Europe
It was 4 long weeks before the second half of our vacation. Of course some of that was spent playing catch up at work and there were still details of the trip to deal with such as insurance and delivery issues in Europe. But the anticipation was killing me. Mary was also really looking forward to the trip having missed the first half because May is a busy time in the balloon decoration business. When the day finally arrived though we were able to go in style. I got 3 1/2 hours of sleep the night before we left to make sure I could fall asleep on the plane. Mary's good customer Brent picked us up in a nice Lincoln limo and took us up to SFO for free. Then I started the trip off by forgetting the camera bag in the car. After much drama Mary managed to get through to Brent and he made the 25 minute trip back to drop it off. With that bullet dodged we made it through security and settled in for the looong non-stop flight to Amsterdam. I, unfortunately, had someone in front of me that insisted on reclining into my 6'3" frame so much of the flight was spent contorted into limited positions. That did not bode well for me later in the trip as my lower back started to get out of whack after a fitful night in the air. Our luggage was the next problem. We waited and we waited, then went to the baggage counter. A search was instigated and all the bags eventually showed up. There was no way our standard suitcases would fit in the Ghia so I brought one big duffel bag that held several smaller bags and camping equipment that could more easily be fit into the car's many storage areas. From the Amsterdam airport we would be hopping a train to Hannover and the train station is attached to the airport so a convenient cart made it easy there. After my previous night I was hoping to get some shuteye on the train but the seats weren't really much good for that so when we arrived in Hannover a few hours later we were really, really glad to be done with that leg. We were to meet Ute Groener, who had been storing our car in her garage for a week or so, at the station but not knowing what she looked like proved a challenge. And, the station has 2 entrances at opposite ends so while Mary stood by the baggage I went up to one end. Just as I got back to Mary we were paged in English so we dragged our bags down the way I had come from to meet Ute. On the way to her home we had half an hour to get to know her before we arrived, via a little back road, at a charming German style pub/restaurant with a handful of rooms above. It reminded me alot of the place we stayed at in 2001 for the 100th. Ute left us for an hour so we could shower and change out of our 2 day old clothes. Then we went down for a beer until she showed up to take us over to see the car. It seemed to have survived the ocean trip well but it appeared that the customs agent had gone overboard looking for drugs. I had put new speaker panels in next to foot area and a metal trim strip holding one of them in had been ripped out in the search. It also damaged the door edging and rubber but was fortunately able to get everything back to being at least presentable. Ute's '69 coupe was sitting in the next bay and I commented on how much it looked like Gobi Beige, which was a one year only color for 1968. She said it had been a special order from Karmann when new which explained the color. We found that Ute needed to drive to Georgsmarienhütte (GM) the next morning to help plan the 50th so I asked if we could follow along since we were headed that direction ourselves.
Day 2: One hundred and five miles per hour
My body decided it was time to wake up at 3:30 and then at 4am the birds started waking up and were in full voice by 4:30. I finally dozed off for awhile until the alarm went off at 7:30. We went downstairs for one of those simple fair German meals of a roll, cold cuts, cheese, and a boiled egg. After a gas stop we were on our way down the autobahn. There were many looky-lues along the way and I was having the time of my life just driving my own car in the land of its birth. Half way there we got off the autobahn to travel through a small city and Ute jumped out of her Jetta at the first stop light to come back to talk to us. She asked if we could find Osnabrück on our own as she needed to be at GM in 30 minutes. I said, "Sure, no problem," and we continued on through town still on her tail. After we got back on the autobahn she picked up the pace to 80, then 90, and finally topped out at 105mph. I stayed right with her and the car did it without much effort. The only thing I was worried about was the the worn tie rod end but the road was smooth as glass so that was no problem. After we got to GM we lost them briefly at a light but soon found them and parked. I asked her how fast she had been going and she said she was up to 160kph and was surprised to look up and see us still with her. We still had some ground to cover so we said our farewells and were off to Netherlands to meet up with Dave and Pat Whitaker. According to a detailed series of online maps I had printed off from Via Michelin before we left I could make a beeline down some country roads and end up right at the house of Pat's cousin Hank in Gröesbeek. Gröesbeek is a tiny town just over the German border and we were doing fine until about a mile from the border. There the left hand turn was a dinky road little more than one lane wide. After a half mile we came to a barrier that allowed bicycles past but had a ditch on that side and the other side was this elaborate cement structure designed to prevent car traffic from going through. We later found that we were less than 1/2 mile from Hank's house. Of course the road was too narrow to turn around on so we backed up to a couple of men who had been staring at this strange car from CA. They gave us general directions but I had to stop and ask directions three more times and then we fortunately met a lady who we followed to Hank's street. But all of this backtracking had cost us the chance at meeting Dave and Pat. They had given up on us and taken off on their own. Hank got ahold of them on a cell phone they had borrowed as we had cookies, tea, and coffee. They were about an hour away and Hank drove all the way out there so we wouldn't get lost trying to find them. He then drove us over to a camping spot which turned out to be the back yard of a machinist friend. John and his wife were very gracious and Dave ended up getting a very expensive bit (for free) for his BS machine. (Dave has since completed his BS machine. I'll try to get a picture of it.) That night we walked into town for a great ice cream cone. Then, on the way back, we missed the driveway in the dark and ended up walking an extra mile.