How I got to CH (Switzerland) Final

After that first Idyll trip in 1979, I missed only two years without one, and later, two trips to CH per year. I made other trips to other places, but that was for continuing education. CH was always for fun. I had a new wife and merged family by then. Sometimes it was just us, sometimes, hers, and sometimes, mine who made the trips. By fiddling around with the work schedule, I could have almost a month off for CH. With three weeks for Idyll, we could also have a few days extra to explore other parts of CH too far from our home base to do them while we were in Sachseln.

What sealed us to Sachseln? A Swiss family that we met on our second Idyll trip. From 1981 onward, we always had "our" apartment with them. The one exception was when we had four persons, and they had only room for two. That was cured when they converted a home next to them into Idyll apartments. It took only a year or two for us to become fast friends with this family. To say that the Greutert family was not to become important to our lives would be a real understatement. They remain important to me even today. The children are grown, some of the grandchildren are grown, and now I have a Swiss Godson who is twelve. A big reason why I never left "home" to come to CH was that I had a "home" here too. That all said, I do have USA family that I love dearly. Even more dearly for the very reason that they are far more precious to me here than if they just lived nearby.

Some people think that I am not wrapped too tightly, but if one looks around, there are a lot of USA citizens who live in other countries. I have heard all the ideas about being here to avoid taxes, have secret bank accounts, become a citizen, etc. They all fall under the category of BS. It all goes back to that night in Sachseln in our first Idyll apartment, when I sat out on the balcony nursing my beer and looking at a rainy night twenty six years ago. I thought then, "Someday, why not?". In the years between, if I had a doubt, I would ponder the fact that if I chose not to try this, I would forever wonder "What if?".

Well, in 1994, I did it. I found it not too hard to learn to accept being a "foreigner", I have learned parts of a new culture and language, made some friends that I would not have met, enjoyed the love and caring of a new family, and still hold to the ties in the USA that I value. I hope to spend my time left here in a home that I share with a lot of loved ones.