I broke my leg for my birthday

We travelled from SA to Brisbane for our son’s wedding and planned to return with friends via Birdsville where I would celebrate my 60th birthday. Unfortunately I stepped badly down out of our caravan and broke my ankle while in Brisbane, the day before the wedding. So it was plaster and crutches for the wedding and back to Brisbane along the bitumen to see our doctor. The day of my birthday it was raining and crutches and mud don’t mix so the afternoon and night of my birthday was spent in the Caltex Yunta truck stop (in Camps Australia). They were fantastic, we were told to back the van up to the shed where there was gravel and it was close to the ablutions instead of parking in the usual powered sites. We went for dinner in the roadhouse and the boss shouted me a desert and gave me a drink cooler. These complete strangers helped lift my morale and made my birthday memorable for their kindness. Our planning for this trip was not wasted as our friends decided to do the Birdsville trip solo, and they rang us most nights to say how much they were enjoying our holiday.