“Hans in Luck”, a German tale from the Brothers Grimm, is as loaded with irony as its title character is loaded with material possessions that people would normally consider a blessing, but in his case prove to be burdens. His situation reminds us of our own; having left the stationary lifestyle behind years ago, we ironically feel much richer for not having so much “stuff” to weigh us down.

We present the story with the assistance of guest performers who've also discovered this. They are attendees of the annual Families on the Road (FOTR) rally. (We recorded this podcast in a laundry room at a campground jammed with excited people, which explains the ambient sound – a euphemism for background noise.) It was a very successful event, indeed the largest such gathering ever, with 21 families in attendance.

For the second time, we held the rally at Jetty Park, Port Canaveral, FL. This is an excellent location not only because it's right on the beach (within site of the NASA shuttle launch site) but also because it's right beside the cruise ship terminal, so we could watch the huge cruise ships pull out, including the Disney line. Among the fun activities the campers enjoyed were a relay race on the beach, a tie-dyeing session, a gross science session, a screening of the movie “RV” on an outdoor inflatable screen, a bonfire, and a performance by Act!vated Storytellers.

Happy Listening!

Dennis (Goatherd), Kimberly (Horse)

Kelby Evans(Hans), Dylan DiMichiel(Narrator), Connor Evans(Peasant with cow), Jayden Dudley (Narrator), Adrian Dudley (Narrator), Sage Bove(Cow), Christian DiMichiel (Scissors Grinder), Rita DiMichiel(Narrator), Pete "Dutch" DeMichiel (Master), Courtney LaPointe (Goose Woman, Narrator), Kati Evans (Goose), Zachary Godwin (Narrator, Grindng Stone, Well)

• Families on the Road
• FOTR podcast 2008

“The Rainbow Crow” is a Native American nature myth from the Lenni Lenape tribe of New Jersey. It's quite unusual for a nature myth in that it simultaneously explains the origins of four phenomena: fire, the rainbow, the crow's black feathers, and the crow's croaky voice. It bears striking similarities to the Zuni story that we call “Coyote and Eagle”, as well as to the Greek myth of Prometheus. We thought it would be an appropriate offering for the winter solstice, since it also deals with the first time the animals had seen snow. That's rather hard to imagine, since they were living in the Northeast, but there's a first time for everything.

We come to you from a place where we probably won't have to worry about snow this holiday season: Florida. We'll be here through the end of January, and our tour will include a performance in Miami. If you decide to fly south for the winter, or you're already down here, swing on by!

Happy Listening!
Dennis (Narrator, Owl, Great Spirit) and Kimberly (Crow, Coyote, Turtle and generic critter)

To mark the beginning of winter, we present “Batcha” a dragon story from the region formerly known as Czechoslovakia (it recently split into Slovakia and The Czech Republic). A shepherd strays away from home, discovers a serpents' lair, sleeps all winter like Rip Van Reptile, suffers the consequences of breaking a vow, takes a wild ride, and still gets home in time for dinner.
We come to you from Delaware, en route to Florida for the winter. And we catch you up on what's happened during the two months since our last podcast, including Halloween in Salem, Urban Interactive in Boston, and two days of adventures in New York City.
In the Big Apple, we saw Bon Jovi perform during a “Today Show” telecast, attended a taping of “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon”, and attended a fun Broadway performance of the classic musical Finian's Rainbow a hilarious modern fable featuring a leprechaun and lots of singing and dancing.
We also watched the Veterans' Day Parade (which included Hollywood legend Tony Curtis) and ran into the purveyors of Myachi, a toy for all ages. We first encountered them in Florida nearly 7 years ago!

Happy Listening (and beware of dragons and leprechauns)
Dennis (Batcha, Serpent King, Wizard) and Kimberly (Narrator, Wife, Dog

• Link to the Today Show featuring Families on the Road and a short clip from an interview with Kimberly

Especially for the arrival of the autumn equinox, alias fall, we bring you “Moonlight Over Cassia Peak” a nature myth from China explaining the abundance of cassia trees around Lingyin Temple in the Wulin Mountains. The version we have borrowed presents the legend as a tale within a tale.

We come to you from Fall River, MA, where we gear up for another haunting season in Salem. We've completed our 21st summer season, which took us from Monterey, CA to Medford, MA. Along the way, we performed for the American Library Association's annual conference on behalf of Scholastic Books (held in Chicago this year) and biked the Katy Trail in Missouri. And Dennis began writing about some of our travel adventures for examiner.com.

Oh yes, and we have a guest star this time who's hardly a stranger to our podcasts or our shows: our son Zephyr, who now lives in Massachusetts and hadn't done a podcast with us since January.

Happy Listening! Dennis (De Wing), Kimberly (Narrator, Queen) and Zephyr (Abbot, Wu Gang)

Part 2 of the Dragon of Krakow - the exciting conclusion!

Activatedly Yours,
Dennis (the Cobbler), Kimberly (the Apprentice) and the Dragon

Links:

• Part I