Rich Roszel

Well, somebody (who shall remain Coca-Cola) apparently let it slip out that there would be a party in Whistler to kick off the Olympic festivities. Word spread, and pretty soon everybody in town converged on the village for, well, crowd-related stuff. My boss, Dave, and I got off the bus from the venue, walked through the hotel, and headed to the village for a bite to eat only to discover that you couldn’t even get a seat in a restaurant or bar — much less a bite to eat — for at least 45 minutes if you’re lucky.

That may not seem like a long time until you realize that we had just worked an 11 hour day, climbed up and down the mountain several times, and hadn’t had much in the way of lunch that day. We were hungry. Plus, Dave had his heart and stomach set on some chicken wings.

So we worked our way through the crowds, checking at each possible food port, but getting the same answer every time: There was no food at the Inn. Two nice things happened while we were in the crowds, though. First, the Coke folks who were handing out souvenirs were extra kind to us because we still had our Olympic credentials with us. We’ve learned you can just about move a mountain with these IDs if you have to. It’s very nice but you have to be careful not to take advantage of people’s kindness. The second thing that happened was that a nice young lady indicated that Dave and I were both young and hip.

Okay, truth be told, after we managed to find some food and were headed back to the hotel, an attractive young lady approached us and asked if we had any papers or skins. For those NOT young and hip, papers and skins refer to rolling papers used to smoke marijuana. Unfortunately for our attractive young lady-friend, neither Dave nor I could accommodate her request so we had to send her on her way. When I told Ed this story the next day, he suggested that she must have smoked a good amount of the marijuana already if she mistook either one of us for someone who might have papers or skins.

Ed can say what he wants. I know I’m young and hip.

As for the restaurant we finally found, it was called the Elephant and Castle.  I’m sure there’s a story there somewhere, but I was too hungry and exhausted to care once we sat down.  I did have the $20 Signature Club Sandwich off the value menu and it was quite good.  Actually, all of the food I’ve had here has been good.  Fortunately, my mortgage broker tells me I’ll be finished paying for dessert by the time the Summer Games roll around in 2012.

Cheers,

Rich