And I found the mountain that I saw in the vision and beside it was a most pleasant lake. And I yodelled as I ate pizza beside the lake.

And the vision instructed me: "Find the chocolate bridge over troubled waters."

And I went to Lucern and found the beautiful covered Chapel Bridge (unfortunately the picture is not mine.)

And the vision instructed me to eat of the Holy Cheese fondue and I would be filled.

And following the vision I ordered a Cheese fondue near Interlaken.

And I saw a vision of A Chocolate Chalet and made it my quest to find it.

And I found the beautiful Swiss chalet near Grindlewald.

And an apparition of Swiss Mountain goat appeared to me in a chocolate apparition.

And I found the famous Swiss moutain goats which are more ubiquitous than the Yehti

The Chocolate Side of Switzerland

May you see the Chocolate Side of Switzerland.” That is what my friend Peter, a Swiss friend, told me when he heard I was going to tour Switzerland on motorbike.

“What a strange saying ,” I thought when I first heard it. Perhaps he meant that he hoped that I would have a “yummy” trip and see all the delights of Switzerland. Could he meant something, however, more esoteric such as that I should visit “the heavy side layer” mentioned in the musical “Cats.”

Not being, very metaphysically oriented, (many Harley affecianodos have an earthier approach to life), I decided to go to the Chocolate gnomes of Switzerland, and taste of their chocolate, and see if I could have an epiphany regarding this strange Swiss saying .

And so prior to my travels, I made a pilgrimage to those manufacturers of Swiss chocolates and consulted the Chocolate Wizards and Chefs in Zurich. And so in a short time I was at the mysterious Chocolate Factory of Lindt and Sprungli. That is Sprungli with an umlat over the “u”. They are renown for their manufacture of Swiss Chocolates and would have been Royal Chocolatiers to the King of Switzerland, had it ever had a king , which to the best of my knowledge it has not.

The Lindt and Sprungli Wizards informed me that Switzerland has been a nation of free men and women and reminded me about the story how William Tell had shot the chocolate bon-bon off the head of his small son. This event , also known as the Tell tale, has now made its way into every Swiss child’s history book.

And so the chefs at Lindt and Sprungli invited me to imbibe at the great Swiss chocolate fountain in order that I might learn wisdom and have insight into Peter’s wise saying. And so I did.

And as I set at the feet watching Swiss pastry chefs making chocolate delights, I had an epiphany. In the back of my mind, I heard a voice hearkening back to my MoKan roots saying : “Follow the Chocolate brick road, Follow the Chocolate brick road.” And that is the step I took. And as I gazed longly at the Lindt and Sprungli chocolate delights, I knew where in Switzerland I must go and what I must do.

After paying much geld for chocolate and insight, I departed from Lindt and Sprugli and headed for Pelican Harley-Davidson in Zurich to rent a Harley to follow the chocolate road and to see the chocolate side of Switzerland.

The pictures that follow show my pilgrimage and peregrinations through the chocolate side of Switzerland. Although I have many pictures I am including just a few to illustrate how the vision of Chocolate led me through this beautiful and wonderful country.

Moonshine

Pink Moon dreams

Goose and moon actual shot

Moon in sepia tones

Moon 1

Circle of Reflection

Missouri Sky Reflected in Shoal Creek from Inspiration Point.

It doesn't get prettier than this!

Morning at Inspiration Point

Shoal Creek at Inspiration Point

Gotta Get Up Early!!

Missouri Morning

Shoal Creek at eventide

Shoal Creek before sunset

Shoal Creek in the evening

U.S. Drops to 6th in Being Competitive

Last year the U.S. was No. 1 in a survey regarding the world's most competitive society. This year we are No. 6. Switzerland is now No. 1. The top 8 are the following:

1. Switzerland
2. Finland
3. Sweden
4. Denmark
5. Singapore
6. United States
7. Japan
8. Germany

It looks like, despite our corporate reforms, Sarbanes-Oxley, and the new Compensation Disclosures, we are falling behind the world economy.

We may be less productive and less competitive in the world market, but I guess we can still boast about how many lawyers our country has and and about how many pages of regulations that we have that companies must comply with.

I presume that our ratio of regulators to production workers continues to increase.

Our economy is like a Maserati that has so many emission controls on it that we can hardly creep along the economic highway.

Thanks be to the politicians, who for political favor have chosen to go down the road of making our economy less competitive by putting up more and more signs to reduce our speed.

I wonder if workers who loose their jobs or see their pay decrease see any connection. Probably not.

HarleyDad who is sucking on Sour Grapes.

Back from Brazil

I just got back from Brazil on Friday. Spent most of the week in Sao Paulo. Good people. Good food. Lots of work.

Hopefully sometime this week I will put up a few pictures.

Sao Paulo has somewhere between 23 to 25 million people and is one of the world's largest cities.

Brazil is about the size of the U.S. in land area.

On Friday I took a short Harley ride before leaving for the lake. It was interesting because I had become adjusted to the weight and handling of the Road King Custom after renting one for four days to ride around Switzerland. The Road King Custom is about 70 pounds heavier than the Softtail and is not as smooth on the turns .

On Sunday I went out for a longer ride going to Diamond, Carthage, Alba, Purcell and back home. The weather was great and my body readjusted to the Softtail.

Over the weekend a plane from Brazil's capital, Brasilia was lost in jungle and rescuers have not been able to even find it. That is not surprising.

We go through our lives everyday with little blessings like returning from airplane flights and hardly notice it and forget to thank God for the little things--like all the airplane parts kept working while we were in the air.

Have a good week.

HarleyDad

Romantic Interlaken