10/9/14 day 2: Frankfurt, DE

Was delayed out of JFK but arrived in FRA around 2pm in one piece. Slept a couple winks but not much more. Flight was uneventful once we got airborne. Movie, dinner, eye mask. Gotta say, upgrading to economy comfort was probably worth it; way more leg room for the big guy. Didn't even mind the cat next to me was a sleepy leaner.

Was concerned that I was going to miss my comrades; I was supposed to land at 10am and had visions of mass confusion but after some wifi poaching and some sneaky car rental inquiries I ascertained they hadn't arrived yet.  They sent an email they were delayed too because of weather and estimated a 5pm arrival. Sigh of relief. I need to get a mobile hot spot for traveling... Xmas 2014??

Bitte ein Bit! Not driving the first leg, called it!

The lads didn't arrive until after 7pm. I was deep into an email to our hotel re a late arrival when I heard a "look up here" (a la Three Amigos) and there they were; slightly hagard, a little fried out, but smiling. 

Our car reservation at Dollar was the next order of biz. Turns out our reservation for 438€ was too good to be true... ACTUALLY, it was goin to be more like 1200€ because we don't have this particular MasterCard and, no shit, a note from them saying we had full coverage in Germany... Um, ok. We even tried to rectify on an international call to MasterCard, alas, we could not convince the nay Sayers at the rental booth, so we bounced around to all the other agencies and found a VW Sharon, super charged automatic, plus extra driver for 750€... Slightly less of a kick in the balls, but still, lesson learned.

Spirits were high once we walked down to the car and saw it was a pimp mobile! Pics to come. It's already dubbed "white lightning." Two and a half hours, many laughs and the phrase "deep fried and ready to glide"  later (about 1130PM) we roll into Hotel Hoyer which is a little B&B a couple kilometers outside of Apolda. I had a bad feeling that a) they didn't get my email about the late arrival and b) would all be asleep when we arrived. But we "geklingelt" the doorbell and sure enough, hotel/cafe owner Jörg greets us with a smile! He spent some time in North Carolina, see, and loves the states, and Harley Davidson, and hooray! He even treated us to a local Pilsner and at once, all seemed right in the world. He even asked if I was German or American... still got it, people.

Powered down at 12:30. Long ass day, with its irritating complications, but all is good! We are here.