The One Long Journey 1990s

I'm Going to share a story that went down as "The One Long Journey". This trip was to Hastings for the Legendary Backyard Jam. I remember this like it was yesterday, even though it was a long time ago. I remember because 1) I had the honour of the driving duties and 2) the amount of hours it took to get there hence, "The One Long Journey" tag. So the word goes out that there's a trip to Hastings for the Backyard Jam, there would be a few cars going and we are all setting off in our own time, and meeting up down there, which was normal practise as the actual getting people together and setting off could take a few hours on a good day. This day in general all the waiting that had taken place for people to turn up for whatever reason it was they had taken so long, this took pretty much half a day. We loaded the car up with bags, bikes and a few cases of weekend refreshments. In the car was Greg, Colin, Bearwood Tom, and Ding Dean, we set off at 5 o'clock in the evening on the friday, we are on the road to hastings now, slowly and surely are making our way to Hastings. On the way down as we are nearing London Colin suggests we stop by his cousins house in Chingford for a rest and catch up, and too break the trip up as well. Being the driver i thought that's a great idea. We catch up with with his cousin about 9pm in Chingford, and then he takes us to his mates house in Leighton. The Bearwood boys we're on form in true Bearwood fashion as they have been drinking all the way down, if anyone has encountered their antics will know what i'm saying. Then after a while Tom goes out of the house, after a couple of hours of him going out, we are like where is Tom???? As we need to get going and we had quite a drive to complete yet, Mind you this was a long long time before mobile phones had come out, so there was no calling to see where he was. Time is flying by now and its about midnight or later. Tom still has not returned, everyone is thinking that its weird he has not come back yet, Where could he have got to, in the end we go outside to see if he's out by the car but no he's not there either, in the end We found him after a while, WHERE YOU WONDER, sleeping in a neighbours front garden, totally out to the world around him, wake him up, gather him up and we say the bye bye's and get back onto the road to finish what we started. By know the team is fuelled up and having a laugh in abundance in true Bearwood BMX fashion. Wrestling in the back of a car Etc Etc Etc, Crazy. Then somehow the rope which is holding the bikes down onto the roof rack came loose, you hear someone say is them bikes supposed to be like that, like half way down the rear window, HHmmmm. Then if that's not all, we have another minor issue from London to Hastings which sobered them all up. We arrive at the jam at 5'o'clock in the morning. A complete 12 hours after we left Bearwood, But the main thing is we arrived safe and sound. You always had a good laugh on the road trip without fail, but the real fun started when you met the rest of the Bearwood riders and other mates from Redditch and Worcester. Nothing but great times with some of the maddest guys in the game. Haha That's when things got a bit sketchy... As the driver and going all over the UK with them Brother's. I got some good memories, being the driver meant being sober, so i remember alot more than them in the car with me. :) Much Peace And Blessings To Each And All. BEARBMX