Retirees’ Corner

June 2007

Frank Rainer (ME, NIF, 2003) and his wife, Sigrid, have continued on their travels after returning from Antarctica a year ago. They were on the move for only 25 weeks in 2006, some of which is recounted here. A week in Acapulco in May was just for a bit of relaxing so they only drove around for about five days of exploring. They needed to save up energy for a busy second half of the year. First was a pair of tours beginning in July visiting many of the former western Soviet Republics. They began on their own, motoring in Poland, and visited sites where both of their families came from when the area had been East Prussia. Barns and warehouses, once owned by his grandfather, were still standing after over 100 years, and they were guided around the village by a woman whose father had actually worked for his grandfather. After a detour in Helsinki they started a tour of the fascinating Baltic countries - lovely towns and cities and gorgeous-looking women. The Russian enclave of Kaliningrad was not as lovely as it had been when Frank was born there in the city of Koenigsberg. The house he lived in no longer stood, but they at least found its former location. Back in Vilnius, Lithuania they found the Lutheran church that was home to another LLNL retiree, Viktor Hampel. That tour then merged into a second tour covering Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and even the breakaway republic of Transdniester. In Moldova they toured an underground winery, one of the largest in the world, storing about two million bottles of wine. For old time sake they revisited Budapest and the surrounding region bordering the lovely brown - not blue - Danube.

The Rainer’s continued their travels in 2006, coming home for four weeks to open mail and get the last of their visas for their next adventures. This time they spent three weeks touring the "Five Stans". Actually there are a lot more Stans (Afghanistan and Pakistan that they visited 35 years ago) plus other regions that are not really countries. It was a whirlwind tour by bus and plane with half the time devoted to Uzbekistan - also previously visited 30 years ago. Frank's digital camera got hot, not from the hot desert, but from so much active use. In Turkmenistan they participated at a camel auction. The camel cost $250, which took a stack of bills since the largest denomination bill is worth only 40 cents. Four weeks after their return the President-for-Life died leaving no successor. It will be interesting to see what will ultimately happen to the myriad of giant pictures and golden statues of him around the country, including one on a tower that rotates to always face the sun. They left Ashgabat at 2:00 am and by that evening Sigrid was back home in Livermore and Frank started yet another adventure in Mali and Burkina Faso, West Africa. Highlights of that trip included a three-day, camping safari, floating down the Niger River to Timbuktu, and visits to the cliffside villages of the Dogons, reminiscent of Mesa Verde NP at home. That was it for 2006. 

They spent Christmas at home before leaving yet again.

The New Year saw Frank and Sigrid, on the move again. This time they spent almost four weeks exploring Ethiopia, a fascinating country of contrasts. It was really more like two countries. In the north they flew to numerous classical destinations where the Queen of Sheba had once reigned and where monuments were erected to a history when Abyssinia was only the third country in the world to adopt Christianity. These monuments included numerous huge churches carved completely out of rock and elaborately engraved stele, including the world's largest, until it fell, presumably when the resident engineer tried to raise it - oops. In the south they reverted to 4WD vehicles to bounce along 2000 miles of rutted roads to visit an assortment of unique tribes. They visited people who lived practically in the Stone Age. The women would puncture their lower lips and knock out their lower incisors so that the resulting hole would ultimately grow in size to accommodate a clay disk as large as 10 cm. At another tribe they witnessed the coming-of-age of a young man as he leaped across the backs of about ten bulls, held side-by-side, while stark naked (both the young man and the bulls). More gruesome was the whipping of women from the young man's family in his support so that they bore the evidence of large welts on their backs for the rest of their lives.

The ever-popular Retiree Picnic will be held next month, June 20, at Ravenswood Historical Park in Livermore.  The Park opens at 11 and lunch is scheduled for noon.  ADVANCE PAYMENT AND RESERVATIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY JUNE 16.  You can use the form posted on this website, click here.   Simply print the form, fill it out and mail it to the Retirees Association with payment, $20 for each attendee.  (If you sign up but later have to cancel, we'll return your check so long as you cancel by June 16.)

If you don't have a printer, find another retiree to print the form out for you, or send an email to Jeff Garberson, chair@llnlretirees.org, with your address, and he will mail you a reservation form.

The final Travel Group meeting for the year will be June 26^th 2:00 p.m. in the Livermore City Council Chambers on Pacific Avenue next to the Multi-Service Center and near the Barn. The topic is: "Wandering Around Japan" by Miles and Jackie Lloyd. The Travel Group will not meet again until January 2008.

Gus and Jane Olson have been doing the Retirees’ Corner for over four years now and are ready for a change. They would like to give some other retiree the opportunity to take on this job. The only requirement would be that you have a computer and e-mail. Perhaps someone who is retiring soon would enjoy this volunteer job. If you are interested, please send them an email with your telephone number to set up a time to talk about what the job involves.

Please send any input to Jane or Gus Olson. E-Mail: Gus@LLNLretirees.org or Jane@LLNLretirees.org. Snail mail address: 493 Joyce Street, Livermore, CA 94550.

This appears in the June issue of Newsline, 2007