Of course. Because of course

I've lamented a few times here and in interviews I've done on the radio about the transportation issues I've had here in Italy. Whether it's late buses (understandable given Olympic traffic) or no-show buses or packed buses, it's pretty much always something.

But today's incident may take the cake.

I should start by saying that all eight buses that I rode today were either on time or within five minutes of their scheduled time, so there is no complaining there. However, riding eight buses was a lot, but the only way I was going to get to the Tesero Cross Country Stadium to see the men's and women's sprint relays today. 

I had planned it out that today would be the day I went in that direction, crossing clusters from the Cortina cluster to the Val di Fieme cluster. I got up pretty early and caught the 5:15 a.m. local bus near my hotel. There was not a ton of people on the bus as I rode down out of the valley and all the way to Dobbiaco, where I transferred onto the media bus that runs from there to Cortina. We climbed up over the mountain and down towards Cortina and I got off at the Olympic Village stop, where there is a bus area. There I got on another bus, this one a much smaller bus (think 24-passenger van type bus) for the longest part of my journey, which was more than 2.5 hours. 

We climbed and climbed up past the Tofane Alpine Center and down over the other side of the mountains on narrow, twisting roads. I have continually marveled at each of my Olympics at how these drivers get the buses into these narrow village streets or over these windy mountain passages. But they do and they should be commended.

I made it to Tesero in time to see the men's qualification and then the finals, with Team USA getting a silver medal in the men's race, an Olympic first for the United States. I unfortunately just missed seeing the dog get loose and run through the stadium, though he was one of the stars of the day.

The almost five hours on the bus was certainly a lot and I knew that I had to do it again on the way back, so I caught the return bus as soon as I could. We headed up out of the valley and up on to the winding mountain roads and we continued to climb and climb.

Then, 'Bang.' It took me by surprise and took the driver by surprise too as we passed another bus on one of these narrow mountain roads. The bus coming at us got a little too close and caught the mirror of our bus, shattering the glass in it and knocking in toward the window. Luckily it didn't prevent the driver from continuing on (after adjusting the broken mirror enough so he could use it) and we eventually made it to Cortina and I eventually made it back to the hotel at the time I expected.

But it only figures that this happens here. The transportation has been such a unique part of this experience and this just adds to it. Probably the only thing as weird regarding transportation has to be in Beijing when we all got on a bus at a random rest area on the highway and we had to get out because the back window shattered.

On the positive side, I got to see the greatest American cross-country skier of all time, Jessie Diggins, ski in her final Olympics and I got to see the next big star in Ben Ogden, win an historic silver medal for Team USA.

But for me, this will always be the day that the bus got hit by another bus.


This picture was taken on the side of the road shortly before our bus was hit by another bus on a narrow mountain road. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The time has come

 If 2020 had gone as planned (hahahahaha), this past Monday would have been my return trip from the Tokyo Olympics. I would have flown from the Japanese capital through Seattle and then to Boston. It surely would have been an exciting two weeks in Eastern Asia and I am hopeful that next summer offers the same opportunity. But that's a story for another day. On a related note, this coming Monday will mark my return to the job that I held since 2003 before I was temporarily laid off in April. It's been a long few months and over the past few weeks, I've been slowly gearing up for the return to writing, but I have to admit, it is going to take some getting used to. I've actually taken in a few different games over the last couple of weeks in preparation (I've seen you Wolfeboro Wolverines and MWV Eagles softball and Wolfeboro Senior Babe Ruth). Writing is something that I have essentially been doing since I've been out of college. I feel like covering sports is som...
Read more

And so it begins...

The summer has traditionally been my "easy" time. Like school kids themselves, I often look forward to summer as a chance to take a break, to relax and maybe not work quite as much. While I don't go on vacation or anything, I do see it as a break in the action, a chance to catch my breath and maybe work 40 hours a week instead of 60 or 70 or 80. My schedule revolves mostly around the whims of high schools. Being as most of the coverage I do is high school sports, I will start full-tilt to the ground with games the final week of August and with the exception of a few weeks around Thanksgiving, a few days around Christmas and New Year's and a few weeks in March, I am constantly on the move until June rolls around. And that's all just fine. That's part of the job. I know there are much worse things I could be doing for a living. Watching sports and writing stories is pretty darn easy on the list of jobs that people can do. While I may complain a time or two abo...
Read more

The journey begins

Image
While I am saying the journey begins, it really began a few years ago, but today, the physical journey begins, as I got my packing done, hopped in my car and headed south to Logan Airport.  Unlike my Tokyo trip earlier this year, instead of hoping that the economy parking was open, I booked a spot ahead of time at the Hampton Inn just north of the airport. It seemed like the best option, as the shuttle runs directly from the hotel to the airport and I didn't need to go all the way in to Logan. I parked my car, got the necessary tag for my dashboard, handed over my keys and hopped on the shuttle to the airport. I presented my COVID test, my vaccination card and my passport at the Air France desk, checked my baggage and got my boarding pass and headed toward security. The security process was about as easy as I've ever had, there was no line and I didn't have to do anything special, so here I sit at the tables at Terminal E waiting on my flight, which is slated to take off at...
Read more