07 July 2005

First full day on the tour and we had a great day. Plane was no problem at all. A little weather delay leaving Newark NJ. Got to Germany and we had to wear jackets and rain gear as it was raining. It is probably about 60 degrees, a nice little change from the Texas weather that we have had the last couple of weeks. We had a nice little transfer to the Rhine Valley where we took a cable car up to the top of the vineyards and looked at a statue of Willhelm. We took pictures. Then we hiked down through the vineyards into the town.

The kids had lunch. We have outlawed American Fast Foods. No more McDonalds, Taco Bell, KFC, Burger King. The kids are having wiernerschnitzel, bratwurst and pommes frites (french fries). It was a good lunch. We then took a 3 hour bus ride to our accommodations. They got to sleep on the bus. We went for a jog around the town. We did some abs, core work, stretching, and push ups.

The kids are outside right now (9:45pm their local time) doing juggling for some extra work while the sun is still up right now. Tomorrow morning we will have the first Breakfast Club at 6am (kids get up when they want to, optional, get the coaches up to do a workout. Being on US time, lots of kids want to get up the first few days and do some skill training. As the tour goes on, the kids will get accustomed to their sleep and the less Breakfast Clubs there will be) and four practice sessions on our agenda.

A busy first full day. Nothing major, a few sit ups here and there, now that our passports are all sorted out. A very very good day. Accommodations are set. Two to a room, some are three to a room. Private Beds, Community showers. Basic and simple concentration training. No one is sick. Dinner was foot long Brats with bread and potato salad, tomatoes, pickles and some basic and simple.

Tomorrow we will get into our full course meal. First meal in Rheine, Germany. I have limited phone calls to 10 minutes no phone calls on Friday, July 8th. Talk to them on Saturday after the calls on Thursday night. Friday will be strictly Futball (soccer) mode.

We had a very very impressive jog through town, dressed in our Blue SNS T-Shirts. Got the attention of the whole city. Lots of questions and interest. The locals are very excited to have us here. The kids have not met any local people yet. The Sports Center (their accommodations) is completely Stars N Stripes, nobody else is staying there.

-Ed

I (Tony) will also include some of the bits of information that I have gleaned from my talk with my son Cody today:

Cody is rooming with Trevor

They have private cots in their room and a table and a closet

They know how to say: Thank You, Hello, Do you speak English?, Do you speak Dutch?, I speak no Dutch.

The building gets locked up when the kids are outside

They have an 11pm curfew tonight, maybe every night

They ate their first German food

They might be able to email soon

-Tony Guerry