Senator vacations in Germany

I would like to give an update on what has been happening in my life. As you know, I was appointed to the Senate last December and spent the next four months in Helena at session.

A retirement trip for January that I planned had to be put on hold. After my commissioner retirement, my plan was to go south to visit my brothers in Nevada and Oklahoma. So, Judy and I skipped the going south idea and decided instead to plan a trip to visit friends and family in south Germany in September.

In the past, my German family and a military friend have visited us here in the states, riding motorcycle around the state of Montana with us. They had invited us to do a motorcycle tour to the Czech Republic. Judy agreed, and the three-week trip was on. The greatest part of the trip for me was spent on motorcycle. Judy rode with me for six days, which included five days to and from the Czech Republic, one day touring southern Germany, and into the Alp mountains in Austria. On other days, while I was doing short day trips on a Suzuki, Judy spent quality time visiting, learning local gardening and enjoying the culture.

One week of our trip was spent with an old army friend in southwest Germany. Klaus and I both worked security at a NATO base in northern Germany in the mid-to-late ’60s. He was a German guard who came from a farming background. So we spent time working together and also spent some days off at his family farm in Bergerwold. He now has property in the south of Germany, so it was easy to spend time with his family and do some car touring of mountains, castles and tourist locations.

All in all, it was a very fun and enlightening trip.

We were in Germany for their vote for chancellor (Germany’s equivalent to our president), so it was very hard not to talk politics, which is a subject for a future article. Hope fall is treating you well.

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State Sem. Russ Tempel, R-Chester, can be contacted at [email protected].