Ok… I am going to try not to make this sound like a primary school journal, although on that, I am enjoying listening to Isaac write his journal for his grade 2 class. I am also enjoying finding some fun facts for him to learn and write in it. He is a very sweet little writer and it has, even in these first few days, become such such a nice little rhythm of our days. Anyway, today we arrived in Griffith, which was really just another over night stop to get us to the outback. So it was mostly just playgrounds and keeping warm. But while we were here I did learn a couple of fun facts myself. So here they are:

1. I had no idea just how big a city Griffith was. In fact until we planned this trip it was a city that I perhaps vaguely knew existed, and yet here is, in all it’s glory. It’s huge, it’s busy and unlike a number of the other cities we have traveled through, it’s growing. Amazing! Well done Griffith
2. In reflecting on how little I knew about Griffith, I was reminded just how massive Australia is and just how many places, bigger and smaller than Griffith exist, that I spend my time completely unaware of. It was a good reminder for me as we head to some towns I have been to and some that I haven’t, that I am far from an expert on Australia, and Australian road trips… there is a lot to learn and a lot to do and see… here is to discovering many many more places just like this.
3. The changing face of retail hits much harder in places where there are only one of everything. Coming from the city, if one shop shuts another pops up in its place, or you can just go to another location and get exactly what you need. It’s much more noticeable when you only have one of everything. The empty shop fronts and rooms for lease hit differently. It made me wonder a number of times… what is the pull to these large or the smaller rural settings? How do you encourage growth in a fading space? How does someone set up a life here if things are disappearing… what happens when retail goes fully online, what does that do to the fabric of a small town? I don’t have any answers to these questions, but I spent a lot of time thinking about it.

So there you go… Oh… we also officially started our journey on the ‘Kidman Way’ which according to their own promo materials is the backtrack to the outback. Outback, red dirt, open air goodness I am coming for you.