20 Days To Go (August 18)
We headed off to the car rental agent.
(We? It was you pushing the oversized bike-bag with Ed and your family in tow.)
I decided to upgrade. For $50 more a day I rented a Mercedes.
The first thing I did when I was handed the keys was to do a video tape a “walk around.”
I wanted it on record that any dents in the car were there when I got the keys.
(Nothing like getting billed for someone else’s mistakes.)
I scanned that car like NTSB investigation.
(Don’t they investigate airplane crashes?)
Yep … so maybe not the best analogy, but … this was not like driving my 2022 Honda Pilot. Heck, it wasn’t like driving any car I had ever driven. The shifting options were all sticking out of the steering column.
(So? That’s how many of us learned back in the 1980s.)
No, this was different than that configuration, so after a quick consultation with the rental agent, it was “learn as you go.” The Mercedes GLC 320 shifter was set up like a manual shifter, but instead of the floor or the center console, it was sticking out of the steering column.
(Didn’t car makers used to have the gear shift sticking out of the steering column?)
That was waaaay before my time.
My wife looked at me and asked, “Do you know how to drive this thing?”
“Of course I do.”
(She shot you “the” look, didn’t she?)
Yup. I got the “You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means” look.
(Isn’t that a “Princess Bride” quote?)
It was, and the car did look like I was about to pilot the Death Star … but I was thinking that I’ve got the basic idea of how to drive this thing.
(So did the captain of the Titanic.)
For your information, Captain Smith was not steering the Titanic when it hit the iceberg.
The four of us piled into the Benz, with all the bags. Ed took both bikes in his non luxury rental.
Our first stop was the kosher supermarket in Montreal. Janet pushed the shopping cart down each aisle, and I tossed food into the cart.
(Kobi.)
Instead of keeping food cold for a 10-hour drive, we only needed to keep the food cold for a 90-minute drive.
(Jordan.)
Once the provisions were procured…
(You make it sound like you were going to sled dog across the tundra.)
We drove up the highway … and got stuck in traffic.
(Welcome to Canada!)
How the heck does Canada have highway traffic?
(Did someone hit a moose or something?)
No, the traffic was caused by—what else—construction.
(I bet you are glad that you only drove the last 90 minutes instead of 10+ hours.)
The race was named for the ski resort and the resort was named for Lake Tremblant in the Quebec region of Canada, just north of Montreal. Montreal was founded by the French in 1642. It’s 81-miles north to Mont Tremblant. In 1939, the city became a ski resort. In 2012, the village hosted Ironman Mont Tremblant for the first time. One draw of this Ironman triathlon was that it was a late season race that one could drive to … and that’s why we were there.
The hotels in Mont Tremblant were grouped closely together, on the side of a mountain. Walking in between the hotels felt like I was walking around Disney.
(Land or World?)
Yes, with a clock tower in the center of the village. The back entrance to our hotel was part of a network of paved paths that connected all the hotels in the village with the lake at the bottom of the mountain they sat on. There was a ski lift that bisected the whole village. It was so low to the ground that you felt like you could grab hold of the gondola as it passed overhead.
Our hotel room had a side door that opened to a porch overlooking a clearing in the woods.
(Did you see a bear?)
No, but I was expecting a moose.
(You really were in Canada.)
The next morning, I opened the bike case I had taken on the airplane and my heart sank…
David Roher is a USAT certified triathlon and marathon coach. He is a multi-Ironman finisher and veteran special education teacher. He is on Instagram @David Roher140.6. He can be reached at [email protected].
