Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur – The Sherry’s Trip to the Olympic Games – 2006

I know I said I would do a post about my time at Canadore College but since the Olympics start tomorrow, I thought I would have a little fun this week and post our short story of our family trip to the Olympics in 2006 in Torino (Turin), Italy with our wonderful friends the MacEacherns. Like my business ventures my vacations are always a bit crazy. Imagine the Griswold’s go to the Olympics. I hope this story will make you smile. Twenty years later my daughter Sami is currently in Milan working for with the Canadian Olympic Team. This is her third Olympics that she has attended for work and caught the Olympic loving bug back in 2006. Dreams can happen.

Let me first begin by prefacing this short historical essay by telling you that we had a great time filled with fun and laughter. The laughter was caused by many of the adventures we endured as part of our trip.

The story begins where all vacation stories should start in the garage attached to our house. I purchased a monster ski bag and stuffed 6 pairs of skis and poles into it. I spent a good half hour tying the ski bag to the roof of the van. Upon completion of this task, I realized two things; the first being that the ski bag looked like a dead body attached to the roof of the van and the second that I may not now have the clearance required to back the van out of the garage. After much care we got the van out of the garage (with millimetres to spare) and were on our way. Checked in at the airport, met the MacEachern’s our friends, boarded the red eye and were on our way.

Landed in Geneva, Switzerland and proceeded to the baggage claim only to find that they have lost 4 out of 6 bags of our luggage. In the flurry of activity that followed I borrowed Karen’s information on where we were staying etc., in order to give all this to the wonderful lost baggage counter attendants. After clearing up with this matter in short order off we headed to pick up the cars. Upon arrival at the van, it quickly became clear that we were not going to get all of our stuff into it, so we pulled out a few seats and shipped Rena (my sister-in-law) to travel with the MacEachern’s. All bags packed and ready to roll.

For some unexplained reason Gina said follow Kevin MacEachern as he seemed to know where he was going. I did this but did not know that Kevin did not have the map and at an important junction Kevin went one way and I the other. Kevin was now faced with the decision of backing up an off ramp or continuing on. I waited for five minutes – no Kevin. So off we go following the only set of instructions, while Kevin only knew we were located somewhere close to Albertville, France. I expected Kevin to call as he had his cell phone. After leaving a couple of messages it dawned on me that his phone may not work in Europe and in fact he was now screwed as he did not even have the telephone number to the location we were staying at as I had borrowed it due the baggage fiasco and forgot to return it.

Rena being ingenious remembered that she had the directions on her email account so went to an internet café printed them off and then proceeded to arrive approximately one hour behind us. We met Craig Bartlett a friend travelling in Europe on business at the B&B, went out for dinner, drank some wine and laughed. We had the whole restaurant to ourselves which was probably good as I am sure we were loud, especially as the fourth bottle of wine was uncorked.

Next morning we woke up late but decided to go to the Olympic Games and check it out. We hopped into the vans and drove towards Turin with no map. Surprisingly enough we made it without getting lost and we only had to pay about $50 in tolls one way. One of the highlights was travelling through a 13 km tunnel through the Alps. While trying to park we were almost blindsided on the passenger side by some kamikaze driver passing on the right as we were turning right into our parking spot. Narrowly escaping death, we were now even more excited to be going to the games. Once at the games we decided to go to the men’s hockey game, Canada verses Germany. It was an ok game, but we knew Canada was going to need to bring their game up a notch to win…something that never happened. In hindsight we should have went to the Speed Skating as Canada won two silver medals that night. After getting lost on the buses a couple of times we made it back to our cars and made the long journey home. On the bus Craig was entertaining us by getting pictures of the locals… “say cheese”.

We woke up the next day late again due to our late arrival and we decided to go skiing. In Europe they seem to give you estimates of travel time based on the best road conditions with nobody on the road. We headed to the mountain called La Plagne. At the bottom of the hill, it indicated that we had 18 km’s to go and it was straight up a road that s-turned all the way. About one half of the way up we noticed people were stopping and putting chains on their tires. After a few more turns we stopped and did the same as there are no guard rails to stop you from driving off the mountain. After making full use of our spatial capabilities, Kevin and I had asked a fellow traveller how to put the chains on. A word of advice the traveller gave us was to drive for a bit and then stop and retighten. We went for about 400 yards stopped and to my chagrin I was missing a chain. I turned around and headed down to find it when Kevin radioed me on the walkie talkie to tell me it was dragging. After stopping and refitting the chains up the mountain we went.

We arrived at the top at approximately 2:30 pm and had not yet eaten lunch. After eating lunch, we decided there was not enough time left in the day to ski so we hopped back into the car and headed down the mountain stopping to take our chains off, then heading home.

The next morning was the day we would drive to Chamonix. It was only 69 kilometres from Albertville and we left at 9:00 am thinking we would be there by 10:00 am and ski for the day. Well Saturday is the change over day in the mountains; therefore all the roads are jammed with people coming out and people going in. It took us about three hours to get there and when we did get there all the hills were closed due to avalanche warnings as it had snowed heavily the few days before our arrival. We did manage to find a small hill that was open and we skied there for the afternoon. I was somewhat worried as I found skiing on this small hill difficult and had trepidation for the mountains.

After skiing was completed, we went shopping, then proceeded to our chalet. About one half of the way up to our chalet, we needed to stop and once again put on our chains. We struggled in the dark for maybe 20 minutes to get them on as they suffered some damage from earlier in the day when we put them on when we really did not need to and drove through quaint towns looking like idiots. We get to where we think we are supposed to be staying but cannot find the name of the house that we were given. Kevin and I walk up and down the street (literally up and down due to the pitch). The landlady indicated that she would leave a key for us under a box of kindling. After checking a few homes for kindling boxes, we decided to knock on the door directly across the street from where we parked and guess what – it was the place. Brought all our stuff in and crashed for the night.

Up early the next morning and headed to Saus d’Oulx to witness the women’s aerials. After a 3+ hour car ride through a winter storm we caught the bus to the event. Somewhere on the way to the event I commented to Gina that I wondered if the event would be cancelled. When we arrived, we found out that the event was delayed from 6:30 pm until 8:00 pm. We waited until 8:15 pm when they announced it was cancelled, headed back to the buses only to find out that they had stopped running due to weather conditions. So here we are halfway up a mountain with no where to stay. Kevin and I started walking around knocking on inns asking if they had any places to stay, just like Joseph. None did. The girls and children were getting agitated and stressed. We did find a brother of a Canadian athlete that would give us his room for the kids if we were stuck. He said he would stay and party in the bar for the night. Kevin and I thought this could be fun. So worse came to worse we had a place for the kids. Kevin and I went into an Olympic area to ask for help. A woman from New York that was working at the games took us under her wing and put Carlo on the case to find us a room. After many calls it seemed hopeless. The buses were now running again, and so Kevin and I thought we would gather up the kids and prepare for the long ride home. During all this I called my brother-in-law, Roman back home and asked him to find us a room. He called back and indicated that he found one, Carlo called this hotel (it was his brother-in-laws – small world) to find out there were no rooms. The women from New York reassured us that Carlo was a local hotelier and celebrity (I think he was a former Olympian) and that he would find us something. He did – three rooms at a four-star hotel, he even arranged transport and the best thing was that it was free – these rooms during the Olympics were going for $700 per night. NBC crews were staying at this hotel.

Gina slept with her contacts on while I being the smart person that I am brought my glasses. I woke up early trudged through two feet of snow and went to the Pharmacy to get her some eyedrops, toothpaste, and deodorant… Caught the bus back down to the cars and off to Torino. Arrive in Torino and catch the tram to the city centre. Meet up with other Canadians and follow them to the Olympic SuperStore…not much left in the SuperStore so we head back downtown to catch the bus to the games. After two wild goose chases, we found the correct bus, ate, and made our way to the Women’s Hockey finals.

We are seated in row eight behind team Canada’s net. We have our Go Canada-Go signs ready. I looked around and notice that 70% of the crowd is Canadian and the upper stands are empty. I wonder what Torino is going to use this arena for afterward as it appears hockey is not a big draw. The game was fun, we yelled and cheered, just like we do at our kids’ games. The women’s game was more exciting than the men’s game against Germany. We witnessed a gold medal game, and I was somewhat choked up as they played our national anthem during the gold medal ceremony. Unfortunately, I sang through the anthem, so my video has a horrible soundtrack.

Head back to the trams get in our cars and make it home within two hours. Late in the night Jillian our friends’ daughter begins vomiting and has diarrhea. This lasts for most of the next day and by nightfall Kevin and Karen are in the hospital with Jillian as they were worried about her dehydrating. This is where they would stay for the next two days. In the meantime, we take off to the first area mountain to ski called Le Terre. We drove to Chamonix and took the half hour bus ride. We had a great day on the ski hill. Caught the bus home and as our stop approached, we missed hitting the button on time. We asked the driver to stop (arret, arret we yelled) but he said he could not until the next stop. The next stop was of considerable distance, so I had to walk in ski boots (swearing in my new language of French) catch two other buses back to the car and come and pick up the rest of the gang. Home, we go.

The next day we head to a new mountain called Le Brevent. It is a short bus ride followed by a 10-minute gondola ride up the side of a mountain. Get to the top and take another chair lift and start skiing. Unlike Le Terre which was bowl shaped and you skied to the center, at Le Brevent you were skiing on the side of a mountain, and you knew it. For someone like me who is not crazy about heights, Le Brevent was a little more nerve wracking than the last place. We had a great day again, it was warm enough that we sat outside for lunch and skied until the end of the day. Got off the bus with no problem and made it home easily.

As soon as we get home Rena called as she went to town that day instead of skiing. I jumped into the car and raced off to get Rena. Race is probably the correct word as I was pulled over by the French police. My first mistake was probably uttering Je n’ai pas comprends Francais. Apparently, this was not the thing to say as I then had to follow them downtown. Once downtown I had to pay a ticket for 90 Euros for apparently doing 120 in a 90 and an illegal lane change, the lane change part I still cannot figure out. I did not have enough Euros, so a kind officer escorted me to the bank machine. As I left the police station about an hour later, I was thinking of asking for a group shot with the police, but I thought again as they would probably find this offensive – that I was not taking my infractions seriously enough. All said and done I picked up popsicle Rena who had been standing outside for an hour and head home. Upon our return we see that our good friends the MacEachern’s have returned from their joyous two-day getaway to the hospital/spa. Apparently, they had one cot and chair between them and an all you can eat delicious menu supplied by an a la carte vending machine.

Kevin had one day of skiing left so we took him back to Le Brevent. We are old pros now with the bussing and run into no incidents. Kevin leads us on a 2.5 km red run that starts almost at the peak of the mountain approximately 3500 meters up. My legs are burning as I try in vain to master my old sticks. I think maybe I have lost something in the last 15 years, and then I realize it must be the skis, yeah that’s it. We all make it to the bottom safe, the Sherry’s head off for some more leisurely skiing while Kendra and Kevin head back for more. At lunch we take the cable car up to the peak for lunch. We are above the clouds, had a good expensive lunch (even though Kevin ordered one thing and got another), and head back down for some more skiing.

At dinner that night we watched more Olympics and Kevin and I tried to exhaust our supply of alcohol as it would have been sacrilegious to leave extra behind. By the end of the night, we drew nearer to accomplishing our tasks. I was the “Solitary Man” dancing to Neil Diamond. I was enjoying myself and garnering a whole new appreciation for Neil Diamond. Nobody wanted to dance with me as I was “Spreading the Love” a phrase coined by Sami Sherry that means to pass wind. After a few Sweet Carolines, a Crackling Rose and a Kentucky Woman off to bed I went knowing that we were headed to Geneva the next day.

I felt remarkably fine the next morning. We were up early packed the cars and headed off for what should be a one-hour trip. As we approach the first toll booth, we realize this trip like many others will be longer than expected. It appears every Tom, Dick and Harry are on there way to Geneva – changeover day. The French help the traffic situation greatly by having toll booths with too few workers. Three hours later we arrive at our hotel, which we found by happenstance. Go for lunch at Movenpick, $250 for hamburgers (mmm! but they were good), and then went downtown on another bus. Best advice to give a traveller in Europe is not to worry about getting bus tickets just walk on and off as nobody seems to police or care if you have paid. Unlike our other free rides we paid for this one but did not need to. See a few minutes of Switzerland and then head to the hotel, have dinner and go to bed.

Catch the flight home, get off in Toronto with no bags, three days later the bags show up in North Bay – now that is service.

Still smiling and chuckle at the memories.

We attended the 2002 A&W conference in Quebec City shortly after the Olympics and they played this inspirational video highlighting the ups and downs of the Canadian Olympic team. This was a breakout year for the team winning a record 17 medals. The song is by Five for Fighting and is called Superman (It’s Not Easy). Struggle, success or failure is my weak spot, and this video made me shed a tear. It is a little blurry as I am sure it was not shot in high definition.

And of course, the Olympics in this story and this year’s Olympics are taking place in Italy so you get a bonus song Dean Martin – Mambo Italiano.