The good news for me at least (my wife and I) is that we were able to make it to Europe before the U.S. Government shuts down for weeks or months during this present shutdown that appears to be coming. The Democrats really have no choice but to shut the government down until Trump Takes them more seriously. IF the Democrats didn't do this no Democrats would respect them any more and the Democratic Party would end as a Party along with our two party system and Democracy would end too at that point too because we would be absolutely sure at that point that Democracy was gone from the U.S. for the first time since 1776.
However, the good news is that after the Wedding in Boone, North Carolina we were able to return our rental 4 wheel drive SUV to Charlotte where we hopped on a plane to JFK in NYC for a Flight to Europe. We were pleasantly surprised that they had upgraded our ticket to what they (either first class or business?) and so this meant that we basically had our own fold down bed to sleep on and a great Chef to cook food for us and really great service of all kinds while traveling to Europe. Once we reached Europe (our flight left about 1 AM most passengers unfolded electrically their beds or extendable chairs and went to sleep for around 8 hours and we arrived in Europe by about 3 pm in their time zone which is 9 hours ahead of California. So, we had already gone 3 hours ahead by North Carolina and New York (both on same time zone) and then we had to move forward another 6 hours for a total of 9 hours forward to a european time zone. So, we both survived the trip along with our luggage pretty well. Then our driver picked us up at the Airport that my daughter arranged but then he walks much faster than us so we found ourselves losing out driver and wondering whether he was going to leave with all our luggage without us. So, we looked for him for around 5 minutes time and finally he came back and found us. He must have been too preoccupied with the luggage which was heavy (70 pounds per large suitcase and another 20 pounds or so our carry ons. Then he drove us through the Town which reminded me a lot of London only everything painted much more colorful. We are presently in the Alps area of Europe.
We got to our hotel in one piece and then my daughter and her new baby showed up. Then her husband a lawyer came and we all had dinner in the hotel Restaurant. I realized I couldn't understand anything at all on the menu because I don't speak or Read German, However. the Waiters at this restaurant all seemed to speak English which was helpful too. And my son. in law's first language is German too so he was quite helpful and figuring out what to eat. I was pleasantly surprised by what we had to eat.
However, many things are very different and strange to an American from California here. Like for example, they don't have water heaters that are large tanks like we have in the U.S. Instead they heat up the water as needed by a device in the wall which sounds a little like periodic buzzing in the wall when you run a shower. So, it took a while to get the water to warm up with this system. And because of two separate nozzles at first I froze in the water coming down on my head from above in one of the two nozzles the upper on is about 1 foot square that water comes out sort of like a waterfall on top of you. So, you really need to not be under it until it decides to get warm enough to actually use properly.
However, being pretty jet lagged (tired from all the time changes) this was a little harder for me to deal with properly than if I had been home on the West Coast in my own time zone.
At least it's not like 1999 when I rented a Car in Edinburgh Scotland with my mother and then 10 year old daughter and the drivers side is on the right side of the car and the rear view mirror is to the left and I don't have to have a manual shift to my right and I don't have to drive on the left side of the road and feel like I'm going to accidentally kill my mother and then 10 year old daughter trying to drive through a reverse rotary in the middle of all of this.
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