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Stretch
by Pete Temple,
Express Sports Editor
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111 E. Grand St. P.O. Box 191, Monticello, Iowa 52310 • 319-465-3555 • mexpress@n-connect.net
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Sports Editor's Column |
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Home
Stretch
by Pete Temple,
Express Sports Editor
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| P.T.'s big adventure |
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editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series.) I am literally hand-writing this from the seat of a bus. It is Monday morning, June 23, 10:23 a.m., Eastern daylight time. I am aboard a Lynx bus – part of the mass transit system in Orlando, Fla. We are in Orlando so that my wife can attend a “model teacher” conference, which has attracted 13,000 teachers from across the nation. While she’s attending sessions, I get to “do my own thing” during the day hours. Which is why I’m riding a bus to a greyhound racetrack. Up to now, the Orlando experience has been less than desirable. I have learned two things since we arrived at our hotel last night: • Everything takes longer than you think it will. • Everything costs more than you think it will. Things were fine until the nine of us, all affiliated one way or another with Maquoketa Valley schools, arrived at the Orlando airport on Sunday evening. A transportation company had assured us that a nifty, 11-passenger van would be waiting upon our arrival at the airport, to take us to our hotel. It wasn’t. We wound up, an hour or so later, on a bus that made a half-dozen other hotel stops before ours. So, the 15-mile bus ride from the airport to the hotel took almost as long as two plane flights covering about 1,400 miles. Ah, but today will be different. While others at the Walt Disney Swan and Dolphin Resort Hotel are headed to Disney theme parks on Disney shuttles, I am riding a mass transit bus to the Sanford-Orlando Kennel Club, a dog track about 35 miles from where we are staying. This has been complicated. Disney people, you see, don’t want you to leave the Disney resort complex. So they make it as difficult (or expensive) as possible. I decided to try anyway. It has been an adventure. I looked into renting a car, or taking taxis. One seemed too complicated, the other too expensive. So I settled on the bus system. The problem, from the Disney resort, is getting to the bus system. I figured the best way was to take a Disney shuttle from the hotel to one of the Disney parks, and ride the Lynx bus from there. I was wrong. As I hopped on a shuttle bound for Magic Kingdom, the bus driver told me a Lynx bus station would be nearby. “Nearby” is a relative term. When I got off the shuttle, I saw no bus station. A guy was walking by, and I asked him about it. He pointed to a man-made pond a couple hundred yards away, and told me the bus station was “on the other side of the water.” This was one of those “crossroads” moments in life. I was stranded outside Magic Kingdom, nowhere near a bus, the hotel or the dog track. For just a moment, I was tempted to give up, hop another shuttle back to the hotel, and spend the rest of the day there. Then my imagination flared up. I was now in a contest. Forces beyond my control were trying to keep me trapped among the Disney attractions, and I wasn’t – wasn’t – going to let them. Then I saw it: a taxicab. In my mind, it was as if someone had suddenly cranked up the theme from “Rocky.” I walked over and asked the driver to take me to the bus station downtown, and he of course agreed. It was pricey, but at that point I didn’t care. After that, it wasn’t pricey anymore. Once you get to it, the Lynx system is wonderful. You can ride anywhere in Orlando, all day, for $4. A tap beer at our hotel cost more than that. You also know, within a few minutes, when you will reach your destination. When it comes to transportation, I like predictability, and the Lynx people give it to you. So I paid the cab driver, walked into the bus station, waited for the bus I believed would take me within walking distance of the dog track, and hopped on. Next week: the track! (Contact the writer: ptemple@monticelloexpress.com) |
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