Getting around

Before I left for Beijing, I put together a schedule that I hoped I would be able to follow while I was here. I knew that things would probably have to change here and there, but the schedule I put together had me seeing a lot of different sports and different venues.

Today, the plan was to head up to the alpine venue in Yanqing to see the women's downhill, but I was planning on leaving before the race ended so I could make my way back down the mountain and catch the long bus to Zhangjiakou to see Sean Doherty race in his final biathlon of these Olympics. And, the plan was to possibly get to aerials to see Eric Loughran compete in qualifying.

After catching a 7 a.m. bus, I eventually made it up the mountain to the alpine speed finish area and was checking the daily schedule and noticed that the biathlon had been changed to a 2:30 p.m. start. By the time I saw the change from the scheduled 5 p.m. start, it was too late to make the trip out of the mountains and back to the other mountain venue before the biathlon started.

So, I stayed at the alpine venue until the end of the race and had the chance to get in on an interview with Mikaela Shiffrin and then made my way down the mountain to the service area that serves as a transportation hub. From there, my plan was to take the cross-zone bus to the Genting Snow Park to see the aerials competition.

The bus arrived on time as planned at 3:30 p.m., only for us to discover that the back window had blown out of the bus, so they had to get a different bus, which put us more than 10 minutes behind the original schedule. And then we got the slowest driver in the world. We were on the highway the entire time and I find it hard to believe that we topped more than 45 miles an hour. At one point, I think an 89-year-old lady on her Jazzy scooter passed us on the right. It was the longest bus ride I have taken in my four Olympic experiences and not only was it long and slow, it was cold too, as there didn't seem to be any heat. 

We finally arrived at Genting Snow Park and got another slow driver that drove us up into the venue and I did get the chance to see Eric Loughran compete. The Loon Mountain skier then did me a huge favor and qualified for the finals on his first attempt, meaning I didn't have to stay for the second round of qualifying in the freezing cold and was able to get on the train at 8:50 p.m. instead of after 10 p.m.

When the transportation plans were first revealed for Beijing, we were told that transportation between zones was going to be pretty easy. I will say, from Beijing to Zhangjiakou is pretty easy, Beijing to Yanqing is a bit more difficult, but there are a couple of options. However, getting from Yanqing to Zhangjiakou is not easy and not fun. Thankfully, I don't think I have to do it again.

It was a chilly night at Genting Snow Park for aerials on Tuesday night.