Well, not sure where to begin! I have procrastinated finishing my blog about our Viking cruise with Doug and Kim Cameron. I actually spent a couple of hours today picking up where I left off. After almost completing my story from Passau to Amsterdam, I accidentally deleted everything. I went to the trash and brought it back up, then proceeded to do the same thing again, and this time it deleted permanently! I couldn’t believe it! So frustrating!

I have a new computer and went from Windows to a Mac, and I struggle with the sensitivity of this keyboard! Tim has turned in, and I’m not quite ready to call it a night, so I will start once again and hopefully not delete anything this time!

The last post was when we had to change ships due to the water levels of the Danube. The change went very smoothly. All we had to do was pack, take a bus to the next port, and unpack on the new ship. Viking had everything completely organized and under control. When we started with the new ship, we were on the Main–Danube Canal until we got to the Rhine. On the canal, we went through 16 locks in over 100 miles. It is incredible how the captain maneuvers the ship through some of these locks. Sometimes they only have inches between the lock walls and the ship! We passed through a total of 61 locks between Budapest and Amsterdam.

The ports in Germany started in Nuremberg. We were so fortunate to get a local guide who grew up there. His details of how World War II affected his life as a child were heartbreaking. He pointed out “stumbling stones” in the cobblestone streets that were placed in front of homes where Jewish men, women, and children were taken from. These stumbling stones are memorial plaques embedded in the street with their names. It was the same in all the ports we visited in Germany. We all felt the respect and reverence the guides had when they shared both personal and historical stories of the war. They are stories we will always remember.

There were six ports in Germany. We always took a guided tour of the cobblestone streets, and if there was a castle or cathedral, we made sure to go through. From the cobblestone streets of Germany, we went to the port at Kinderdijk and toured old windmills. In Amsterdam, after we had our guided tour, we met Inge Stevens at our hotel. Inge was our exchange student who lived with us in 1990. She returned to the States in 1996 and visited us again. Now she is a mother of twin boys and a teenage daughter. It was so awesome getting together with her for a day!

We returned home on September 29. We spent the next couple of weeks following the kiddos, their cross-country meets, and soccer games. They all had great seasons! The twins placed second at state for soccer, Coen placed second at state for cross country, and Darby made the cut for regional finals for high school cross country. She hasn’t gone to state yet, but I’m sure she will do great!

We left on October 20 for the winter. We decided to head north to Stratford, Ontario. We saw Dangerous Liaisons at the Stratford Festival. We wanted to see Macbeth, but unfortunately, I didn’t think it would be difficult to get tickets for another play since it isn’t their big season. It is, however, when busloads of high school students come for a couple of days, and there are so many that the plays we wanted to see were sold out.

We headed toward Thunder Bay, which was 14 hours away, so we stopped in Sault Ste. Marie for a night. Then, last night, we found a community center that allowed one-night stays in Wawa, Ontario. We were headed out this morning when Tim noticed one of the tires on the trailer was wobbling! After checking it, he said it was ready to fall off! We are so lucky it didn’t happen while driving 65 mph on the highway yesterday!

I googled a tire shop, and we were relieved it was only a mile away. He drove slow and cautious for that mile, and we both were so glad we got there without incident. Unfortunately, they couldn’t help us and advised us to turn back around and go to a trailer repair place close to where we had just left. OMG! Neither of us thought we could make it! Tim turned on the flashers, and off we inched to the repair shop. About half a block from our destination, Tim said, “It’s gonna fall off.” Oh man, that would not be good! He slowed to a crawl, and we both held our breath… we made it! Thank goodness!

The shop owner said he thought the spindle was bad and it would be Monday before he would have it ready. We unhooked the trailer, left it with him, and headed into town for breakfast. Not sure what we were going to do for a weekend in Wawa. A waitress told us her best friend owned an RV campground that was closed for the season but still had utilities on until next week. She called to see if we could stay. She was our saving angel!

We drove back to the shop to get some things we needed out of the trailer, and the owner said the spindle wasn’t ruined and he could have it fixed by the end of the day. We are counting our blessings tonight! We went to the RV site, checked in, got on their Wi-Fi, and got caught up on what’s happening in the world while we waited for the shop owner to call. We picked the trailer up and will be able to head to Thunder Bay tomorrow.

We have decided that we will head south into Wisconsin from Thunder Bay instead of our original plan of staying in Canada until we were above Montana. Canada was full of color around Stratford, so the drive was lovely. Between there and Wawa, it was pretty desolate, and all the parks have closed until May, so there is nothing to see. We will attempt this trip again during their tourist season!

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