Note to self

The station attendant was startled by the flash!

Carry cash!  At home we rely heavily on EFTPOS, so make a conscious effort to remember to have  "real money" with us when traveling into more regional areas.

We had collected Erin from the zoo around 4:00pm.  As fuel wasn't an issue then, we didn't stop again at Dubbo but continued on - conscious that Nick would have to work later that night.  By the time we reached Merriwa (pop. approx 1,000) at 8:00pm, Elmer was desperately in need of a drink!

The town was in darkness and we at first thought this small petrol station was closed too, which was somewhat concerning!  A fellow came out though and fortunately advised he couldn't take EFTPOS before he started filling our tanks.  (As we were only 230ish km from home, we weren't expecting a cash-only service).  We were directed to another servo up the road but it was shut.  Luckily we found an ATM, withdrew some cash and returned to fill the main tank.

We finally arrived home at around 10:00pm (after stopping for Hungry Jack's near Cessnock).  Nick managed a far too brief one-hour nap before heading up to Newcastle for a midnight start.