Late in the afternoon, the friends met in the spacious living room, where they held the grand closing talk about the impending camping trip. Howard and Jason showed their two fellow runners, as well as Robbie and the women, on a map, how the course was, and where they wanted to build up their overnight camps. As a kind of emergency backup, one such as Ayda, Dawn, and Emma should know where their apostate men were. If something unforeseen happens. Sure was safe. Such a tour through the wilderness was not exactly safe. For who knows what could happen.
After everything was cleared up and everything was neatly packaged, a fair solution was found, who should be responsible for what. The division was thus. Except for a few personal things that everyone was carrying, Howard was now responsible for the food and their cooking utensils. Thus, Jason had all the first aid and a few other vital items, while Gary was responsible for her sleeping arrangements and Marks for the little one and her future garbage.
"Mark. The garbage man! ...That's the perfect title for you." Howard couldn't keep a sharp remark to himself.
"Well, I think it might even hide a possible song," laughed Robbie.
With a raised eyebrow, Gary glanced at his friend a little bit, wondering if he was serious about it.
"Seriously?" Gary made his skepticism speak for himself.
"Why not?" Robbie could then only ask back, who was apparently actually considering this with the utmost enthusiasm.
"Hmm. How could one call such a song? ...How about simplicity, "The Man of the garbage"!" Howard tried to think of a possible song titel.
"If you want to seriously consider this but without me. Just over my rotting corpse," Gary said reluctantly.
"Come on, Gaz. Let's go. ...This is a funny idea for itself. I would even want to sing it myself. Let's try something new." Mark saw it as a welcome change and was quite in favor of adding a bit of humor in their songs.
"I don't really know," Gary remained suspicious.
"Well, I do not think the idea is so bad. There could be something out of it," Jason thought
"Yes, also in dancing." Howard continued.
"Thank you Doug. ...That's exactly what I wanted to hear now," Gary was then slightly sarcastic, who wasn't really big on dancing.
"You don't have to decide this now, and you also know that something has to be agreed unanimously. No one is to pass by. So let's have time. We only do this campingtrip, so that you can come back to other thoughts. The whole thing is just an idea and could perhaps lead you in the right direction. ...So, think about it." Gary wasn't put under pressure by Jason, and he reminded him of the fact that they were doing it here, so that he could find himself again.
Very grateful for the fact that Jason had left his back and didn't want to put him under any pressure, Gary gave this a winking look. Basically, Gary appreciated the fact that his friends wanted to meet him somehow, and yet Gary couldn't really make friends with this rather insane idea. Although he was suspicious of this suggestion, he would at least write it down on a notepad. It was at least an approach. So he had to stand up, that his friends were not even wrong. From this one could indeed do something.
A few hours later, the friends were once again enjoying a dinner outside. Before there was again to a quarrel about the calculation, Gary could assert himself this time immediately. The bill should definitely go to him this time. Since Robbie and the boys had to leave the next day early, they didn't want to pull up their restaurant visit under all circumstances. After a last drink, which went to the house, they all went back to Robbie's estate and went to bed relatively early in the evening. For the next day would definitely be long for all of them. So everyone really found the way in a quiet sleep within half an hour.
Early in the morning, while the sun was cooling the world, all were already on their feet. Even the morning muffle Howard. In this sense Howard was a pure phenomenon. Although Howard was always reliable when it came to important dates and was also almost punctual, but if times at all nothing came, this could easily loose a half day sleepy. With a good breakfast in the stomach, a few items were stowed, which perhaps still came to good use. While Mark was packing another hat, Howard had actually driven a rope from somewhere on the fast track and stuffed it in his backpack.
"A rope? What do you need that for? If you don't know, we live in the twenty-first century and not so around the eighteen hundred seventy. ...The days of the Wild West are long gone!" Howard then heard of a disbelieving Gary, who just inserted a few writing blocks just at this moment and at the request of Jason.
"Why not? ...Just in case. Who knows what's going to happen, and besides, you'd better put your writing blocks in." Howard didn't want to let himself be deterred, and told his friend that he should pack his writing equipment.
"By the way, let me take a look." Robbie suddenly became curious and suddenly tore the writing blocks out of Gary's hands.
"Hey! ...Give it back immediately." Gary complained loudly about Robbie's sudden intervention and tried to get his property back.
However, Robbie held his arm so high that Gary did not even turn around and he really did everything he could to get them back. But Robbie didn't make it easy for him.
"What is? ...Do you have problems to get there? ...You should have been drinking more milk in your childhood," laughed Robbie, who was half a head bigger than Gary.
"Come on, Rob. That's not fair."
At this sight, the three women could only shake their heads and Dawn commented on this, "Like the little children!".
Since Gary had heard the words of his wife, he stopped with his futile attempts, gave her a slightly questioning look, and had to be frightened to behave like the children. This was in fact simply childish and ridiculous at the same time.
"I'm warning you, Rob. If you don't give it back to me, I'll probably have to take other measures." Gary suddenly became deadly, giving his voice a firm and slightly threatening sound.
"And what are they supposed to look like? Will you put me over your knees and spank me?"
"If there it is no other way. ...No of course not. I'm not blushing. Come on, Rob. Be an adult man and do for me the favor or I'll stick to the press to paint your toenails!" Gary threatened to make a nasty rumor into the world.
"You wouldn't really do that, would you? To put rumors into the world, that aren't even there, is even for your circumstances are quite questionable." Robbie could hardly imagine that his friend would seriously consider such a thing.
"But I would, and besides, look down," Gary replied, gesturing at his feet.
Then Robbie, as well as everyone else, threw a glance at his own feet. As he was walking barefoot, one could also see how his small toe nail actually had a reddish lacquer. While everyone laughed loudly, Robbie got a crimson head.
"Oh. Rob. I didn't know you had a feminine side. What color is that? ...L'Amour Red?" Howard could not help pulling over his mate and could no longer laugh.
"So, ...may I ask or do you want to read the following headline about you in the next days? ... Robbie Williams - Strange discoloration of individual toe nails suggests that he has suffered this in the fight with a hostile footmistress!" Gary was anxious that his buddy now voluntarily pulled it out.
While Robbie threw a shrewd glance at Ayda, who was trying to hide a quiet giggle behind a hand, the others could no longer keep their laughter. Everyone could imagine it all too well, as this hot headline once around the whole world went. Even Robbie had already seen how all the many papers showed his portrait and among them the saying Gary had just given to the best.
"Would you please help me out of there, Ayda? Finally, you brought me in there," Robbie tried to turn out of pure despair to his wife, who had brought him that.
"I'm sorry, Rob. ...I had recently bought a new nail polish and wanted to apply it for the first time today. On itself, the color has made it very much to me, but then I was a little bit skeptical, and since the nail polish remover surprisingly, I didn't know how to help. So I have then just painted your little toenail. ...I thought it would not strike anyone."
"Well. I do not miss anything. Bad luck. ...What is now? I know one at the Sun, who would like to get such a story in the fingers gladly." Gary gradually became somewhat impatient and held Robbie his open hand.
With the fear that Gary could really do it, he wanted to give it to him, but with the words "A moment still." curiously, he opened the first notepad and glanced inside.
"Hey, there's nothing in it," Robbie said, then, his disappointment.
This opportunity, Gary shamelessly exploited by seizing his property from Robbie's hands. Stupidly, he was somehow struck by his disappointment and brought out his frustration loudly loudly: "What do you expect? I also don't understand why you are all so fixed on my lack of ideas. ...I'm not the only songwriter here!"
With these words, he stuffed the writing blocks in his backpack and was anxious that they wouldn't be lost. He did not even notice how all the pairs of eyes were now resting on him and looking at him slightly worried.
"I think we should see that we're on the way," Howard whispered to Jason.
"I see the same and the sooner the better." Jason agreed with him softly, then added a little louder, "...As we can see, we are ready with everything and can go marching. So let's make the Californian wilderness unsafe!"
"Yes. Let's sing the area down," Mark said enthusiastically, lifting his arm with a clenched fist in the air.
"Can it be that you confuse something? The only one who will sing here, I am." Robbie let his little friend know that he would be on the stage without the other four.
"While you are scaring the human audience, we will take care of the animal," Mark assured him that he had not confused anything.
"And what do you want to do with it?" Robbie asked Mark about the songs, "I hope not with my songs like Feel or The Road To Mandalay!"
"On the other hand, the songs are good for such a tour. ...But don't worry I will not attack your songs. No, I think there's more like ..."Von den blauen Bergen" or "Im früh Tau zu Berge"!" Mark reassured him and tried to speak in the German language, whereby the song selection in English could be so - "From the Blue Mountains" and "In the early dew to mountains".
While all gave him a questioning and skeptical look, Howard was clearly surprised by his song selection and his knowledge of German.
I hope very much that you know that the German hiking songs are and from where you can all at once so good German?" Howard hoped Mark knew what he was talking about right now and wanted to know from where he had this knowledge.
"Sure, I know that and by the way ...why not? That would be something new and a challenge at the same time!", Mark laughed at the slightly frightened faces of his friends and explained how he came to it. "As for the German, I have looked for good hiking songs at Dr. Google and there was a German side, which had a great selection and I was interested in the pronunciation. However, I must admit that I wanted to see your surprised face when I suddenly started with the German language!"
"If you really consider it, I'd rather stay here." Gary thought it was one of the worst craziest-idea ever.
When a helicopter was hired by Robbie, and flew over their heads at the very moment, and then landed on the property, Gary was thrown by Jason and forced to leave. "Forget it. That is not even at all questionable. You're the main person here, my friend. We'll do this for your sake. ...So, let's marchin' on!"
"Just a moment," Gary dared to take a last desperate attempt to get around this camping trip, "...Hey, Rob, you mentioned, that you would like for a week of my one would be. It just fits me very well and against a exchange, I would now have nothing in the least objection. You let the guys on a campingtrip and I do a Robbie Williams. I would also perform songs like No Regrets or Let Me Entertain You and if necessary, I would also make a "Dirty Gazza"!"
"Hm. ...Why not. I'd like to have a look at that." Robbie would agree with this, and only to see, how his friend turned into a monkey.
"Yes. This will be funny. I can even imagine how Gaz is chasing the entire stage." Mark could imagine how Gary is going over the stage in alla Robbie-Williams style.
"So I think it's more like a horror." Jason was more of a horror adjuster, so he was right to leave, "...and that's why we should be doing our camping trip before it really comes."
"But ..." Gary wanted to contradict this.
"No buts. ...Here, your backpack. ...We go! It's easy. You just have to put one foot in front of the other." Jason didn't want to hear about it anymore, gave Gary his backpack, even helped him overlap and pushed him towards the exit.
While Jason pushed him in front of him, Gary had no choice but to surrender to his friend and could only hope for him that this self-discovery trip would bring at least something.
Together, they all went outside and on the direct road to the helicopter, which was waiting for the five guys. Since Robbie's first appearance was in San Francisco, he had the other offers to take them to their starting point and drop them there. It was on his way anyway. Of course, the four accepted the offer equally thankfully and so they didn't have to be happy with a tour organizer who specialized in such trips for backpackers. After all, the luggage had been was stowed, Gary, Mark, and Robbie let themselves be carried away by their wives in goodbyes and gave themselves a last big kiss. What was being impatiently looked at by Howard and Jason.
"Can we finally?" They were then interrupted by a slightly annoyed helicopter pilot.
"He's right. We should really be on our way." Robbie had to agree to his suffering.
"Look out for yourselves." Emma advised her to take care of theirself.
"Don't worry, it will not happen." Mark was sure, so he was optimistic that everything would be all right.
"And what if?" Emma felt uneasy.
"What is going to happen big? I'm not alone, and we've really thought of everything. What can Howard do with a rope? I just don't even want to know, and Jason even has a counterfeit against rattlesnakes in his first aid kit." Mark assured her that no big thing will happen.
"Well, I didn't want to hear that right now. ...I think you should stay here with me, because somehow I don't have a good feeling." Emma let him know that maybe that wasn't a good idea.
"Oh, you look again ghosts." Mark returned the completely unnecessary worries of his wife under the non-existing carpet.
"You know what, Emma. I like to leave you my place. As you go on a great hike with the boys, I'll stay here and put on a pretty dress, shave my legs. I'd even have done the same as painting the foot and fingernails," Gary said, letting himself be abused by this imminent campanel, even if he were a woman.
"Tell me, are you doing this with purpose or are you just kidding me? I thought you'd come to a point where you'd really do anything to get rid of this hole of insanity," Jason reacted artificially, gradually feeling that Gary was more than just trying to put him to the test.
Jason grabbed Gary roughly on the upper arm and whirled him back to the helicopter.
"What? Can not I be afraid of the flight?" Gary tried to justify what was not even a lie.
This fear of flying, under which Gary had been suffering for several years, always made him very hard.
While the flight itself was not so bad for him, it was especially the launch and the landing, which inspired him this fear. By the many flies, he had already had to witness all the disasters, which brought him again and again on the brink of despair. Gary had already taken some measures against this, but the different therapies had not really taken any notice. Not even the help of hypnosis.
„Hey, Doug. Can you just lend me your rope? ...I have there a good idea as we can take the fear of flying one for all spot from our Gaz!", Jason got a brain wave at this moment as he could release Gary from his fear and then turned to his fear of flying-injured friend, „You have the choice. Either you will now get well into the helicopter and stay calm or we will tie you up here somewhere on the helicopter!"
Thereupon Gary's gaze darkened, and he asked in a deep voice whether he seriously considered it. Jason, of course, immediately agreed.
"I'd say we just tie him up! This is faster," The pilot interfered without being asked.
At his words, Gary gave the pilot a not very enthusiastic look and hurrying up to climb the helicopter. Inside of the helicopter, he dropped onto the center square. Right next to Robbie, where shortly after Mark entered the other side and settled next to Gary.
"Why not like that?" Jason commented for the sake of simplicity, then climbed into the flying vehicle.
When everyone was on board, the pilot started the engine and while the helicopter screwed theirself effortlessly into the air, the guys waved the smaller and smaller women to say goodbye. After being so up the five seven meters, the pilot flew off in the direction of San Francisco. The flight lasted a good couple of hours, as the helicopter approached the ground again and landed somewhere in the midst of the Californian wilderness.
As soon as the friends had real ground under their feet again, everybody grabbed his backpack and threw it on their backs. But before Robbie got it, he did not want to let his friends press one more time.
"Well, then I can only wish you good luck and that you will return the way undisturbed."
"We'll be fine, don't worry. You'll see the captain again alive and fresh, I'll take care of that." Jason promised that this camp trip would be a complete success.
"Your words in God's ears," Robbie said, giving the boys a word of warning, "Because, the area is not safe."
"Oh, don't worry. Nothing will happen. The dangerous animals here will not be seen at all, since they make a big bow around the humans anyway." Howard continued to remain unhistorical and did not believe that something serious would happen.
"But I'm not just talking about animals. ...This morning I heard on the radio, which has caused an outburst from the California state prison," Robbie warned that the danger could also be caused by human nature.
"You just want to get us charted, don't you?" Mark hoped that Robbie was just trying to scare them.
"Unfortunately not. ...So, please. Take care of yourself." Robbie wanted from his friends that they should keep a watchful eye open.
"The area here is huge. I doubt that we could meet any suspected criminals. ...But we'll keep for you out of love, keep an eye out and be careful to have a night watch," Jason finally suggested.
After Robbie briefly nodded, he climbed back into the helicopter and shouted to his friends quickly: "So see you soon, boys. ...And Gaz, make sure the ship is still there when I'm back, and besides, please, with a new and fresh spirit!"
"I'm trying my best. Until then buddy, you'll definitely be missing by us!" Gary shouted to him as the farewell, before the pilot repulsed the machine, lifted it, and then flew away.
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