On the Road Again

The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat is nothing compared to the ordeal of a sports road trip in Europe.

Joe had a track meet this weekend in Ramstein (Germany). We had to drop him off at 3:30 AM Friday. The bus left our school, stopped at Alconbury (3 hours away) to pick up their soccer team (we often pair up with the other local DoDDS schools and share the expense to get to meets), and then proceeded to the ferry. Which was not running as France is on strike. So it was off to the Chunnel. Once across the Chunnel, they should have driven through France and on to Germany. But the bus broke down. They wanted to try to repair it, but apparently you have to have a special permit to work on a vehicle on the side of the road in France and they couldn't find it. They did eventually locate the permit and set to work.

Five hours later, they declared it futile. 3 police vans took the kids to a local hostel where they could get something to eat and try to get some sleep. The team voted to go home at this point (5 hours on the side of the road will do that to you), but the only transportation they could get was a bus to Ramstein, not home, In fact, at this point, they couldn't find any way home.

At 1 AM, the bus picked them up and delivered them to Ramstein at 6:30 AM. At 8 AM, the meet started and they ran their events. The girls even managed to place 3rd.

After much negotiating, Alconbury's softball team agreed to share their bus. 52 kids were sent home on a bus designed for 42. They arrived in Alconbury (3 hours away) around 6 this morning, and then had to wait another hour and a half for a Menwith shuttle to arrive to bring them home. At 11, we finally got to pick Joe up at the school, tired, but otherwise no worse for the wear.