At some point the Ottoman Turks began digging a tunnel under the wall surrounding the city. They did their tunneling at night when most of the residents were asleep. This way they could catch the residents off guard. However, not everyone slept at night. The bakers did their craft during the night so that their pastries could be enjoyed fresh the first thing in the morning. The bakers heard strange clanking noises several nights in a row and reported this to the city officials. With this advance warning, the soldiers were ready for the Ottoman Turks. The Turks were met by hundreds of Vienna soldiers at the tunnel exit and were captured without a fight.

Bakers, in observance of the final freedom of the city, instead of shaping their pastry round like a muffin or biscuit, rolled it in to a crescent shape like the image on the Ottoman Turk flag. They did it as a memorial to remind people of how they outfoxed the enemy. It became a staple, and bakers continued to make their pasty in that shape. They named it Kipfel, which was German for crescent.

Let's hear it for the baking profession!

On this trip I encountered a curious situation. While at the visitor center for the Andrew Johnson Homestead in Greeneville, Tennessee, I noticed what appeared to be a married couple, each on a separate motorcycle, and likely in their seventies. The wife walked into the visitor center and asked the park ranger if she had a brochure for the homestead that she could have. The park ranger handed her a brochure then asked the woman if she would like to tour the homestead. The woman replied no because she and her husband had made a bet with someone that they could visit fifty historical sites in at least 25 states in 30 days. Thus, they didn’t have the time to take the tour. The brochure was their proof that they had actually been there. The couple then left on their motorcycles off to who knows where? More power to the couple to take such a venture, but not “bother” to actually see any of the sites while they were there? To me, it would be the same thing if someone were driving down the Los Angeles freeway, took the Anaheim exit, then drove into the Disneyland parking lot, turned around and went back to claim they had been to Disneyland. Strange, very strange.

This was my first true vacation in 26 years. The last one was in the summer of 1980. At the hospital where I worked at the time, I had 6 weeks paid vacation coming and took them all at once. Luckily, the last paycheck before going on vacation also included the entire vacation pay. Thus, I had the money to travel. (This was before direct deposits, ATM/MAC or debit cards.) I spent the entire 6 weeks touring out west with four kids ranging in age from 9 to 15 years old. I set several personal records on the trip.

1) I left for vacation at midnight directly after getting off work on a Friday. (I worked the afternoon shift then.) We arrived in Salt Lake City Sunday morning - 34 hours to go 1,600 miles and I was the only driver! Also, this was when the speed limit was only 55 MPH. (Even now I prefer to make a long haul to start and end the vacation. Then in between shorter hops of only a couple hundred miles each.)

2) Upon arriving in Salt Lake City, we checked into a motel and I slept for nearly 12 hours. Monday morning we headed for the Uinta mountains outside of Salt Lake City to camp. Even though it was the end of June, due to the high elevation, it was only 14 degrees and there was some snow on the ground. We decided that we wouldn’t stay and camp there in a tent due to the cold weather. We left the mountains at about 9 PM and I drove all night and we arrived in Las Vegas 12 hours later. The temperature there was 114 degrees. Thus in 12 hours we experienced a temperature change of 100 degrees! We all came down sick with colds as a result.

3) On this same vacation, on my return trip it took me just 50 hours to drive from Los Angeles to Lansing, Michigan, a distance of 2,300 miles - Again I was the only driver.*

* I am unable to make those kind of long drives now. Back then I had more pep and resistance - and less sense.