Let's go!

We had set our departure date for August 30th. That came about because Basti's employer reacted so amazingly when, after only 3 months of employment, he received the news and said, 'So what? That's great, a trip like this. Life is sometimes too short, and we in the rescue service know that better than anyone! Should we fire you or work on reducing your hours?' (That's a summarized version of what he said 🥺🤗)

Sabbatical year!? That's only for teachers 😏 So we left a month later. One hand washes the other... Thanks to 'AusfallReserve® GmbH'!!!

After that, we quickly emptied our huge apartment last weekend and luckily found great new tenants. After the first ones fell through, it looked like everything would be delayed and our trip to France would fall through. But in the nick of time, our rescuers bought our car. Perfect. It couldn't be going any better... I hope that our beloved VW continues to run without any problems for a long time 🚙🍀

We moved out of the apartment and finally into the motorhome. It was a game of Tetris at its finest. Fortunately, I'm very good at it. So good that we were even able to remove the bike rack - saving a few kilograms - and fit EVERYTHING into the trunk 😁

We also had a small back-to-school/farewell party for the kids and a farewell party for neighbors, friends, and family. At least for the handful of people who were not on summer vacation. It was definitely advantageous for my heart and tissue supply that not everyone was there and the goodbyes were spread out... 😭

I was asked many times if I was nervous. But honestly, my head was so loud that I didn't have the capacity to be nervous 🙃 More like tense. Yes. Tense describes it pretty well!!

Then, on Tuesday, August 30th, when the Römerstraße unexpectedly filled up with dear people waving to us, I couldn't keep up my cool demeanor anymore and the tears flowed... Those who know me, know me 🤷😭😉 Like I said before, fortunately, the goodbyes were spaced out and came in stages. The final goodbye was waiting for us in France...

Totally exhausted but still excited, we finally set off!!!!!!!!!! Until Herdwangen 😂 Yes, exactly. We spent our first night 19 km from home❣️

Why?

When we set off from Uhldingen-Mühlhofen full of euphoria, we heard a strange noise after a few kilometers. Since neither of us are car professionals, there were two options. Drive on so that we could finally leave the country and then, if necessary, find a foreign-language garage somewhere if it turned out to be something serious, but that could potentially cause further damage. Turn around? No way!!! Not without me. So we headed towards 'Seecamper' in Herdwangen, who had fixed several other things for us, and we planned to arrive there tomorrow morning. Luckily, it doesn't matter to the kids whether you're camping in Timbuktu or 'behind the house'. There's something to discover everywhere :-) So our first night was spent behind Herdwangen in a hiking parking lot, where we explored the area 🤷😅

The next morning, as we took a test drive with an employee from the garage, the noise was naturally gone!!! 🤬 Of course. The law of averages. Oh well...

The good thing was that we were able to stop by my brother's office at 'Backyards' again and get the sticker for the 'Block' and the beautiful Lake Constance, so that we won't forget where our 'homeBase' is while we're on the road.

And now: off to France 🥐🥖

With a stopover in a small village in France, at an even smaller campsite, I immediately bumped into the first tiny dent in the alcove - that's the thick bump above the driver's cab where you can sleep. Nobody could have known that the French trees grow in such a strange way there. And besides, the ambulance doesn't have anything like that on top, so you have to get used to it 🙄 Well, it's not that bad. Everything is intact and you can hardly see a thing.

The following day, we arrived on the Côte d'Azur in the evening and were greeted by my mom, sister, brother-in-law, nephews, niece, cousin, and friends 🥂🍾🍻 They were the last ones to say goodbye after a week at the beach 😭😟 After three days there, I finally noticed that the tension from the preparations had subsided. A little well-deserved buzz may have helped with that 😁🍷

After a week of staying up late, extra vacation spending money for the kids, an ice cream every day or a little something to play with, and more, we quickly realized that a year of travel is not the same as a year of feeling like you're on vacation. We'll let this week slide five times, but then there will unfortunately be a few rules for a relaxed coexistence :-)

And that proved to be true 3 days after we set off towards Slovenia, when Felix fell asleep in the motorhome with a fever 🤒

But that's another story...