Updates - 17.Aug

My host family's neighbor owns an RV and brought over their edition of the Reise Mobil Bode Atlas. It contains thousands of motorhome camping locations that are either free or low cost. We decided to head to Münster, the bicycle capital of Germany. Maybe there we could find the bicycle rack and outfit the family with bikes.

Monday afternoon, we headed out - and ... missed a turn... wound up in the WORST situation possible, near the Munster city center, where bicycles apparently have the right of way. There was no where to turn; no where to stop... skinny streets. I finally got the map rerouted to the campground and us on a normal road when Dan abruptly yells "nein!" and turns right. The bridge ahead was only 3.5 meters... we need 4.

What was supposed to be a 100km drive wound up taking us 7 hours. We were back on country roads and wandering. Solution is to use the GPS coordinates for the campgrounds along with editing our road choice to delimit small roads whenever possible. Hence, we finally found a free camping stop near Lüne - it was in the parking lot of a sports center. Needless to say, we left early the next morning.

We found a spot at Marine Rünthe and it was only about 15km away. It had water and a dump station, both required. The cost only 5 Euro per night.

To our surprise, we were the interest of the reporters the next day - we had three sets of reporters through. Wednesday morning, a few folks swung by - one was very excited because there is a Frau Scherer in town; the other, because he had seen us in the newspaper (http://www.westfaelische-rundschau.de/bergkamen)! He kindly went out and bought us a copy; then returned for conversation and was helpful at getting us to a bike shop near town.
We found our way to the bike shop - but they don't have the carrier solution; they referred us to an RV shop - but that shop only has the kind that mount to the back of the motorhome; not the kind that mount to the hitch. So we kept driving, in pursuit of the hitch mount.

Found our next stop in a town called Dorsten. The self-serve camp parking lot is 3 Euro/night; water and the dump station are about 2 blocks away but the town is walking distance. Makes it easy to finish stocking up on supplies and such.

We're staying here through Sunday at least - it appears there is a city festival tomorrow. There are several churches that we can explore and tons of history that we don't yet understand! =) Biggest issue has been that of connectivity - the T-mobile shop in town is a "hot spot" but we couldn't access or send email from it. I finally asked, in broken German and was referred to McDonald's -- and voila! Internet connection works beautifully.

Last night a German couple pulled in driving a 12-year old Winnebago. They were a great source for us and have referred us to our next destination - which is the parking lot of an RV service center (I forgot the town name). Apparently, it's one of the largest and one of the employees is well-schooled in US conversions. We hope to make great progress on the electricity issue early next week. It has been enlightening to be in conservation mode - has made us realize how much we take water and electricity for granted at home.

All is going really well. We hope to post more pictures to Blogger soon.