Last day of our adventure. We awake to blue skies, not a cloud in sight. I put on my Olympic "uniform" for the last time: 2 pairs of socks, 2 pr. long underwear, 1 pair pants, 2 pr long underwear shirts, fleece jacket, snowboarding jacket, boots, scarf, hat, sunglasses, glove liners, gloves. I'm ready for action! We stop at the gas station for breakfast: coffee and Resees Pieces for Mark, water and powdered sugar Donnettes for me.
Oh- update on my cold- I have been through 3 bottles of cough syrup, 2 bottles of
Nyquil, and 2 bags of cough drops. I am certain I have exceeded the recommended dosages on all. Feeling better, but still have coughing fits that make me wish for a pair of Depends. Hopefully the stabbing pain in my ribs should subside in a week or so. OK- we arrive in the park and ride lot, board a Muni bus- a taste of home. (Cities from all over the country have loaned buses and drivers for the event). Up the hill, we unload and walk walk walk to Park City. Through security for the last time, and into the venue. I decide to brave the porta potties again, Mark suggests I wear a helmet- safety first after all. I don't think he's so funny. That errand is uneventful.
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| PortaPotties and Ice. A deadly combination. |
Up the stairs to our seats for men's and women's parallel slalom snowboarding finals. What a treat! Our seat neighbors are the same ones from Women's downhill! We catch up on other events from the week. Everyone you meet compares notes on activities attended, and suggestions for getting the best views and experience in different venues. The seats are aluminum- cold, cold, cold. The crowd is excited, we cheer for the forerunners. (every event has several people who run the course before the athletes- basically the canary in the coal mine concept- they are called forerunners- young up and coming athletes- possibly the next Olympians) The event starts. It is a really exciting format- head to head competition, which is then repeated so that each person has a chance to run each course to determine the winner. We scream for the French women who finish dead even- how thrilling! The men are all having trouble with the blue course. The first man to complete it, and actually win the heat is American Chris Klug- the stands go crazy. People are on their feet for every close race. Every racer who crashes and completes the course with no hope of winning is cheered like they won. You can hear the crowd's disappointment/ empathy when a racer crashes- we want them all to do well. Finally, it is over- a bronze for American men. The American woman is out in the semifinals. She stands and waves and thanks the crowd for several minutes- a good sport. We trudge out of the venue- all 15,000 of us. Suddenly the cowbells everyone is wearing sound strangely appropriate. We spend the rest of the afternoon in Park City shopping and people watching, and then it is home to pack and watch the recap on TV. Beanie update- there are none to be had- people wait in line for hours at the Roots store just to shop-with no guarantee that they will be there when a shipment of new beanies arrives. I will learn to live with the disappointment!
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| The Turner Estate |
All in all we had a great time- we were sad to give up our hockey and curling tickets due to time conflicts, but still got a good feel for the games, and a chance to have the Olympic "experience". We arise the next morning, pack up, bid goodbye to Andy and Justyn our hosts, get on 80, and drive about 13 hours home. We arrive safe and sound, and can't wait until our pictures are developed. Hope you enjoyed sharing the week with us. Once the pictures are developed, I will put them online and send you a link, so you can see what we saw.
Light the Fire Within!
Linda
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