Baradine was really nice. We met lots of wonderful people, and had a great time there. We even managed to earn enough to cover our costs.
From there we headed north to Piliga, for a dip in the bore baths. Pleasantly warm, but a bit sulphurous on the nose. To our immense surprise, and despite the CDMA coverage maps saying there would be no signal, we were able to make a call from there!
We stayed the night in Wee Waa, at the small caravan park. The owner, a former police sargent, filled us in on all the goings on in town, and the other caravan park. We stopped in on the local computer shop, which had only begun trading a few weeks earlier. I was just starting a good chat about computers with the owner, when Ken dropped by. He spent the next hour and a half telling us his life story, and expounding the wonders of accepting the Holy Spirit into your heart. I didn't bother asking him why Jesus had ignored the Australia's Aboriginals on his last visit to this planet. Nor did I seek an explanation of the contradiction between God's unconditional love, and the fact that you can rot in hell for any minor transgression. There were so many other questions I had for him, but he didn't even pause for a breath. Not quite what I'd expected from a computer shop, but hey, that's life.
After stocking up (we still have plenty of chocolate) and washing (almost all) our clothes in Narrabri, we headed east to Sawn Rocks in Mt Kaputar National Park.
From there we headed east through Bingara, which looked like a town that we could work in, and on to Copeton State Park on the shores of Copeton Dam. Get this. Mid winter, freezing bloody cold, and almost no one camped anywhere, and they are charging peak season rates. An excellent place to visit, but the rates are a bloody joke!
The plan to have a paddle was thwarted by the weather - it turned rainy and cold when we arrived. Anyway, we looked at our maps, accommodation guides, and CDMA coverage maps, and decided that Texas QLD looked like a decent prospect for a town to work in.
So we packed up a wet tent, and set off north. On arrival in Texas we took an overnight van in the caravan park. We spent a day on the usual first day door-to-door game, and managed to land a customer, an elderly lady who had damaged the sensors in her floppy drive. To my immense amazement, the nearest (100km away) Mac dealer didn't call back, and the second (200km away) nearest's phone was engaged for 3 hours! In the end, we arranged for her to drop it off to a shop about 300 km away, on a previously planned trip to Sydney. We must find someone who can competently do Mac parts by mail order.
Despite our best efforts, we were unable to generate any real interest in our services. There was one call on the sat phone, but it only rang half a dozen times, and ended just seconds before I got to it (after launching at pace out of the caravan). We did meet a few very nice folks, but in general we received a very cool reception. Texas is our first total loss, where we were unable to cover the cost of coming here. We are very unlikely to return. Not to worry - there are plenty of other towns in Australia.
We did pick up mail in Texas, and the NSW RTA want the truck inspected. Bastards. I thought that we'd get away without it, since it is less than three years old. Since we're so close to the border, we decided to slip back into NSW and take care of it.
After about 300 kms on the highway, and just shy of our planned destination on the coast, we got a call from a potential customer in Texas. We explained that we had left for lack of interest in our services, and she accepted the response. We gave her a few tips about how to solve her problem, and how much it should cost, and wished her well.