That mission accomplished

We made it back home. It was a great trip. Another missionary couple went with us and that added a lot to the trip.

Sorry to report, but I didn't keep it down to 130 top speed. Some parts of the Autobahn were so big, and downhill, and even VWs passing us, so I sped up for just a few seconds. we cruised much of the time between 130 and 140, but two or three times I took it up to 160 for a few seconds. And we were still being passed! The VWs surprised me - lots of 'em passed us. The BMWs were common too. But the Porsche's were the real speed demons. I think some of them passed us at 200. We were going about 140, and they passed us so fast their tail wind shook our car.

Our car was really a truck. It was a big van used to transport the display materials for the conference we went to.

These views are from Bad Elster. A look at the sign will tell you why the writing is hard to read, but really that's the Fraktur style, and is well known because it is a style used in printing. My old Bible was printed in that style of writing. Yes it is difficult, but one can get used to it. Look at the name "Elster." Particularly the "s." The "f" is so much like it that it takes a little studying to be sure which is which. And the "w" is almost exactly like the "B" and the "V."

The conference was sponsored by a large number of German Genealogical societies and businesses. The Church FamilySearch is the most advanced Family History research tool that was shown, but some of the other attendees are concerned that our church indexing is not always accurate. We tried to encourage them to join with us to help make them better. It took some time, but some began to consider it. We also had a chance to work directly with some non-members who were there to see what we were doing and find out why we were doing it. Unfortunately, many in Germany are still elitest, and do Genealogical research only to prove they come from aristocratic lines. During the second world war, people's genealogical research sometimes was aimed at proving they weren't Jewish, or that they came from a recognized lineage that had the potential to produce the "Ubermenschen" or super people that Hitler was trying to breed. Now days, many are afraid to study their family history since they will thereby prove that their ancestors were among those who had carried out Hitler's evil plans.

The Chestnuts were falling all around, and I picked up a bunch. There were people all over looking for them, and it made them really light up when I gave them some I had found. I filled my pockets a dozen times, and gave most of them away.

The tops of the hills that you can see in the first picture are the dividing line between East Germany and the Czech Republic. As we took care to not get lost we didn't cross the border. If you study the map of the city you can see a purple line on the left and bottom. That is the border

Thought it would be good to make a little explanation. All those speeds were in Kilometers per hour. There are 0.62 miles in a Kilometer, so the outrageous speeds mentioned above translate to 80 to 100 mph for the speeds we were traveling, and 125 for the Porsches. Even at our normal speeds of about 80 mph the lines on the road seemed to be moving past us pretty fast. Could you imagine going those speeds in the cute little "Smart" car Mom was standing behind in a previous post? But I saw one on the Autobahn. It wasn't passing anyone, but it was there.