The trip home from Germany, January 24, 2009

We woke early with a 6 pm ferry to catch from Dunquerque, France to Dover, England...and about 12 hours of driving between us and home. It had been a good week, but we were ready to be home again. We reluctantly crawled into the car around 8am. When we started driving, the valley was just barely waking. Bakeries were lit inside, but the doors were still locked shut. The sun was just peeking over the rocky tops of the Alps. The cool blue morning enveloped us. We drove reluctantly away, stopping for a few last pictures of the mountains that had welcomed us so eagerly a few days earlier.

On our way home, we had a few adventures. We stopped in Brussels for a gas and restroom break. As I approached the restroom, a lady sat at a little table with a sign that clearly stated you had to pay 30 euro cent to use the restroom. I had about 50 euro cent left from our trip. It was a good thing that Kevin and I didn't both need to go. I couldn't believe that they actually CHARGED you to relieve yourself. It made our previous stop make a little more sense.

We stopped at a "rest area" about an hour before the gas station to rearrange the car (we had packed rather hastily) and put gas from our gas can in the trunk in the car. When we pulled up, it looked like a regular rest stop...except for one major difference. No potty. We saw a guy head out of the bushes zipping up his pants. While we were stopped, we decided to let Weslee get out and stretch his legs. It was while he was running up and down the sidewalk that I noticed that there was wet toilet paper strewn all over the grass. I even saw a large piece of human excrement in the grass. Suddenly, I became overvigilant with Wes. I think it's the only time I've ever had to tell him to stay off the grass because it was "yucky". He kept wanting to pick up leaves and grass. The whole time I was freaking out because I didn't know if it had been peed on or not. I sanitized both of our hands like crazy when we got back into the car. It was disgusting! People come and pee there all day long (like 5 or 6 guys came and went while we were parked there). And at night, no one bothers to head to the bushes. They just let it all hang out, in and around the park benches. Nasty-rific!

Anyway, we made our ferry, had a great journey. I even prepared most of my sacrament meeting talk for the next morning. We were so glad to be home.

Oh...and about the sign pictured above. This is the German word for "exit". Being the mature people we are, we kept laughing over the word. "Aus-fart". I thought I'd take a picture for posterity...even if it is through a grimy windshield.