Head West not so young Man

[ultrarunner]

Local church records can be a good resource in Europe for tracking down ancestors. Births, baptisms, marriages, deaths were all church-related happenings.

Church records in Germany for the 1800's can be quite detailed, even noting that the person immigrated to the US. I don't know if many are available online. They were hand written of course. Sharon tracked down some records for an uncle doing genealogy when we lived in Germany. She ended up with 10-12 copied pages of hand written high German. We had to ask an older neighbor read them due to the old-style handwriting. They were difficult to decipher for a non-native speaker.

I was able to find my Great Grandmother's grave in Germany... went back a few years later and it was gone!

Spoke to the caretaker and said the stones only stay in the ground as long as they are paid for... usually 25 or 50 years at a stretch... glad I snapped a picture!

The owner of the local ACE hardware retired and decided to see what he could find of his family in Croatia... He was born in California and opened his Hardware Store in 1946.

Anyway... he copied a few pictures and went to the town... started asking around and the innkeeper called his Great Aunt... turns out they were realated and had the SAME 1910 wedding picture in their album...

There are still connections to be found if one is willing to look...

It is often harderfor them to find a family that emigrated to the States... tended to move around more and names were often Americanized...

I think it's great you are heading out on this adventure... the best way to travel is with no set timeline... go where you want and take time to see things that interest you!

Eddie... really enjoyed seeing your pixs... family roots have always interested me and if I had unlimited time... turn me loose with a motor home and computer in Europe and I would have a grand time...

The closest I've come to anything famous is a connection to the Hindenburg's...

 

[daugen]

turn me loose with a motor home and computer in Europe and I would have a grand time...

now that's adventurous, I'm still trying to learn how to drive properly in the US..., and you are going to go through
Europe where roads, turns, accesses are smaller, you drive on different sides of the road at times, and who knows how well they mark overpass heights? I'm sure someone has taken a 45 foot tag axle RV through Europe...well, actually, their rv's must be much smaller, like their cars, built on MB Sprinter chassis, etc,

We have two ten foot high overpasses in my local area; both old train bridges that no one wants to spend the money to raise. Every time I go under one of them I look up, just like I used to do all the time with my boat, as I went under bridges on the water, and wonder, and hope, I never meet one with the RV unannounced. Good reason not to drive too fast in unfamiliar urban/suburban territory. My Class A is a typical 12 1/2 feet tall, due to the satellite dish and other things on the roof, like the a/c unit. This is why I really hope the Magellan RV gps I bought for the motorhome does its job protecting me from overpasses and inadequate bridges. Though my RV is light enough the latter isn't a problem. If they can get a fuel oil truck over it, I'm fine...

I'm getting psyched. Have my RV campgrounds plotted into Texas so far. I have to make sure I don't get into Colorado too soon due to snow there, so I'm mentally working backwards a bit. What would be nice is to find a spot to just chill out for awhile. The driving can get tiring, mentally too, and I don't want to miss anything. Actually, that's why I'll have a video camera running the entire time. And then one of you will need to tell me what really simple video editing program to get so I can trim out 95% of it and just keep the good parts. Good evening everyone, thanks for coming to home movies, tonight will be four straight hours of crossing the prairie...

And then I need to figure out how to upload to YouTube, so I can post the brief clips as I go. Give me something to do at night on the laptop...though my wifi card may choke trying to send big video files. May need to rethink that. May have to find a coffee shop with wifi and get a big cup of coffee.

I'll be posting pics as I go, that's easy.
I should order a bumper sticker:

I BRAKE
FOR TRACTORS

 

[ultrarunner]

When I worked in Austria... I would take off any chance I could to go exploring... Pizza in Italia, Coffee in Slovenia, nice dinner in Switzerland... my colleagues thought I was crazy and after a while they would just chalk it up to being an American where things are more spread out.

The family size European motorhome of choice is on a Sprinter Chassis... I have seen a couple of American American Caravans traveling through and a group of Air Streams too.... Camping is very popular in much of Europe and that includes Motorhomes.

Fuel is expensive and you just have to plan for that.

 

[dave1949]

Camping is popular in Europe, but the campers aren't after the same thing a foreign visitor would be. In general, they may be escaping what a visitor is trying to get to. :laughing:

I think you would find a lot of towns that have no place to park an RV anywhere near the city center. The older parts of towns have narrow streets too. Picture going through a small town here in the US on Main St. in an RV. You see something stop worthy on the spur of the moment, but where will you park a 40' RV? Traveling alone with no navigator in the right seat isn't going to be easy either when you need info in a hurry.

Now picture that scenario in Europe where you don't speak the language, aren't really quite sure of the traffic rules all the time, really have no idea where you are going, and everything is smaller and more compact. I think it would be horrid. I wouldn't even attempt it.

I've seen full size tour buses going places I wouldn't think possible in Europe. The difference between a foreign visitor and those is, it's not their first time at those locations, the driver is a professional, and somewhere in the vicinity there will be dedicated commercial bus parking--and they know where it is.

 

[dragoneggs]

Camping is popular in Europe, but the campers aren't after the same thing a foreign visitor would be. In general, they may be escaping what a visitor is trying to get to. :laughing:

I think you would find a lot of towns that have no place to park an RV anywhere near the city center. The older parts of towns have narrow streets too. Picture going through a small town here in the US on Main St. in an RV. You see something stop worthy on the spur of the moment, but where will you park a 40' RV? Traveling alone with no navigator in the right seat isn't going to be easy either when you need info in a hurry.

Now picture that scenario in Europe where you don't speak the language, aren't really quite sure of the traffic rules all the time, really have no idea where you are going, and everything is smaller and more compact. I think it would be horrid. I wouldn't even attempt it.

I've seen full size tour buses going places I wouldn't think possible in Europe. The difference between a foreign visitor and those is, it's not their first time at those locations, the driver is a professional, and somewhere in the vicinity there will be dedicated commercial bus parking--and they know where it is.

I agree here about an RV let alone a big car/truck in most of Europe. I have done a lot of driving in many countries and I can't imagine an RV going into most of the cities. But reading thru this thread, I can't wait to go farther east in a RV than I have done so far. From Seattle thru Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, and Oregon was grand! Utah is an amazing state for National Parks. Hit all of them if you can... even the drive between them is spectacular! The variety of Yellowstone and the short easy walks to amazing color and geologic formations has to be number 1 on your bucket list!

What a great post and all the comments/suggestions!

 

[ultrarunner]

A sprinter is big for Europe and on the small side for USA...

Several times my friends from Europe have done a National Park Motorhome tour... I went along two times and it was a lot of fun and very relaxing once out of San Francisco!!!

 

[3930dave]

I was flipping through a paper back copy of Popular Science today, and came across this:

The 25 Best Nerd Road Trips | Popular Science

Some are different than yer typical tourist traps..... if one catches your eye, let me know, I have a spare pocket protector I can send you

The PS list is 25 they pulled from what they are doing on their v-e-n-u-e site.

Rgds, D.

 

[Tony_S]

I enjoy reading this retired firefighter's blog. Bob Giddings' style of writing makes it hard for me to stop reading.
Catch Me If You Can
That's his current blog and is centered around the Texas/ CO areas.
His older blog:Speed Bumps was a bit more extensive but still in the west.
I'd start with Speed Bumps.
While reading through, you'll pick up many tidbits of info about places to eat and good camp spots AND lots of hot springs!
Now whether you have the time to make use of the info scattered throughout his lengthy blog and whether or not the locations even match up to where you're going is a long shot. But you may enjoy the reading if nothing else.

Oh, and I have to agree with the Utah sentiments expressed elsewhere in this thread. Being an easterner, the farthest distance I'd ever seen was to the next tree. When we drove from SLC to Vegas, and then doubled back through Zion and north rim, my mouth was wide open most of the time. Awe inspiring!

I hope you have a fantastic trip sir.

 

[daugen]

Cahokia Mounds | Explore

Whoa. How come I wasn't taught this in school? Never heard of the place.
I was taught only the American Indians lived out there.
I'm going through that very interesting list carefully, giving me some good ideas.

Now I know I want to go to the Waterloo Iowa JD plant, and frankly any other major ag equipment maker on the way, but I also want to see the cool history
of this land, like Mt. Rushmore, the Western US parks, etc. Sorry historical war buffs, battlefields are not a priority for me.

 

[daugen]

Just bought the toad dolly for the motorhome, a Demco SS, and will get it delivered when I take the RV to the shop in mid January to get a few things checked out. I never trust plug and play so better to let them hook it up and test everything.
I'm buying it from the local Itasca/Winnebago dealer, where I did not buy the motorhome, (zero in inventory for months) but now need them to be the servicing dealer. So I bought an expensive but necessary gizmo from them, and from one of the owners actually, so I've done what I can to start a reasonable business relationship. They have larger motorhomes here, but all used, and clearly they are a smaller Winnebago dealer. But they are a dealer and that's what I need, still...

Taking the motorhome out for a drive this morning, exercise its legs, avoid flatspotting, etc.
And it will sure get my imagination going...