OUTBACK QLD - DAY 9 - ROMA TO TOOWOOMBA

Heading towards home for Ian and Kathy,  another good week for us...
We left Roma just after 9.30am for the final leg of our journey together...
Obviously they have had rain in this area of the state because the countryside was a delight to drive through...
We had three main towns to pass through before we arrived in Toowoomba.  Miles, Chinchilla and Dalby.  We decided that Chinchilla would be a good place to stop for lunch.    Although we knew we had three main towns to pass through, we didn't realize there would be all these little towns we would need to travel through.
The first little place we passed through was Youba.  It is really hard to call them a town because some times there might have only been a couple of houses there. 

Youba - here we pass through....

Only sight of any significance whilst passing through Youba. 

Next little country place was here:

Jackson

Then came Dulacca

Started to see a lot more silo's around here .......

Drillham

We have started crossing rivers that actually has water in it...

 So far these holidays, most of the rivers and creeks have been bone dry,  si it is so nice now to actually see river beds full or water, rather than dead river banks with no water in these at all.
We reached Miles somewhere between 11am and 11.30am,  two early to stop for lunch so we just decided to keep going so as to make Chinchilla our lunch stop. 

Coming into Miles

Crossing the river at Miles

The main highway through Miles

Passing through Miles.

 We pushed on for almost another hour before coming to Chinchilla.  We were feeling a little lazy this morning and we hadn't really prepared anything for lunch.  We thought we would treat ourselves for a change and get some take. 

Chinchilla was quite a pretty little town

 The Golden Arches soon came into view as as rounded a corner, so we figured that it was as good a place as any to stop for lunch.  We had done really well these holidays, this was our first take away meal since leaving home, so that is not too bad, considering we have been going pretty flat out all week.  There was a nice park land across the road from McDonalds, so we found a nice shady tree and parked under it.

Parking under some shady trees whilst we went for lunch...

  Once we hopped  out of the car the fragrance from this plant really hit us.  It was really beautiful. 

There were several of these trees in flower along the fence line...

Parkland across from McDonalds in Chinchilla

Volunteer's Walk in Chinchilla

Chinchilla

Our lunch stop in Chinchilla...

Lunch stop...

Not that I am a McDonalds fan, in fact we since the kids have all grown up, we rarely visit Maccas.  We would be lucky to visit this place once a year.  I have to say though that the visit to this McDonalds was a real highlight of the day for me.  I have never been to a Maccas like it anywhere.
Each table had a vase with beautiful flowers like this.....

Vases of fresh flowers on all the tables in McDonalds.

The flowers on our table

Lunch at Maccas

Even the coffee cups had positive messages written on the lids of the take away cups.  It was really lovely and one of the highlights of my day.

Handwritten message for each of their coffee customers.

Each of the messages were different.  These ones were Steve's.

A personal little message....

Ian & Kathy enjoying their lunch,

Enjoying our lunch

 It was good to catch up on all the news too.  We have heard and read very little of the news around the world since we have been away, so we were quite happy to sit a little longer and catch up.

Catching up on all that has happened in the world in the last week. 

We ended up with three papers...

and Steve used his phone to catch up. 

Ah well time to hit the road again....

Kathy checking out the beautifully fragrant bushes before we leave. 

 We were pretty surprised at the cost of fuel out west.  We expected it to be much higher than this.  this is pretty much what we were paying at home before we left....

Cost of fuel out West wasn't as bad as we had expected...

 Off on our final leg of the journey for the day... no more stops now until we get to Toowoomba.  I really enjoyed the scenery on the rest of the drive.  We had some amazing cloud formations,  made even nicer by the fact that there were rain and storms about.

Lots more silo's along the sides of the road for the rest of the trip

It is the sky here that was so impressive for me...

Getting closer and closer to our destination.... We reached Dalby by mid afternoon...It was another nice little town.  The thing that struck us about Dalby was there seemed to be miles and miles of farming machinery in and out of town...

Welcome to Dalby....

 The trees in Dalby really fascinated us.  The streets were lined by these trees.  It is almost as if another bush was growing out of the bases of the trees...

The trees in Dalby were all like this...

Driving through Dalby

Some more of those lovely old buildings we have seen so much of out back. 

 We left for the last leg of our journey, and I couldn't help but photograph the scenery.  It was the clouds that really impressed me.  They were magnificent..

Clouds and blue skies were so impressive...

Carpets of wildflowers along the sides of the road.  

 It was actually quite hot and we noticed a mirage on the road which reflected all the vehicles.  Tried photographing it but they aren't the best photos. 

Mirages on the highway...

 This car was a name and shame as it sped past us overtaking on the double lines... It is impatient people like this that gets others killed....  Probably should have rung and reported him/her. 

Shame on you..... very dangerous to pass on the double lines...

Some more of the scenery

 The countryside was much more fertile around this area. 

More big trucks overtaking us...

Getting closer to Toowoomba,  I have lots of happy memories from USQ days

Harvestors at work on the Darling Downs

Not sure what this was...

Welcome to Oakley

Lush green paddocks

Oakley

Around Oakley

 

 

 

 First sign of road works this trip....  it seemed for years that whenever you travel the highway you would be stopped for ages,  so it was a pleasant surprise to not have any roadworks around for  most of this trip.

 

 

 Finally we arrive in Toowoomba around 3.30pm in the afternoon.  We set up camp and my niece and her husband Joe come to visit.  They dropped in briefly before heading off to church and then everyone came back for a bar-b-cue dinner.,

Welcome to Toowoomba - how lovely and green...

Toowoomba is at it's peak at the moment with their flowering gardens. 

 We arrived at our van park and quickly set up.  The family were all coming for dinner.  It would be good to see them all included our adopted daughter Daina......
 It was so good to see this beautiful girl and see first hand just how well she is doing...

With our beautiful girl Daina....

With our beautiful girl Daina

 And I got so spoilt too with these beautiful floewers from Daina...

Spoilt rotten with these lovely flowers to grace my dining room table...

 Highlights today would have to be...
1.  Lunch at Maccas in Chinchilla  - fresh flowers on each table and special messages in our coffee lids.
2. Beautiful countryside and the drive today..
3.  The smell of rain... and storm clouds.
4. Catching up with family
5. Catching up with beautiful Daina.
6.  Fresh flowers

Ian and Kathy's last day with us tomorrow and we have a big day planned checking out all the flowering gardens for the Carnival of Flowers.  We are spending an extra day here to catch up with family.