Well, it has been a while. So let me catch you all up. After leaving the lovely company of my fellow PCV's in Santee, CA. I rented a car, got some ride share folks to split gas with me and headed for Albuquerque, NM where I dropped off the car at the airport and was picked up by one of my favorite Germans, Sven Vogel. Sven was my boss the last time I was in Los Alamos and was about to become my boss, in a manner of speaking, again. His 8 year old son, Noah, and I were about to be come bosom buddies as Sven was taking me to Germany with him and Noah so that I could look babysit while Sven attended conferences, meetings and other such things. But first, I had to hitch a ride up to Denver where me and my PCV pals were planning to have a fantastic 4th of July celebration and one year reunion.
I found a ride share on craigslist and was able to make my way north without too much trouble. Then, I partied down in a huge cabin out in the mountains about an hour from Denver with my PCV's. Whiskey, beer, brauts, memories, hugs and laughter were had by all, but especially me :) Two excellent days and nights were spend in the woods and then we parted ways. Someone was kind enough to give me a lift to the airport where I hopped on my plane to Deutchland!
I touched down in Frankfurt and immediately got on the train to Frieburg where I was able to finally rejoin Sven and Noah. We spent and few days with Sven's mom and then we were off again. I would have to look again at my notes to see exactly what order we went, but the list includes Berlin, Frankfurt, Roestock (to see some friends I met in Uganda: Peter, Blanca and Lutcia) and a few others. Again, I will have to look back in my notes to see all the places. In each one, Noah and I went to the pool, parks and museums. I especially like the technology museum and Noah really enjoyed the computer and video game museums.
While in Frieburg I also got to see my SLS classmate, Tobias. It turns out he is working on his PhD in history at the university in Frieburg. We had a rather fantastic evening together at his fraternity house. We engaged in several beer battles and while I lost nearly all of them, I still had an excellent time!
My excellent German adventure as an au pair came to a close as did July and I was back on a airplane to ABQ. From there a friend picked me up and took me to Sven's house once more. Not only did Sven pay for all my travel and accommodation in Germany, but he also let me take his "scooter" for a road trip during all of August. Sven is a motorcycle enthusiast and has a behemoth chopper which he enjoys taking on tours around the southwest. He also has a "scooter" for his wife which is a Harley Sportster. This is what I was allowed to borrow for a whole month since his wife doesn't ride anymore.
With a full suite of borrowed gear from a rugby friend in Santa Fe I mounted my steed and headed south just as a tremendous storm opened up on me. I was miserable. It was late and I was freezing. The rain was to torrential that I had to stop somewhere and that somewhere just happened to be ABQ international airport. So I found and empty couch and still in my full gear, streached out and tried to rest and dry while I waited for the rain to subside.
Four hours later, the rain was mostly done and there was only a little lightning so I remounted the bike and began the overnight journey down to El Paso for my first stop. The purpose of the trip was to visit as many of my SLS classmates as possible. The first being Brendan Flanagan. But, in my haste to make up lost time from the storm, I did not plan well and around 8 am as I was just 60 miles from El Paso I ran out of gas. After two hours of pushing someone finally pulled over and let me use their phone. Fortunately Brendan answered and came to rescue me with a few gallons of gas. But this all cost me the night I had hoped to stay with him. So we sat an shot the breeze at his apartment for a while and then I had to once again hit the road.
That was pretty much the theme, though I always carried an extra bottle of gas with me after that, for the rest of the trip. Drive all day, stay with a classmate for a night and hit the road again. My visits were many and my days were few, so I only got to say "howdy" and "adios" for most of the time. From El Paso it was off to San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, New Orleans, then Alabama, VA, Baltimore, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Chicago, Indianapolis, St. Louis, a small town in Missouri, then all the way back to New Mexico to return the scooter and jump on my flight back to China. I think there were more stops in there, but I can't remember off the top of my head. This really should have been a dozen blog posts, but on account of procrastination they have been condensed down to one.
Oh, and I had a decent layover in San Francisco so I stopped by the Apple campus where I had a beer with a good friend from Rose, Buddy Meyer. He even was kind enough to not only buy me lunch but also give me his old iphone which I am still using now.
Up next, my cycling trips across China.
I found a ride share on craigslist and was able to make my way north without too much trouble. Then, I partied down in a huge cabin out in the mountains about an hour from Denver with my PCV's. Whiskey, beer, brauts, memories, hugs and laughter were had by all, but especially me :) Two excellent days and nights were spend in the woods and then we parted ways. Someone was kind enough to give me a lift to the airport where I hopped on my plane to Deutchland!
I touched down in Frankfurt and immediately got on the train to Frieburg where I was able to finally rejoin Sven and Noah. We spent and few days with Sven's mom and then we were off again. I would have to look again at my notes to see exactly what order we went, but the list includes Berlin, Frankfurt, Roestock (to see some friends I met in Uganda: Peter, Blanca and Lutcia) and a few others. Again, I will have to look back in my notes to see all the places. In each one, Noah and I went to the pool, parks and museums. I especially like the technology museum and Noah really enjoyed the computer and video game museums.
While in Frieburg I also got to see my SLS classmate, Tobias. It turns out he is working on his PhD in history at the university in Frieburg. We had a rather fantastic evening together at his fraternity house. We engaged in several beer battles and while I lost nearly all of them, I still had an excellent time!
My excellent German adventure as an au pair came to a close as did July and I was back on a airplane to ABQ. From there a friend picked me up and took me to Sven's house once more. Not only did Sven pay for all my travel and accommodation in Germany, but he also let me take his "scooter" for a road trip during all of August. Sven is a motorcycle enthusiast and has a behemoth chopper which he enjoys taking on tours around the southwest. He also has a "scooter" for his wife which is a Harley Sportster. This is what I was allowed to borrow for a whole month since his wife doesn't ride anymore.
With a full suite of borrowed gear from a rugby friend in Santa Fe I mounted my steed and headed south just as a tremendous storm opened up on me. I was miserable. It was late and I was freezing. The rain was to torrential that I had to stop somewhere and that somewhere just happened to be ABQ international airport. So I found and empty couch and still in my full gear, streached out and tried to rest and dry while I waited for the rain to subside.
Four hours later, the rain was mostly done and there was only a little lightning so I remounted the bike and began the overnight journey down to El Paso for my first stop. The purpose of the trip was to visit as many of my SLS classmates as possible. The first being Brendan Flanagan. But, in my haste to make up lost time from the storm, I did not plan well and around 8 am as I was just 60 miles from El Paso I ran out of gas. After two hours of pushing someone finally pulled over and let me use their phone. Fortunately Brendan answered and came to rescue me with a few gallons of gas. But this all cost me the night I had hoped to stay with him. So we sat an shot the breeze at his apartment for a while and then I had to once again hit the road.
That was pretty much the theme, though I always carried an extra bottle of gas with me after that, for the rest of the trip. Drive all day, stay with a classmate for a night and hit the road again. My visits were many and my days were few, so I only got to say "howdy" and "adios" for most of the time. From El Paso it was off to San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, New Orleans, then Alabama, VA, Baltimore, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Chicago, Indianapolis, St. Louis, a small town in Missouri, then all the way back to New Mexico to return the scooter and jump on my flight back to China. I think there were more stops in there, but I can't remember off the top of my head. This really should have been a dozen blog posts, but on account of procrastination they have been condensed down to one.
Oh, and I had a decent layover in San Francisco so I stopped by the Apple campus where I had a beer with a good friend from Rose, Buddy Meyer. He even was kind enough to not only buy me lunch but also give me his old iphone which I am still using now.
Up next, my cycling trips across China.
