Anyway, I showered, dressed, and got the hell out of her way so her job could be done before her lunch break. I found myself in the information center again, speaking to my lady the last time. She gave me tips on how to catch the bus to South Broken Hill to go to Bells. I thanked her again for helping me the past few days, I think she's my favorite person I met in Broken Hill. I went down a couple of blocks to library and used their free wifi for a couple of hours. I had realized that Bell's despite likening themselves to a 50s diner, only served drinks and desserts, no actual food. On the way to the bus stop, I went to a cafe and ordered a hotdog to go. I waited 15 minutes at the bus stop, then told the bus driver I needed to get off at Patton street. He said he could drop me nearby, but that I would have to ring the bell to remind him. Ok, let me take this time to tell you what a wretched mess the Broken Hill bus system is. Their buses are fairly new and nice enough, but the fliers you get to try and tell how to catch a bus at a certain time, as well as how much the fair will be, leave lots to be desired. Anyway, I rode, point by point monitoring where we were on the route so I could ring the bell at a destination near where I was going. We passed the road I needed, and I stood to ring the bell, but the driver was already pulling to the side because he remembered. I went to the front of the bus to thank him and he said "You better be glad I remembered, mate. You didn't ring the bell." I explained-"I was trying to find the road as we passed, I've never been here before or been on these buses, I was about to ring the bell." Dammit, I'm mad again.
Patton Street was right ahead of me, so I walked up the road and turned down the street. It only took a couple of blocks before I saw the Bell's sign ahead of me. I went in, threw my bags down, and looked at a menu. I knew I either wanted a milkshake or a float (I think they call these "spiders"), but I decided, without even spotting it on the menu, that I wanted a malted chocolate milkshake. It arrived quickly, and almost made up for the rudeness of people this morning. I forgot that milkshakes are a lot thinner here than they are in the states, but it was still delicious.
I promise, I was more thrilled than I looked. Maybe just tired from my room service wake up call.
After Bell's, I still had some time to kill before going to the airport, so I crossed the street to a park and read on the bench a while. I called for a taxi about an hour later and went to the airport a little early to see the Flying Doctors. The Broken Hill Flying Doctors tour was more thorough and better set up that the one I went on in Alice Springs, but I found out Broken Hill is the biggest outpost of Flying Doctors, so that might be why. I walked around to the exhibits, they played a public service type video, then gave us a behind the scenes tour. Below are planes in the garage ready to go at the first sign of trouble.
After I saw all there was to see at the Flying Doctors, I still had over an hour until my flight, but now I was stuck at the tiny, one room airport. I read until I was allowed to check in and they loaded us onto the plane a little after 6pm. I gasped, literally, as I walked out onto the tarmac and saw the moon. It was full, and still low on the horizon, and tiny lines of clouds ran across it. It was gorgeous, and a fitting goodbye to Broken Hill. I arrived back in Adelaide around 7:30 and caught the bus back to Paradise Interchange. I waited over 30 minutes for my 503 bus, but it never came. Sarah was texting me and offered to lend me her boyfriend Emmanuel to pick me up at the interchange. He was currently on a bus on the way there. 10 more minutes and my bus never came, but Emmanuel came off the next 502 that came by. We grabbed something to eat (I still hadn't eaten dinner) and after several detours due to construction that seems to be completely surrounding the house right now, we finally made it home around 9:30.
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