Postcard from Obernai

We first noticed a change around Vimy. She just was not herself. She drove us around in circles and when I checked our distance I realized that we had only travelled about 4 kms in just under an hour. We decided that she needed a rest so we turned her off and I switched to reading maps. I am speaking about Phoebe (our GPS).

We gave her the whole day and an evening off hoping by morning she would be better. I really needed her to get us to Omaha Beach. Well, she was fine for a while and then she started up again. By the time we reached Mont St. Michel she was completely toast. (I have my suspicions that she was into the Calvados brandy but I cannot prove it.) We decided that it was time to get her out of the area as she obviously could not handle the temptation. I packed her away for the day and night again and switched to maps. We got just south of Paris and camped for the night. I tried her the next morning and still she was out of it. What a hangover she must have had! I left her out though and by noon she seemed to come out of it a little. By 2 she was her old self again and guided us nicely to the town of Obernai. Mom, Robyn and family will remember it from our last trip here. It is in the Alsace region of France. We stayed at the same campground – they had us in their system already as returnees. After arriving we immediately walked into the old town as it was market day and Market Days in Europe are fun! Walked around for a couple of hours and then came back to our site to set up. Met a nice German couple – older than us – next door. He spoke great English, French, and German. Helped us set up and gave Mike some advice on the camper which was good. He also told us of some nice areas to visit. They left this morning after saying goodbye. I went to do our laundry early. I had three loads to do and while I was doing my 2nd load a Frenchman came in. We had a broken English-French conversation about my doing the laundry. He indicated that he was in a hurry to get into town so I should let him put in his load right after mine was finished and then when he was finished I could continue on with the rest of my laundry. I politely indicated “no way”. Apparently he took offense by this and made a few obscene jesters at me, grabbed his laundry and stormed out of the room. We find the French always like to butt in, especially in car lines. For some reason they think they should always be able to just cut in front in the line – like it is their god given right. Anyway, I got my laundry done and we headed into town again. After walking around for a while we headed back to have dinner. Just finished dinner now and we are heading out for another walk around. Having a great time. Taking things slowly but really enjoying ourselves. Sometimes the RV is a bit of a problem when it comes to parking but generally it is really good and we are seeing so much.

Mike here: I noticed that the Dutch don’t have any real culture. Imagine a society that doesn’t wear or sell baseball hats. Well, that is the Dutch. We had to go to Belgium to buy a Dutch hat. Now the Belgians…..beer, chocolate, French fries, and waffles….now that is a society! I could easily live in Belgium.