Speaker 1: You're listening to a MoMA mea podcast. Mamma Mere acknowledges
Speaker 1: the traditional owners of land and waters that this podcast
Speaker 1: is recorded on. Hello friends, I'm Holly Wainwright and I
Speaker 1: am mid midlife, midfamily, mid post work fantasy. Today, I've
Speaker 1: got another story for you about a woman who's doing
Speaker 1: her third act differently, a woman whose husband died and
Speaker 1: whose kids wrapped their arms around her and said stay here, mum,
Speaker 1: and who decided instead to go and live on the
Speaker 1: open road. It's another one of the little extras we're
Speaker 1: dropping in mid for this season that have been supported
Speaker 1: by a ware super about what happens after work. For Lorraine,
Speaker 1: what happens is that, rather than, in her words, mowing
Speaker 1: lawns and playing bowls, she's looping Australia more than once
Speaker 1: in her RV who's called Matilda. Matilda is Lorraine's home,
Speaker 1: and Matilda has a queen sized bed, a kitchen, bathroom,
Speaker 1: a laundroom. And Lorainane is one of the many so
Speaker 1: called gray nomads we hear so much about, except in
Speaker 1: her case, the road trip she's on is not a holiday,
Speaker 1: but it's her life now. She literally lives on the
Speaker 1: road she likes it like that, she says the white
Speaker 1: line calls her, and she means the road when she
Speaker 1: says that, And her daughter now tracks her phone to
Speaker 1: keep the other kids updated about where the hell mom
Speaker 1: might be today. So what does it take to pack
Speaker 1: a life lived in a suburban house down into a van?
Speaker 1: What do her kids really think about it? Where are
Speaker 1: the most perfect places she's ever visited? And what does
Speaker 1: she miss from a more conventional life? When has she
Speaker 1: felt afraid traveling by herself? How does she make friends
Speaker 1: or doesn't with other travelers. If you're wondering why we're
Speaker 1: talking about a post work life in your midfeed about
Speaker 1: a very different phase in the life that you're living,
Speaker 1: probably one that's quite far away, it's because all the
Speaker 1: models for what retirement looks like feel a bit well tired.
Speaker 1: For many of us, we're going to keep working well
Speaker 1: beyond the age our parents accepted their send off because
Speaker 1: we have to or we want to, or because our
Speaker 1: work is flexible and portable, or because the identity and
Speaker 1: purpose it gives us we don't want to get rid
Speaker 1: of others can't wait to sit back and enjoy a
Speaker 1: life stage where we're in charge of our own time,
Speaker 1: of where we are and what we do with no
Speaker 1: boss looking over our shoulder. Either way, choice is the
Speaker 1: dream and choice comes with planning. However dull that part
Speaker 1: of it sounds Dreaming sounds much more fun. So we're
Speaker 1: offering you a few pieces of inspo for that phase
Speaker 1: of your life. And today that inspo is the free
Speaker 1: spirit that is Lorraine. Lorraine, tell us, how did you
Speaker 1: start traveling around Australia.
Speaker 2: My whole life has been seated the pean's decisions, so
Speaker 2: if something come up, I've never planned anything. My husband
Speaker 2: and I were sort of in the verge of separating.
Speaker 2: We had a home at Pottsville Beach.
Speaker 1: Mid North Coast.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, Nie Kingscliffe from those areas, lovely place, but
Speaker 2: we weren't happy for a long time. But we stayed
Speaker 2: together to pay for the home. And he passed away,
Speaker 2: and my kids, all six of them, said, don't worry.
Speaker 2: I know you don't own the house. We'll pay for
Speaker 2: the house and you can stay there, and of them
Speaker 2: was a lovely offer. But I thought, I'm sixty eight,
Speaker 2: what am I going to do. One of my best friends,
Speaker 2: I don't have a lot of friends, but she'd passed
Speaker 2: away and I thought, I'm going to be muwen Lawn's
Speaker 2: looking after a house. No, what do I want to do.
Speaker 2: Let's buy a truck. So as soon as the house
Speaker 2: was I started looking for RVs straight away and.
Speaker 1: So an RV, just tell me because I'm going to
Speaker 1: ask some dumb questions here, right, because that's like, it's
Speaker 1: like a camper van, right, So when all in not
Speaker 1: a caravan, it's like a camper van, Yes.
Speaker 2: All in one. So I found one at Sydney RV
Speaker 2: in Penrith, and my sister lives close and I was
Speaker 2: away at the time. I said, go and have a
Speaker 2: look at this truck. What do you think? She said, Oh, god,
Speaker 2: it's big. She said it's called Matilda, and I went, oh,
Speaker 2: that sounds good. And when I went to see it
Speaker 2: it was just the whole front was like a big
Speaker 2: leather lounge and I went, all that'll make a good bar.
Speaker 2: I like it. So the deposit was on it, and
Speaker 2: I'd had my house on the market and it hadn't sold,
Speaker 2: and then they wanted a five thousand dollar deposit. Geez okay.
Speaker 2: So my nephew popped in and said, oh, I'll give
Speaker 2: you the five thousand, you pay it back and go,
Speaker 2: oh cool. Okay. So now we've got a truck, and
Speaker 2: I said, oh my god.
Speaker 1: Have you ever driven anything that big before?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: Look, years and years prior I used to work on
Speaker 2: an Aboriginal community up the Northern Territory and we had
Speaker 2: a little diner that I used to go in to
Speaker 2: pick up groceries with so on and so forth. And
Speaker 2: it broke down. So the locals walked into town they
Speaker 2: towed me in and coming back home they said they
Speaker 2: can't fix it. We're giving you this one. And it
Speaker 2: was a semi trailer. Oh wow, And I went, I've
Speaker 2: never driven anything that big. And he showed me if.
Speaker 2: I don't know how many gears it had, like twelve
Speaker 2: or eighteen. I used five. And I said I haven't
Speaker 2: got a license. He said, oh, that's all right. Just
Speaker 2: go around the police station. They give me a semi license.
Speaker 2: So I had this and we got home, took this
Speaker 2: house together.
Speaker 1: So you'd driven a semi trailer before you drove Matilda.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1: Was it emotional packing up a life like that or
Speaker 1: were you excited about that?
Speaker 2: I was the adventurer had hit in then seat of
Speaker 2: the pants. It was something different.
Speaker 1: And so you said you worked in the territory, had
Speaker 1: you seen a lot of Australia over the years.
Speaker 2: So I had to go and you knew, well, no,
Speaker 2: not really. My husband liked traveling. I had six kids,
Speaker 2: so we'd go and visit them. They were in perse
Speaker 2: Northern Territory, cans Gold Coast, so we'd always gone around
Speaker 2: a couple of times and visited. But it's different when
Speaker 2: you're by yourself.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. What was it like those first those
Speaker 1: first days when you were out in Matilda on your own.
Speaker 2: Well, I called into my sisters first, and I went,
Speaker 2: oh my god, this is so funny. Drive miss and
Speaker 2: I got as far as just outside of Tai and
Speaker 2: there was a rest stop there and I thought, I'm
Speaker 2: starving and not being in a truck before I was
Speaker 2: white and uppled. I was hanging onto that steering wheel,
Speaker 2: you know, and I'm thinking, oh my god, you know
Speaker 2: this is this is weird. And I pulled into a
Speaker 2: rest stop and I thought, I'll make a sandwich and
Speaker 2: go to the loo. When I come back of about
Speaker 2: twelve bike hes had pulled up and one of them
Speaker 2: had his foot on the step of the truck and
Speaker 2: looking in and I thought, oh my god, you know
Speaker 2: what's this going? And he goes, where you go and
Speaker 2: love you by yourself? I'm going, oh, yes, yes, And
Speaker 2: he said, oh, well, we're head and I set up
Speaker 2: the Gold Coast. He said I will see you on
Speaker 2: the way, and they kept passing me and waving. And
Speaker 2: when I got back to my daughter on the Gold Coast,
Speaker 2: she said, how'd you go?
Speaker 1: Mom?
Speaker 2: I said, I didn't know whether I was going to
Speaker 2: get killed or get lucky. I wasn't quite sure.
Speaker 1: You had, like us, you had to like a security
Speaker 1: detail of driving up the coast. Have you speaking of that?
Speaker 1: Have you traveling on your own and doing this this
Speaker 1: trip as you've done several times now, are you ever
Speaker 1: worried about safety? Does it feel quite safe? There are
Speaker 1: lots of people doing it.
Speaker 2: There are lots of people doing it. I've never felt unsafe.
Speaker 2: But now and again, you pull up, because I love
Speaker 2: absolutely isolated areas. You pull up sometimes and I have
Speaker 2: an uneasy feeling and I might only move one hundred
Speaker 2: meters up the road and pull over again, and it's okay.
Speaker 2: I don't know what that is, but I do follow.
Speaker 2: So you listen to your instincts. And it's interesting how
Speaker 2: some places just don't feel right, isn't it.
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: And I hate caravan parks.
Speaker 1: Right, So I was going to ask you, so where
Speaker 1: do you so? Where do you mostly park Matilda?
Speaker 2: Any free parking?
Speaker 1: Yeah? You must be someone who likes their own company.
Speaker 1: Yeah have you always been? I mean six kids and
Speaker 1: like married life and all that. You must have. You
Speaker 1: must have not had that much time on your own.
Speaker 2: That's probably what it is more there, and you go, no,
Speaker 2: I've been really busy. I go and visit people in
Speaker 2: the city, my kids, and they're all worried about got
Speaker 2: to do that, the powers due this week, that's due.
Speaker 2: I don't have any of that. And I don't understand
Speaker 2: it when people go, oh my god, it was on
Speaker 2: the today and this happened and that happened, and I
Speaker 2: just get why let it worry you, you know? But
Speaker 2: I don't know whether that's because I'm on the sunny
Speaker 2: side of eighty now and I just go, well, you're
Speaker 2: going to die, what does it matter? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, So if you don't stay in caravan parks, how
Speaker 1: do you like how do you meet people? Because I
Speaker 1: would have thought that that's where you would meet people
Speaker 1: in the evening and have a chat with It's funny.
Speaker 2: I think if you talk to a lot of single
Speaker 2: campus and that not all of them, but some of
Speaker 2: the long term ones, you seem to get squashed into
Speaker 2: caravan parks. You're too close and they're that they're like
Speaker 2: that little club. You know, they've got their friends with
Speaker 2: them and whatever. And I don't know. Some people say
Speaker 2: it's because you're single, they've got husbands. One lady actually
Speaker 2: said to me, oh, you know you're single. I said, God, love,
Speaker 2: I don't want your husband. I don't want to have
Speaker 2: killed off too. I don't you think They're like, oh,
Speaker 2: we don't want and I don't know. So yeah, it
Speaker 2: is a bit. It's funny. But you know, there's plenty
Speaker 2: of free camping or overnights days. If not, there's nowhere
Speaker 2: sort of in the bush that says no camping or
Speaker 2: there is some places, but my favorite places, I think
Speaker 2: South Australia wins hands down.
Speaker 1: Really why is that.
Speaker 2: I've been through there a couple of times. A couple
Speaker 2: of years ago. It was the Air Peninsula, which is
Speaker 2: oh man, I could live on oysters for the rest
Speaker 2: of my life, and it was just beautiful. But this
Speaker 2: last trip, this twenty twenty four, I followed the coast
Speaker 2: as close as I could, so I got off the
Speaker 2: highway and went off into all the little side places.
Speaker 2: And there's not every ten minutes in South Australia, there's
Speaker 2: something else, a lake at Crater. It's incredible. I loved it.
Speaker 2: I could live down there, I think, except it gets
Speaker 2: too cold and I hate the Gold.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I was going to ask you, is the trip
Speaker 1: the loops around Australia? Are you looking for a place
Speaker 1: to say or is the travel the point?
Speaker 2: No? I think it's just travel. Yeah, And I go
Speaker 2: in and out. You know, I've come back from Oh
Speaker 2: sometimes just gone Tweetheads to the Gold Coast and I
Speaker 2: call into every side place. But I've done that a
Speaker 2: couple of times, so I don't need to do that again.
Speaker 2: But sometimes I've taken three months to go one hundred kilometers.
Speaker 2: Depends you're not on a schedule.
Speaker 1: It's not like you're going to have to get here
Speaker 1: by this time.
Speaker 2: No, that's true.
Speaker 1: That must be so that must feel so good.
Speaker 2: It's yeah, it's enlightening. I think it's just you know,
Speaker 2: I've only got one. Sometimes my daughter that lives on
Speaker 2: the Hunter will say I've got to go away because
Speaker 2: she has to travel with work. You come and mind
Speaker 2: the animals, So I'm usually scraping up horse pew for
Speaker 2: a month or something, which is very glamorous.
Speaker 1: Do you get it to your feet when you're stay
Speaker 1: in one place? Now after a few years.
Speaker 2: I can't stand it really. Yeah. About four years ago
Speaker 2: I was up at my sons who lives at Conunger said,
Speaker 2: hell on a you staying maybe three weeks?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's good. I was lasted four days and he
Speaker 2: rang me went t works where I said, I think
Speaker 2: I'm in GIMPI now, but I find I'm getting worse.
Speaker 2: I just cannot stay in the one place. And I
Speaker 2: think my kids are worried now because they keep going Mummy,
Speaker 2: you're getting older. What are you going to do when
Speaker 2: you can't drive the truck? And Filma and Luiz comes
Speaker 2: to mind, But oh.
Speaker 1: Gosh, I was going to ask you practicalities of being
Speaker 1: older and driving around and being in can you just like,
Speaker 1: what do you do for health concerns? Can you just
Speaker 1: pop into a local doctor? Like? Is it like?
Speaker 2: How does I don't go? Yeah? You don't go.
Speaker 1: No, you just don't.
Speaker 2: I just don't go.
Speaker 1: So you've been like you've obviously not had to have
Speaker 1: to deal with anything.
Speaker 2: No, you know, six kids and having me knees done.
Speaker 2: So I've been in hospital seven times. That's all I
Speaker 2: need in my lifetime. And every scratch I get on
Speaker 2: the road, I put no polishry mover on it. A
Speaker 2: certain polish remover kills any germs. Oh my god, there's
Speaker 2: another tib And now I think my granddaughter's put on
Speaker 2: their pimples. I'm not quite sure, but it works on them.
Speaker 2: M up.
Speaker 1: Next, I asked the rain whether she's had any hairy
Speaker 1: moments traveling on her own and sometimes unpredictable weather and
Speaker 1: far away places. Stay with us. You must be at
Speaker 1: the obviously traveling Australia at the whim of the weather
Speaker 1: and the extra the floods, storms all that. Have you
Speaker 1: had any hairy moments with the natural environ No.
Speaker 2: I haven't. I've been caught in floods and always up
Speaker 2: the territory. There's fires on the side of the road.
Speaker 2: You've just got to be aware of them, you know.
Speaker 2: I mean, if the wind's blown straight to your truck
Speaker 2: with the flames. You don't get past it. You've got
Speaker 2: to use a lot of common sense and don't drive
Speaker 2: too close behind the kettle truck. So I've found out
Speaker 2: this year too. I get covered in the the fellas
Speaker 2: will laugh and you know they're on the CB gun.
Speaker 2: Did you cop that one? I go, yeah, I'm buying
Speaker 2: a lot of ticket.
Speaker 1: So you've got you've got a CBE radio in Matilda.
Speaker 1: What are they like? What? What home comforts have you
Speaker 1: got in Matilda? Or rather what what are the things
Speaker 1: that make her home? You know what I mean that
Speaker 1: it's really a house.
Speaker 2: I've got a queen size bed that I don't have
Speaker 2: to climb a ladder to get up to. So queen
Speaker 2: size bed, bathroom, toilet, kitchen, big lounge area. I did
Speaker 2: take two of my daughters and two grandchildren to Ularu
Speaker 2: a few years back. God it felt crowded.
Speaker 1: With a lot of people.
Speaker 2: My oldest daughter end up flying home from Adelaide. She
Speaker 2: could take it any longer. So no, there's room for one.
Speaker 2: I can sleep six, seven and carry five. But really
Speaker 2: it's your place. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Do you see a lot of older women doing what
Speaker 1: you're doing.
Speaker 2: There's a lot. I've just come back from a local
Speaker 2: camp and there was thirty people and I think there's
Speaker 2: only about four fellers in that and they're in their
Speaker 2: eighties and in trucks. They've got houses though, a lot
Speaker 2: of them, and I think, oh, that's lovely. You know
Speaker 2: a lot of people contact me and go should I
Speaker 2: sell me house? And I go, well, you've got nowhere
Speaker 2: to go to when you can't drive. You should think
Speaker 2: about that. I don't, you know. I mean, I could
Speaker 2: probably park the truck up in the middle of a
Speaker 2: salt lake somewhere and live on that, but I don't
Speaker 2: really want to do that at such a waste. But
Speaker 2: I don't know how I'd go in a house now.
Speaker 2: That white line calls me all the time.
Speaker 1: It's really what do you think is about it? White
Speaker 1: line in the road?
Speaker 2: It's just the traveling. I love those roads where you
Speaker 2: can't see anything but road for distances of you know,
Speaker 2: one hundred kilometers and the outback. The painted is that
Speaker 2: all of those places they are just they're beautiful till
Speaker 2: the on in the cabin. Yes, but you see when
Speaker 2: I'm parked up, if I'm not on power, I don't
Speaker 2: have egor right, and I've only just this year bought
Speaker 2: a battery operated fan. But most of the time it's
Speaker 2: you know, it's too hot. You sleep under a wet tail,
Speaker 2: learnt you and try to keep kills. Everything works without power,
Speaker 2: so I don't have any I've got solar.
Speaker 1: And all you've got solder, don't you on the roof?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: So you can power things if you need to. And
Speaker 1: I've saw you say that you've got a you've got
Speaker 1: a little TV, but you never watch it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I hardly ever watched Telly.
Speaker 1: It would work if you want.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, My TV's twelve power and two Fordy vaults.
Speaker 2: Same with everything through the truck.
Speaker 1: So and what happens if you get a flat tire
Speaker 1: or Matilda breaks down or something happens.
Speaker 2: I've learned over the ten years that there's a lot
Speaker 2: I can do myself. Wow, my sister's got a lovely
Speaker 2: mechanic next to her. I think he hates me by now, Philip,
Speaker 2: How do I do this? Philip? And he'll show me
Speaker 2: what to do and whatever, shows me how to change
Speaker 2: fan builts and things like that.
Speaker 1: You must be a very very capable.
Speaker 2: Woman of Oh yeah, I don't know. I had no
Speaker 2: choice because again I didn't make plans. I didn't know
Speaker 2: where I was going. And I was right up on
Speaker 2: the golf development road. I think that was one of
Speaker 2: my first trips. And there's like a sharp corner that
Speaker 2: goes to Croydon and then to Normanton and I could
Speaker 2: hear this noise and I said, oh no, I hadn't
Speaker 2: seen anybody for ages and it's just a big dirt
Speaker 2: area there. They pulled over and I've got a flat
Speaker 2: and I said, oh my god. Okay, and the wheel itself.
Speaker 2: You have to wind it down off a chain and
Speaker 2: they're really quite heavy, but.
Speaker 1: They are a normal cart tired wheel is heavy.
Speaker 2: Yes. I was laying on my back on the red
Speaker 2: dirt with being bitten by black ants and whatever and
Speaker 2: pushing it out with my feet. Anyway, I finally got
Speaker 2: it all changed and a truck he pulled up and
Speaker 2: he said, can I help? You just done it all?
Speaker 2: But he checked the nuts for me and he said, oh,
Speaker 2: you've done really well.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and you take your dog with you, right.
Speaker 2: I've got a cat and a dog. Now, cat and
Speaker 2: a dog, yes, so they.
Speaker 1: Keep your company.
Speaker 2: I guess, yeah, the dog does. He used to get
Speaker 2: very anxious though, so I thought I'll get him a partner,
Speaker 2: and I didn't want another dog, so I picked up
Speaker 2: a cat in Victoria last year.
Speaker 1: And how did they get along?
Speaker 2: And really well actually, but he still gets you know,
Speaker 2: they both get crazy. Now when I get home, they're
Speaker 2: jumping all over. But the cat stopped trying to sleep
Speaker 2: on the steering wheel now, which is good.
Speaker 1: So the group that you're saying, you're a member of
Speaker 1: a few camping groups, so you mostly traveled on your own.
Speaker 1: But if you want to hang out with other people,
Speaker 1: you've got there are groups of other people doing this
Speaker 1: thing you or yeah, and you can you can sort
Speaker 1: of that company around Australia.
Speaker 2: You know, you can just look them up and somebody
Speaker 2: will say, I'm going camping here if anyone wants to
Speaker 2: join me, And I've got a couple on. We're going
Speaker 2: down to Bilanglo Forest of all places.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, the Death Forest, famous forest and yeah, and
Speaker 3: then Maruyah and then I'm up to the entrance for
Speaker 3: the blues festival or whatever it is.
Speaker 2: And then Glenworth Valley food and wine. Oh so you
Speaker 2: go into a few I love that place. You do
Speaker 2: plan a few festivals and things. This is the only
Speaker 2: year I've done it the first.
Speaker 1: Year, So why have you decided this year to do
Speaker 1: a bit of planning instead of just seeing where the
Speaker 1: road takes.
Speaker 2: That's a good question. I don't know. You know, it
Speaker 2: was a I stayed away a lot last year and
Speaker 2: camped up the terretory. It was beautiful, and I go
Speaker 2: back onto the Aboriginal community to visit them and they
Speaker 2: still know me and you get along fine. But yeah,
Speaker 2: it's a sad and sorry place. So I don't know
Speaker 2: whether I'll go back. I think I and most of
Speaker 2: them have passed away. They're lucky if they live past
Speaker 2: sixty up there there.
Speaker 1: So after the break, Lorraine reveals the destinations at the
Speaker 1: top of her travel list and gives us her best
Speaker 1: recommendations for anyone thinking of exploring Australia in an RV.
Speaker 1: Do you have anywhere left that you're dying to see
Speaker 1: in Australia or do you think you've seen it all?
Speaker 2: No? I think I'm going to do Western Australia again
Speaker 2: next year, and just instead of going down I might
Speaker 2: go to Calgiley instead of down the other way. Or yeah, still,
Speaker 2: you could spend a lifetime and still not see it.
Speaker 1: All, is there a place you want to tell everybody
Speaker 1: to go? Like you said, South Australia was stunning, wa
Speaker 1: is stunning?
Speaker 2: Gosh?
Speaker 1: If I'm going, if I'm jumping in my camp van,
Speaker 1: which I don't have yet but I'm planning to have
Speaker 1: one in a few years time, where should I go first?
Speaker 1: I live on the south coast of New South Wales.
Speaker 2: Oh, oh see, I'm going to Maria Nixon. I love
Speaker 2: the South Kens. My daughter that lives on the Hunter
Speaker 2: used to live in the Kyama yep and she was
Speaker 2: on sixty nine acres, you know, overlooking the ocean. Beautiful.
Speaker 1: Oh so you're saying, don't go anywhere they were.
Speaker 2: Well you can. You know, I'm happy wherever I'm park Really,
Speaker 2: if I choose the place, have a wander around. Hey, no,
Speaker 2: there is. There's so many beautiful places that you really
Speaker 2: can't pick one. But I think this well, last year,
Speaker 2: I keep saying this year. Last year, South Australia really
Speaker 2: blew me away. So I've been there before but hadn't
Speaker 2: done that coast raid. And then I went from there
Speaker 2: up the Stuart Highway, an unbeknown to me, I know
Speaker 2: at the Salt Lakes. I went to the salt lake
Speaker 2: there love something or other.
Speaker 1: Do you stay in touch with the world. I guess
Speaker 1: you've got a phone?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, look now and again. It must be nice
Speaker 2: to be I watched the news last night for the
Speaker 2: first time in about three weeks. But it's all rubbish, isn't.
Speaker 1: It's all bad news papers driving.
Speaker 2: It's funny some people sit around and they'll talk to
Speaker 2: me for a while and they go, oh, I'm so stressed,
Speaker 2: said by a truck, by a truck. Just leave it
Speaker 2: all beyond.
Speaker 1: Don't you have to worry about fuel, like fuel stops?
Speaker 1: Plug yourself out with that, like to make sure you've
Speaker 1: got enough to go where you need to go. Do
Speaker 1: you always have spares?
Speaker 2: Oh? I always. I know how many kilometers I get
Speaker 2: out of the truck, and at the moment my fuel
Speaker 2: gauge is broken, so I've got to get that fixed.
Speaker 1: You've got to guess.
Speaker 2: So I've been guessing. I've been putting so many kilometers
Speaker 2: on the thing and then going, okay, you need to
Speaker 2: get petrol, and then didn't do it, and I was
Speaker 2: in the hunter and the track wouldn't start to go
Speaker 2: and get petrol. You know, stupid stuff like I'm not
Speaker 2: a beginner. It's still years and you could shoot yourself.
Speaker 2: And when I was up at Ingham, the air conditioner
Speaker 2: went so hot. I said, oh my god, what's gone on?
Speaker 2: Can't get it to work? You know, it's simple things
Speaker 2: that I know. I always check. Didn't check the fan belt,
Speaker 2: did I? And I'm buying. Oh, it's all the way
Speaker 2: to the Gold Coast, and my daughter said, I've got
Speaker 2: a man here that's going to have a look at it.
Speaker 2: And oh okay, lovely fella gets under the truck, comes
Speaker 2: back out. He said, you haven't got a fan belt
Speaker 2: on there, and I went, are you kidding? I said,
Speaker 2: I think I've already got dementia. It's time to hang up.
Speaker 2: But yeah, so that's all fixed now. But it's not
Speaker 2: too much that goes wrong, thank goodness. It's a twenty
Speaker 2: year old truck.
Speaker 1: Do you listen to anything when you're driving? Listen to music?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I'm usually on Spotify or something. I've never
Speaker 2: been a reader, which is funny. I get to the
Speaker 2: first page and I go to sleep. So I've never
Speaker 2: been a reader, but I love the music.
Speaker 1: You're obviously happy to park up and just be in nature.
Speaker 3: He's pretty cool out there, it is right.
Speaker 1: Do you think that this lifestyle we'll call it, like
Speaker 1: the traveling lifestyle, is something that you were saying that
Speaker 1: you didn't really plan. It kind of happened. But do
Speaker 1: you think it's something that women should plan for and
Speaker 1: think about for that post work lifelve when they're going
Speaker 1: what's my retirement going to look like? What's it going
Speaker 1: to be like when I'm older and on my I know.
Speaker 2: A lot of people that I talk to or send
Speaker 2: me messages and they say, oh, I'm thinking of selling
Speaker 2: my house and buying a caravan, And I always say,
Speaker 2: think about it first, hire a van first, or hire
Speaker 2: an RV first, go on to travel and see because
Speaker 2: nine times out of ten people only last a year.
Speaker 2: And you see them all the time for sale and
Speaker 2: they're only two and three years old, and you think,
Speaker 2: oh goodness me, why you know? Why do that? Or
Speaker 2: on the other hand, you have the other person that
Speaker 2: hasn't retired and they should be and they're going, I've
Speaker 2: still got to work. I'm helping my son or daughter
Speaker 2: through UNI. You wait, nine times out of ten one
Speaker 2: of them dies before they get on the road. There's
Speaker 2: no real answer. I think it's got to be in
Speaker 2: your heart and what you want to do. And as
Speaker 2: I said, I just my whole life has never been
Speaker 2: a plan. It's oh, okay, well we'll do that now.
Speaker 2: Oh this is not going to work. Okay, we'll do
Speaker 2: that now. When we moved to the territory, my son
Speaker 2: was being a right little cow and I couldn't get
Speaker 2: him away from these kids. And we got offered a
Speaker 2: job up there, said okay, let's move, so we moved
Speaker 2: them all. You know, there was no I must have
Speaker 2: been a terrible mother.
Speaker 1: It sounds like, sounds like it was the right call.
Speaker 2: So no, I can't. I'm no good at advice. Ok.
Speaker 2: It's got to be in your heart. Definitely planned all
Speaker 2: my kids plan for every time. And I mean the
Speaker 2: kids now sort of said, oh, you can live with
Speaker 2: me for two months and me with two months and
Speaker 2: share yourself around. But I don't do that. The poor
Speaker 2: daughter in the hunter, you know, she's got land and horses,
Speaker 2: and she always ends up as she says, each time
Speaker 2: i'll leave, she sends the other message with saying, you've
Speaker 2: got the short straw. She's coming.
Speaker 1: I love it, Thank you, Lorrain.
Speaker 2: That's quite right.
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed meeting Lorraine. She was a really
Speaker 1: good company. And if you want to hear more stories
Speaker 1: of post work life, please scroll back and listen to
Speaker 1: last week's episode about the friends who all moved in together.
Speaker 1: And of course there are lots of brilliant conversations in
Speaker 1: this midfeed and in the previous seasons for all kinds
Speaker 1: of stages of life you might be going through right now.
Speaker 1: Whether it's dealing with an empty nest, whether it's reinventing
Speaker 1: your career, whether it's getting back into dating after divorce,
Speaker 1: you'll find all of that in your midfeed. I want
Speaker 1: to thank all of you for being here with us,
Speaker 1: because that's all we've got time for in season four
Speaker 1: of mid We'll be back in your ears with season
Speaker 1: five soon, and for more information about all the ways
Speaker 1: of where super and make dreams for that third act
Speaker 1: part of your life more attainable, please support me by
Speaker 1: following the link in the show notes or going to
Speaker 1: a ware dot com dot au, forward slash retire and
Speaker 1: a huge thank you from me as always to our
Speaker 1: executive producer Nama Brown, our senior producer Grace Rufrey, producer
Speaker 1: Charlie Blackman, and our audio producer Jacob Brown. I'll see
Speaker 1: you next time.