“Hi Inge,” I offered as i clambered into the back of her ‘new’ pride and joy, a little red Polo her rents stumped up for for her birthday.
“Heya Gab.”

Its a two door so I had to turn myself around and pull my bag into the back before I could sit and let Pia put her seat back down, its a good job its not Max getting in!

“Er thanks for taking us up Inge.”
“Gave me an excuse to escape the kitchen for a bit,” she admitted.

P climbed into the front and our chauffeur set us in motion.

Its been a busy week what with one thing and another so whilst Garde is all about pretty regimented movements and actions it was quite relaxing. I looked along the line, Maria, Franny, Solde each with deadpan expressions even if I could see Margot doing her best to make them laugh. I had a little internal smile whilst maintaining my own blank face, I might not be a full time member of the squad but that doesn’t mean Hannah expects anything less from me.

“Aaaa-and bring to arms and hold!” our coach instructed.

I’m not saying its easy, just try holding a kilo of toy gun at arms length for thirty seconds without moving. That said its not the intense physical effort of cheer or bike riding, its all about control, even if you compete in ridiculous uniforms which are more Disney™ on ice than even pseudo military. And as for the hair and make-up, but i’ve been through that before and on practice nights I don’t have to put up with either.

“Okay girls you can relax now,” Han allowed after what seemed an age.
“Urgh!” I allowed dropping my arms to a more comfortable position cradling the prop across my chest.
“That was not funny Margot,” Solde complained.
“Stop bickering you two,” Han requested.
“Sorry Hannah,” Margot meekly supplied.
“You sure you can’t do Sunday Gab?”
“’fraid not,” I gave a shrug, “I’ll be in Spain remember.”
“Urgh! Of course, you said before,” she sighed.
“I would if I could,” I told her.
“I know, I suppose we’ll just have to hope Margot’s wrist is okay.”
“I’m sure it will be,” Margot suggested.
Han sighed again, “lets hope so.”

“Sorry I can’t do Sunday,” I told Hannah again as I joined her and P in her car to return down the valley.
“Just one of those things Gab, if we had a few more members we wouldn’t be quite so pushed to put out a team.”
“Toy soldiers hasn’t got so much appeal at the moment,” Pia proposed as we bounced down through Mayschoß.
“Can hardly say that we’ve got a lot doing cheer either,” I pointed out.
“What we need is a recruitment drive,” P opined.
“Yeah,” Han agreed.

We dropped P off at the Stube and we quickly reached Castle Bond.

“Well good luck in Spain next week.”
“Thanks and you on Sunday,” I offered climbing out of the car.
“Tschuss!”
“Bye!”

“Ah, your back,” Dad noted when I got indoors.
“Hi.”
“You all packed kiddo?”
“Just about,” I allowed cautiously.
“Good, if you bring them down I can load them up.”
“Er okay,” I agreed.
“You want a hand Gab?” Mand offered.
“Er sure, yeah.”

I led the way up to the eyrie, Mand a step behind me.

“I thought you were packed?” she queried arriving in my hole.
“Well I am pretty much.”

Yeah right. Well there were piles of stuff heaped in my suitcase but packed it wasn’t.

“Geez Gab, come on, your dad’ll go spare.”

She wasn’t wrong. It took us nearly fifteen minutes in the end, Mand packing the case as I handed her stuff then it was a quick check of the contents of the race bag.

“Training gear and spare shoes.”
“Sugar, I knew there was something missing.”
“Good job I put them in a bag in the hall then, we can stick ‘em in here when we go down, what about your phone charger?”
“I’m ahead there, I’ve got a spare one in my bag.”
“Woo, that’s planning.”
“More like because I forgot it that weekend we were at Hamburg.”
“That’s more like the Gab I know,” Mand snickered.
“Where are those bags?” Dad called up from below.
“Coming.”

“Where’re we meeting the others?” I asked as I blearily poured a cup of coffee at silly o’clock Saturday morning.
“Down where we join the Trier motorway, we’ll sort out who’s riding where before we continue on.”
“What do you mean?”
“Kat’s bringing George’s team car down, there’s not enough seats in the BC bus really.”
“Kat? Driving?”
“She is nineteen,” Dad pointed out.
“How come she’s not gone to Norway?”
“George thought she’d be more use to us in Spain, they’ve got Petra after all.”
“Right.”
“Any of that left?” Mand queried joining us in the kitchen.

Its not a long way down to Mayen but the short way isn’t necessarily the quickest route - especially in the Hymer so rather than going over the ‘Ring we went down towards Koblenz on the autobahn before cutting across to our rendezvous point. Kat – and the senior team’s five series estate was already waiting in the lay-by, we’d barely stopped before a toot alerted us to the mini bus and panel van’s arrival.

“Wait here please.”

Dad got out and went to speak to the bodies climbing from the other vehicles, the bus certainly looked cramped, whilst its a fifteen seater, with all the bags it was a bit of a sardine can, Angela had actually been in with Darren in the bike van! There was a bit of gesticulation and bodies started to move, Dad returning to the camper.

“Either of you want to go with Kat?”
“Er sure,” I volunteered.
“Mand?”
“I’ll stay here if that's okay.”
“No problem, Angela’s coming in the Hymer, Jamie’s going with Darren in the van and you’ll have Laura in with you and Kat Gab.”

In total there are eleven of us, Me, Mand, Tal, Gret, Daz and Josh from Apollinaris, Jamie, Geth, Lor, Sal and Claire from BC, Cav having already joined the BC Swiss team earlier in the week. Eleven a funny team number yeah well we’ll be riding as two teams, Apollinaris of course and somehow Dad got the Schauff people to stump up some money to support the eponymous Rheinland Express – Schauff team, otherwise known as BC who with Cav’s loss will have a Spanish lad making up the numbers. Officially we’re two teams of course but clearly we’ll be sharing resources and we might co-operate a bit on the road.

Kat spun the BMW out onto the road and straight up the slip road onto the autobahn.

“You been taking lessons from Mum,” I queried gripping my seat tightly as we accelerated into the traffic.
“Eh?”
“She drives like a loon, geez Kat we’re doing nearly one fifty.”
“What? Oh right,” she allowed easing off the accelerator a little and dropping into the middle lane.
“You always drive so fast?”
“Probably, never thought about it.”

Maybe I should’ve stayed in the camper.

“You okay Lor?”
“Er yeah,” she replied a bit uncertainly from the back seat.

Our first break had been agreed as the services just before the Luxembourg / French border almost a hundred and fifty kilometres south. Maybe I can survive that long?

“So how are things Gab, long time no see.”

It was just turned nine thirty when Kat took us off the motorway and into Bierchem services.

“I’ll just top up the tank, its cheaper here than in France,” Kat advised heading towards the huge array of fuel pumps.
“Does Dad know?”
“Think so,” Kat replied pulling up beside a pump.
“I’ll give him a call just in case.”
“Not here Gab,” Kat pointed at the sign on the nearest pillar.
“Meet you at the restaurant place then,” I suggested.
“Okay.”
“Lor, toilets?”
“Er yeah, sure,” she agreed releasing herself from her restraints.

Well of course I didn’t ring Dad’s phone, he is driving after all, no I called Mand.

“Gab? Where are you? You guys just disappeared.”
“At the services., what about you?”
There was a mumbling before she replied, “we just crossed into Luxembourg.”
“Kat says the fuel is cheaper here than in France, don’t know if Dad knows that.”
“I’ll let him know.”
“Okay, see you in a bit, tschussie.”
“Byeee.”

Kat found us in the coffee shop a few minutes later.

“Ooh, you star,” she grinned spotting the third cup on the table, “speak to your dad?”
“Manda, they were just heading into Luxembourg, be about ten minutes now I guess.”
“You guys want something to eat? those chocolate muffins look good.”
“Muffin Lor?”
“I could be tempted,” she allowed with more animation than I’d seen from her since getting in with Kat.

Of course Kat does enough English to understand Lor, its just the other way I need to translate – even after a few weeks in Germany she, along with the others, hasn’t really got as far as understanding much spoken German. Oh they can manage to feed themselves and shop if need be but you don’t need much in the way of conversation for that. Its not like when I arrived here, I had to learn and quick.

We were still feeding our faces when the rest of our convoy rolled up, several bodies made an immediate dash for the conveniences, whilst others were more restrained. You don’t get a table for sixteen in a motorway coffee shop, so our crew had quickly commandeered just about every free table in the place. Of course there was a lot of chat as Kat was introduced and I caught up with what’s been going on since I last saw them.

Refreshed, we returned to our vehicles, our next rendezvous point is supposed to be Reims and of course the French Peage should help tame some of Kat’s excessive speed.

Maddy Bell © 19.03.2018