they arrived at surgery, Dr. Philpot's reception called to tell him that Alan and Peggy had arrived but the entire band had also come because we were all sick. Of course that wasn't true but it made a good story. Actually we do have a few that are starting to sniffle but nothing seems terribly serious. Also, after they'd left the doctor he came back out on the street, stethoscope and all, to be sure he'd taken care of Heidi satisfactorily and continued his consultation right there on the street.

After we were done in Warrnambool we continued our journey along the Shipwreck Coast along the Great Ocean Road. What a scenic drive that was! I'm sure that there were more pictures taken on that part of our tour than the total number of pictures taken the entire rest of the tour. Out of necessity much of our "sightseeing" on this tour has been out the windows of the bus. But we were able to stop at Loch Ard Gorge, site of a famous shipwreck and the Twelve Apostles, a fantastic formation of rocks sticking out of the ocean in the surf. Words and pictures will not be descriptive enough to help those who weren't there to see it for themselves, but we will try. It did begin to rain on us a bit at Twelve Apostles but it really didn't deter us much.

As we continued our drive on the Great Ocean Road that runs right next to the ocean all the way and we looked at the beauty of the surf crashing into the beaches and rocks I was reminded of the scripture found in Jeremiah 31:35 that says:

"This is what the Lord says,
he who appoints the sun to shine by day,
who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar -
the Lord Almighty is his name:"

The rest of our trip was spent passing through the Otway Range on winding roads skirting the ocean until we eventually found our way to Geelong. We were a bit late getting to the corps in South Barwon but our hosts were very gracious. We quickly unloaded and ate dinner. Then we changed into our uniforms and set up before beginning our concert at 7:30 pm. The hall was full with somewhere between 250 and 300 people that were very enthusiastic in their response.

Following the concert, as has become our habit, we met our host families and retired to their homes for the evening. Our special thanks go to Majors John and Wendy Friend as well as Band Secretary Brett Vale for all of the excellent arrangements made on our behalf. It's my understanding that Major Wendy Friend was not at all well and so we are particularly grateful for the effort made in spite of that circumstance.

Now we are off to Rosebud but will be stopping to see a bit of Melbourne first before heading to the east side of the bay.

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