Jumpin' the Pond
Well, the adventure had faulty starting blocks. The two nights before we started our trip, we stayed a beautiful place called the Cheyenne Mountain Resort, which shares the grounds of the Country Club of Colorado; stunning vistas and great facilities. With all the glitz and richy-riches of Colorado Springs about, we felt pretty relaxed and royal!
Turns out that we got too relaxed. The morning we started our trip, Johanna and I were harassing the kids to pack their rucks; and they, in turn, were exasperating they couldn't find half their stuff (which was, of course, all over the room in typical Tut and Miles fashion). Miles had lost his expensive earbuds and was digging through everything in the room to find it. Frustrated with this, I grabbed all the packed bags and headed down to the car to load it, finding the car in disarray with everything pulled out of all the compartments.
When Miles came down, I immediately set in to dress him down, "Miles! It's unbelievably disrespectful to throw everything out of the consoles, pockets, and glovebox looking for your damn earbuds and just leave the car trashed. We've got to go somewhere in a minute and I can't even sit in the driver's seat!" Miles, looking like I'd just shot his puppy, replied, "What are you talking about? I haven't even been down here today. It wasn't me!" (Sad face, sad face)
Well, you guessed it: someone had broken into our car. Yes, the beat up ol' Subaru (name: Ru Ru). God knows that guy must've been desperate one to even test the doors of our beat-up wagon; I guess he saw Ru Ru next to the BMWs, Mercedes, Lexus, etc, and thought, "Which one of these won't have an alarm system? Hmmm.." Luckily, the outside of Ru Ru is a pretty good representation of what's inside: dirt, scattered stale Cheerios, trash, Tut's junk (leaves, rocks, sticks of particular interest, a rubber fried egg, countless crumpled-up drawings, etc), and stuff we forgot was in there. In the end, we think he only stole Miles's Nintendo Switch with a few games and a gift card of Johanna's. Surpisingly, the thief left Johanna's extremely expensive camera and lenses in the back of the car. He must've looked in the back and thought, "Gross! I'm definitely not going back there." We must've left the car doors unlocked overnight, because Ru Ru didn't seem to have any damage. Well, no more than usual... I'm not 100% sure we could even tell if someone had scratched it up while jimmying the lock.
After throwing all our trash and useless junk back in it's proper console/glove box/pocket (because we weren't emotionally ready to tackle the monumental task of actually sorting the junk from the not-junk) and packing the car, we had to go pick up a U-Haul, load our stuff we'd stashed in storage for 3 days, and take it to unload in our new home.
This was the first time the kids had been in the house, and they seemed to love it. The bedrooms are on the top floor and one of the kids' rooms has an amazing view facing the mountains. The kids had to flip a coin for it. Miles won, and Tut was a bit upset for a couple hours while we drove to Denver to stay the night at a hotel near the airport before our early morning departure for Europe.
Additional Thoughts on Expectations for the trip (boring for others... this part is just for me):
Wants: As we flew, I reflected a bit more on what I expect and what I want out of this trip. I want a great adventure; to learn and grow. I want to see things and have conversations that inspire, awe, frustrate, confound, and perplex me. I want to explore and discover, not only new lands and people, but parts of my own mind to reclaim some plasticity from the slowly advancing rigidity of an aging brain. And I especially want to see my kids experiencing an adventure and all that entails. I want them to stay in a village that no one speaks English, German, or Spanish and be forced to mime to find a bathroom or food. I want to see Johanna's adventurous spirit shine, and I want the kids to see it shine.
Expectations: I expect a lot of the above to come to fruition. I also expect a lot of frustration, obstacles, and challenges. I expect that in two months of non-stop togetherness, we'll be nipping pretty hard at each other at times (especially the brother-sister and husband-wife). I expect we'll need to find some ways for alone time and to find new effective ways of communicating with one another. And now I expect that I need a nap.
Travel Day(s):
0350 stand-to
0400 shuttle starts rolling to airport
0412 arrive at Airport
0416 Tosh says "Holy shit! Look at that line." Lancasters que up for checkin/bag drop
0445 All checked in and bags dropped
0447 Tosh says "Holy Shit! Look at THAT line." Lancaster que up for security
0535 Lancasters disrobe, get x-rayed (or whatever that machine is now), give blood sample, stool sample, do the hokey-pokey, re-dress, and through security
0638 Wheels up to JFK
1238 (now EST) Land JFK
1240 Call travel agent Lil Lancaster for advice on routes
1238-1900 Airport lounges... Tosh highly recommends Chase Sapphire Lounge at JFK
1900 Wheels up to Frankfurt
11JUN 0830 (German Time) Land Frankfurt, grab luggage, wait on train
1118 Get on train, which we are currently riding for the next 6 hours to Kiel,
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