We woke up early to travel south to the Black Forest of Germany in the southwest corner of the country, near the Swiss border.  Moving from point A to B is usually pleasant because we are excited for our new surroundings.  The kids sleep a while then color in their coloring books……yep, that’s right, they color.  Can you be too old to color?  Nope.  Knowing we wouldn’t have wifi in the car, the importance of arming them with brand new crayons, Spiderman and princess coloring books was a necessity.  Who can resist a fresh box of crayons?

Pulling in for gas and urging everyone to go to the bathroom, such drudgery when they are in the blissful state of sleep.  We needed to get a snack, not because we are hungry but just for the fun of it. Raleigh is very much in a stage of life where his appreciation for super heroes is in full throttle.   I thought this was close enough to put me in the “fun mom” category for a few minutes.

For those of you that don’t know me very well, I don’t do packaged snacks for my kids.  Absolutely no judgment on those who do.  My kids classify me as a health freak and I wear that label with pride.  I couldn’t wait to show the girls my awesome momness.  Let me tell you, it worked!  Good ol’ Prince Cookies to the rescue on a long drive.

Everything was going great on the way to the Black Forest, we were right on time according to the GPS.  I made the call to the house keeper to let her know we were one hour away per instruction of the owners of the flat that reside in England.   We watched the time click down and excitement rose.  Soon the GPS showed 12 minutes to our destination.  We drove through the town at the base of the mountain and started our ascent………and there it was………a road block consuming our half of the street and a sign with our town’s name, Todtmoos, marked out with red tape!  Breathe, breathe, breathe.  How can you put red tape through our town?  Did it fall off the mountain, did it disappear into thin air?  We sit there, staring at the road block.  We wait for a brilliant idea to pop into our heads…….nothing.  A car whizzes past us and past the road block.  That’s all we needed to do, just go around the blockade?  Easy, no problem, we got this. We both know it won’t last but we wind up the mountain slowly until of course the whole road is blocked.  We see a tunnel up ahead and guess that maybe rocks have fallen and blocked the road.  Sigh, we turn around.  Oh yeah, pray, Bly, pray.  We start back down the mountain and pull into an outlook area where a car is parked, the same car that we followed.  It appears that someone came up here to get away from it all and rest in his car.  I urge Dennis to go talk to him.  We both hate these kind of situations but sometimes you have to put yourself out there.  Den gets out and approaches the car.  I decide to go with him for back up.  Yikes, I see LOTS of tattoos.  I tell myself not to judge, but it’s hard, I grew up sheltered.  I quickly go through the files of names in my mind of good people I know with tattoos…..Kyle, Leshah, Kim, Kathy, Lacey’s boyfriend Chris, Steph, Galen……okay, all good people, moving past that judgment.  Man, Bly, just be happy that somebody is here and might help you.  Mr. Tattoo is trying to explain that we have to go the long way but we don’t understand how.  He then says, “follow me, I will take you.”  We thank him profusely and he says, “I am doing nothing, it’s okay.”  Thank you, God!

It’s such a relief to get to our new home for the week and settle in.  Todtmoos is a charming little tourist town.  It was fun to drive up the mountain further and look down on our village.

Our flat was on the third floor and just across the street from a hotel.  We could watch the big tour buses come in and listen to the tourists as they walked up and down the streets.  A delight to our senses.  There is a pleasant hum that comes from the pedestrians and from the outdoor cafes everywhere we go.  I finally put my finger on it.  Because we don’t speak the language we can’t tune into conversations so the chatter becomes a beautiful hum.  I LOVE to observe people and apparently so does Raleigh.  We weren’t there for more than a few minutes before he found a seat with a great view.

The rolling green hills go on and on and on.  With every turn there is a bench for people to sit on and breathe in the beauty.

Life is good in the Black Forest.