Hey, it’s Corey here. We are camping tonight in Luxenbourg, which was a last minute call after having been rained upon two nights in a row. We had beautiful days but rain soaked us each night and morning so we thought we would gamble against the weather one more night. The way we travel can be kind one moment and a nasty wench the next. I guess most travel can, but we learn by doing. We didn’t come with guide books, good maps or a list of “to do’s”. Noel and I often play a game of, who do we know who would enjoy this? Meaning who in their right mind would think this is enjoyable besides us? We stumble through quite a bit but always seem to have a good time. European road tripping also has been very interesting and has made some aspects for us challenging. For instance they do not sell ice for coolers which has made our cooler a storage unit rather than a make shift refrigerator. We have pieced together many a quick lunch of salami, bread and cheese…..which is a plenty here. Also on Sunday’s all stores are closed except for a few random ones that seem to have nothing we need. This past Sunday we rolled into a small Frenh village because Noel saw a sign reading “thermal” thinking we would find a hot spring, which we did not. Instead we found a lovely campground nestled within this old village. Everyone was so friendly and did their best to navigate the language barrier, making sure our bread order was in for the next morning. Bread order! I know crazy right? We strolled into town hoping to find a grocery store open….remember no ice for cooler so no back up food. All stores were closed…..the town was a ghost town. No one works on Sunday so I have pictured everyone In their house reconnecting or doing something very European. The only eating establishment open was a fast food place that oddly was very similar to another famous fast food joint that can be found everywhere. No one spoke English which made the whole experience a comedy routine. Off the tourist path we are seen as novelties and as soon as we tried to order a cheeseburger, to which the very nice French teenagers had no clue, it seemed all eyes were upon us. Noel pointed, pantomimed, spoke slowly and what the hell he threw in some Spanish words to help clarify, to no avail. The giggly teenagers grabbed anyone from the back room to try to help decipher our order, which seemed to make things worse. Cheeseburger was all we wanted. Fromage. Number #1. Point. Point. Finally a savior came and translated to them “cheeseburger”, exactly the way we had said it. For some reason now they understood. We took our food and made our way to our table wishing people would stop staring. Back at the campground, we had a delightful night having a beer, talking to locals and enjoying the closest to American camping as we have had. Today we drove away, after more rain, enjoying the house music that plays on every radio in Europe heading toward Luxenbourg. We got off the road and toured a castle built in 1460 and then Rehabilitated in 1944. Pure wonder. Tonight we followed out gps to what we thought was a movie theater hoping they were playing the minnions in French only to find a Spanish artsy movie was playing. Foiled. We headed back to our home and since campgrounds all have a restaurant/bar we drank local beer played cards and games until we got sleepy and headed to our tent hoping for no rain.

I often wonder what henna truly makes of all of this. As we walk through various places she is usually talking about her love of Greek mythology, different kinds of beetles, quizzing me, or having me guess a tune she is whistling. I am unsure of what she will take away, what will stick, does she enjoy the unplanned chaos of it all? I am not sure. Upon visiting the Anne frank museum, Otto Frank said something that really struck a chord with me of his daughter Anne and all the thoughts that she wrote in her diary. He said, “You really never truly know your children”. All I know is that my most favorite thing about our trips, on any continent is that I am with my two most favorite people. Spending this much time together gives me back all the time we are not together during the school year. I may not fully know what Henna is thinking or making of all this, but I do know that we laugh harder, talk more….and not all about what we are learning or seeing….and reconnect. So here’s to the unscripted journey……let us learn nothing but gain everything.