Susan Womble's Adventures: Germany week 43 part 1 Goodbye to the house and baby car

Germany week 43 part 1 Goodbye to the house and baby car

Dear all:
Sorry this has taken me so long but I am going to write a series of concluding blogs to bring to conclusion my fantastic school year in Germany.
This first blog is part one the last week of school and the last week of finishing up everything.
First of all I started the week finishing all of the paperwork and sign out stuff needed to transition out of a school and out of a country. We had our schedule in place and crossed our fingers that all would go as planned. The timing had to be perfect and lo and behold it was.
Gregg helped a lot by going around and getting some of the necessary signatures required not only by the school but also by the Post. We had to turn back in our rations card, gas cards, set up for getting rid of furniture that we did not need, etc.
Two trips of baby car loaded to the brim took care of unwanted clothing and 220 appliances and shoes, etc that were given to the thrift store to be sold to soldier families. Believe me, we used the thrift store a lot as we transitioned to Germany.
We sold the bedroom furniture and a desk and TV stand and love seat and futon to families via the website bookoo which is basically a garage sale for the military to help them get rid of unwanted items. We also sold our AFN decoder which a soldier's wife gladly paid for a a reduced price. The AFN decoder was definitely a used item in our house.
On Wednesday we had the movers come in and take everything but our luggage packed which we had all ready set up in one room so we could get everything out of the house.
That night we began to come to our final clean out.
Germany was truly cold --not only did we have snow on May 16 but we had to wear jackets because you could see your breath on June 14--See pictures below. We did however have a rain storm and a beautiful fat rainbow--it was gorgeous-- the pictures do not do it justice. Kind of fitting for our last week there. :)
Thursday we donated baby car, a hard thing to do, she had given us 15000 miles and we did not once have to do any repairs to her so she was a great car and the 47 miles to the gallon didn't hurt either.
Thursday was a half day at school so we were able to get baby car, insurance and all taken care of that afternoon. Kristen, a teacher at school, loaned me her second car so we had a car to go home with. We stayed at base and ate at the dining hall for the last time. Turned out it was the 237th birthday bash for the army and the dining hall was loaded with soldiers and the selections were fantastic. Another Forest Gump moment. One of the soldiers at the dining hall asked Gregg if I knew a FSU player named Greg Reid and Gregg said yes and asked why--He said he was from Valdosta and went to school with Greg Reid- then another soldier overhearing the conversation piped in a said he was from Tallahassee on a two week training at Hohenfels. It is truly a small world.
Friday we spent finishing cleaning and packing and loading Kristien's car with all other refrigerator and pantry items and various paraphernalia that we did not get rid of.
True to the German form the housing guy showed up right on time and we ended up walking through the house saying our goodbyes, getting our deposit back and headed to the train.
The train ride with 9 bags was a trip as we stood the entire time since we did not have space enough for that much luggage near the seats. After we arrived at the station we had to take turns rolling the bags out of the train station using stairs, elevators and whatever else was available then we took a taxi to the Munich airport Holiday Inn for four last few days at in Germany
With that I will close as the next is a story for another blog.
Hugs from Germany- even though I sit in the USA typing this :)
Susan

Hohenfels, Deusmauer Velburg drive