2010 April 16 Getting started again

[David and Susan Bratt]

April 16
Always excited to be on our way again, we had forgotten what jet lag feels like and how heavy our luggage could be. It is a simple thing to prepare for a road trip when your motorhome is sitting in your driveway. It is altogether another thing to take everything with you, all at once, out the door into a taxi and onto an airplane. All, we’re guessing, 180 lbs. of it--at least one-third of which were maps and books. David’s suitcase was overweight at the airport, so Susan added the 6 lb RV-waterpump to the 21 lbs of books in her backpack and we were on our way.
Two hours after landing at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam, we were in Rover, looking for a gas station. Gas has gone up since last year: 1.46 € / liter (about $7.50/gal.) And then it was on to Waalwijk, an hour away. to pick up--and pay for--our new AGM batteries (including a nearly 20% value added tax!) But that’s OK, because everything works!
It was our plan to get the batteries, stop at a grocery store in Waalwijk, and camp nearby, so we could unpack. But it turned out to be market day and there was a line of cars waiting to get into the grocery store parking lot and we knew it would be impossible to put Rover in there. So we gave up on the groceries and, with jet lag closing in on us, decided to find a campground. We wandered around the countryside for a few miles until we came upon a small campsite with a little store attached. There was no way to take a nap with our luggage still all over the place, so we unpacked, organized, ate a sandwich, and fell into bed exhausted.
The next day we headed off to Germany, getting “lost” again trying to get east from the campground. (It had us wondering what had happened to our GPS: if hadn’t shown up when we unpacked.) Our destination was the home of the American/German friends we had met last year. Still jet lagged, it was a long hard 253 miles. But good German beer and wine helped us make a great recovery and we are blessed again to have this oasis in such a handy location.
After a trip to the store on Friday to replace our missing GPS, we were on our way south and east on German autobahns. There were no speeding cars passing us here--we were all going bumper to bumper for miles, usually in the slow lane with the trucks until we went up a long hill. The whole 150+ miles were very congested. The price of gas doesn’t seem to bother anyone here.
We found a campsite near the highway on top of a hill in a tiny town that translates “high town.” The campground owner was very excited to have his first American campers. When we tried to hook up the water, it wouldn’t work. “It’s too early in the season, it was only 4 degrees C last night.” The little restaurant there (where the waiter spoke Italian!) served us schnitzel and pommes (potatoes), and when he brought us two kinds of mayonnaise for the french fried potatoes, we knew for sure we were in Europe again.