Ironman Canada Registration Part 4

So I wake up about 4am and there is already at least 50 or so people in line with more coming every so often. It's amazing. I wanted to get registered early so I could secure lodging for next year and hit the road. It's a good 9 hours of driving and with work on Tuesday wanted to get a little rest.

The folks from Portland Tri arrived at 5am and they were only 10 people or so back from me so I decided to drop back with them to help pass the time.

Devon brought his sleeping bag and figured he catch a few Zzzs. Jeff, Don and I were just chatting about various things when this guy with a dog walks meanders in front of us. Jeff asks the guy if he could get his dog to lick Devon's face. The guy thought Jeff was a lunatic but we convinced to get the dog to try. The dog started nuzzling up to Devon's face in the sleeping bag but didn't quite go all way before Devon woke up. We were dying laughing and it definitely was one of the funniest moments of the trip for me.

By the time 9am rolled around, there looked to be at least 700 people in line to register. Thank god Ironman Canada has a nice procedure to really shuttle people quickly through the process. I think we waited 5 minutes before I got my registration voucher. Starting September 5th we head out to a website and type our confirmation number in and voila we can register.

I said goodbye to the guys and immediately went off to try to find a hotel. I had stopped by this hotel that was across the street from where I stayed earlier in the trip and it looked decent. My mission was to find accomodations for myself, Elena, Amber and Joe. I figured 2 rooms but this particular hotel had a extra large room with 3 beds so I snagged that since all the hotels required a 5 day stay. I was gonna be there for 5 days but Amber, Joe and Elena may want to come later so it was perfect. Plus the manager was quite nice and seemed really supportive of the Ironman.

I got some gas with my debit card and started the long drive home. There wasn't much traffic on the road in Canada so I was making great time until a cop decided to show up about 20 minutes from the border. So I had to drive the speed limit til the final exit before the border. I turned onto the road to head into the US and hit a 3 mile car backup. It was insane. We'd move like 30 feet then stop for 5 minutes and then move. By the time I got thru, I had waited over 90 minutes. Ugh...I was pissed as it seemed most of the people in line were Canucks. I wanted a special US citzen lane, dammit!!

I got across the border and needed to get gas. My debit card was immediately rejected. WTF!! Luckily I had cash so I paid for the gas and proceeded to head home.

Because of the delay at the border, my trip was slotting into perfect 5pm Seattle rush hour. Oh great and to top that off, President Bush was in Seattle and had shutdown one the major freeways during the rush hour. It took me another 90 minutes just to get through the rush hour. Lame luck as usual with me and traffic.

I finally got through and kept driving. I called the bank since I had nothing else to do to find out why my debit card wasn't working. It seems that they put a freeze on it because of the charges not being around where I live. Next time I travel I'm suppose to call them so it doesn't happen again. I guess they're over protective now with all the identity theft going on.

The trip was a complete success on the grand scale as I have my registration, got to see an Ironman close-up and actually obtained valuable info on the bike course.