Road trip to Collingwood

Our drive to Collingwood from Ottawa was supposed to be a nice 5 hour 37 minute drive and instead it turned into an 8 and a half hour episode of ice road truckers.

Everyone was really eager to get on the road Friday morning February 8th. We were all really excited to get to Collingwood for the OCup races taking place at Devils Glen and Georgian peaks. I was especially excited because it was my first time going to Collingwood but also my first OCup race. At 9:00 am we loaded up both vans and started the drive not knowing what we were about to get ourselves into.

Quick background knowledge for those who do not know how the NCO vans work. Both coaches each drive one van. One van has one row of seats which is able to seat a total of four athletes and the other van has two rows of seats which means it can seat seven athletes total. The van with only one row of seats takes all the skis and the other van, the van I was in, takes all the bags.

After approximately an hour of driving we were passing through Renfrew, Ontario when we blew a tire. We pulled over into a gas station/diner and tried changing it. Not only did we have to wait for the other van to come back and bring us the spare tire that was put into their van before we left but we also couldn't fit the jack under the van because it was the wrong kind of jack. Thankfully we were at a diner because while we waited for over two hours, we were able to eat an insane amount of food and amuse our selves .

After over two hours of waiting, we changed the tire and were on the road again. Normally the drive leaving from Renfrew would have only been four and a half hours but it turned into seven and a half due to awful weather. We were really lucky that the coach driving our van knew where he was going because the roads were insane. It was like being in an episode of ice road truckers. The winds were crazy strong and it would blow huge gusts of snow across the road in all different directions. It was either a complete white out due to snow blowing everywhere or random sections of blinding sunlight directly in our coaches eye. Then add in the strong random wind gusts that would move the van all over the road, the driving was awful and slow.

After what seemed like forever, we finally got to the house we were staying at, an hour after the first van. At that point we were all very happy to been done with the drive, wrongfully assuming that our bad luck had run out. We had all unpacked, eaten a great dinner (which I burned myself trying to prepare) and had gotten most of our skis prepared for race day #1. Our coaches had left for the coaches meeting and that's when our bad day turned in to an even worst day. Our water broke.

The way the house works is that on the main floor there were three bedrooms and three bathrooms, one for the girls and two for the boys since there are more of them then us and the rest of the bedrooms were in the basement. Just before one of the girls on the team was about to shower all three toilets started in overflow and then all the sinks and all the showers filled up with toilet water as well. We all kind of panicked and turned off all the water and called our coaches. Unfortunately they were not able to leave the meeting and the problem started to get even worst. Not only was everything overflowing with gross toilet water but it also started dripping down the basement wall and onto one of our coaches bed. He was the same coach that blew the tire and now he had a toilet water covered bed. Not a good day for anyone, especially him.

After all that bad luck, the race in Collingwood went well for me... not so much for the others on the team but you will just have to wait for the next post to see how it all played out.

love and happiness

Syd :)