The Beastie Bus

When Kayleigh was in year 5 or 6, I 'inherited' my Dad's Toyota Tarago - it was an '85 model, beige in colour with over 260,000kms in the clock and still on it's first engine. I learnt to drive in that car. The kids all thought it was fantastic!!!!!!!!! Kayleigh especiallyy thought it was pretty cool sitting in the back. The kids all names it 'THE BEASTIE BUS' cause it was a beast and little beastie (the kids) sat in it.

It was the car we went storm chasing in it. One time when we were looking for storms, a kangaroo jumped out and we hit it. Kayleigh was really upset and she insisted that we make sure the kangaroo was suffering. The kangaroo didn't even dent the car but it did not make it out of the encounter alive.

One time we were sitting at the lights and a Nissan GTR pulled next to us. It was a nice looking car and the kids driving it couldn't have been more than 22 years old. Kayleigh thought it was a nice car. Terence - playing silly buggers - revved the engine and took off from the lights pretending to drag the GTR (we had no hope) but the kid saw it as an amusement and 'dragged' us up the highway letting us get in front every now and again. Kayleigh was laughing so hard she was crying- - it was too funny to see a clapped out old tarago trying to take on a new Nissan GTR.

The Beastie Bus had worn out suspension, meaning that every bump on the road was amplified in the back seat. There is a bump in the road coming up Tharwa drive from lanyon over the hill to Theodore. Kayleigh loved going up that hill because the back of the Beastie Bus would bounce up and down going over that bump - it was AWESOME!

One day we went to Woden and the Beastie Bus got stolen. Kayleigh had a panic attack over it. She went all white and shaking and she couldn't think straight. We manage to calm her down. The Beastie Bus was found a week later in Chifley - it had gone a whole 4 kms since it was taken, but they had broken the steering wheel cover and damaged the starting mechanism. We sold it soon after that - but Kayleigh was always reminisce about the Beastie Bus and how much fun it was to go places as a family.