December 1999

It was 30 years ago next June that a young and eager Sharon and Kenney left New Jersey in our blue Mustang for Hawaii and what turned out to be a life of travel and adventure in distant lands.  We are now home in South Carolina, retired from our careers in overseas education at age 53, and comfortably ensconced in our apartment overlooking the waterfront at Yacht Cove on Lake Murray.  After more or less 30 years away from "home," we have managed to achieve our life's dream:  to experience as much as possible of what the world has to offer, get paid for it, and then retire early!

During our years abroad, we had incredible experiences that make the shows on the Travel Channel seem as if they were our home movies.  "Been there, done that" has become as much our mantra as "On the Road Again" is our theme song.  Now our memory banks are filled with images of exotic cultures and locales, adventures that either make us smile with nostalgia or cause our hair to stand on end.  It's been an exceptional run, and we have absolutely no regrets for the path we chose or the decisions we made.  Now if we can only avoid getting Alzheimer's.....

This past year has been a mixed bag, and, as Dickens wrote, it was the best of times; it was the worst of times.  We knew early on that, after six years in Prague, it was time to go.  We were both burned out professionally and in need of a change, but our deal was so good that we felt as if we were in a golden cage.  However, we also realized that my father was ailing and, at 84 years of age, he did not have much will left to continue.  Thus, the call to "go home" was strong.  Despite a fantastic Christmas/New Year's holiday in southern Spain (See Sharon's photo above), we also felt that we had "done" Europe as well as our interests and energy would allow.  Even the thought of skiing in Austria no longer thrilled us as it once did.

By the time Spring had arrived, we had to convince ourselves each day that staying for another year was in our best interests.  Then, after a few incidents with particularly obnoxious parents at school, we looked at each other and said, "Y'know, we don't have to put up with this crap anymore!"  As it turned out, our investments over the years had reached a level that would allow us to live in basic comfort without working.  Thus, the die was cast, and in typical Vogel fashion, we resigned our jobs precipitously, sold almost everything, threw away most of our clothes, and left Europe within two weeks of our decision in June, with only a few suitcases of essentials to burden us.  We felt very, very free!

Our next move was to head for Florida where we were able to spend two months of "quality time" with my parents, attending to various details, such as helping my mother buy a new car.  It was also clear that my father was failing rapidly, and we did our best to aid at this trying time, preparing for the inevitable.  In the meantime, our tenants moved out of our Columbia apartment, so we shuttled back and forth between Florida and South Carolina until my father finally passed away in October.  He was the last of his generation in the Vogel family, the patriarch, but, more importantly, he was an exemplary husband and father, and he lived a long and fruitful life.  No regrets.

So now we have taken up residence in the States, with a list of things to do that will take us more time than we have available to us.  We have purchased a 24 foot pontoon boat, which serves as both transportation for exploring and as a platform for Happy Hours and watching the sun set behind the islands that dot our lake.  We have just completed a Boating Skills and Seamanship course through the Coast Guard Auxiliary, and we are enrolling in a golfing course soon through the local community college.  We have also taken frequent excursions in the Southeast, such as renting a cottage on Key Largo, spending time at the beach near Sarasota, enjoying Oktoberfest in Helen, Georgia, visiting Charleston and the northern SC coast, spending Thanksgiving in Hilton Head, viewing the fall colors in the Smokey Mountains, and checking out the ski areas on Beech Mountain in North Carolina where we will soon take to the slopes.  As you can see, we have not allowed the moss to collect on our bottoms.

What does the future hold?  We're not exactly sure, but uncertainty has been a constant companion during our days together, and it fits well into our lifestyle.  More travel will definitely be on the horizon, but probably confined to the North American continent.  We still have a taste for the exotic so Mexico has been calling of late, with a visit to Lake Chapala this summer as a most likely first candidate.  Perhaps New England and French Canada will also be explored in the near future.

As for personal development, we will add to our skills by taking up golf, working on our tennis game, and learning how to fish freshwater.  There are a bunch of striped bass out there with our names on them!  I will also pursue my writing with travel articles, perhaps a memoir, or a novel that has been percolating in the back of my brain.  Sharon has a business idea that she may put into place soon as well.

Although we no longer need to work for a living, we will always be open to adventures and opportunities that may arise, and, as usual, we can make no predictions as to what we will be doing or where we will be next year.  We will take things as they come, without stress or strain, and, hopefully, we will have many years of fulfillment awaiting us.  The important thing that we have learned after our many years of living and working abroad is:  Always have a Plan B!

Love to y'all from us,

Ken & Sharon

PS:  Our apartment has a nice guest room ready for anyone interested in visiting for a spell.

December 1998

Dear everyone,

As I write this newsletter, the temperatures in Prague have already dipped below the freezing mark, and snow covers our backyard lawn, surprising both me and the dandelions.  It looks like a long, cold winter will be our lot, something we haven't had for two years, and we look forward to some good skiing.  We are still relatively hale and healthy, and, in fact, we have taken to an exercise program and a non-fatty diet that have left us diminished in size but more energetic than ever.  As for Prague, it is still THE place to be in Europe, with its combination of exquisite architecture, top flight art, music and restaurants, and very reasonable prices.  We can't believe our good fortune to have landed here just at the right time in history.

Last year proved to be another good one, filled with our usual blend of travel and an appropriate amount of work, whilst socking away extra bucks for retirement.  Spring was especially fun, with another week-long trip to Provence and long weekends in Austria which we spent biking up and down the hills, more alive with wild flowers than music.  Austria has become our retreat of choice, now that we have seen most of the rest of Europe, and we always feel that we're in a movie when we go there.  Last summer we returned to the States as usual (thanks to some 60 mg of valium), spending some quality time in New Jersey and driving to Florida to see the folks with a mid-way stop in Columbia to visit friends, check on our property and try to open our storage unit (impossible).  Returning to Europe, we proceeded to drive across the continent to the D-Day beaches of Normandy, which is a pilgrimage that every American should have to take before being allowed to vote.

It has been a wet year so far, and our fall vacation plans were literally drowned by the intense precipitation.  In October, we rented a gorgeous villa on the slopes of the precipitous mountains surrounding Lake Como in Italy, in a secluded area along a narrow, winding road that made driving a heart-stopping experience.  Touring was made even more difficult by the never-ending rain which drenched us for 6 long days without respite.  Fortunately, we had a fireplace that we kept stoked and blazing constantly, the environmental consequences of which will probably be felt for years to come.  That disappointment behind us, we did manage a weekend near Vienna, traveling along the Danube while the fall colors were at their peak.  We landed in the village of Durnstein, whose ruined castle's most famous "guest" was Richard the Lion-hearted some 700 years ago.  Now the town sits immaculately groomed in the river valley among vineyards that produce luscious wines which we purchased in quantity.

As for future plans and travels, we are really looking forward to a long Christmas vacation that will take us to the southern-most point of Spain, where we have rented a villa on the beach for two weeks.  It is ideally located for visiting the highlights of Andalusia, including Gibraltar, Malaga, Sevilla, Cordoba and Granada, while enjoying the mildest winter climate in Europe.  On the return, we will pass through the French Riviera and up through Italy to Austria where we will have our usual apartment in Kirchberg waiting for us for a week of skiing.  I can taste the apple strudel with hot vanilla sauce already!

We know that our time in Europe will be drawing to a close in the not-too-distant future so we are trying to fill a few of the gaps in our experience while we can.  It looks like we will be able to retire in comfort in 2.5 years, or, if we have to, we can quit in 1.5 years with a little less comfort.  We know that we'll have some heavy transition expenses when we finally do leave, such as purchasing a car and an entire household of furniture, and the specter of providing our own health insurance coverage keeps us awake at night.  All in all, no complaints.

And that's it again, from Golden Prague, with all our love.

December 1997

Dear everyone,

Another year, and we're still in Prague, with a few more experiences behind us, grey hairs on top of us, and the natural aches and pains of middle age inside of us to remind us of our mortality.  Relatively speaking, we have nothing to complain about as we are still active and seeking personal growth -- but at a more subdued pace.  Life in Prague is as dynamic as ever, although we do not take advantage of all the city has to offer.  The Westernization of the country is moving ahead, with much restoration of historic buildings, modern housing developments springing up, an increase in the availability of goods and services, and Western businesses moving in to take advantage of the new markets.  We now have Dunkin' Donuts (the world's largest!), KFC, McDonald's, Planet Hollywood, and T.G.I. Friday's, as well as a plethora of new local restaurants of international standard.  Prices are rising, but the Czech crown has been devalued so we can still get a half liter of the world's best beer on tap for 30 U.S. cents and a bottle of very drinkable wine for $1.50.

Our work at the International School of Prague continues to afford us challenges as the school grows and changes.  We have moved into a beautiful new campus on the edge of the city not far from where we live, and it has made an enormous difference in the comfort level of our working environment.  I am in charge of the middle school (grades 6-8), an age in which students gain new bodies but lose their minds, and Sharon is still teaching 6th grade English and social studies within screaming distance from my office.  Comparatively speaking, our students are docile and well behaved, but they are still frisky enough to give us pause in the morning before we get out of bed.  We are also sponsoring a large conference of middle school educators which will take place at the end of January and which has kept us too busy to do much weekend traveling.

Speaking of traveling, last Christmas saw us in the U.S. again, with week-long visits to New Jersey and Florida and a week in Cancun at a lovely resort that was worth the price (free -- we stayed with friends!) just for the breakfast buffets by the sea.  Our skiing was much subdued compared to the previous year due to a lack of snow and lack of free time, but we did manage to take up cross country skiing, the principal attraction being the stops at pubs for refreshment between the exercise.  The highlight of last year's travel was a week in Provence at a superbly renovated villa located in some miniscule and unpronounceable town in the heart of this historic and scenic region.  The weather was perfect, and the wine flowed freely as we picked our way between some of the best preserved Roman ruins and the most exquisite walled and hilltop medieval towns.  Our five week summer vacation was spent driving from NJ to Florida to Minnesota and to NJ again, a total of 6500 miles.  The scenery was...well...flat, and after the trip, so were our butts, but we did get to attend a super wedding in Minnesota, and we did manage to avoid the plane rides which we normally would have taken.  We are avoiding such because in my old age, I have developed a case of claustrophobia which does not permit me to "enjoy" flying as I used to; in fact, the only way you can get me on a plane is by dosing me with enough valium to bring a rhino to his knees and putting me in business class.  Needless to say, this new development in my psychological makeup has had a tendency to dampen our enthusiasm for far-flung travels.

It's just as well, as we find that we are ratcheting down our lifestyle while we move into hardcore middle age.  A leisure trip to Tuscany or Provence, a little skiing in the Alps, checking out the small towns of Germany, and hitting the beaches of Normandy are about all we care to do now before we cash in our chips and head for Columbia, SC for retirement.  We are pumping as much cash into our retirement accounts as we can to shorten the time between having to work and being able to sleep in, and we think we've got it down to about 3.5 years, which is better than the 6.5 years I mentioned in last year's letter.

And that's all there is from the heart of Europe, with lots of love.

December 1996

Dear everyone,

Yes, both Sharon and I are now 50, and she looks 30 and I feel like 60, but at least we're still alive and kicking and having a wonderful time in Europe.  As usual, extensive travel has been the rule in our lives, but this past year has seen us take on more activity as we dubbed it the "Year of the Ski."  We have continued to find our work at the International School of Prague to be rewarding, but don't think for a minute we wouldn't chuck it all if we ever won the lottery.  Our plan is to work for another 6.5 years at which point we will have enough in our retirement accounts to call it quits.  Of course, it isn't such a bright idea to plan too much as we have learned that the nature of the universe is to squash our puny mortal plans.

As mentioned above, we took up skiing with a vengeance, even bought our own downhill skis, and by the end of the season, had picked up pairs of cross country skis as well.  We put them all to the test in Austria several times, and even spent a week in Obertauern on spring break to try spring skiing, which we found to be not to our liking.  Almost every weekend was spent on the slopes as well, here in the Czech Republic and also in nearby Germany.  We even took the sixth grade students on a week long ski trip!  After all that, did we improve?  Well, a bit, but whether we can negotiate the difficult slopes in safety is not the point; we DID have fun, and that's what it's all about.  Besides, winter in Central Europe can be pretty bleak without a cold weather diversion.

Our summer was spent visiting the folks in NJ and Florida, and then we took off for Colorado, half on business, half on pleasure, and we took up wildflower identification in the Rocky Mountains, reacquainting ourselves with that region of the U.S., and also getting a chance to compare the Rockies to the Alps with which we have become so intimately involved.  So far the Alps are winning.  At the end of July, we headed back to Europe, started work again, but also took a long weekend off to climb in the Alps near Hintersee, Germany, a spectacular walk, ending in a mountain hut with splendid food (and beer!) and a glacier.  Speaking of beer, we finally made it to Munich's Oktoberfest, fought off the crowds to garner ourselves seats in one of the gigantic beer halls that look more permanent than Mt. Rushmore but are actually put up each year, and sat around listening to music while we guzzled liters of Augustiner beer, ate wurst and chicken, and got a chance to ponder how come there are so many Germans left if they lost the War!

In October, we took our best vacation yet.  By surfing the Internet, I came up with a beautiful villa for rent near the village of Colle di Val D'Elsa in Tuscany, Italy.  With another couple in tow, we drove there in about 12 hours, breaking the journey in Munich, and spent the best part of a week viewing the most gorgeous countryside, the quaintest hilltop villages, and drinking the best red chianti wine this side of heaven.  We managed to visit Florence as well, and we did the obligatory pilgrimages to Siena and Pisa, but most of our time was spent exploring the smaller towns, with their protective walls and towers -- and their excellent restaurants and wine.  We ate in quite a bit too since our villa was so comfy and secure feeling, and we purchased quite a bit of wine to take back with us -- not enough, it turns out, as we have almost finished our supply already.  The drive back through the Brenner Pass and into Austria, with a stop overnight in Kitzbuhel, was just like icing on a carrot cake, the perfect ending to a perfect vacation.  This one deserves a re-run.

And so, here we are, a half century behind us, and perhaps 30 more years in front of us if we are lucky, and we really can't complain.  We will be moving to a newly built school in February, and I have been given the task of developing a middle school program for the 6th through 8th graders while Sharon will be an English/Social Studies teacher in grade 6.  We have moved into a new house here, more modern than our old one, and without the crazy room layout that drove us nuts for so long.  We'll be back to the U.S. for Christmas in NJ and Florida and will spend a week in Cancun with friends before returning.  Our February ski break will be in Kirchberg, Austria, this year, and at Easter time, we have rented a villa in the countryside of Provence, France, and will take the time to smell the flowers and feast on the sunlight that so enchanted Van Gogh.  And so it goes.

December 1995

Dear everyone,

Another year, more grey hairs, a few more pounds, a sagging chin (or two) here and there, and our 50th birthdays looming in sight to remind us that we're more than half way finished on life's short journey.  But who can complain when we still have our health, our jobs, and we're living in Prague?  Not us!  Especially since we have been blessed with so much fun and adventure in the past 12 months.  The best part is that we have been able to visit and been visited by so many of our friends from our Samoa days.  We are so grateful to have kept up contacts with this fine group of people.

As can be seen by the theme of our Christmas card, our big adventure this year was a cruise to Alaska during the summer, ostensibly to celebrate our 25th anniversary, but two years late for that.  Be that as it may, we signed up for one of the Love Boats, reserved a junior suite with a splendid veranda, then sat back and watched some of the most gorgeous scenery in the world float by.  We saw plenty of wildlife too, including a few pods of killer whales and bald eagles diving for fish, did a bit of white water rafting, and then went salmon fishing in Skagway as well.  The salmon fishing was my idea; Sharon was indifferent to it, but, naturally, I caught only one fish too small to keep while she caught a humongous King salmon almost the size of her torso.  We decided to have the fish smoked, so we whipped out our Visa card and had the animal flown to Juneau for processing.  Besides the great expense that we had already accrued in catching the fish and sending it on its flight, Juneau was where our real troubles began.  Someone on the Juneau end of the operation gave our credit card number to a thief who managed to run up bills exceeding $1,000.  We found out about this scam from the Juneau police who caught up with the culprit.  Before the escapade was over, Sharon found herself testifying over the phone from Prague to Alaska at a grand jury hearing!  It took months for our credit card company to straighten out this fiasco.  Far from being a "gift from God" as the Alaskan Native Americans called it, our fish turned out to be the salmon from Hell.  And we still haven't tasted any of that fish!

We've had plenty of traveling this year in Europe as well, with skiing trips to Austria and several areas in the Czech Republic, a visit to Stockholm, adventures in Munich, hiking in the German Alps near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and a visit to Moscow where we learned more about the failures of communism and how much we really appreciate Prague.  One of the best trips we took was in October of this year that combined a visit to Hintersee in the German Alps with touring the lake country of Austria, including a stop in Hallstatt, as pretty a town as one could ever imagine.  Each time that we go to either Germany or Austria, we are always in search of any run down neighborhoods that might exist, but so far we have not found any except in what used to be East Germany.  The Germans have certainly come a long way since WWII.

Not all of our year was fun.  We did get our Mercedes stolen while parked near our high school campus.  We got to the police about 30 minutes after the theft, but they were very discouraging.  By the time we got through with the paperwork, they assured us that we would never see our car again.  They were right.  We rented a car for a while, a 1991 Skoda, which is the local vehicle, and, after getting stuck in a near blizzard on a mountain on a ski trip and having to walk uphill for 30 minutes while carrying our ski gear and doubting our ability to survive, we vowed that our next car would have 4 wheel drive.  So, we purchased a new Subaru station wagon, mostly with the money from the Mercedes insurance, and now we are as happy as clams and just raring to have a go at the hills in Austria in a few weeks.

Our jobs have remained satisfying.  Sharon, after two years as high school librarian and junior high art teacher, is now a 4th grade teacher at my campus and enjoying it as much as she did in Ouagadougou.  Our school continues to grow, and in June, we graduated our first 12th grade class, the ceremony taking place in a 1,000 year old monastery.  Sure beats the old gym graduations that I remember.  As I write this, the construction of a totally new school is underway, and we expect to move in sometime in January 1997.  We certainly hope to be around to use the new school for many years to come.

And that's the way it is for another year in Prague at the end of 1995.

December 1994

Dear everyone,

Good grief, don't tell me another year has gone by!  I can't believe that I have to write another one of these letters already.  Well, let's get on with it.  If I remember correctly, we left off last year with us enjoying the Czech Republic and inviting everyone to come visit.  Well, lots of people took us up on that, and that's just great because this is the place to be at this point in history.  Of all the former Communist countries, this one has had the best transition to democracy and a free market, if what we read in the papers is correct.  It sure seems that way to us too.

We've had a great twelve months, punctuated with lots of travel and time back in the States.  The big news is that we sold one of our apartments in Columbia, SC -- the small one that we kept empty just in case our overseas life might come to a crashing halt (as it did in Zaire) -- but now that we are in a more stable environment, we don't need the expense.  We still have one apartment by the lake which, if all goes as planned, will be our retirement home.  We have about 10 more years of this overseas life before we can move into the place permanently, but that's OK as long as the years are as pleasant as the last one.

Last February, we realized a life goal by finally skiing in Europe.  We rented an apartment in Austria in a small village near Kitzbuhel, were pleasantly surprised that the prices were reasonable for renting equipment and using the ski lifts, and were even more surprised that our out of shape legs remembered how to ski after all these years.  Of course, after a couple of beers on the slopes, our skiing deteriorated noticeably, but we managed to have lots of fun despite a few wobbly runs, and we'll surely return this February during ski-week break (great school calendar!).  We spent most of the spring entertaining guests and traveling around the Czech Republic, visiting beautiful towns and sopping up the medieval atmosphere.  We got snowed on in April, a real surprise since the winter had been very mild.  We also visited Budapest on work related boondoggles.  Then June arrived, and we spent the summer in the U.S., partly in NJ and partly in South Carolina and Florida.  Most of our time was spent getting our apartment ready to sell and going to the movies during the cheap matinees when everyone else is at work.

When we returned to Prague, I took up my duties as Deputy Director of our school (the previous fellow was fired), and I moved into a new office with a fireplace which will either be great or will burn the building down.  This fall has been simply outstanding, filled with travel and new adventures.  October (we have a school break then too) was spent cruising the autobahns and byways in Germany, Austria, Italy, the French Riviera and the Alps.  We were shocked at the prices of Western Europe, and were thankful that we lived in Prague where a chateaubriand dinner for two can still be had for $12, but we loved the scenery and the luxury of the West.  As I write this, we have just returned from the best Christmas fair in Europe in Nuremburg, Germany.  The previous weekend was spent on business in Hamburg, a lovely city, and previous to that, we went to the former East Germany, which, compared to the West, is still a dump.  We also managed a week in Kuwait (at the local American School's expense), stayed at the best hotel in town, ate like swine but didn't get to see Bill Clinton although he was in town.  All in all, Kuwait is a great place to spend two hours.

And now, as December is upon us and winter threatens us with short days and cold winds, Sharon is off on a boondoggle in Boca Raton, FL, for two weeks, followed by both of us going to New Jersey and Florida for the holidays with the family.  It'll be back skiing in Austria in February, most likely London in April for a week of theater, and then home for the summer, but not without taking a Princess cruise to Alaska to celebrate our 25th anniversary although it occurred in 1993.  Well, better late than never.

And that's the way it is with us.  We hope all is well with you and hope to hear from you soon, and, remember, we do have excellent guest facilities.  Prague is a real gem, not to be missed.

December 1993

Dear everyone,

It looks like we've really hit on a good one this time, but, darn it all, we deserve it.  If you remember, in our last Christmas note, we mentioned that we were on the way to Kinshasa, Zaire, for a new adventure.  Well, it turned out to be a short adventure -- only six weeks -- and then we were sent home when it looked like it was too dangerous to stay.  We really liked Kinshasa, and we feel sorry for the Zairoise, but it's just not the kind of place to make any long term commitments.  When the bullets started to come through the roofs on the campus of the school, we knew our days there were numbered.  So, we returned to South Carolina to a life of ease and luxury, confident that we would be paid for the rest of the school year as our contracts so emphatically promised.  Thus, we took a cruise to Bermuda, dashed down to Florida as often as we felt, rented a cottage in the Smokey Mountains, and ate out with alacrity, chortling in our beer suds over our good fortune.  Little did we know that, by May, we were to receive a letter saying that the school was running out of money and was curtailing all non-essential spending, such as our pay checks.  We were not amused, as you can imagine, but there was nothing we could do since legal proceedings would have cost more than they would have brought in.  So much for the sanctity of contracts, but thank God for credit cards.

Anyway, all's well that ends well, and we did end up well indeed, even if we will spend most of this year paying off our bills.  We are now in Prague, Czech Republic, and we are delighted to be here.  Sharon is the high school librarian and junior high art teacher, and I'm the middle school principal and admissions director at the International School of Prague, a rapidly growing institution of some 380 students and a great place in which to work.  We live in a delightful neighborhood of stately houses, exuberant gardens, and narrow, winding streets, right next to forest areas and perfect for evening walks when the weather permits, which is not now, by the way, since the first snows have fallen.

As a city, Prague is one of the great surprises of Europe.  It's a municipality of incredible contrasts, an architectural student's dream.  At every turn in the Center, one trips over Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Modern, Post-Modern, Functionalist, and Cubist buildings.  Of course, years of communist rule also gave the suburbs rows and rows of hideous prefabricated apartment complexes.  What they lack in comfort, they amply make up in bad taste.  It was as if all the refined and perceptive architects in the country had been banished from the country for 4 decades.  But we don't really have to deal with such things since we live, work and sightsee in magnificent surroundings.

The city's restaurants and entertainment opportunities will take us years to fully exploit.  Luckily, Prague is still one of the few bargains left on this continent, and we regularly ("regularly" = 4-5 times per week!) go out to dinner for only $10 - $15 for two with drinks.  Bottles of good wine can still be had for $1.00, and food in grocery stores and at the street stalls is equally reasonable.  Public transport is efficient and cheap (14 cents per ride), which makes taking one's car downtown an exercise in fiscal irresponsibility.  Another advantage to Prague is that it is in the true heart of Europe, with many travel opportunities nearby.  In the last month, we have traveled to Poland, Austria, and the Netherlands on business/pleasure trips, and Sharon has gone mountain climbing in the German mountains with her students.  Fortunately, we have a school calendar with plenty of vacations left to exploit other nearby wonders.

The only downside we have found in this new adventure is the Czech language, which is about as daunting a linguistic roadblock as we have ever encountered.  The language is drowning in consonants, causing one's tongue to droop from consonant abuse.  Even their word for ice cream is abominable:  zmrzlina.  A local joke goes like this:  A Czech man's eyesight was failing so he decided to see an optometrist.  The doctor showed the patient a standard eye chart that displayed the letters C V K P N W X C Z Y and asked if he could read it.  "Read it?" the Czech replied, "I know him!"  The pronunciation is as bad as the spelling.  One letter requires a person to trill an "R" as in Spanish while saying "zzhhhh" at the same time.  Normal humans cannot make that sound.

So, that's this year's update on our doings.  What's ahead?  We'll be traveling around Europe the rest of this year when we have off, with a return to the States most likely in the summer, but nothing is for sure until we do it.  One thing we are certain of is that this is not Ouagadougou, and it is a place to visit so if you have the time and the bucks for a ticket, do not hesitate to call on us; we've got great guest facilities, but tell us ahead of time because our guest room reservations are filling up fast!