we have the rental contract for the car...

We have a paid for rental contract, through Gemut.com, for the trip now. And a hotel reservation for the night of arrival in Frankfurt. Pickup the car the next morning and off we go. Still not sure where, leaning more towards south, perhaps the Stuttgart area? We do have now in our possession a set of apartment keys to Scott's apartment in Spangdahlem, so will probably stick to our original plans (in that regard anyway) and use Scott's place as a base for day trips once we are back from Switzerland. We also have his spare cell phone which will work for us while we're there. Scott must have been in a hurry to send it though - the "padding" was extra customs forms from the post office wadded up in the box.... We have a lot of other stuff on our plate so trip plans have been simmering on the back burner for now. Steve decided to sell his BMW, and we put it on eBay with the offer that we would deliver within 600 miles for free. Hmmm....anyway the buyer lives in New York state. He is going to meet us in Buffalo a week from Saturday. So road trip....keep your fingers crossed that the Montana will make it that far (we're trailering the bike.) Tonight, we will be moving Steve's dad to a nearby nursing home. This has been an excruciatingly hard decision for Steve to make, but he finally sees that it's just not safe for Dad to be home alone any more, even with Steve making daily visits to check on things. I think that this will free Steve to have time to just enjoy being with his dad as opposed to the stresses of being his caregiver. Hard for him to become, in essence, the parent and his dad the child.

regrouping...

First of all, Scott has "landed" wherever he's been sent. More information when he can. Don't know if he was able to get the key to his apartment sent off to us. Until I know that for sure, am holding off on definite plans for the back end of the trip.

But - making progress on the front end. I am waiting for one last reply from the gemut.com guy and then will have the car rental wrapped up. I've made a hotel reservation in downtown Frankfurt for the Friday night we arrive, then will pick up the rental downtown as it's about a hundred dollars cheaper than picking up at the airport. Then as for Saturday, after we pick up the car, yet to be determined for sure but leaning toward going up to the Rhine area, Bacharach or thereabouts. That will still keep us within range of Baden-Baden for Sunday.

We could also head south and elsewhere in the Black Forest. Decisions, decisions! I just know that Sunday through Saturday morning is set already.

I'm bummed that we won't see Scott but still excited to be getting away.

a big turn in the road...

Thanks to the US Air Force, our plans are turned in a whole 'nother direction, so to speak. Scott called yesterday afternoon with the news that he is being deployed within a few days, can't tell us where, and probably won't be back before we come in May.

We considered postponing the trip but realize that the AF could pull the rug out from under him at any time even if we changed the dates. So as of right now we are still going, but have to figure out a few things. Such as car rental since we can't get on the base without him. Not a biggie. And what to do from Friday night to Sunday morning as we were going to stay in Spangdahlem with him before starting the "trip within the trip." And whether or not to go up to that area at all.

Scott can cancel the reservation for car rental on base. No problem there. And I think we can still get a pretty good deal otherwise. He is going to try to mail us his spare key and the cellphone he was going to lend us that works in Europe if he has time before he goes. So we can use his apartment if that works out.

Haven't had time to do much of anything with the trip during LaughFest so right now this is all rolling around inside my head. Tomorrow I only work a half day so I can sit down and really try to get this figured out.


May 12 can't come soon enough.

My brush with celebrity

A brief post on how LaughFest has been going...

I felt really frustrated the first night, as many of us hadn't been adequately trained on what to do, and the procedures were changing constantly as it was. We did get through the night, and nobody died or anything. Got to take night deposits to the bank (with an escort) at almost midnight which was new for me.

Saturday I was changed to working both Baby Loves Disco events. Lots of music and lots of cute kids dancing to it. That was fun, and combined with feeling a bit more confident in what I was doing, went much better.

Sunday night I went to the Bill Cosby show. It was very good. Steve didn't want to go, so went by myself. Up in the nosebleed section but with the dual screens I still got to see it all. Even got to see Eric at work, bartending at the performance hall. My first time ever at an event in the performance hall as Steve doesn't get into theater or music.

Tuesday night was Betty White. Backtrack to Tuesday morning. We were warned that a VIP would be coming. Put two and two together and you get Betty White. Yep, she came to the clubhouse and I got to meet her. We weren't allowed to take pictures, or engage her in deep conversation as they didn't want to tire her out. But it was cool to meet her, and to see how warm and friendly she was in real life, too. Back to the event. I worked at the simulcast, which was in the performance hall. Much to my surprise Eric was working again - he didn't think they would be working but turns out they did. Had to wear red top and black pants. Didn't have a nice red top so went to Goodwill the night before. Turns out at least one other staffer had the same idea. And it was a nice top, the brand I like to buy brand new anyway! Passed out programs and helped to direct traffic, then got to watch most of the simulcast before we got ready to hand out snickers bars to everyone as they left.

Yesterday I worked two Dan Zanes shows - a former rocker (from what I hear) turned children's musician. Mostly school children there. It was at St. Cecelia's Music Center which is this beautiful building built over a hundred years ago. Said to be one of the most acoustically perfect auditoriums in the country. I was cash lead again which meant another escorted trip to the bank. This time the volunteer that drove me pulled up in a Jaguar - and told me during the trip that it was the same car that had transported both Bill Cosby and Betty White. Fun! I wanted to climb in the back seat so I could say I'd sat in their seats, but...

Tonight I'm working at an Irish Comedy Showcase. How fitting for St. Patrick's Day! Tomorrow night Steve & I go to a comedy showcase, then Saturday morning I'm working at a fun pet event, then going to Chonda Pierce (Christian Comedienne) in the afternoon, and hopefully to Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood with Steve in the evening. They keep trying to schedule me to work Sat. night but I think I'm clear. Colin and Brad is the event I wanted to attend the most so I won't be a happy camper if I don't get to use my tickets.

Next week we are back to normal. I hope.

And when I asked Steve if it was March 21 yet (the day after LF ends) he reminded me that I should be looking forward to May 12 and the trip....nice to have that reminder from him which also showed that he is looking forward to the trip!

the calm before the storm

Laughfest takes over my world - starting Thursday (though Friday for me as I have roundtable tomorrow) and going through Sunday the 20th. Most everything goes on hold so thought I'd get one last post in for now. Might get to post during LF, but not counting on anything.

I had to work both Friday and Sunday on LF stuff. The best part about that was the photo op on Sunday when Fox 17 came in to film a "Behind the scenes at LF" story and I was smack dab in the middle of it getting a bunch of rubber chickens tossed at me. My fifteen seconds of fame...

I got to work on LF stuff again during the kids naptime on Monday - we were packing swag bags for the artists. I got to personally pack Bill Cosby's bag as well as Colin Mochrie's. Could have done Betty White's, too, but gave her card to someone else to share the fun. They are getting an assortment of Michigan made products and LF merchandise.

On Friday, I'm working a Baby Loves Disco event and some Clean Comedy Showcases. On Saturday I take my turn at LaughFest Central all day, and Sunday I get to attend the Bill Cosby show. Then just my regular day on Monday, followed by working at the Betty White show/anniversary party on Tuesday night. Wednesday and Thursday bring some more shows, and Friday night I'm seeing a comedy showcase with Steve. Saturday I'm working in the morning, then seeing Chonda Pierce (a Christian comedienne) in the afternoon and Colin Mochrie & Brad Sherwood in the evening. Working an event on Sunday night to close things out. I think that's my schedule, seems like things have been changing on a regular basis.

Finally got a reservation near Baden-Baden for the first night of our trip. That's a load off my mind! We're still debating whether or not to go to the Roman baths while there. And Scott will be making the car rental reservation soon, he probably already has by now.

Two new developments: after researching, and asking several questions of the Garmin tech team, I went ahead and bought the SD card with the Europe Alps/DACH maps on it. That is a detailed map of the Alps area as well as Deutschland, Austria, and Switzerland (the CH.) My big concern was custom points of interest so that I could have some cache information in there. It works! I think I will have to pare back my Europe GSAK file but that's ok.

Second: Talking with Scott and Steve about the trip during Scott's phone call on Sunday. Plans for those last five days, after we return from our trip within the trip, came up. Scott suggested going to Paris and Steve didn't say no! It's only about 4 hours away. I think we'd have to stay overnight but...celebrating our 28th anniversary on May 28th in Paris wouldn't be half bad. Stay tuned for more...