Zone Conference

JUNE 10, 2010

Zone Conference, here we come! We got away from the house by 9 am this morning. Stopped for gas in Broome to make sure the tank was full. Gas stations aren’t very frequent outside the cities. We drove 320 km before we came to the first “road station.” The first “rest area” equipped with restrooms was 210 km from Broome. There was overnight camping there also, but there wasn’t any water provided. We took pictures of the “restroom.” It was made of the heavy corrugated metal that is used for houses here in the north on a cement pad. The throne was just a cement cylinder. No seat, no lid, no paper, nothing. Good thing I had Kleenex in the car! Once we got outside of Broome, it was “bush” on both sides for a long ways. We saw a small wallaby by the side of the road and several more squashed on the road just like deer and rabbits at home. The “bush” consists of trees about the size and shape of scrub oak. It’s not dense, and there isn’t a whole lot of underbrush. Just grasses. Then there are the plains—long stretches of mostly flat where you can see for miles. It’s grassy, and there are skinny cattle grazing, some behind fences and others free to roam the countryside and road. The road is a two lane highway. It was very smooth, no chuckholes, I guess because it doesn’t freeze and thaw here. However, off and on the whole way south, there were signs denoting “Flood Area.” These were where there were mild, long low spots. I guess when it rains it covers the road. In those areas there were posts about 2-2.5 feet tall with reflectors at the top along both sides of the road so that you could still see where the road is when it’s flooded. We saw lots of brown hawks soaring around looking for lunch.
When we pulled up to the first roadhouse, people were eating out of the trunk of their car. Walking around, hoping for treats were about 10 peacocks. They were just like the squirrels or seagulls we are used to at home. There were even two white ones. There were more hanging around a picnic table near the store where more people were eating. They didn’t let you approach them—mostly they stayed two feet or so away. I bent over and held out my hand to see if one would come up thinking I had something to eat, but I was totally ignored. There were 2 more roadhouses before we made it to Port Hedland but no more peacocks. We made it on one tank of gas but just barely. Gas in Broome is around $1.33/litre. At the roadhouses, they wanted $1.61/litre. We wandered into Port Hedland, and there was a huge pile of salt. It looked just like the big slag piles near Kennecott. It is a Rio Tinto Salt Mining operation. We finally found the library since we hadn’t seen anything else that might help us and went in to see if there was a map. The nicest lady was working there. She explained that our motel was in South Hedland, about 15 km farther south. She then copied the phone book map for us, took us outside after giving me a paper “to scribble” on, and gave us the most detailed instructions to our motel we could have ever been given. On the way down we had been listening to “Sunshine for Missionaries,” a CD we’d found at the house. In it was the story of a mission president who failed to contact a man sitting next to him at a McDonalds. The librarian was such a cute lady. So Orson talked to her about why we were here and that we’d like to come over and explain to her about the church and she said, “Sure.” So, the Port Hedland elders have a contact. She’s from South Africa and has only been here 4 years. They moved here because her husband got a job here. She has a daughter around 8 years old names Anna Marie.
We found our motel. It’s definitely not fancy, but it’s clean, and all 3 meals are included! It seems to be set up for the guys who live away from their families while working in the mines. Dinner had a nice variety. It was a buffet with 4 entrees, tandoori chicken, pork chop, spaghetti & meatballs, some kind of corned beef loaf, plus s two kinds of potatoes, two kinds of rice, creamed cauliflower, steamed broccoli, 3 desserts plus ice cream, sherbet, and toppings. Also there was a small salad bar. Breakfast is served between 4:30 am and 8 am. They don’t serve lunch but have stuff there at breakfast so we can pack a lunch. Like I said, I think it’s some kind of package deal for the men working in the mines away from their families. Port Hedland is a huge port where all kinds of minerals are exported. We took an old bicycle that had been in our house over to the Port Hedland elders here. They have 2 bicycles but no car. One of the bikes isn’t in too good of shape, so they are hoping to cannibalize one of the bikes to create another good bike. They are Elders Boaden, from Queensland, and Elder Nichols, from Lindon, Utah. Cute guys but they keep a messy front room.