Shepparton

Today we managed to get going before lunchtime! It must be a record!!
We started to drive to Echuca but detoured to Shepparton. We found the factory for the SPC – Shepparton Preserving Company, that has been around since the early 1900s and produces the SPC, Goulburn Valley, Ardmona and IXL brands of canned foods. It is a huge factory that takes up acres of land. Unfortunately they no longer do tours of the factory itself – we were quite seen to see the process. We found the SPC factory outlet and along with lots of other people, spent time finding bargains. For example, the clear plastic 1kg of Goulburn Valley fruit for $1.67 each instead of the $5++ we usually pay at Coles. As an extra bonus we were able to get 5% discount with our RAC card. We now have a very well stocked caravan!
We found a park full of painted cows. These were completed to celebrate the dairy industry in the area. We found 25 different cows there, including -

• the Shrek cow
• the mermaid cow
• the skeleton cow (sponsored by the local imaging centre!)
• the strawberries and cream cow
• the Spode cow
• the Mona Lisa cow

Trevor and I had a proud moment as Max came over and said
“Guess what I did? That man came over to talk to me and said ‘Do you know what that is a painting of?’ and I replied ‘Yes, it’s the Mona Lisa’. He said ‘Oh, well do you know why there is that painting of a man on the other side?’ ‘Yes, that’s Leonardo Da Vinci who did the painting’ ‘You’re a pretty smart kid!’ and I thought I’d be a smart alec and said ‘Well did you know that ‘Mona Lisa’ means ‘My Lady Lisa’?’ and walked away.”  He is a clever kid isn’t he?
There are also more cows dotted around the town. It looks great!

We bought some lunch from Coles and Bakers Delight and drove 2km out of Shepparton to ‘Kids Town’. This adventure playground has been funded primarily by SPC Ardmona but has also had a lot of community and business support. We spent a few hours there and really enjoyed it. Harry has blisters on his hands again from all the monkey bars he went on.

we were together at the top of the slide !

the kids spent heaps of time on this. At one stage there were 8 or 10 kids on it being pushed and spun around by the biggest kid of all. It was a lot of fun!

This is one of my most favourite photos of Trevor and Max.

Part of the playground

Our beautiful boys

When we got home, Trevor and I reorganised the caravan AGAIN. Each time we do it we are amazed by how much space there is. This time we put some non perishable food in the back of one of the long cupboards and still had loads of room in the front. I think we’re living in a Tardis!!