Random Middelburg memories

I know I said that I wouldn't post our daily lives because who wants to hear that, but some interesting things do happen in this historic little town and we have been lucky enough to have found people here willing to take us under their wing.  So, here's

 some extra Middelburg happenings:  They have a high speed  indoor karting place here, so John was determined to go.  We walked out to the karting place and he got 3 heats for a good price compared to the prices of other things around here.  He got on his

 helmet, coat, and got in to realize that there are no seat belts in these karts.  Now, I don’t the chance for death due to no seat belt is a problem, but apparently a seat belt has the advantage of allowing your muscles to relax because you are strapped to the car.  He came off his second heat, sweating, shaking, and looking like he was about to throw up.  He got to race against people for the first two and then we asked if we could wait for the 3^rd heat, since we were the only people in there, they said that John could take as long as he

wanted.  After some relaxing and stretching his muscles, he decided to try to better his time by doing a lap on, lap off to not get so tired.  He was able to get the fastest time of the day doing this and looked great.  (I think that it helped that he had also 

learned the track some).  We were able to leave with him on cloud nine though and had a nice walk back into town.  John got to go back out there two days later (on the bike, so I just wandered in the general direction until he returned,

because I will probably never get on a bike again) to get his change from the transaction that we all somehow forgot in the excitement of getting ready for a race.  You have heard about the World Cup games and watching them in various places, but I have to say that the US vs Belgium game being watched in the 16th century home of a Belgian was a highlight.

Jean-Marie had hung up flags for both countries and his American flag had 48 stars!!!  He said that his dad "acquired" it sometime after 1917 or so and I'm assuming that this was a flag left after WWI.  It was awesome to see and would be behind glass in our country because it's an antique, but he 

 hangs it up on occasions like when 9/11 happened and other times that he wants to support the US.  It was awesome to see even if the team didn't perform very well until the second overtime....