It was a big week for Don. On Wednesday I received my household goods shipment. I spent Wednesday and Thursday working to impose order on the Chaos. I'm not there yet and truth be know, I won't be there until Lyn arrives and gives her final stamp of approval to furniture arrangement and Nick knack placement. I'm just trying to get things looking presentable and neat. I've taken some before and after pictures. We'll it's not totally after because I still have to get rid of the boxes and packing material and the loaner furniture from the base. Still it was an interesting to unpack things I had no idea we had. Or maybe that's a bad thing...depends if I just never really noticed the stuff or entirely forgot about it. I am happy to be surrounded by familiar things again. I'm most happy to have my own bed. The loaner one from the base was harder than a concrete slab. I never slept through the night on it.

Today I visited a couple of German stores. The Pratiker which is equivalent to Home Depot and Globus which is sort of Wal-Mart with a way better bakery, produce and fresh meat and fish section. I bought some smoked mackerel just to make Lyn jealous. We bought it all the time in England and I'm happy to be able to find it again. I didn't have my camera with me or I would have taken some photos of the fresh beef tongue in the meat case. Well no I wouldn't have. Just go look at your in the mirror and picture it a hundred bigger and you'll get the image.

The other big event this week was my government travel card arrived, I should visit England and Turkey in March. Work is going well. I really enjoy my job and I actually like going to work in the morning. What a change from my last job!

I've started volunteering time at the churches family history center. It's twice a month for three hours. It seems like a good thing to do with my time.

Until next week's adventure,

Don

It was a mixed results Saturday for Don. I drove to Frankfurt to go to the temple, but you’ll notice I have no pictures of the temple posted. I got to Frankfurt just fine and found the little village the temple is in…I think. I never did find the temple. It looked simple enough on the map, but there is one hitch to maps and directions in Germany. I needed to get on road labeled “B455.” B roads are common here. It’s also common that B roads are only labeled on maps. You never see a sign when you’re driving calling it a B455 or B40 or B38 or whatever. The road always has a name like Tripstadtstrasse. So basically you got to know the real name of the road or you’re out of luck. I was out of luck. The drive on the autobahn was fun. There are long stretches where there truly is no speed limit. It was locked in and cruising at 90 mph and Germans were still blowing past me. I tried running my car up to 105 mph. It felt solid and comfortable, but I kept thinking “man this has to be burning up some gas” so I kept it around 90. Any way I got home in time to make the short drive over to Frankenstein. It is a tiny little place that comes complete with a ruined castle on the hill. I hiked up to the castle and got a bunch of pictures. I hope you enjoy them.

The walking trail in the woods

Above is the field where I encountered the "Elephant Dog." Below is the tunnel of terror.

The small park by our house. Below is the road that goes back to our house

This is a "Y" intersection. Veer left to go to our house. Below is an area map. Any up for a Halloween trip to the town of Frankenstein?

The Church and sort of a little town square

The Chronology of Hochspeyer

Our only stoplight

Just some buildings I took pictures of in town

A Gasthaus

It didn't rain today so after Church I got out and walked around a got some pictures of the village. I wish could figure out how to make this blog let me post pictures with some description of what it is. I did find that about five minutes is small park with access to walking and bike trails into the woods. There are pictures of all that. One thing there is not a picture of is one of the biggest, shaggiest dogs I have ever seen. I was just emerging from the woods where the path goes over an open field and I saw a lady walking what I first took to be a woolly mammoth. I was a little hesitant to continue down the path, but the woman pulled the dog over and had it lay down. This dog was so huge that instead of a collar she had a leather harness big enough to saddle a horse on it. I dearly wanted to take a picture of the gigantic beast, but lacking the German skills to ask if it was alright, and feeling positive that the dog would have no problem swallowing the camera, the hand holding the camera and my arm up to my elbow, I kept the camera in my pocket. This will be beautiful area to walk through in the summer, and I'm pretty sure I raspberry or blackberry canes. I'll be keeping my eye on those. You'll also see photos of the tunnel of terror. I named it that because it's dark and has such a low ceiling I had to stoop over to walk through it. I included a picture of the towns only stop light and some of the streets and buildings. I also snapped a few shots of the town fountain that seems to record the dates and names of villages that stood here and eventually became Hochspeyer. It's and old place.

We had stake conference today. I really enjoyed it. I sang with the choir. It was a little different than what I am used to. Our first practice was an hour before the meeting started. I think it still worked out well. Robert C. Oaks was the visiting general authority. He lived here for eight years when he was in the Air Force. He used to be a 4 star general and commended Air Forces Europe. He talked a lot about keeping our commitment to our covenants and serving Christ. I want anyone reading this to know I have a testimony of Christ and that through sacred experiences and the witness of the Holy Ghost I know Christ lives and loves us.

Pictures of our empty house

More Pictures of the house.