Sunday morning at WBC features a few short standalone tournaments and the semis/finals of a few events. Our first couple years we played in these tournaments and ran into issues with who would pack the car and what time we ended up back home. Waking up early, playing some games, and then driving until 1am after a week of hotel sleep is not a very good deal. We especially ran into problems playing Puerto Rico because it has both a semi and a final and (at least at the time) the GM ran his event very slowly. I'm pretty sure one year Pounder didn't get home until 2am and that was after he'd gotten up at 9am to play PR. That sucked.
This year our plan was to wake up at 9:30, get the room packed as a group and get out by 10:30 or 11. It worked pretty reasonable with the only diversion being finding a copy of Vegas Showdown in the trunk. It was Andrew's, so I ran it down to him while Robb and Pounder were packing the car. (Duncan was playing PR so I knew where they'd be.) They wanted to set up a big group picture with the 6 of us but they were a little scattered and we were in a rush so I just left.
I'd spotted a Texas Roadhouse in some town a couple hours out of Lancaster (Williamsburg?) and our plan was to eat lunch there. It was open and had a free table so we got in and had lots of meat. Yum. We got back out on the 'highway' and found ourselves somehow behind Andrew's car. We passed them and waved. They then proceeded to follow us for hours. Turns out they really wanted that group picture after all! Eventually they made a sign and passed us to get their intentions across. We pulled off at the next exit that looked like it would sell coffee and got some strange lady in a parking lot to take our picture. Turned out the coffee shop was closed because why would you keep a coffee shop advertised on the highway exit signs open beyond 3pm? We made plans while pulled over to eat at a Swiss Chalet in Niagara somewhere and took off.
There was a traffic jam on the toll highway and then a 2 hour wait at the border. Leaving early actually didn't seem to be much help since it felt like we burned a lot of our saved time just sitting in a stopped car at the border. I feel like we'd probably be better off sleeping through checkout time in order to get extra sleep and dare the Host to notice and care. And then if someone wanted to play PR or Attack Sub or Ticket to Ride they could. I guess another option would be to find a place to eat on the US side of the border and hope the border clears up while we're sitting in a restaurant instead of while we're sitting in a car.
Or maybe it won't come up anymore? WBC is moving in 2016 to a place probably 2 hours closer for us. Also with better airport access, so flying down could make more sense. And it may well turn out we won't be driving regardless since Robb has moved to Seattle and it's looking more and more like I'll end up moving to New Brunswick soon.
Swiss Chalet turned out to have a deal where you could get two meals for a small discount. Andrew and Duncan shared one. So did Robb and Robb. I like Swiss Chalet because they don't make me sick. Hurray not getting sick!
We did get back much earlier than normal even with the border delays. Part of that was undoubtedly because I was staying in Pounder's basement instead of getting dropped off in Toronto which is 'on the way, honest'.
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