Rames' in Ireland: A drive East and more family

Being a long way from home, it is always tough to see things happening in the homeland and being unable to attend as we would like. Family is important and if there is a way to keep the connection with family, it is something we try to do. My brother's oldest son Dan is in the U.S. Army and is stationed in Germany. His post is on the eastern side of Germany near the Czech Republic border. In the 1980's, this would have been the tip of the spear as it would be these locations that the Soviet hoard would attack Western Europe. It's a different world now.

In planning trip, we decided to make a visit to Dan, Shanna, Kyrie (7), Morgan(2), and Conner(4 mo). It was a long drive from Trier, so we planned to stop in the area for the night before we hit our next destination. Dan just returned from a rather long exercise, so the timing worked out.

We left early in the AM. It was going to be a 4-5 hour drive, so we decided to break up the drive. Frank suggested the Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart. All were on board with the suggestion. This was a very cool museum with a decidedly biased view of the history of cars you don't often hear in the USA. Regardless of your view of the history of the automobile, this was one cool place with a lot of great cars. I've put together a folder on my Google+ profile where you can see the cars. The Porche museum was across town, but there was only so much time in the day. Here's the link to the folder: Mercedes Museum

After this, we were off to our hotel a couple of hours out. We got in touch with Dan and Shanna and they agreed to head down toward us, since there wasn't much up in their area to do. We went to the local gasthaus across from our hotel and had dinner. It was a nice little place that seemed a bit surprised to see a part of 10 come in unannounced, but had no problems accommodating. The whole clan looked great and we got to be the first Rames' outside the immediate family to visit the newest Rames: Conner. We had a nice dinner. The restaurant had cleared out and the staff were very kind to let the Morgan and her 2-year old body run around. After, we went across the street to our room where the kids could run around and we could play a bit more.

Dan and Shanna have a beautiful family and undoubtedly have their hands full! It was great seeing them.