Adventure 7. 

We have been driving all the "tourist detours" on our way south down Princes Highway. We kept seeing signs showing pictures of kangaroos or wallabies "next 3 miles" or "next 9 miles."

Hey, where are they? You promised me wallabies!!!

We got to Eden, and the motel manager directed us to the nearby golf course. And there they were, even a joey in a pouch. All the people going to dinner completely ignored the critters while the stupid Americans took pictures. 

As Wes told me, "There are 30 million people in Australia and 50 million kangaroos."

So I've finally seen some. Also saw whales splashing off the jetty, plenty of large and small and very noisy birds. Wes and Ev are going to take us to basically a petting zoo and an island with penguins. 

Meanwhile, in Shellharbour, we visited a mall in order to get an American to Australian adapter and to visit the corporate bookstore there. 

The mall was enormous and busy. Weird. I think malls are mostly dead in America, replaced by "lifestyle" shopping centers. (I may be wrong, maybe that's just in our neck of the woods.) But for an area with a population smaller than Portland, the mall was huge.

Anyway, the bookstore folk didn't want to talk so we moved on.

Last night we stayed in Moruya. It had an independent bookstore and owner was chatty. They had a lot of current bestsellers in trade paperback that won't be out of hardcover in America for a year or more. Apparently, hardcovers aren't really done here, except sometimes later, and only ordered by special request. An interesting difference. 

We've decided to stay in Eden for a couple of days recovering from all the traveling. I'd hoped we could stay one whole day doing nothing before now, but each and every motel we've stayed at had some reason we didn't want to stay. (3 out of 4 promised two beds and delivered one, which is really annoying. Linda has terrible restless leg syndrome and I thrash and turn so much we've learned we sleep better next to each other, but a foot apart in space.)

In a couple days we'll reach Churchill, Victoria and visit Wes, my best man our wedding, (and I at his) and his better half, Ev. They sound like they have plans for us. 

Meanwhile, back at the home front, Jasper the cat has taken to Todd, apparently, so all is well. Toby will be house and cat sitting the second half of the month.