June 19, 2013 - Arrived at Hailey's

We arrived at the Frankfurt airport.  Made it through immigration rather quickly, got our bags and headed out to pick up our rental car at the Avis kiosk.  Well I guess they have the in the different terminals and we were checking in at the wrong one but the lady that was helping us just re-booked us through her terminal.  We had prepaid for the van so we just had to fill out the paperwork and then loaded up and headed to Hailey's.  When Hailey had come to home the last time she brought a couple of old cell phones one for Amanda to take and one for us.  Well when I tried to call her to let her know we had landed and were headed her way, the phone said we had no balance available so I just shut the phone off.  What I didn't know is that she could have called me because there was not charge for that.

The van we got was brand new it only had 25 kilometers on it when we got it.  The back row of seats were the ones that fold flat down into the floor so our luggage fits just fine.  I am very glad that we purchased our Garmin GPS with Europe maps on it for our last trip to Europe it came in very handy for our trip this time also.  I had printed out directions from google maps also but I never did see any of the roads that were on that map but the gps got us here with no problems other than it took forever to find the satellite.

 

On our lovely journey to Hailey's there was some road construction and Roger noticed that the road divided with the trucks going on one side and the cars going on the other so at the last minute he changed lanes and followed the cars down a path that had ramps on both sides of the lane.  Soon we heard police sirens behind us.... oh great now what do we do we can't get over because there is no over to get to, so we just keep going with the sirens blaring behind us.  Finally we get to the end so Roger pulls into the right lane ready to pull off to the side of the road but the police car just zooms past us.  Lets just say Rogers hands were very sweaty.




Amanda greeted us at the door.












It didn't take long for the guys to fall asleep on the couch watching a movie Amanda started for them.  So I went for a walk with Amanda.  This is probably the first of many adventures that we will have on this trip.  Today was the hottest day since Hailey has been stationed here.  It was 92 degrees with what felt like 92% humidity as we set out.  Before long my eyes were burning from the sweat that was pouring into them.  We had nothing to wipe the sweat off. (Where is Pam when I need her?)

They have a road and park dedicated to J. F. Kennedy.  We took a wrong road and walked about a mile when we realized it was not going to take us where we needed to go, so we had to turn around and go back the way we came and then went another way.  So we arrived at the base gates and was going to have Hailey meet us there but Amanda realized she had forgotten her pass to get on the base, soooo we had to go back to Hailey's.  We stopped at a gas station mini mart and Amanda bought a wine cooler type drink because it was cheaper than water.  Lucky for us she called and when we were half way back to her house she picked us up.

I had never seen these before but I guess they are
Dragon Fruit.

 So we came back to the apartment and picked up Elaine and then went back to the base, got our passes for the week, and went shopping for food at the BX.  We came back and filled her fridge which has never been done before.

The second floor is Hailey's appartment.

Then grabbed the guys and headed for dinner in Kaiserslauttern.

We had to wait for Amanda as she ran into a store real quick to buy some shorts.  She couldn't find them anywhere.  When we walked past the store after dinner we could see them right as you walk in but they were closed.

Now for the big decision....what's for dinner?

I think this is what I am going to have.  But then we got lucky and the waitress asked us if we wanted an english menu....Why yes that would be nice.  So I changed my mind but still had something similar.  I go lucky and my snitzel was the special so I got a free large drink with it plus strawberry daiquiris were on special for 3 euros so I got one of those too.  It was so good because it was icy.

 Elaine & Fred shared a meal of mixed meats.

The food was yummy but way to much so now we have leftovers for breakfast.












Amanda had grabbed a packet of what she thought was ketchup but it was a sweet mustard that was really good.

This is a picture of my Christmas tree ornament that I purchased today at the BX.


It is now almost midnight everyone is asleep and I can hardly keep my eyes open, so I am sorry if I misspelled anything or it doesn't all make since.  But just know that we made it safely to Hailey's and that we have already had some great German food.