Day 2130. We walked to the Hertz Gold counter where we were supposed to pick up our car at 11 pm. But it was 12:30 am or later, and no one was there. I was surprised the doors even opened. Hotels didn' have shuttles after midnight either, and so we had no choice but to stay at the airport until they'd start working again at 7 am. The Gold Hertz office had some comfortable seats so we decided to stay right there. I sat on one chair and Randy on the other. There was a table between us, and I soon lay down across the hard table and comfy chair. Sammy lay on top of me but I couldn't get him to sleep. He'd already done his share of sleeping. Same for Tammy. Emmy really needed to sleep but he didn't want to. For the longest time we tried to get them all to sleep, but they simply wouldn't. 2 am was 9 am in Austria after all. Randy and I were dead-tired and needed sleep bad, but the kids kept waking us up and simply would not let us sleep. I tried to keep them away from Randy, knowing he'd have to drive in the morning, but no success. I got pretty upset with Tammy and Emmy, especially Emmy, because they simply did not care that they were constantly keeping us from sleeping or waking us up.
At 5 pm a Hertz guy showed up and told us we couldn't be where we were. He said he had forgotten to lock the doors last night (God's gift to us) but we'd have to wait elsewhere until they open up at 7 am. So we packed up our stuff and moved to where all the regular rental car counters were. Some rental car companies already opened up at 5 am, so we could go inside and sit down on the seats there. All three kids were running around and playing hard. Sammy enjoyed the automatic doors the most.
At 7 am we walked to the Gold Hertz counter where someone was already at the desk. He told us where our car was, and that was it! He didn't even respond when I mentioned that we were supposed to pick it up at 11 pm and had to spend the night there. We got our two carts and all walked to the car. It was a nice, big car, a Hyundai Santa Fe. The long process of opening the three suitcases with the car seats, putting them in, then loading all our luggage into the car, started. It took about 45 minutes. Then we got in ourselves and pulled up at the exit where we showed our driver's licences and got our contract. Then we finally left the airport.
We hadn't eaten in a very long time and were hungry, so we decided to stop at the first Dennis restaurant on the way. It was a 15-minute drive. Emmy fell asleep immediately - no surprise there. Sammy came next, then Tammy. We decided not to stop at the restaurant after all but to go through a drive-through so at least the two of us could eat, and then the kids could eat once they'd wake up. So we stopped at the Chick-Fil-A that was also there. It was about 8:15 am, so they had a breakfast menu. We'd never go there in the morning, so we didn't know the menu but ordered food for everyone and continued on our way. Tammy had woken up and told us what she wanted, and she dug into the food eating quite a lot. I also greatly enjoyed the good food, and so did Randy.
We had a two-hour drive. Tammy fell asleep after having eaten, and the boys slept until 5 minutes before our arrival. I tried to sleep but woke up every time Randy swerved too hard. Every time I asked him whether he was okay, awake and alert. Once the boys were up, I stayed up with them. I gave them the remaining food, and they ate some. They were so excited that we were about to arrive, especially Sammy.
At 10:36 am we pulled up at the house Randy built where his youngest adult daughter lives with her family. They have a big dog, and the kids are all afraid of him. I carried Emmy inside, while Randy carried Tammy who we had to wake up, then we got Sammy. They were excited to see their half-sister and nieces and started playing with them right away. Randy unloaded the car and carried the suitcases upstairs, while I started arranging them and opening them up. The kids were ready to put summer clothes on and changed right away, as did I. Once we were all done, we took what we needed and piled back into the car to drive down the hill to where Randy's Mom lives. She was excited to see us all. Randy's daughter and grandkids also got there a few minutes later, and Tammy, Emmy and the older niece started playing hard with each other. They were having lots of fun. Sammy had his beloved Grandma read some stories to him. Later, once the nieces had had to leave, she also read stories to Tammy, and briefly Emmy.
Tammy was the first one to get very tired and even fell asleep sitting with Grandma. It was time to go back to the house and to get them to bed. It was 5 pm, but for the first day, that's a pretty good time they made it to as it's midnight in Austria. And it still took some time before they were actually in bed.
We drove back to the house where they put their pj's on and we still had to put a mattress down for them and make it all work. And then they still wanted a bedtime story, so I read one to them, then prayed for them, then turned the light off. The kids were all asleep really quickly. I turned my computer on and went to work on the pictures and report. I was getting very sleep myself and had to fight to keep my eyes open. Randy was soon asleep, and I made it until after 10 pm, then I couldn't go on any longer and turned my computer off and went to bed.
