Author: Leon Matz
The trip to Canada for the Whistler Granfondo was a
wonderful experience. The weekend was filled with challenges and fun with 4
great guys. I am going to focus on two
segments of time (Friday afternoon and Saturday morning).
After meeting in Federal Way on Friday morning, the five of
us drove in 3 vehicles towards Canada. We stopped in Bellingham for a Subway
lunch which turned out to be a little crazy since we could not find a
convenient Subway. After driving in
circles, we finally found our lunch stop.
Upon arriving in Vancouver,
our first need was to find the U-Lock storage facility. We found it easily and
then went on a tour of the facility looking for the best spot to keep our 5
bikes. Through a set of e-mails I had
found a place (U-Lock Storage) that said they were willing to do an overnight
storage for our bikes for free. The guy even said he was willing to come in 3
hours early to open up for us Saturday morning. When I went to the office to
fill out the paperwork, he then announced it would be $143.00. WHAT??? What
about our agreement??? He denied ever agreeing to do it for free just a reduced
monthly rate. I quickly ran out to the vehicles and announced the problem.
After discussing the situation the group decided to try and explore the
possibility of getting all the bikes into Tom’s vehicle. I went back inside to
see if I could negotiate cheaper price. He was willing to reduce the price to
$83.00. Again I went back to the group
to see what we wanted to do. Mike and I
felt we should go ahead and take that offer, stash our bikes in the storage
unit, pick up our registration packets, and head to Whistler. I felt very guilty for the miscommunication and
was willing to pay the full amount. Tom, Dewayne and Les were more determined
to not rent the facility. We were able to get all 5 bikes into the back of Tom’s
Suburban and we made a plan for all 5 of us riding in the vehicle with the
bikes from Whistler to Vancouver the morning of the race. The only other issue was where were we going to park the Tom’s vehicle while we raced up to
Whistler and spent Saturday night there. Les believed he knew of some street
parking that was convenient. The two
hours or so we spent problem solving the situation is an example of why the
Puyallup Cyclopaths is such a special group. Instead of griping and complaining
about the failed agreement for parking they jumped into solving the
problem. It became a challenge to them
to see if they could solve the puzzle without using a storage facility. The
co-operation during this problem solving was amazing!!! One of the reasons
people decided to not use the facility at a reduced rate was not the money but just the fear the worker would fail to
show up 3 hours early and we would not be able to do the race. A realistic
fear.
So off to Whistler we
went. If you have never driven this road
(the Sea to Sky Highway), I encourage you to do it. The drive is beautiful! Frequent views of the
colorful water, many small uninhabited islands, and a string of mountains some
of which still have snow in areas. The road continually goes up and down and
curves left and right. The mountains are on your right and the water on your
left. It is an incredible drive!
On Saturday morning, our plan was to leave the condo at 4:30 AM. We were about
5 min late in leaving but that still left us with 2 hours to drive, unload and
make it to the starting line. The drive in the dark went pretty quickly I kept
track of the time and distance and was confident that we would arrive at our strip
mall parking lot with 40 min. for us to get to the start line. As we neared
Vancouver, work crews had us get off the freeway and drive on side roads. Instead of going 55 mph we were now going
25-30. The anxiety started to grow as we
slowly approached the bridge that would take us to Stanley Park and the
starting line. Finally, about 6:10 we arrived at the planned parking area but
we did not stop. What is going on? After I went to bed on Friday night; Mike,
Tom, and Les decided that the strip mall may have signs for towing authorized
vehicles and found a hotel in Vancouver that we could park at for a fee (which
turned out to be $50). We did find the hotel after running around the block a
few times. We unloaded quickly hit he restroom and made on our bikes to make it
to the start line. It was very stressful
and hectic and the worst possible way to start a race but we did make it to the
starting line with a little time to spare.
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