Ok, so the first week here I named our GPS Eunice. The kid's wanted Hannah Montana and Dan didn't like Eunice, but he failed to come up with something better so 8 months later and it's still Eunice. She had some major problems today. Maybe she was out joyriding last night and was nursing a hangover. Eunice took us on quite the ride today!
We didn't leave the house until 10 am. You know that is late for the Elko's, but Dan made his famous pancakes this morning so I wasn't in a big hurry. We wanted to go to France. Our orignal destination was Dijon (like in the mustard). The computer told us it was about a 2 hour drive, but when we got in the car Eunice said it was like 3 hours. We didn't want to drag the kids that far so we just started driving towards the Jura Mountains and France. (maybe that was our first mistake!)
Dan saw signs for Chateau de Joux and we could see it on top of a hill. Very impressive. Through what seemed like one wrong turn after another we finally arrived on top! We walked up to the Chateau....closed! Opens April 1st....oh well. So we got back in the car. This set the mood and seriously Dan and I were laughing the entire trip. It was just one pitfall after another!
Next we stopped at the Republic of Saugeais. Population 230. This micronation was founded in 1947 as a joke, but it stuck. (You can check it out on Wikipedia). They have their own stamps, anthem, flag, billnote and president. There we picked up some bread, salami, chips and had a picnic lunch...in the parking lot of a cemetary. Can't get much classier then that! Stuffing Ben into the carseat again...poor Ben. We continued to drive. It's all getting fuzzy now. Was our next stop the waterfalls at Montbenoit? I think so. Again, another crazy drive only to get to a point where the road is....closed. The sign said 100 m to the falls. Dan, Sam, and Zoe attempted a trudge through the snow but gave up in about 30 seconds. So yet again we piled back into the car!!!
At some point we have to find something good...right?! Well nothing says fun like a watch museum, right! I guess we are back in Switzerland at this point. Ah yes, Musee de l'Horlogerie de Locle. Spectacular! Again, Eunice took us the wrong way more than once. More dead end streets, no where to turn around...hysterical. The kids lasted in the watch museum maybe 45 minutes. Once outside they all begged, "Dad, can we PLEEEEEEASE go home now?". Yes. But Eunice had other ideas. She took us on this crazy, winding, narrow road up, and up, and up....and yes then there was a car coming down. So.....Dan drove in reverse all the way down the road. The couple in the other car were laughing too and grateful to Dan. We turned around, cursed Eunice and found our way back to the A1.
The evening ended with a delicious Swiss dinner. Dan had bought a special sausage at a butcher yesterday. We boiled it, sliced it, and then baked it in puffed pastry. Delicious!
2 comments:
Sounds like a fun day despite Eunice. Should I let your
favorite teacher from St Rita that you named your GPS after her??? If you can both still laugh after a day like that, its a good thing. I would have loved to watch Dan back down the road, you know that if it had been your father you would all be dead....
We will be leaving New York tomorrow afternoon, we didn't have quite the adventure as you did today but had lots of fun with the kids. We did have a wonderful Irish supper of corn beef, cabbage & potatoes Joe made.
Love Mom & Dad
Wow...what a day! Sounds like a lot of once in a life time sites that nobody will be able to ever find so hey....you probably saw many 'special' sites. Glad you're still laughing and had a great dinner. Glad I got to experience one of the Elko picnics as well...but bummed ours wasn't at a cemetery. :-) thanks for keeping us up to date!
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