NOOOOO... And Family. Very Distant Family.

I've been offline for a few days (or rather, weeks, by now), for reasons you can read below (and later I was busy holiday-ing). On the date noted above, my day started with a shock. Some lady knocked my bike over with her car. I was having a sandwich, every now and then looking out the window at the bike, and at one point I looked up at saw it lying there. My eyes widened, I jumped up, and just at that moment the lady entered the place.

I picked the bike up again, and as far as I could see, there was no damage beyond a scratch on the tank and some scrapings on the foot peg and throttle. I wanted a police report for insurance reasons, but when I called 911, they just told me they don't do private property anymore... The woman said they would just tell me not to park there. Maybe she should rather look where she's driving...I got the woman's name, driver's license number and insurance number, made pictures of her license plate and my motorcycle, and that's it, apparently. Later I passed by a Harley dealership, and they couldn't find more damage on first glance. I'll have it checked on the first inspection that is due in the next days.



Then I rode to Glandorf, Ohio. It was founded almost 200 years ago by emigrants from Glandorf in northern Germany, the place my dad was born. In the late seventies, early eighties there even was some kind of regular visiting between people from both Glandorfs, which is now picking up again, and I've heard that there still are families in and around Glandorf that can be traced back to my ancestors. Since I couldn't establish contact over the internet, I just went to Glandorf as such and visited it's (amazingly beautiful) church and adjoining monument. Since Glandorf has just a thousand inhabitants, you wouldn't expect such a church. It completely blew me away.


Then I had the idea of asking the priest and parish office for help in finding those families. Since it's such a small community, that seemed promising. And indeed, at the office they knew immediately whom I was talking about. They called them and told them to stand in the driveway waving and watching for a dude on a motorcycle. Now I'm staying with them for two days, visiting Glandorf and other relatives.

And I just discovered that my notebook's screen broke when the bike was toppled over.