Rouse and Lynn Come to Visit

September 2009. My good friends Rouse and Lynn Vallotton, of Valdosta, GA, came to visit as part of a romantic European getaway. Unfortunately, Jena was away in Morocco, with the camera. Lynn sent me a few pics from the trip.

Our first trip was down to Trier, where they introduced me to Geo Caching. We (Lynn) found one in a drain pipe outside a restaurant for our first score. Later, we (Lynn and I) found one here, pictured below at the Porta Nigra. I slipped a Duck Pond (Rouse's shooting club) coin into the cache, then we let Rouse "find" it. Needless to say, for a minute, he was shocked, until we started cracking up. It only got funnier every time we did it for the rest of the trip!



Here's a shot with Duck Pond coins, me wearing my Duck Pond shirt:



We traveled to the castles of Burg Eltz and Cochem along the Mosel river. Along the way, we cached several spots and had a blast, cutting up like three teenagers, which you may have noticed we are definitely NOT! The cache below is outside Burg Eltz, a castle from the 1300's. While Rouse and Lynn took the tour, I found the cache and pulled another Duck Pond coin "miracle." Our late foray cost us the last ride out of the steep valley, so we had a long walk and a laugh.



We headed to Boppard, a mid-sized town on the Rhine River that was having a wine festival, complete with a massive fireworks show. We had some really good Riesling. One in particular, a 2007 Spatlese from the Weingut Lorenz, was great. We ate the standard German bratwursts and fries.



We sampled several local restaurants, many local beers and wines and had good company. Jena got back just in time for the last night and a farewell. Here we are in front of the house:



Lynn and Rouse continued on to Rothenburg, Heidlberg Bavaria and beyond. It sure was good to see them both. We'll be heading back to America soon, and we'll be passing through Valdosta to see our friends next month, and can hardly wait.