Drains R' Us: Garth made it!

Early Friday morning (6:00am) Rob and I went to Brussels to pick up Garth. It is about an hour drive if the traffic is good. We made it by 7:15 but Garth didn't clear customs until about 8:15. While Rob and I waited for him, we tried to guess what nationalities the people arriving were. Rob said you can tell the Americans because they wear Hawaiian shirts (like Paul Rowley I think). I said, "No, you can tell the Americans because they wear baseball hats and no one else does." The hats really are a dead give away for Americans and I told Rob that Garth would probably be wearing one. Well he wasn't but he had his in his suitcase.

Before I left to come over here, Garth's biggest worry was washing his clothes. Pretty sad that a 54 year-old doesn't know how to do his laundry. When we saw Garth he had on all new clothes and shoes and I told Rob that maybe Garth hadn't washed anything and just bought all new clothes when his were dirty. We found out that Garth just had to get comfortable "traveling clothes"(reminded me of the Sound of Music). He was glad to be off the plane and we were glad to have him with us!

After Garth took a little nap and we had some lunch, and Anita decided that Garth needed some ex cerise so we went on the bike ride I had done before to Popple, Belgium. The pictures aren't great because it is awfully hard to ride a bike on cobblestones and take clear pictures at the same time.

It was a cloudy/rainy day but the rain had stopped and so we headed off. Garth was a little slow on his bike but we gave him the benefit of the doubt since he hadn't really slept in the last 24 hours (he never can sleep on the plane).

A neighborhood in Popple, Belgium.

Of course, we stopped to have a drink, but before we had a chance to drink much it started to rain and we had to move inside and wait out the rain. Anita and Rob ordered some bitter balls, a popular Dutch snack, for Garth to try. They are breaded balls that have been fried and are filled with a kind of meat paste. They are very hot, just ask Preston who burned his tongue the first time he tried them.

Me just riding through the Belgium countryside. Notice the jackets and jeans? I don't think anyone in Mesa are wearing jackets and jeans outside. It isn't really cold, just cool - or just perfect for us!

I had told Anita that when Garth got here he would choose spots and want his picture taken right there. This was the first of those spots.

This was the second of the spots. This picture was specially taken for Garth's dad, Ralph, Garth wanted him to see the beautiful rows of plants and the almost black soil; the picture of Garth isn't too good, that is if you want to see his face.

Garth decided I needed my picture taken in this spot. The church tower of Goirle is in the background.

After much discussion between Rob and Anita on the way to go, we arrived at the cheese shop. I had been there before with Anita to buy cheese and she had asked about us being able to tour their shop. It is a family owned and run business. They make all the cheese themselves from the milk of their cows. The cows only eat grass so the cheese is better and they don't pasteurize the milk so that is suppose to make it better also. All I know is, is that it''s some dang good cheese!

They hard already made the cheese for today but she showed us what they do and where the processes takes place. Here she is showing us the cheese made that morning that has just been pressed and is drying a bit before it is placed in a salt water bath for several days.

This room has the temperature and humidity closely controlled and the cheese is aged and dipped in wax. The different colors of wax designate the type of cheese it is.