Travel Journal

November 2004

During the grey month of November we have been having a real strain of bad luck. Following the presidential election, Thanksgiving was supposed to be the high point of the month, but the following day disaster struck. The attic remodeling for Katja’s room was in full course (and still is, but much more slowly now), Chuck had another table saw encounter, this time, however, much worse than ever before. Without the gory details, the final result is half of the left ring finger was amputated. Middle and index finger were severely affected but were saved. During the incident he also severely strained his right side and shoulder. The right arm can only be lifted with great effort and severe pain. Nothing is broken, EKG was normal. He can hardly lie down, sleeps at night almost sitting in his bed, where Renée built sort of a ramp for him, so that he does not have to sleep on the couch any more. Chuck has sworn off all table saws!

Next, in our series of unwanted occurrences, a deer decided to cross the road in front of Michael’s pickup that was traveling at 55 mph. Katja, Keith and Michael are intact, the deer is dead, and the pickup is a total loss. Renée contributed her part of unwanted occurrences with Bronchitis, nasal infection, cough, etc.

To get away from it all, we took a short one day trip to Windsor, Ontario which is the Canadian sister city to Detroit. The trip took about three hours and because of the rainy weather, longer to get back. We went by car, leaving the RV and Pickup in Fort Wayne. One crosses the border either through a tunnel or over a large bridge. We tried both out, the tunnel on the return trip. The purpose of our Canada trip was actually for shopping, with the main object on our wish list being "Mon Chéri" (chocolate covered cherries in Brandy) which one can not buy in the USA. Recently we found them on a website in Texas, where they can be ordered, but the selection is limited and expensive. When we were in Canada a few years ago, one could buy "Mon Chéri" everywhere; this time they were nowhere to be found! However we did find “German Brandy Beans” (bean shaped chocolate candies filled with Brandy) and stocked up on them.

We spent Thanksgiving with Michael and the kids. Soon we will head out to Kentucky for the Morton-Christmas celebration, to be held on December 11^th. From there we have to make a trip to Pensacola, Florida to register our vehicles, get licenses, etc. Then it is back to Fort Wayne for Christmas!

To be continued ………………………..

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