The Adventure begins

Well we are finally on our way.  We went on another test run before we left Tassie to Hobart.  We camped our first night in the van parked at Bellrieve Yacht club, but with no power, it was freezing, so we soon left.  Ended up staying a few nights at the Hobart Show grounds.  Mark spent a far bit of time fixing James yacht and the kids and I went to the aquatic centre.  Basically we spent a few more days working out how all the bits of the van work. 
We kinda seemed to run out of time towards the end, but we got most things done before we left.  We had some fabulous get togethers with our friends and family.  Lots of fun, can't believe we would leave such great people!  But adventure awaits, and Tassie will always be home.  It was sad to say goodbye to everyone, you'll all be missed.  We were all so excited to go on the boat, kids got to have one last play at the play ground with all their friends.  The kids started to get sad and teary after saying goodbye to their friends when we were lined up in the car park to get on the boat.  I was trying to console the kids when Mark said "Can I hear someone shouting the kids names?" and then we saw them, all the kids and parents were lined up at the fence calling out to the kids, was very special, thanks guys!!!  Also thanks to the really loud people on the river banks in the dark, shouting out as we left, we all waved and yelled lots too.Thanks to everyone for their best wishes and all their help in getting us on the road, it was all much appreciated.
The trip on the boat went really well, a really calm night.  The kids insisted on sleeping on the top bunks, but there were no decent side rails, so we ended up jamming the ladders down the side of the mattress.  That worked well, no one fell out, thank goodness. 
Met an interesting old man on leaving the boat.  We were lined up to collect our gas bottles on the wharf when this old guy (weather beaten face, battered old akubra and a camper trailer,) was nice enough to say, "Your right love, you go first, I've got all the time in the world".  Thought isn't that nice.  Then he says"All I need to do is suck 2(smokes) into me once I'm off this wharf, then I'm outer here, I always look at Melbourne in the rear vision mirror as I leave and give her the one finger salute!  Gosh he was a character, am sure we'll meet plenty more on the road.
Found the Big 4 caravan park in Coburg, nice park.  We went to the footy and saw the Bombers absolutely trounce the gold coast suns, not the most exciting game, but mark loved it!  Caught up with Auntie Jill, Uncle Clive and Felicity for coffee after the game.
Raced around on Monday finding parts for a few broken bits on the van, lucky Mark gets to fix them.  Then we had a fabulous night in Doncaster catching up with Megan, Sam, Thomas and Hannah. 
We're spending today doing school work, washing, riding bikes and just having an easy day.  We're off to Euchuca tomorrow.
Below is a link to a google map I have set up, we'll fill it in as we go so people can see where we've been.
http://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=210838582207629600696.0004a15767c1b6ae9da43&z=6