Sorry to have missed a week of blogging last weekend, but really we have been pretty low key here for a couple of weeks.  

The weather, on the other hand, has been spectacular for several weeks in a row.  Yes there's an occasional rainstorm...just enough to keep the cars looking dirty.  I still think the Germans wash their cars everyday on their way home from work because their cars are always clean and shiny!

I have been taking at least a few photos everyday for my 365 project, but they aren't really blog material, so I don't include them.  But this week I need some filler so here's a one that I really liked.

Sunshine through the petals

The one below was taken on Easter.  Mike and I went for a nice walk.  He's a sport and will go with me on my photography jaunts.  

One day last week we all went golfing. Well...Mike, Travis and Mike McG. golfed.  I walked along and took more photos.  We have a really beautiful golf course here on base.  I should take lessons...

Travis doing a layout backflip on the neighbor's tramp.  He hates the "safety net"!

The Mutual had a talent show night at church.  The kids here are amazingly talented!  They sing, they write their own music, they play many instruments and some are just funny.  It IS a talent to be able to make people laugh.  What was Travis' talent....do you even have to ask??

Yep....he makes people laugh.  I laughed so hard I cried!!   It was just the old "someone else's arms for my arms skit"  but he and his friend Mason were hilarious.  "No...not the banana!"


Well that's it for my part of the blog, but you are in for a special treat.  Mike and Travis went back to Zermatt, Switzerland this weekend to ski.  They took lots of photos and Mike has agreed to be a guest blogger.  So I will now turn it over to him...

MAYDAY! MAYDAY! MAYDAY!  Normally that is a pilot term used when he wants to talk and everyone else is supposed to listen because he thinks what he has to say is more important than everything else.  I must be getting old because what I really think it means is he is a little rattled and doesn’t know what to say.  What does this have to do with the blog, nothing other than it’s Mayday.

Biggest news of the week is I have a new grandson born on Mayday. 

His name is Lucca named after a village in Italy.  Pat and Natasha vacationed there a few years ago and liked it.  Corri and I were going to drive through it last week but it was a little off the beaten path.

This week’s blog is brought to you courtesy of Mike.  Corri said I had to write it since she did not do anything this week, that is a joke she stays busier than me.  And it turns out as I am finishing up I found she already wrote the blog.

Last week I took the Scouts on a Historic Trail in France called the Meuse Argonne Historic Trail.  It is a series of 4 hikes along WW1 battlegrounds  and villages.  The first picture is of the scouts raising the flag at the American Cemetery.  The Cemetery has a wooded area behind the maintenance sheds that we were able to camp in.  The head grounds keeper met us when we arrived and offered to let us raise the flag over the Cemetery in the morning.

Meuse-Argonne, covering one hundred and thirty acres, holds the largest number of American Dead in Europe, a total of 14,246. Most of those buried here gave their lives during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive of World War I.  After the cemetery we visited the site where Sgt York earned the Medal of Honor and several other historic places.

Friday and Saturday Mike McGrath Travis and I traveled to Zermott Switzerland for a little ski trip.  Zermott is located in the Swiss Alps near the border of Italy next to the Matterhorn of Disney fame.

The majestic Matterhorn above Zermatt, Switzerland

Skiing was great, we took the tram to the top about 11,000 feet.  It snowed a little off and on all day as the clouds rolled through.  All of my pictures of the Matterhorn have some clouds but the day was nice April 30^th and we were skiing on new powder at the top.  The bottom was around 7,500 feet and a little slushy but the top 2,000 feet was really nice. 

Mike McGrath navigating the magic carpet

TJ in front of a cloud covered Matterhorn

In Zermatt

A little about GPS’s, they don’t always take you where you want to go and you need to follow the map least unplanned activities will occur.   So we are on our way to Zermott and I pass the real map to my trusty nav, Mike McGrath, occupying the right seat and he says “Follow Dolly”.  When I used to fly Interceptors the ground controller could send commands via data link to the airplane on which heading to fly and what altitude to go to.  It came up on the Tactical Situation Display and the (GCI) ground control intercept controller did not have to say anything it was all automated.  The code word was to “Follow Dolly” which is pretty much what we do when we follow directions from the GPS.  So I am driving along and this unusual symbol pops up on the GPS at the next turn point, looks like a ship.  I turn to my Nav who is playing golf on his I touch and say do you know where we are?  He says no and I say what do you think the ship means at our next turn point.  Then I notice there are some towns around that are not familiar with our original routing.  Turns out the GPS thinks it is faster to take us to a tunnel and load the car on a train, not what we had planned but what the heck after all we are on a guy trip so what’s a little detour.  First boo boo saved us about 30 minutes and was kind of fun.

The car train

Same scenario only this time on the way home, I think my Nav has moved up to Pokeyman.  We are in France on the Autobahn and Dolly says take the next exit, I think well maybe it is taking us to another freeway but when I take the turn it takes us off the freeway into this French Village and I say Nav where are we.  He pulls out the map and I continue to follow the GPS.  After about 30 minutes, now very dark we figure out where we are and he says keep following it should take us back to the Autobahn.  After several  GPS resets and a lot of other attempts at trying to figure out where it is taking us we do the guy thing and keep on going.  We never did get back to the autobahn and wandered aimlessly through the French countryside back to Germany.  I am sure this is where the smugglers go, we never saw another  border guard station.  The good news is we didn’t have to pay one French toll, but it did add about an hour to the trip.  So after we drop Mike off I do the smart thing and give the GPS to Travis and say fix this thing.  He does the master reset and tells me for some reason the GPS was on avoid Autobahns, I blame it on my Nav and we get home about Midnight but the skiing was great. 

Thanks to my guest blogger and now back to me....

We are looking forward to a visit from Vella on Friday.  We're planning on going to see the tulips in Holland and some castles and whatever else we can think of!!

We love and miss you all,

-corri