Germany-January 19, 2008

Wes in the ferry. He loved running around and getting to exercise his legs before the LONG stint of our journey.

Everyone is Europe is all about "going green". No wonder the landscape was littered with windmills.

Today was a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG day. We woke up at 4am, threw the remaining luggage in the car, and headed off from our home in Mildenhall, UK to catch a ferry in Dover at 8am. We had to be there at least an hour ahead of time. The blue-ish bags under our eyes could testify to our tiredness. We had stayed up entirely too late the night before packing, and it really showed. Weslee soon fell asleep in the car, and Kevin and I drove in relative silence. We usually talk about things...lately, we talk alot about Kevin's career and his options. We love the military, it's done alot of good things for us, but if Kevin doesn't become an officer, we have to have a backup plan. Neither of us is fond of the deployments frequently required by the enlisted personnel. Not to mention, my husband is WAY too smart, and WAY too capable to spend the rest of his life being treated like a sub-human. He says he doesn't mind, but I mind. If I could change one thing about the military, I would have the leadership treat the enlisted personnel with dignity. But, I digress...

When we reached the ferry, the white cliffs and sea were still shrouded in darkness. There were no lines, and rain was pouring down. We had never seen such a down-pour in England. We're used to light, almost misty, rain. But, as if some one poured a bucket of water out of the sky, England was drenched in torrents of precipitation. We waited in the car for an hour until our time arrived to board the boat. We were so lost. Having never ridden a ferry before, we were unsure what to do when we finally got our car aboard. We finally decided that "when in Rome........" We watched everyone else and got out of the car and headed upstairs.

The ferry was very nice. We breakfasted at a table overlooking the very stormy sea. Weslee enjoyed running around. The boat rocked from side to side with the push of the waves and a few times, I felt like my bowl of cereal would greet the world once again. Luckily, it decided to stay put. Weslee and Kevin took the opportunity to go on the deck and felt like they were going to be blown overboard the gusts of icy wind were so fierce.

When we finally arrived in Dunquerque, France, two hours later, the seas were much calmer and we drove out into a light wind and no rain. Amazing the difference of weather just across a slim channel of water.

The next 11 hours were spent listening to the smooth accent of the British woman inside our Tom-Tom GPS system, guiding us along roads that we didn't know. On one occasion, I HAD to use the restroom. We couldn't read the signs (they were in French, Dutch, and German) and had a hard time finding a restroom. The road signs were all different from the ones used in England, and even then, some of the symbols on the English signs are still an enigma to us. We got a little lost. Stress levels rose and the air inside the car began to feel stifling. Of course, Wes decided this was the perfect time to cry. It didn't help. After some silence and some tears of my own, we found our way back with Tom-Tom Jane announcing every 5 seconds "Please turn around", "Please turn around", "Please turn around". The satellite eventually located us and guided us back on our way.

We arrived in Garmisch, Germany, nestled in the Bavarian Alps around 10pm. It appeared as if there were no snow on the ground, and Kevin and I worried aloud that we had just gone through the whole day's ordeal for nothing. We had come to ski, and we hoped there would be enough snow to ski on up in the mountains. The clerk at the desk assured us that while it was a little icy up top, you could still ski.

We went to the room, unloaded our stuff and relaxed. We called our friends, the Hatch's, who had been at the hotel for 3 days already. We prepared to get together the following day. I looked out the window at the snow groomers combing the mountain. I snuggled into bed, and I was promptly asleep.