My dream ended on the highway, along with many others.

So, as some of you know, I won a seat into the Degree Poker Challenge down at Fallsview Casino, a bigger, glitzier place than Casino Rama. Anyhow, I still had to work yesterday so I got things cleaned up as much as I could and then DW and I left for Niagara around 3:30PM, leaving more than enough time to get there even with rush hour. Or so we thought.

I guess it simply was not meant to be as I have not been on a highway, even in the winter, that had FIVE consequentive accidents on it in such a short stretch. We took the Lakeshore route knowing that the Gardiner-QEW stretch would be taxed in certain areas, and it was; using Lakeshore was a stroke of genius by DW though as we bypassed most fo it and was soon sailing into Mississauga. And then it started.

This stretch of highway is horribly overcapacity and badly designed. And there really is not an alternate route if you have to travel further south into the Golden Horseshoe. So, forced to listen to AM radio (blech!) for the traffic report on AM680, we learn that there is something recent that happened between Ford and Trafalgar. Well that something was a two or three car smash that had metal, glass and plastic littering the road and two tow trucks at the ready. Ok, not as much an issue as we anticipated that and are more than fine for time. We went through that area and not really a big deal. Picked up some speed for about five minutes and then BLAM. What the hell now?

Well, back on AM680, we find out that there is a problem in the left lane at Bronte Road, and another at another road, and something at the mouth/connection to the 407, all in addition to the two or three cars we see littering the side of the road, one of which had a tow truck already backing up to it. However, all of these would prove nothing compared to the last issue in the chain.

The 403 is a funny highway as it starts where the 410 from Brampton ends, below the 401, winds its way through Mississauga and essentially ends at the QEW, then it starts back again through Hamilton and goes further west into the bush. Well, a lot of people in Hamilton and the surrounding region depends on this lone crappy highway to get to and from work. To my chagrin, they had a multi-vehicle pile up just inside the entrance to the extension within Hamilton that backed traffic up for miles back to incident number four. All winter I have not had to sit in traffic for a multi-car pile up but these asswipes are able to f**k me over in bright, dry conditions when I needed to be somewhere.

So, all of that resulted in a 3.5hr truck ride for what should have been 50mins at most. I missed my time by the time we hit Bronte Road. My only hope was that like on WPT in Vegas, they assign you a seat and blind you out until you arrive. The moment we passed the 403 packed entrance ramp, the entire highway was like it suddently got caught in an Oreck vaccuum cleaner; whoosh all the cars were back to 120KM/h speed, up from the 25KM/h we were just doing (to my American friends, that is approximaely 70Mph from 15Mph). We made very good time and found the Casino/Hotel very easily thanks to the fact it is freaking huge for the area and very shiny.

I had to drop DW at the front as either her kidneys were going to explode or she was going to ruin my leather. I then made my way into the sheltered garage, parked and went inside the hotel. I found DW, relived in every way, sitting by the funky front water fountain. We followed all the Degree signs to the back and entered with little hope but much realism. They were having some issues with the computer (Microsoft's best at it again) and when they finally got it back up (must have stepped out of the car and got back in), they took my info and entered it. That's when we heard the voice.

This slight man, who I now wanted to drop kick into the stratosphere, piped up that it was too late for me to enter. Too late? What's an hour amongst friends? Too much apparently and my heart sunk. I was consoled with a cheap goodie bag that DW remembered to ask for (thanks dear), the offer to stock up on as much free Degree product from the display that I wanted (I took one out of courtesy, but I am a Mennnen and Old Spice kind of guy) and the fact that I was amongst many schmucks that missed the tourney because of that damn highway.

It appears that one person called ahead to the casino to tell them about the accidents and the resultant crap heap we all had to wade through. Still, they only held it for twenty minutes and the rest fo us were thanked for our troubles and invited to lose some real money in their casino. Sigh. Well, I did not drag us down here for nothing. So, goodie bag in hand, the identification of all tourney losers as they exited the torunament, we entered the casino to see what it is like. Somehow, we felt like it had a richer feel, more money feel and was brighter than Casino Rama. We spent/lost more money than we wanted to or really should have been playing with but it was a nice experience and we have no regrets (except for that dang patio umbrella we had yet to buy).

So ends yet another attempt at some good-natured sin-city type fun. Maybe God is trying to give me a sign? Nahhhh, a sign would be different from anything else. This? This is just the par for course. My next attempt will be a full frontal assault on Vegas in November with some buddies of mine. Hopefully the guy's birthday we are supposed to be celebrating (AL's) with get his balls out of his lady's pocket long enough to be able to attend also.

Oh, and just for the record, this too was not my fault. :)

Peace.