Reid's Carbo Loading...

I woke up expecting and actually pysched to do a 5.5 hour ride today, and then when I looked at my schedule, coach Luis had changed it to only two hours. He uploaded a new custom Kona program. Bummer.

With the extra time, I ordered the House of Payne 5 km Beer Run Beer shirts. Even though I didn't have the final count, I took the risk. I got a great price from Vista Print but it takes 14 days to get them. I had no choice but to pull the trigger now.

This year, I think the shirt design is the best we've ever had. I paid $5 for it on Fiverr. If you get a chance go to fiverr.com, it has tons of stuff people will do for only $5. I like the one where a guy will call "sounding" like Arnold Swarchenegger and sing happy birthday to anyone you want.

After I came back from my ride, Reid was in the garage and started mildly freaking about the Triathlon, wanting to know if he really had to do it and how much I paid to register him. It was the first time "fear started to set in on him". He was video taping and it's unfortunate that he deleted it, our conversation was priceless.

I showered and helped him get his gear ready. He made sure he had his horns for the bike and cowboy hat and vest. He's serious about running as a Cowboy. The worst part was he won't do anything else, he's not lifting a finger.

He told me, "I'm going to act like you before a race" and then proceed to tell me, "I need to rest, I'm racing tomorrow and, today is all about me!" I had to pretty much pack, load the car, put on the bike rack and load the bike without any help. He sat in the car the whole while and locked his door. When I asked him to open his door, he looked through the glass and said, "I can't open the door, I need to rest my finger".

The triathlon preparation continued for the 90 minute drive to the hotel in Barrie. I'd ask him a question and he'd say, "Don't talk to me, I need to rest my ears". We stopped for gas and it didn't surprise me that he had enough energy to "bolt" into the store to get some junk food. He picked up some pre-race skittles and beef jerky. I told him he should "rest his jaw".

As we drove through Barrie, the first thing I noticed was everyone was wearing baseball caps. I saw one guy outside a dramatic theatre not wearing a one, he stood out like a sore thumb. It didn't take long until I noticed ,by the way he was holding his cigarette, he was gay, which made sense.

I've been to Barrie before and never felt this way. Although, I'd never been on the east side of the 400 highway. I'd always spent my time on the west side. This view of Barrie was completely unexpected.

Even Reid noticed something was up with the people walking the streets of town. He used the words, "It's sure trailer park here". If I wanted to be the richest guy in Barrie, I'd open a store that sells only four things; baseball caps, construction boots, cigarettes, booze and nothing else. Although if I was ever pressured to expand my store, I'd probably add "porn" and "wife beater shirts".

Before we left the house I tried to get a hotel, calling about 4 or 5 places and they were all sold out. I finally got in at the Travel Lodge and didn't know what to expect. After we drove to the race site, to confirm it's location, we checked into the hotel.

I waited 4 deep in line to check in and the hotel had just one person working the desk. The inside looked okay and there was a stack of free newspapers, like no one knew how to read, little did I know. I figured, I think we'll be okay, this shouldn't be another Super 8 experience. Wrong!

I got a little suspicious when the folks in front of me in line were paying with cash. I don't think I've ever been in a hotel where people have paid with cash. I've seen it on TV before, but didn't think it was real. Kind of like Sasquatch.

Our room was on the ground floor and each of the ground floor rooms have patio doors to the outside grass. When we pulled up to unload our car it was a little scary. It looked like the TV series "Lock up - Inside San Quentin". Many of the people we looking out there screen doors at the NEW car that pulled up.

The first guy I saw was sitting on the patio door track and was shirtless with tattoos all over his body with a beer in hand. Then his girlfriend walked out and she looked like a 50 year old cocktail waitress that could man handle the most dangerous patrons in the most seediest bar in town.

We settled into our room and I had to go back to the truck to park closer to our room on the other side of the building. As I drove by the rooms, it was scary, everyone was looking at me. One sight I couldn't believe and wished I had video or camera to record.

If you watch "The Family Guy" and have ever seen Peter naked with only his underwear on, this guy was a real life version. His body shape was not similar to Peter, it was IDENTICAL. I didn't know what to be most surprised about, the fact that he was standing in the middle of his open patio door with just his underwear on, or that his body was a REAL LIFE version of Peter Griffen.

When we tried to turn on the TV in our room we got "nothing", "notta", "it didn't work". We thought it might be the batteries, so we tried to turn it on from the TV. No luck. Someone had pushed the "on" button into the casing of the TV. We couldn't even get our finger inside to try and turn it on.

I called the front desk and she "instructed me to point the remote at the box and push the green power button". Durrr, really, is that how remotes work? I humoured her and tried it and it didn't still didn't work. She said he'll be down once she can get away from the desk. That was 90 minutes ago.

Instead of sitting around doing nothing, I saw that "Hooters" had the UFC fight on tonight and the family agreed to go. I'm taking my laptop along with me, there is no way I'm leaving it in the room. I was worried about my bike when Reid took it for a "spin" around the parking lot. It was like "Children of the Corn", everyone started to come to their patio and watch. With beers in their hands.

I will say ONE good thing about this hotel. The Free Internet speed is fantastic, perhaps the best of any hotel I've been in. It's like I'm the only person in the hotel with a computer hooked up to the Internet.

Before we left, Alyssa figured out the power bar for the TV wasn't turned on. Doh!!! Then I called the front desk to say it was okay and set a wake up call for 6:00 am. They said, all set "7:30 am it is". I then said, no "6:00 am" and she said sorry. Now I'm not even sure if they set it for our room.

Long Bike - 2:33:46 / 79.18 km / 31.1 kph avg / 130 avg hr.

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