Dispatch from Frankfurt, Deutschland. Spent the day on the A3 autobahn driving South to Frankfurt staying at the Frankfurt City Campground right in the middle of the city. Pitched a big tent and went to some old friends house in Dietzenbach just off highway 661. Christoph is married to a woman from Iowa that grew up only a one hour drive from where my mom grew up in Mason City, Iowa. It's a small village sometimes and I wish people would regard that before they turn to war.

Tomorrow I hope to see Christoph and Regina's parents in the morning. After that a continuation of my trip down memory lane although at this point it's more of a autobahn then a lane!

I left messages with my brother today. No call from him about my mom. Just wish to know the details of how she is even though she has called me. She is out of pain at least so that's good.

Germany, need it be said has changed so much. I can see my street on Google maps but it is no longer a dead end to a field and a World War II bomb shelter at the end of that street. I wonder at the past and all that it contains, memories, people, hopes, dreams, disappointments, wishes, births, death and everything in between. Id love to know what happens beyond my death but am not sure I could stand to be immortal. Too much sadness and regret at watching the centuries pass by, the people you love. It already breaks my heart at times.

Hard to believe I write this from near my childhood home where I last set foot on forty-two years ago. I remember the last drive out of our driveway in our Volkswagen, my red pogo stick lying in the green grass between the two rows of stone for the tires. How vivid but as if in a dream.

What will I find? What will I learn? That you can't go home again like Rosseau? I learned this long ago. My goodbyes only grow more difficult and the sadness of parting more of melancholy suffused with sustained and lasting joy mixed in.

I do not know what I shall see or discover but my journey to this secret place has taught me much.

David