Leaving Rhodes

Well today, Monday June 27 I am feeling a little sad our Final Leg is over and our goals were accomplished. We all, 100 plus officers, successfully delivered the Flame of Hope. I have lots to tell about our last 4 days. But on another exciting and very important note I will be starting a new chapter to reflect what is happening here at the world games, especially with how Stacey does. There are over 7000 athletes here and a lot are from Greece.

Thursday....

Our teams 8,9 and 10 from route 3 left Our hotel around 3 pm for the main port area of Rhodes. Unfortunately we had a little mishap. While waiting for our bus, I and my new Canadian friend from Ontario Provincial Police, Stacey ran to our pool bar to grab a refreshment, as we raced back to jump on the bus the glass doors opened and closed and Stacey ran into the door. She instantly had a bump on her forehead.

On route to our next stop Stacey began feeling sick, her condition seemed to get worse. After the EHS crew assessed her she was taken to hospital. The doctor determined that she had suffered a concussion and advised no exercise for the next few days. She is better now and was cleared to travel home, but she sure had us all worried. We took shifts on the boat waking her up

During the hospital ordeal with Stacey,the rest of us mustered up to do a short run into Knights Castle, a large crowd was expected, including several athletes, dignitaries, priests, the Mayor and Timothy Shriver. As we ran in, the welcoming along the streets and well into the long cobblestoned entrance was again incredible. The caldron was successfully lit by our Greek police officer Aspa, and Adam Hayes, our athlete. I looked at the crowd and saw Dr.Timothy Shriver. When Adam spoke, I could hear Timothy Shriver yelling encouragement, especially when Adam talked about getting a college degree.

When Dr. Shriver got up he immediately introduced his family including his sister Maria, he had them all stand up to be acknowledged. Once again he delivered a very inspirational speech. We then were entertained by beautiful dancers, who first descended down a long stone stair case of the castle. Lots of photos were taken by all of us.

From the ceremony our bus took us to the port for boarding for our longest boat ride yet. As we waited, I looked around and lost count of how many buses were parked along with us. All the athletes that had been on Rhodes were also booked on the same boat. I assumed that because we did not have sleeping berths booked that at least the athletes would be accommodated.

Finally the boat arrived and as we boarded, I kept thinking where are all us going to sit and or sleep? It seemed to take for ever for all the buses to be loaded which caused a further delay in our scheduled departure. Our team leaders tried to secure a small area for us to sit, but within no time several athletes began sitting with us, many of them from Ireland. We learned that many of them did not have sleeping berths, so we did the only thing we could and gave up most of the seating for them.

I was able to connect with Rick Lucy and Stacey and they also had some berths but like some of us had to rotate people in shifts to sleep.
After a few hours we learned that we were able to pay around $60 Euro's for a berth with 4 beds. In the end most of us had somewhere to sleep, but around 4 am the boat began rocking. The sea was quite rough and many people began feeling seasick. In the am I looked for Stacey, our athlete. Her coach said she was sleeping due to the sea sickness, the sleep helped and she was fine later the next day.

All in all our boat ride totaled approximately 18 hours- most in the very choppy seas. We arrived back to our original hotel, the Stanley in Athens around 3 pm. After quick showers we mustered for our run into the Acropolis, where even more dignitaries, including Timothy Shriver would be waiting to greet us.

Stay tuned for Friday June 24 th events.

Debbie.