Beginning of our Riesen Reise.

As Lala says:

Happy 16th of July!  

We actually got out onto the road from Worcester at 3pm. Only a little bit later than our originally scheduled 9am noon 1pm.

Edward was the pack-master, though he will not be vanning with us, but will be following by private jet just in for the conference.

Edward also excelled at setting up our group picture, which would officially require a photoshopped Peter.

Instead, we created our rather impermanent mascot affectionately nicknamed "CARPET" - get it? Our *car**pet*? We sure would get claustrophobic on a mass-cot.

Once we piled into the van - A Mecedes Sprinter - the children were mostly instantly asleep, except for Theodore, who has taken his appointment of "time master" very seriously.

Mary and Agnes are staying behind for an extra day, for a gig, but Martin is looking forward to his first visit to Stringer Brook.

At the time of writing, somewhere around Lake Placid, (or as Martin referred to it when asked where we were, "based on the atlas, page 49") Centa and Lala had already sung songs about truckers in high heels and trash day. We are very happy to have an expert on the comic song on board. There is also talk of haiku writing.

OUR PREDICTIONARY:

MARY: Agnes will walk by Portland. Mary and Martin will have finished the proof by the time we reach Montana.

EDWARD: Everyone will be pleasantly surprised and very happy when Edward and Puk arrive on the 7th. Also, Everyone will aquire at least one useless item that they will be unable to part with.

IRMA: We will sing "singin' in the rain" in harmony and in the rain. We will get used to the smell of campfire smoke on our clothes.

MARTIN: We will have fun. We will get sunburnt. We will see racoons. At least once we will be caught by a heavy storm while camping.

RAINER: 45degrees - 96degrees Fahrenheit.

PAPA: In the next two weeks I will have fewer back attacks.

MAMA: Es kommt stets anders als man denkt.

HENRY: We will eat ALL the ketchup.

THEO: We will eat what Tante LaLa makes, because it's good.

CENTA: We will all be inspired. Agnes will say 'MAMA". Centa will find a doctorate topic. Canon singing will be perfected and someone will steal a lawn flamingo.

BRIAN: We will decrease our morning packing time to 15 min and Theo and Henry will increase their hiking distance to 4 miles.

Lala: There will be lots of good pictures and videos made, and we will at last make it half way through the yoga book.