Dawn after the flash flood
Snow Egret caught a fish for breakfast
Another lost sole
Big Gulp
A lost soul, perhaps
The dark line on the opposite bank is the flash flood line, about 6 feet (two meters) above the current natural flow of the river.
Turtle tracks
The moon will be full tomorrow night, but we have not seen it the last few nights because of clouds.
Another Dawn
pTerodactyl tracks
A broken back lying on the riverbed at dawn
Spunk
“From Maxy to Billie T”
On November 25, 2025, Miriam with Out n’ About posted The DMax stops in Charters Towers. I thought their unplanned adventure was an incredible story. When I finished reading the post, a chorus popped inot my head, and I jotted down:
Now we’re driving around in a rented Yaris
Looking for a brand new caris
At the top of the world in the land down under
Life’s twists and turns, one has to wonder
I sent the chorus to Miriam and asked her if she could rewrite the story of the broken DMax and finding its replacement into lyrics. She sent me the lyrics. I added the chorus and arranged the lyrics into an intro, chorus, fives versus, two bridges, a reprise, and an outro. With the help of AI music, I came up with a song that we all liked. Miriam named the song “From Maxy to Billie T.”
Charters Towers and Townsville City
The grand perspective
Miriam and Doug have been driving around Australia with a camp trailer in tow for several years. Miriam writes about their adventures and publishes them in a travel magazine and on her blog. She found some time to make a video for the “From Maxy to Billie T” adventure, sent me the video, and I added the music to her video.
Putting the lyrics and music together, and then adding the music to the video were fun collaborations, and I wanted to share the results with everyone.
Maxy to Billie T
By Miriam Blacker
[Intro]
We’re tripping Outback Queensland
In our DMax and mobile home
The car’s driving brilliantly
but little did we know
That testing times would find us
And we’d need a bloody tow.
[Chorus]
Now we’re driving around
In a rented Yaris
Looking for a brand new caris
At the top of the world
In the land down under
Life’s twists and turns, one has to wonder
[Verse 1]
We travelled far and wide
on remote roads and dirt tracks
To Karumba, Burketown, Lawn Hill and more
Our adventures never set us back.
Until one day it found us
We were heading for the north
Charters Towers, bound for Townsville
The engine coughed and burst.
[Verse 2]
Not really a blow up
more a splutter and a clank
Doug hoped it’d be minor
I never thought we’d need a bank.
[Verse 3]
Trouble found us but we had help
I rang the RACQ
A nice guy called Jay
He saved the day
towed our van back to Charters,
and our DMax too.
But the Dodgy servo back in Charters
I won’t name them though I should
They took one look at our Vic plates
And tripled the quote, bloody crooks!
[Bridge 1]
Your engine’s buggered
It’s no good, they said
as they trashed the dash
bust the ignition barrel.
Our car’s as good as dead.
[Verse 4]
We’re guttered and caught
We’re shocked, holy schmuck
What the hell do we do
With a van and no truck.
There’s no rentals in town.
Townsville’s more than 100kms away.
We can take the train,
there’s gotta be a way.
Kindness always finds us
A serendipitous chat in a pool
leads to a ride to Townsville
With a couple oh so cool.
[Reprise]
There’s no rentals in town.
Townsville’s more than 100kms away.
We can take the train,
there’s gotta be a way.
Kindness always finds us
[Chorus]
Now we’re driving around
In a rented Yaris
Looking for a brand new caris
At the top of the world
In the land down under
Life’s twists and turns, one has to wonder
[Bridge 2]
Now we’re in the Mazda sale yard
Craig seems a real nice guy
But is he a shark in sheep’s clothing
who wanted us to buy
But our dealing isn’t finished
We know now what’s for us
We haggle back and forth for days
The BT’s quite a bus.
[Verse 5]
When we tried to buy the car,
to test pay a dollar for the truck
The accountant laughed
Craig whatcha doing
Ya can’t sell a BT for a buck!
Here’s a lesson that we learned
don’t drive more than three hours
make sure you arrive by 3pm
Don’t blow up Number 3 Cylinder,
especially near Charters Towers.
[Outro]
Finally we’re leaving town
Billie T’s our smooth new ride
We’ve said goodbye to Maxy
now we’re heading Southside.
Now we’re driving around
At the top of the world
In a new bus that is perfect for us
Billie-T is really nifty
To wander in the land down under
Given life’s twists and turns
one simpy has to wonder
Dawn
Dusk last night. Dusk tonight.
A flash flood this afternoon left piles of debris where I have been walking on the riverbed.
The temp was 101.1º F (38.39ºC) this afternoon before cloud cover brought the temperatures down.
Mushroom clouds at dusk
Afterglow
Not that we are getting a few thunderstorms in the evenings, the runoff turns the water flowing in the Rio Grande the color of chocolate milk. Inspired by the milk chocolate water flowing in the Rio Grande, I wrote and recorded a song of the same name and made it into the above music video.
The river was higher at dawn from runoff from thunderstorms north and west of us. By dusk, most of the water had receded.
Dawn (water). Dusk (mud).
The Snowy Egret that follows us around most mornings
Dawn
Almost sunrise
Dusk
Jake and I were walking on the riverbed at South Beach this morning when a couple of coyotes appeared on the east side of the river and started barking at us. They had a lot to say. A few weeks ago, the three coyotes we often see on the west side of the river walked down on the riverbed with us to get a drink of water. They were silent, and did all their business like, “Don’t mind us!” Jake and I were standing about 25 feet from the westside coyotes.
Dawn
Dusk. We’ve had a little rain the past few nights, so the river is up a little from the runoff.
Sunrise
This Forster’s Tern was flying back and forth, turning one way then the other. Perhaps it’s called a Tern because it’s always turning around.
Still life
Funnel cloud at sunset
Movin’ on
Virgas hung from anemic clouds
Teasing parched earth that begged for rain
Moon rose, hung in the trees
Strawberry Moon forever?
Night heron and Snowiy egret reflected in Rio Grande’s water
It’s dwindling into a stream
Stormclouds blushed at sunset
Embarrassed by their precipitous disfunction
Blue Grosbeak and the Cresent Moon
A Swainson’s Hawk was having lunch on a light pole in a Walmart parking lot.
Noon
Tiny toadlets on the riverbed at sunset
Speaking being out to lunch, I’m going to take a long lunch break from blogging. I’m tired, and I have been having so much trouble with WordPress over the past few months, I can’t deal with it anymore, and I have decided I really need to take a break.
Sunset
Venus above Jupiter
Doppel in the dark
Cottonwoodlets on the river bed
Toadlet on the river bed
Ducks going for the gold
Another lost sole
Drift tree at sunrise
Coyote
“Where are the sights?”
Loki
Evening coyotes
Sunset
Dawn
Dawn at Beaver Point
The river dropped enough that I could wade across the shallow rapids just north of 4th of July Point onto the east side of the river.
A beaver crawled into the shallow rapids soon after I crossed, then disappeared under the water as a coyote watched.
Coyote was checking out something in the grass under the jetties.
View from the east side of the river looking south and west at 4th of July Point.
Wildflowers
The west bank of the river
Drift wood and wildflowers at sunrise
Another view of the west bank of the river
Looking at the South Beach from the east side of the river
North side of the shallow rapids where I waded back to the west side of the river.
The island between the shallow rapids
The jetty sculpture garden at the south end of South Beach.
Back on the west side of the river, looking northeast at the other side of the river I had been walking on.
Looking northeast from 4th of July Point.
Map of my long walk on the riverbed
Clouds rolled in when I got back home.
Spunk
Sunset
Dragon at dusk
Off Center & Not Even 