And we're off . . . .

     It's a chilly, rainy day here in Bruchsal, Germany. We are having a slow day - which is very nice since for a week we've been going non-stop.
     We started early Sunday morning, June 2, in Duncanville heading for our hotel in Cincinnati, Ohio - 14 hours of driving away. The night before, Andrew and I packed up the car with our many suitcases. The airline allowed us each a checked bag under 50 lbs, carry-on bag and a personal item  (ie. backpack, purse, etc.) so we were taking full advantage of the allowance. Plus Andrew's work would pay for one more checked bag. That made 9 suitcases (5 large and 4 small) and 4 backpacks all to be packed into our little Forester. Well, needless to say, they did not all fit inside. We ended up strapping 2 of the larger suitcases to the roof rack then cramming the rest in. We wrapped the two going on top in heavy duty plastic bags because we were afraid we might hit rain on the way up. We didn't hit rain but we were glad we wrapped up the suitcases anyway. If the carnage of bugs splattered across our windshield was any indication, our suitcases would have been a mess by the time we got to Canada. Anyway, back to Sunday morning. Andrew and I got up at 5:30 am and got the last things in the car. Then I woke the kids and got them in the car and we headed out of our driveway at 6:45 am.
       The first half of the day went well. Everyone was in high spirits and we all love road trips. But this good humor didn't last long. We hit three different major traffic jams on the way. Two of them because of road construction (on a Sunday!) and one because of an accident. As we were approaching the worst of the holdups, we saw a sign warning of road work ahead and to expect heavy delays. It even advised finding an alternate route! Unfortunately, we didn't take it seriously (It was Sunday! They shouldn't do road work on Sunday!).  Besides, where the sign was traffic was moving along fine. But soon it came to a stand still. And I mean a stand still. We didn't move. We sat in the same place for 30 minutes. We even turned off the car. Then there were other delays. The plastic bags protecting the suitcases on the roof got shredded by the wind. Luckily, Andrew always travels with duct tape so we managed to patch up the bags and also prevent further shredding. All in all, the delays added up to over 2 hours. We had planned to make it to our hotel at 9:45 (because of the time zone change) but we didn't get in until after 12:00 am. Ugh! Needless to say, everyone was tired and grumpy and not loving road trips by that time.
       Monday went much better. We decided that sleep was more important than getting an early start. So we slept until 7:30 (some of us - Piper - refused to get out of bed until 8:00), had a nice hot breakfast (love Comfort Inn breakfasts), and got on the road about 9:30. Traffic moved along wonderfully and we got to the Canadian border at around 12:30. We had decided to tell the border guard that we were coming to Canada to visit family and we were leaving again on Wednesday. All very true without getting into the long story. Right before we hit the border, I always try to give Andrew the relevant information about the trip - arrival and departure dates - so that he'll have the answers to any question the border guard might pose. (Andrew's mind doesn't think these details are important so he often can't remember them. Border guards take any hesitation in answering as a suspicious sign and pounce on you.) Unfortunately all I managed to do this time was confuse Andrew and we ended up having to get into the long story with the border guard. Luckily I had a print out of our flight information so we could prove that we really were only going to be in Canada three days but wouldn't be driving back to the States until September. To our relief, she believed us and we continued on our way. Our goal that day was Andrew's grandmother's house in St. Thomas, Ontario. It was only three hours away and the time flew. (Amazing how much faster three hours go on a sunny afternoon when you're feeling good compared to a dark night when you're out of sorts.)
      At Granny Mer's we had our first real meal (not counting the Comfort Inn breakfast) since we left. (We don't stop for food on our road trips. Even fast food isn't fast enough for us. I pack a large assortment of snacky food including high protein items like boiled eggs, nuts, and cheese and we munch on that. At refueling stops, we use the restroom and pick up a cold drink and we're back on the road.) So we were very happy to sit down to a nice hot meal of Texas Hash, broccoli and spinach salad, and rolls. We spent the evening visiting and then hit the hay. Boy, was I tired!
     Tuesday was a gorgeous day. Granny Mer had gotten the kids an outdoor game set for volleyball and badminton. Andrew and the kids set it up in Granny Mer's wonderful backyard and put on a wonderful show for Granny Mer and I who sat watching them from her fabulous deck. We were visited by Granny Mer's neighbor who had done traveling in Germany. She had been in Europe in 2001, the last time they were having terrible flooding here. She advised us not to visit Prague until all danger of flooding was over - she and her husband had been trapped there for several days. She hadn't explored much of the area we are staying in but she did recommend Berlin and Munich as great places to visit.
     After a great lunch, we continued on our journey east to Newmarket. We got to Andrew's folks house at around 3:30. There we unloaded our piles of luggage and lugged them upstairs in preparation for reorganizing for the flight to Germany. We had a great time relaxing with Andrew's family. The whole gang came over for dinner that night and we celebrated Karen's and Sarah's birthdays with some delicious Boston cream cake. It was really nice of them to move up the celebration so that we could take part. That evening we watched a movie together and then got to bed way too late.
    Wednesday was spent doing last minute preparations. I should say that Andrew and I spent the day doing last minute preparations while the kids spent the day either playing games with their grandparents or playing Super Mario Bros. on the Wii. I very carefully packed each suitcase so that it was no more than 17 kg (a little over 50lbs) and each carry-on suitcase no more than 8 kg (about 17.5 lbs). Finally everything was just right. We ate an early dinner and headed to the airport at 5:30 pm. We got there in plenty of time and made our way through the huge Toronto airport to the Air Canada desk for international flights. The kiosk computer didn't like our passports so we had to wait in line for a human to check us in. And she didn't even weigh the carry-on suitcases. After I'd worked so hard to make sure they where light enough! We said goodbye to Andrew's folks and headed through security - always so much fun. Canadian airport security is actually a lot easier than American. We didn't have to remove our shoes. Andrew had a pair of needle nose pliers in his bag and they let them pass. They did an interesting thing with the kids' computer. She took this circular disk attached to the end of a rod and ran it on the top and bottom of the computer then stuck the disk into a slot in a machine. Then she asked me to open the computer. I guess it passed the test because she let us go. Other than that it went smoothly and we were off to our gate.
       We had almost two hours to wait (we wanted to get there plenty early in case there was any problems - there wasn't any problems so now we just had to wait) so the kids and I wandered around a duty-free shop for a while then sat at the gate and tried to read.

Cool sculpture in the Toronto Airport

Symbols of Canada - the Mountie Moose and the Lumberjack Beaver

Andrew went to get us our last Tim Hortons until September and, of course, that's when they decide to start boarding. Just as they called our section to line up, Andrew got back with our goodies and we got on the plane. We were seated in the middle section of the plane, two in row 42 and two in row 43. Taran wanted to sit with his dad so Piper and I took row 42 and the boys took row 43. Getting all our carry-ons stowed was exciting. The overhead bins were not very big. Andrew did finally find a place for all of them and we settled in. We each had our own touch screen that played a variety of movies. We all ended up watching "Oz, the Great and Powerful". (Not a great movie but it passed the time.) We were served a hot meal of chicken with some kind of sauce, a weird cabbage, green bean and tomato salad, a roll, and some chocolate mousse/whipped cream stuff. (Not a great meal, but it was hot food.) We finished the movie and then tried to get some sleep. Not so easy. I didn't discover that I could adjust the headrest until it was time to wake up. They served us banana bread, orange juice, and tea for breakfast. Of course, this was only 5 short hours from when they served us dinner so we were all a bit groggy. Especially Taran. Well, he was more than groggy - he positively refused to wake up.

The boys seemed to be able to sleep fine.

Piper the next "morning" - groggy but still cute!

     

We're almost there!

We landed in Frankfurt at 11:00 am local time (5:00 am Toronto time). We grabbed all our carry-ons and stepped out into the Frankfurt airport.
      I have to sign off now. It's getting late for me over here. I'll pick this up again tomorrow and try to get caught up. I'll add some pictures tomorrow too if I can figure out how. . .