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Crisis what crisis! - The crisis is Over or is it!

Part 1



"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHH!......!......!......!" She shouted,

"Je n'en peux plus, si ca continue je rentre a Anvers", she said, after finding the tiniest bug who may or may not have bitten her and doing a hysteric dance as if anything of the sort may help. "Je veux pas me faire bouffer par des bêtes" her plea went on.

Of course the kids heard her and though while watching a movie on the ipad was quiet, all of a sudden it's "gratte in the Camper" a horror story or a thriller I can't decide.

Myself I am not complaining about anything though a massage a lobster and a hammam would be nice.



We celebrated Matts B-day ("Hen je n'en peux plus et toi tu t'en fou t'as rien") by taking him white water rafting, well Val did while I went scenic floating on a river with Djudj.

After seeing about 6 bald eagles, a few Canadian geese and some other birds, Uma Thurman and Harrison Fords Ranch, Djudj and I went to visit Jackson Hole, a village that resembles much of the Villages you can find in the Alps, ("ru ne te rends pas compte comme on souffres Hen, tu ne te rends pas compte") to find ourselves in a little dead end street, much like you would find in the south of France, to sit down and eat a Yam Woon Sen or a Thai angel hair dish followed by, in the next littlestand a decaf expresso machiato for me and a chic/banana shake for djudj.

We met Matt and Val at the Japaneese.

What a break from deep fried meat and bbq.

Got Matt a HD Jackson Hole t shirt and back to Grand Teton, a stop on top of Signal Mountain revealing a breathtaking view of the whole area and a stop at the local restaurant where all the waiters came at our table to sing Happy B-day to Matt and the day ended with our now eight year old son telling us this was the best birthday ever.



Early wake up to a lazy day at yellowstone.

Booked a rv place for today and tomorrow night and decided on having a 'hang day'.

Siesta, fishing trip, Matthew and Djudj steering the boat at full throttle, Val steering while we were fishing and after 3 cathes of cutthroats and a bbq oh yes and a few hysterical moments in the Camper we finally settled and went to bed, this is live writing, the courtisone cream came out and settled it out.

We're such a city people it puts a smile on my face.

Nor djudju nor me seems to understand what the fuss is all about.

I wonder whats next when the misses comes to bed, I am going to sleep smiling.



Part 2



Lazy day, late breakfast today 8:45am

Djudj is dead tired, and went back to bed at 11am, Val joined him.

Matthew and I stopped at 'Old Fatithful' a geiser that spouts every 25 minutes for 9 minutes. The main atraction though was a chipmunk that was cheeckily looking at the crowd, astonished at what all the people were coming to do there or did he just want to be the center of the atraction.

Matthew has a problem grasping the idea of the geiser, he is confused about the fumes and the spouting and the temperature of the water.

On we went to see the magic of volcanic activity, paint pot fountain with its muddy bubblies and sulfery colours, after checking in to the campground on we went for a steep walk to the magical 'lower waterfalls'.

A great campground shower, loooong shower and a great dinner at the gourmet Resataurant (thats prime rib and potatoes) and another weary night.



3:30am the noise of rain on a campers roof resembles the ticking noise of against a plastic blind times hundred.



4:00 am Matthew hit Julian, Julian is crying. Val gets up I am awake.

4:15 am the kids are laughing (fou rires) we are awake wondering why

4:30 am lightning, thunder so loud the ground is shaking, the kids 'surprisingly' are sleeping quietly.

6:00 am we were supposed to wake up to see Moose, wolves and bears,

I knocked it off and we woke up a 8:30



Part 3



Muffins warmed up on a fire made by a discharged space shuttle technician and a anti cancer radiation tech. Matt was facinated by the shuttle stories.

On the road to see the 6am animals by 10am.

Heards of hundreds of bisons on our way up, ground squirrels tame and as if waiting for people to arrive like little parairy dogs the one calling as if to say 'treats' and 5-6 of them arriving. Djudju hand feeding them the crusts of his sandwich he didn't want to eat while Matt is petting one on he back.

We are so much on bison teritory that they decuded to create a mini traffic jam by crossing the road. They look harmless but we were warned, apparently so was the cyclist who hurried to the back of a truck and then the other as the bison were aporaching.

A swim in the new campground pool and a good meal puts an end to yet another great day of closeness to nature. By the way, good to be back online for as long as it lasts. Its been a few days and it's the first time I feel the nostalgia, for my loved ones in Belgium.



Pictures will follow soon there are so many to choose from.



I am to tired to re read what I wrote so if I made typo's well........!

From Desert to Green Forest

Went to the supermarket got the kids a couple of balls to play with, found a watch I could give Matt for his B-Day and loaded the camper with all the food and utilities one needs to make a BBQ, clean floors and sinks..., this is like moving into a new house, it is actually just that except for the size and the wheels.

We arrived at Lander into a mini campground the Twin Pines, nothing special about that apart the fact that after hours of desert getting somewhere with water green clean and immaculate bathrooms is a nice break. The kids are happy on the lawn and the play ground. They get along so well, i just whished they would listen after the first time we say something but hey I suppose kids are kids ..... still.

I made an attempt at BBQ to find out after beating myself on the head, that the coal I bought was really bad so instead of eating at 6:30 we ate at 9:00PM, the chicken was excellent and the Marshmallows was a brand new experience for the kids, one we will repeat often.. The slow coal did give nature time to darken and reveal what we in Belgium forget ever existed, the magnificent star show up above. Amazement struck us all as thousands of stars lit the skies.

Driving this 32fter turns out to be easier then i thought, U turns are a piece of cake as long as you have enough space and Parking will be hell as soon as we hit a big city but meanwhile space space space is what you get in Wyoming.

There is nothing around us but mountains and sand and dunes and sand and mountains. T he yellow sandy hills turn to yellow once in a while. I am driving looking into this nothingness and could perfectly see John Wayne and Clint Eastwood riding up.

The Indians where given a tough place to live, the biggest Indian Reserve is here, River Mountain, not a place I’d like to live, remote and dry, but I guess at the time it was better then getting killed.

We past Dubois after more desert and a few ghost towns, (imagine 8 streets empty houses maybe 20 habitants) a little Village set in a green scenery, all wooden chalets a mixture between the wild west and the little house on the Swiss prairie with red and green roofs. The Bank instantly made me feel like Jesse James but I abstained from getting in and robbing it.

Shoshone Falls Campground welcomed us by having a deer run away as we arrived. A short walk to the top of the falls and through the forest with sky high conifers to get back to the camper and find Matt and Djudju eatin in there neck by some kind of bug no one seems to be able to define.

Mosquito’s are everywhere thank God a 45 second drip drop of rain made them disappear. The new impregnated charcoal gets to cooking temp in no time we had some steak and salads and chucked the carefully selected found firewood on in the pit to get meter high flames, the kids where delighted using their wooden sticks to pin a Marshmallow and eating them half melted, with the occasional c’est chaud.

A few Games and a few Scary stories around the fire pit and of to bed after what felt like our first real camp out.

Did I mention the first thing we saw as we pulled into our parking spot.

Words are to little here is a picture, Val didn't like thisone at all.

The plan was to drive to Grand Teton National Park as soon as we would wake up and since we went to bed at 8 we would surely wake up around 6ish.

At 8:30am we left to Teton after a night of silence rarely experienced.

Grand Teton is amazing and we’ve seen nothing of it yet, the size of our Camper limits us to commercial parking’s which is a bit of a downer down here but the scenery as soon as you walk 250mt is fantastic. They also have full hook up, plug in the electricity, the water and the sewer allowing us to use air conditioning shower and toilet limitless with no worries of filling up the tanks.

Matthews’ Bday is tomorrow so Val and I decided to split up to treat him with a 3 hour white water rafting, while I’ll take care of Julian taking a slow float down a scenic river.

The walk around the lake was filled with beautiful scenery, close encounters with mummy deer(not dear) and two bambi’s, and cutting devices to stop the mosquito’s from sucking us dry. There is a reason why rangers wear shirts seemingly to thick for the outside temperature...mosquito’s don’t care weather you wear a T-shirt or not they’ll go right through it.

Sitting here having some quiet time writing, Djudju sleeps in the back, Val reads Shantaram, Matthew takled me into letting him play a memory game, cause it’s educational, on the iPad and I’m going to head to a wifi spot trying to post this.

Life is good when the only thing you need to worry about is nothing!

Camper Day 2 & Pics

Woke up this AM to the view Above.
The decision today was to stop focusing on the getting somewhere per se and get into the mode of if we like it let's stay.
This conclusion was reached after leaving Cowdy State Park of 210 or happy Jack Road to end up in a roadside RV place where the we hear the trucks whizzing bye.
It did have some pretty dramatic skies.

More pictures here!
or on the pics link on the right

Camper day 1

The agravation of waiting for an hour for someone who's late, after a short night sleep is amazing.
The guy appolagised and was realy helpful though, giving us pointers bout campgrounds and whereabouts.
After a giga shopping and another hour wait for new wires to be changed, I hooked up gps and ipod and we finally started our journey.

Driving a 10 mt camper is something else. That thing is big, but with a set of good side mirrors and a rear camera, driving it turned out to be ok.
It's the getting used to the width of it as trucks are passing you on each side that is hard and scary.

We found a good spot at a lake between Loveland and Horsetooth, (there are a couple of original names for you), to camp out our first night.

I forgot the fishing rod I bought from Maarten so we went and bought a new one, kids excited, while Val organised the cupboards.
Now I need to mention this is another Val then the one I know.
Since we left that woman is so organised it even scares me.
There supposed to be fish in the lake but we stopped after reeling in a crayfish (ecrevisse).
Tried to make a fire but couldnt find dry wood, early in bed.

It's about 2am I can't sleep, so decided to sit outside the camper in the new camping seats we bought. The moon has left it's fullnes since a day or four and is giving enough light for me to see the lake, and the ouline of the mountains surrounding it there are a zillion stars in the sky, and a bunch of guys with an English accent making far to much noise. The light in their tent just turned off.

It's been a while since I've been so close to nature, it's been a while since I've been so far away from things to do, it seems it's been a while since I've taking the time to be. I had forgotten about Nature with a big 'N'.

My mind has stopped to race tonight sitting here under the stars.

I'll put outsome pics assoon as we got wifi capabilities.

Ohio Denver via Houston

Departure Ohio 4pm ETA 6:20 pm. Final arrival time at hotel 11:20 pm
Technical problem they said, no other way they said, suffering we did.
The kids were once again examplary but the wake up the next day for e shuttle to the RV at 7:30 am was rough, especially since he only got there at 8:30.
't was a rough night dreams and or nightmares about driving the camper. That thing is going to be monstruously big. Ah we'll see. May hte force be with us, it has been so far so there is no ason ot won't be now.

Coming Home

Spending time in Chillicothe Ohio is very much like coming home, or visiting family, close family.

The Fellowship of the Ring

The kids are getting along as if they've known each other for years and seeing them playing outside in the slopy garden hanging from the tree branches, blowing soap bubbles, walking up to the apple trees or down to the old shed is breath taking. They become so small by the distance between us as they are walking away from us.
On the downhill they are all holding a rope as if they were undertaking a grand expedition.

We took a walk in the woods, and looked at deer tracks, the kids,looked at a deer skull that must have been there for years.
We got to a little stream and they climbed up a pretty steep hill after a little encouragement on our part in the style of "I bet you can't go up that hill'.
The day ended with me eating a piece of beef jerky after seeing, fat sick and nearly dead, a movie about rebooting your body by drinking juice for 60 days

i came downstairs to see the kids play together this morning. Matthew's English is fantastic and Julian is making progress although his trail of thought is more one of, if it ain't french it's either Hebrew or Dutch and since we're not in Israel, Dutch it is.

The auction at the Mennonites (Amish people) was like being in a movie. Impressive dress code and impressive distance people keep from you in the way they respond.
Everything in the States is big, and the sizes of Cantaloupes or watermelons ain't different.

The evening was filled with Indians, Americans taking the land, guns, horses, canons fired, and tragedy, at the open,air amfitheatre, during the play 'Tecumseh'.
The play lasted three hours with a break, we dreaded the worse but the kids were absorbed by it.
I don't know who jumped harder or who reassured who as Julia(6) cuddled up to me, when the first gunshot sounded, and when Jill(7) and Julia were curling up to me as the canons were fired I suddenly wished we had girls. A seat further you could see Matt getting excited the more fighting and blood the more his expression went 'YES' !

What a great few days, I felt today the load of the, anticipation and struggle of a close to a year preparation of this trip dropping of my shoulders.




Staying here has been a blessing, apart from Joe making me realize how big the RV we rented actually is, I was so comfortably denying that.

Location:Charleston Pike,Chillicothe,United States

To drive, drove, drivven!

12am
Driving, driving, driving.
Interstate, interstate, interstate.
Stop pee eat, stop pee eat.

10pm
Arrived at Joe's and Charlotte's, overwhelmed with joy at seeing them and Selma.
Charlotte is 36 hours out of hospital looking great, selma is soooo cute.

Joe and I go back 20 odd years, he is the kind of Friend you dont need closeby to keep the relationship alive and even if you havent seen eachother in a long time, when you meet again and get over the emotional reunion, everything seems to flow on, no stress no hassle, as if we had seen eachother this morning.

Matt and djudj were unbelievable in the car, they played and talked for 7 hours and then, before it degradation, we decided to get the major silencer out, Nintendo and ipad.

We are finally getting both our family's to meet, a plan Joe and I had 7 years ago, but then Charlotte got pregnant so we had to put it off.
Deja vu when he called me to tell me that he did it again.

Anyway we're here dead tired, full of joy, our kids are excited to meet their kids.
Julian doesn't want to go to bed, because the drawing he made for the kids isn't finnished, Matthew fell asleep in a tenth of a sec.

Everyone is asleep and I am following shortly.

Skaneatles to 'The Falls'

Woke up alone yesterday and took some time to rearrange some of my pics and mails, didn't last but ten delightful minutes before Djudji rested his head on my lap and soon after Matthew  woke up starting immediately to get into a you wanna play with me mode.

We realized today that our kids need to learn to 'Be', though Djudj has a natural nonchalance about life that helps him on that level.
It's a revelation to see the kids evolving without TV, Nintendo, Wii, Ps3, iPad or Computer and other electronic rings and tangs,  and having to invent games to play together.
The Love Hate relationship between the bro's is amazing. The rapidity in which one changes to the other is even more astounding.
Maybe part of this morning's mood swings resides in the fact that the preferred games are 'la bagarre',  one can only collect so much pines.

We found Skaneatles Bakery to be a place that resembles a lot of the croissanteries we're used to have breakfast and started on our way to the Falls.

After a couple of hours of amazingly green, flowery, Magritte like scenery country driving, we found a playground in the middle of nowhere where we stopped to let the kids empty there batteries. You could understand that as, we decided the noise level was getting to high in the car and needed to do something about it.

Back on the road Djudj fell asleep (finally) and Matthew took a rest (forced i might add).
Subways stop and continued on a straight line to the Falls.

There something very unsettling about the niagara falls, and although the huge debit of water, the current you can almost feel, and the non stop pouring of water and more water, the natural element seems to be nearly inexistent.
I am perched in my hotel room  looking at the Disney World like commerciality that was built around this huge natural phenomenon and I feel that; yes it is impressive but what a pitty that because of its surrounding the falls have become just a place your supposed to have seen, check I've seen it, been there done that.
In conclusion I am happy I've seen the falls, it gave me the opportunity to test my new 50/1.4 lens, I took some great pictures, got disappointed and saddened at humans exploitation of Mother Nature, but went to bed happy to be on the road with the family.

Niagara Road

Picked up a car, a white Jeep patriot, the 3 men of our party all had the same reaction as far as comparaison to my ex Jeep back home looked like.
GPS set to Nigara Falls with the type of route set to scenic.

It was amazing how quickly NYC was left behind us. Seems like a stone throw away to get over Washington Bridge to New Jersey.

After a little drive we stopped in a roadside burger joint that was placed from the fifties in our time. The seats reminded me of vals jaquet ( for those of you who know it the one that squeeks).
We try not to feed the kids deep fried every day and asked our hispanic waiter to take the chips back and give us an empty plate. The empty plate part ws understood very quickly but the fries part finally got through after a fifth or sixth time saying NO we DONOT want the fries.
The gps took us through an amazing set of roads through woodland over bridges, small roads full of greens and lakes.
Around 4pm we ended up at Costa's, a place recommended by a nice couple that even gave us a map of Pensylvania. Kids paradise, karting, slides, mini golf, arcades.
An hour later with our two happy campers e went on to end in the Pocono Pines Motel.
The kids went for a swim in the outdoor pool, but I need to stop here and give you my description of the place.

We had to options the room with or without kitchinette, this was all explained to us b a lady, although very kind reminded us of the crazy woman in the movie misery.
a) The kitchinette room: a two bed bedroom with shower and kitchinette, brown carpet that looked like it was placed at the beginning of the count of the Jewish calendar.
b) The no kitchinette room: Brand new rainbow striped carpet dar and gloomy right across a half destroyed bungalow that looked a bit like the mixture of Freddy Kruegers house and Amity Villethe 13th.
We opted for b).
The surroundings set in a wood were pretty amazing. After dinner I tried to take Val for a walk in the woods with the flashlight. Kids amused to death, Val scared to death it took her 300mt to turn around, sighing so did we.

Woke up at 6, now I haven't got anything against birds, but I sure wanted a rifle to kill the one screaming at 6.
Took Matt for a Jog to the lake, took the car to get breakfast around the corner(forgot the corners in the US are a lot wider than the ones in Europe and had breakfast in the open in the woods.
If you ever wondered what happens to the wholes in the donuts well their sold at the foodmarts.

Paws 'n Claws or lets stuff large animals on a small cage and set them in the woods turned out a blast for the kids.

We had a great time too as we set out on our new mission: the fat people illustrated album (all credit for the idea goes to Val), more on that later.

A long drive on the non scenic highway took us, as soon as we hit the scenic route again to Skaneatles.
First impression waow upper class Knokke le Zoute for New Yorkers but at the lake.
Second impression after double parking on a road that could fit two trucks, and the lady calling the cops cause I'm gunna create an accident staying there...This is Knokke!
Nice motel good food nice people, kids in overex mode, 'twas a long day but what a beautiful one.
We are in travel mode.

Bye bye Big Apple -1

We arrived at the last day before departure.

On the schedule for today: A day at the museum.
So of it is to the museum of natural history.........what a booooooring place.
Not that it isnt interesting on the contrary the dinosaurs hall"s" were amazing, despite the many of them, I Think there are about 5 different ones. The sealife hall was pretty good.
Our first impression though, the asian mamals took us through stuffed animals of all sorts, in hallways that not only looked old and smelled old but that were so grim and dim a dead man would get depressed.
All in all we had a good time.

We left NHM to find ourselves on a back entry were there was no cueing whatsoever to get in on the contrary to the main entrance.
Outside the museum a block and an ice cream further, the clouds opened. We walked back from the NHM through Central Park, with Val repeating that we are not made of sugar, me and Matthew looking for dry passages under the trees Julian stroling along wet or not who cares.
Finally made it to 5th ave., pools of water everywhere and after giving the kids a 'laisser passer' to jump in them we watched people skip and jump to try avoiding the splatters, while feeling the freeze of the airco each time we passed a store who's door was open.
Dried up went to eat a New York strip around the corner, came back to the hotel to pack, and after the usual stress and screaming that goes along with packing, for us boubies anyway and again having to put our foot down at Matt and Julian who were both beyond tired (for those who dont have kids that means they suddenly seem to produce some kind of extra insuline or endorfines that causes them to become OVER Excited) we fell asleep.

NYC (2)

After a day in Philly riding the AmTrak to visit cousins, and a stop at the touch me museum (boys I know what you're thinking), a
you can touch everything museum for toddlers. It's back to the Big Apple.
We had our 3rd in a row Japanese take out at the hotel and went to bed.

Woke up at a normal hour 7AM, the kids are at full throttle this morning.

Breakfast: Bagel with lachs and cream, fresh orange juice, french toast, sunny sides up, we're all on a new diet.

There is something magical about Central park.
I suppose it's a mixture of squirrels, greens, water in the midst of the huge concrete and glass towers surrounded by yellow cabs, that brings upon one a feeling of, I am in the middle of nature, it's an astounding break of the buzz of the never resting Apple. Add a tiny Chinese guy singing Italian opera with a mouth that opens bigger then crater, a black Gandalf in full attire, and a 5 crew Dixie Band and your hypnotized by what this city offers you.

Matt just took his 47th picture of a squirrel I stopped counting a while ago.

The kids are climbing rocks Julian starts crying 1mt from the top as if he was going to fall and splatter to the floor, the rocks are 2mt high.

In a cab to China Town Julian falls asleep, Matthew too, siesta at the hotel.

Tonight boat to Miss Liberty then Japanese take out for a change.

Amazing how many people walk around Time Square on a Monday eve 10PM, it's totally back to the buzz, Central Park is around the corner in place and time but it seems so far away from here.
We just past a guy holding a sign saying "Keeping it real, want to buy weed" begging for money.
Julian is to tired to walk, lets take a cab and go to sleep.

Matthew breaks a glass in the bathroom, thank God for room service.
Japanese as good as the days before.
Kids fell asleep in less then half a second, wife is angry cause she cant sleep while I write on the blog.
Had a great day with the family despite a few wrong decisions for the kids comfort.


Check out the pics

D - Day

Ok then...D Day is here.

We've been screaming, shouting, crying, laughing, coughing, sweating, packing, fighting, checking, screaming, re-checking, crying, tagging and we'll probably repeat the ritual in about 5 hours just before we're off to the airport, but hey it's for a good cause ....... OURS!
We're off to the big apple after a last minute small change of schedule on wednesday morning.
My friends wife (we were going to spend the week there after two days NY), is due early so ...
re-schedule the whole first week.
Add a last visit to the hospital due to lung probs on my part, getting the extra set of wheels for my sold jeep, selling the jeep and a trip to the telephone shop and I guess that was enough to get through the day in stress and rush and get to the point of screaming, shouting, crying, laughing, coughing, sweating, packing, fighting, checking, screaming, re-checking, crying, tagging!

All well now found a way to connect to my Higher Power and calm the F@•# down and going to bed exhausted but incapable of sleeping.

Matthew described it beautifully, it's a feeling of excitement mixed with some kind of sad feeling I can't really describe!

This is but a mere see you later not a goodbye!

3 more nights sleeping

3 nights to go and we're off.......AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

We're still not sure where to go after NYC !!!