Entry 20 October 29 Getting ready to go home

[David and Susan Bratt]

Entry 20--October 29

We have arrived in Amsterdam after two fairly long days on the road from Paris. We are here a day early, so we have plenty of time to do or storage/cleanup/packing and organizing before we fly home on Thursday. We have decided to spend the last night in a hotel so that we will not be trying to wash and dry and pack bedding the morning we leave. It is raining frequently again, so we postponed a visit to the city center and started to pack. Since the last laundry, we have worn “clothes that are going home with us.” We have quite a lot of summer things we will be leaving behind for next year. Because we shipped so much in Rover, we have very full suitcases going home with us. Trying to go through every cupboard and storage area is a little tricky to do in that small space.

Because the washer and dryer in this campground are so small, we spent the equivalent of $40 doing four loads of laundry, even though it consisted only of our sheets, pillowcases and the two bed sacks. But they are clean, dry and packed into space bags. We gave away the little bit of food we couldn’t use up or safely store. There are a dozen or so student types tenting here, and the “free food” bag disappeared from the shower room very quickly.

We have been unable to find a place to give Rover a really good bath and campgrounds do not want you using their water or their spaces for that. The best I could do was go over Rover with a damp rag: moving the dirt around a little and then pouring water on her to rinse her off. It worked remarkably well, thanks partly to the rain. But it is really hard to do a good job on the nose of the cab where all the bugs collect. We did the best we could, and I think she looked reasonably clean.

We waited until the last morning to do the plumbing winterizing. A month ago in a Luxembourg camping store we purchased some expensive camper water system antifreeze for about $40. We have since discovered that is is concentrated and we needed to dilute it with water. It should last us as long as we want to travel and store Rover in Europe. But it is a clear liquid--not pink--so it presented the problem of “how will we know when we have used enough?” My brilliant idea was to use a little red wine, so we saved a bottle. When it came time to add it to our winterizing concoction, we discovered that only the bottle was dark, while the wine inside was white. Because we had already given away or thrown everything else out, we looked around for an alternative. Literally the only single thing left was about half a cup of cold coffee. So we dumped that in and ended up with something that looked like weak urine. We completed the unappetizing winterizing and proceeded to the dump and then we were on our way. Nowhere is it possible to really introduce a great deal of water to the holding tank system to flush it out. Having a short hose available at a dump site is an asset that isn’t always available. The two collapsible water jugs have proved to be valuable items. We can only hope that the urine/antifreeze we used will remain in the toilet to keep any odors out.

On our way to the storage place we drove around looking for Mobil 1 oil for Rover. The storage place also works on engines and campers and had agreed to do an oil change. We were actually able to find two different auto supply stores, but neither had what we were looking for. So we gave up that search and drove to the storage place where they talked us out of doing an oil change after 3800 miles we’d traveled in the US and Europe since the last servicing. But we did leave them with a small list of other things to check for us and determined to bring Mobil 1 with us next year. With just a little separation anxiety we turned over the keys, gave them €500, locked the door and said goodbye to Rover and took a cab to a hotel by the airport.

During this time we went into Amsterdam twice by metro and once by bus. The city center is truly wonderful with its canals and unique architecture. It has great public transportation and restaurants, and if you can avoid being hit by a bicycle or tram, it is a very walkable city. Everything is so close together. It is also a peaceful place compared to Paris. And almost everyone speaks English and many signs are also translated, making it easier to get around. Even in the pouring rain, it is a charming place and one of our favorites.

Tomorrow we will head home. We promise one last blog entry after we have recovered from jet lag and toted up all our expenses and other interesting numbers. We are feeling blessed. While we had some scary moments, we never got into any real trouble. We didn’t sprain any ankles, back into anything (except that sign in Hoorn), lose any fillings, or even get our feet really wet. It feels good to be going home, but I have a feeling we’ll be planning the next trip pretty quickly. Actually, we have already started.