Kevin Page: Connections in a party line

A life on the open road may seem like an unaffordable dream, but you never know what's around the next corner.

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One of he things I've always enjoyed about life is the unexpected opportunity to meet interesting people in interesting places.

Take the other day.

I was out of town visiting when I realised my old bus which I've turned into a motorhome needed a Certificate of Fitness.

Easy, I thought. I'd just pop down to the testers and run it through.

Now, besides the fact that our State Highway potholes are growing in number they may soon become a tourist attraction in their own right, it turns out there's a fair bit of chaos in the heavy vehicle transport industry at the moment. This means the testers are really under pressure and in lots of places there are long, long, long queues.

Anyway.

This situation led to me and my bus being in a queue at a testing station at 3am _ I kid you not _ waiting for the place to open at 8am. And I wasn't alone.

All around me were trucks waiting for the 8am opening.

Naturally, with this steady flow of traffic, snoozing eluded me so, taking advantage of the home comforts within my bus, I stuck the jug on.

It occurred to me the others in the queue perhaps didn't have the same luxuries so maybe they fancied a cuppa too.

Before long there were four of us sitting round on the camp chairs I'd got out enjoying a coffee in the dark. Just chatting.

The absurdity of the situation appealed to me. As did the conversation.

Naturally we talked and grumbled about why we were all having to queue. Then we had the football talk, the politics talk and the beer talk.

The latter was remarkable for its in depth analysis of various tastes and textures. Think one of your top drawer wine guides and their matching food and plonk recommendations.

Then just transfer it to the real world. Steak and cheese with a Lion Red. Got it?

Later we got on to the motorhoming world Mrs P and I are merely dipping our toes into at present.

All my new mates were envious. it was something they'd love to do.

Driver No.1 had actually bought an old bus some time ago and was converting it to a motorhome. He'd been at it for a few years already.

No.2 had been trying for ages to save up his pennies for a house deposit but was wondering whether he'd ever get there. Perhaps a converted bus would be an option? He wasn't sure if his lady would be keen on living in the confined space full time though.

By this stage I'd made us all a fried egg sandwich to go with the chat.

Such was the good time we were having I was a little disappointed as the sun came up and an end to our weird night loomed.

Luckily No.3 was able to leave us all with some good news.

I'd been extolling the virtues of a life on the road and mentioned how I was looking forward to eventually getting away with Mrs P full time.

He'd expressed support for the idea but mentioned he was on his own and had been for some time. In response I'd mentioned there were a lot of friendly people in a similar situation out and I felt he would not lack for company.

As the doors of the testing station opened I put away the chairs and we all went back to sitting in our own cab waiting for the thrill of the two second inch forward of the queue.
Twenty minutes later Driver No.3 was back at my window, all breathless and excited.

He'd gone back to his truck. Rung a mate and told him all about our chat.

The mate, it turned out, knew a lady on the road full time on her own and had immediately got on the blower and hooked them up.

Driver No.3 was now beaming.

"I've got a date!," he laughed as he headed back to his truck.

See what I mean? you never know whats around the corner.

Or in this case you never know what's going to come out of a chat, a fried egg sandwich and a coffee in a queue in the dark.