I always feel as if my year passes uneventfully, I get up, go to work, day in and day out. This year I KNOW something big happened, but I took the time to look back and see that there were some milestones and interesting things that occurred.
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Back story, we are building a house on 40 acres of property in northern Arizona, we don’t live in the house yet. We are living in a 5th wheel on the property until the house is completed.
In February we received 14 inches of snow! Certainly more snow that I have seen in many years! I had a grand time building a snowman and then taking the #10 scoop and “sledding” down a left over pile of dirt from the house foundation. If I had been more daring I would have hiked to the Knoll and sled down that. It’s a much steeper longer slope.
In April a friend of mine had a hearse meet up in Death Valley, California (you read that correctly, hearse as in the vehicle that conveys people to their final resting place). At that time of the year I was feeling pretty low about things and I decided at the last minute to drive out. I had to buy a new battery for the hearse as it had died from sitting all winter. That reminds me… I need to go start the hearse up when it warms up a little more.
I had much needed rest and relaxation at the hearse meet up, brief thought it was. I did miss going to the brothel (yes, you read that correctly too). Not sure how many people in this day and age have been to a brothel but I am intrigued by the whole idea. Of course, there is a restaurant, and you can eat and not participate in what happens in a brothel (which is what I would be doing, not the other thing).
I did have a strange encounter, while in Death Valley. We stopped off at a restaurant where the chef was a refugee from the bigger more extravagant restaurants IN Vegas. There was a fellow wandering around the restaurant with a pitcher of a bloody mary (I think). While none of us paid much mind to the fella, he came up to our group and asked who was driving the Buick hearse. I volunteered that I was driving the black Buick (my friend drove his white Buick, which I had forgot). The fella then said that he was dying of cancer and he really liked the Buick and wanted that hearse to be the one for his last ride. I thought it was an odd request, but I gave him my calling card. I haven’t heard from him, so I can hope that he is doing okay.
Now for the main event… In July/August I went to Sweden and Germany. I spent about 2 weeks in Sweden and then the 3rd week was spend driving from Sweden to Germany.
So many things happened, I don’t think I could recount them all in this one little word doc. However while in Sweden I got to visit many cathedrals, both whole and in ruins. I also got to Anundshög and see the burial mounds and the big rune stones. While I was there I got to see Gamla (old) Uppsala, which is more burial mounds and a great deal of history. It was fascinating, I was disappointed that you were no longer allowed to walk the mounds. Unfortunately people tromping about has caused the mounds to weather more than they should.
One of the cathedrals I visited was the Uppsala cathedral which is surrounded by runestones as well. I attempted to take photos of all of them, but I probably missed some.
We went to Dalarna and saw the Dala horse factory. The Dala horses are the usually orange/red colored wooden horses from Sweden. I’m still not clear how a childs toy became so popular! It was great to see how the little horses were made, and that each town has their own color scheme for their Dala horse.
While we were in that region we stayed at a Bed and Breakfast in Rättvik, this was the week before classic car week, but the town filled up with all kinds of classic American cars. I think of all the classic American cars in the world, at least 50% of them are well cared for in Sweden. The big thing to do if you own one of these cars is to cruise, just like in the 1950’s. I think is some places cursing is illegal in this country!
We found a round-about in Rättvik where I sat on the grass and took pictures of as many classic cars as I could. It was a great time! I was filled in on what a “tractor” was. I thought it was farm equipment, but in Sweden it means something different.
I may have the details wrong, but I believe form 16-18 a Swedish teenager is given a driver’s license however they have to drive a “tractor.” A tractor is a car that can’t go above 30 Kilometers per hour. Then when the young person becomes 18 I think they are allowed to drive a non-restricted vehicle.
On one evening I asked our host if they played Kubb, which is said something like cup and cub. Kubb can be described as a combination of bowling and horseshoes. It’s a lawn game where the objective is to knock over wooden blocks (kubbs) by throwing wooden batons (kastpinnar) at them. I’m surprised he knew what I was saying, because I was pronouncing it “koob”. We had a good evening playing Kubb and trying not to hit each other with the batons.
Then it was off to Wacken, Germany. If you know much about Germany, you would know that Wacken is a small town in the north. You might not know that Wacken is the home of the largest outdoor Heavy Metal Music festival in the world, which was precisely the reason I was going there!
It felt like a forced march to Germany, but I think that always happens with vacations, despite your best intentions you end up HAVING to get to some place by a certain time which causes this mad dash.
We got to Wacken at midnight, and we got a good camp site which was a 10-15 minute walk to the inner field of the festival grounds. Some people had it worse and had to walk 2 miles in to go to the shows. I was shocked, here in America I don’t think that would happen. Our lazy butts would want some kind of shuttle service!
The most important thing about Wacken was I got to perform my friends hand fasting ceremony there! I am honored that they asked me to do their ceremony! It was Viking themed, instead of rings, they exchanged a key and a knife made from a spring from their 1963 hearse. That was about as “metal” as anything could be at Wacken!
I saw 21 bands in four days. Didn’t know I was a metal fan? Interestingly enough I didn’t realize how many bands were “metal” enough to be at Wacken, including Ice-T (yes, the rapper).
Speaking of metal we took a 1970 Chevy Suburban from Sweden to Germany, the don’t make ‘em out of metal like that anymore. The Germans coming through our camp were intrigued by our old American cars.
I don’t know if I’ll every lay eyes on Germany again, but Wacken was truly an amazing experience that I will treasure, always.
Once Wacken had completed, we went to Denmark, and had a missed connecting with one of my friends, friends.
We made it back to Sweden went to a town called Trollhättan, because of the name. We North Americans find the name quite amusing. Trollhättan is a beautiful town, I would have liked to have spent more time there! We hiked along the canals, and took photos of the buildings and even visited the Harley Davidson store there.
We also went to another car show, with a fellow hearse driver’s hearses. It was amazing to see the European hearses up close and personal. It was also amazing to meet a few members form the SHS (Scandinavian Hearse Society).
There was even a 1970 Volvo at that particular car show, like the one I learned to drive in. I’m sure that my friends thought I was silly fawning over a Volvo, but it brought back great memories from my childhood.
We went to Stockholm, and did the touristy thing visiting the shops and the down town area. I took a picture of a sign that read, “Welcone to the center of chaos! presented by frustrated bikers, uncharged electrical scooters and lost tourists.”
Lastly visited a Viking themed restaurant, Tunnan. We sampled different types of food Vikings would have eaten, like reindeer jerky. I got “trout” which turned out to be salmon and turnips. We drank this mead/ale beverage, it was quite thick but quite good.
The next morning, I flew out from Sweden to go back home.
In September our house passed the combo inspection which consisted of plumbing electrical, HIVAC and framing. We are one step closer to living in the house. I think there are only a couple more inspections after the combo.
I think the last big event of this year was in November we got a St. Bernard puppy and named her Lucy. I believe she is 10 weeks as the writing of this word doc.
As a final thought, hearses, have connected me to people I would have never known and taken me on adventures I never thought possible. What kind of people drive hearses? Simply, the best!
