Two Days to get to Monchengladbach

We had big dreams. We had big ideas. Buchenwald...a concentration camp..very educational for the boys. (Closed Mondays..scratch that). Hotel life was tough to leave, but leave we must....Euros, euros, euros!!! Prague? Not too far from Dresden, supposed to be awesome. 1 p.m. check out...geez it's nice here, let's just have one more lunch NOT in the R.V. Oh my goodness, we have no clean clothes. Okay, new plan for Monday: nice breakfast, nice showers, Amy and Lesle to the Waschermeister (laundromat), Jack/boys hang out and go to pool...oops, it's an Aqua Sauna which Nicholas described as a kiddy-pool for old people..really old people, like 80, in bikinis, in 4 inches of water. Okay...just go to lunch and we'll meet you after laundry and we'll head out of town. WE are flailing...the game Sunday did us in...how the heck are the U.S. women going to be ready by Wednesday if WE can't get OUR act together?

Drive in the direction of Monchengladbach and get to a campingplatz before 9pm. Uh oh, groceries, we have no more food since we've been living high on the hotel hog for 2 days. 2 hour drive, groceries and a nice camplingplatz in Leipzig. A nice little town describe as Paris-like, only nicer people. Whatevs..it's a campground.
Time to wake up and drive on Tuesday..we are still TOO far from Monchengladbach and I'm tired of typing it and saying it. MGB we'll call it from here on out.
But first, Nicholas has to hit the playground...nope, other kids there and dag gummit if they aren't "all speaking foreign". Nicholas returns from the playground and we leave.

So more fun than a concentration camp and way less educational we surprise the kids with a trip to a nearby amusement park, Belantis. It's a toned down (way) Disneyland....like you can tell this isn't a litigious society because you can basically do whatever you want: drink beer, drop your drawers and take a swim, walk across the tracks of a ride to get off whenever you feel like it..buckle your belt, or don't..your problem, very casual here.






All in all a nice surprise for the kids and other than Zach whacking his nose (thank GOD not the newly unbraced teeth) on the bar at the end of the Fluch de Pharaoh (log ride), the day was quite fun.


Nicholas with mom and dad in tow slayed the HURACAN......as scary a roller coaster as I've ever seen. Couldn't believe it! Ben was a hair...literally, too small to go on and the Gallimores, well the Gallimores had better things to do...take pictures (read: scared s*i*l*ss) because someone has to "capture" the essence of this trip.




HAVE to get to MGB...or at least closer..drive Amy drive! Scary RV story numbers 2 & 3 again with Amy at the wheel (pure coincidence). No detail needed (Audi clocking 110 mph passing us on the LEFT shoulder with no room and a double-wide John Deere coming at us on a road about as wide as my rear is getting from sitting on it and eating Brats and brot)as we are all safe and McRent is in tact.

Campingplatz number 5..not that we're counting; somewhere outside Gottingen, in a town called Densfeld. Beautiful countryside and a friendly place to eat and rest for tonight. When I say friendly I mean the people at the table next to us at dinner had to physically show Lesle how to eat fish with this weird little fork and knife. Bizarre, we eat fish at home and it's much like eating everything else. Again, whatevs...roll with it.

No game of Bananagrams tonight...straight to bed and up to please Lord get us to MGB by game time! 6pm kick off for U.S. versus France. Have had fun hearing from everyone on Facebook, Twitter and Email. Fun talking to Elise and Softy on KJR; doing another radio interview with ESPN radio tomorrow. Hope sure makes us popular...if people could only see us in our "special pajamas" outside in the dark blogging so as not to wake our "campermates" and feeling really glamorous.....internet is dicey at best and pictures loading makes us cuss (I personally owe Benjamin 40 Euros for my bad mouth).

Anyway...here's to hoping the awesome women in the Red, White and Blue (American type-not French) have had 2.5 better days of preparation than us! We're excited to hook up with the Fawcetts again, and we are excited to watch this semi-final! It will be a doozy. The French are good and we're in for a duel! Sacre Bleu! Faustine...I need some quotes!

Speaking of Faustine....and all of our DAWGS (Hunds) back home...we MISS you and saw the greatest picture (courtesy of Mike Bos) from your trip to Eniat! So cool to see the rookies in the mix with you all! You all look healthy and happy and a big shout out to you all for high team gpa 3rd quarter in a row. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOF!

Okay...bugs are biting; gotta go dream good dreams about a semi-final victory and the thrill of getting to sleep in a hotel again tomorrow : )

MGB here we come! USA-USA-USA-!!!