News & Observer | newsobserver.com | 2008 NCAA Men's Bracket

BEIJING - I am holed up in a hotel 15 minutes from Wukesong Indoor Stadium where the basketball competition is taking place for the Beijing Olympics.

So why did it take me two hours to get home after Russia beat Latvia in the late women's game just a stone's throw away?

I'll preface this by saying just because it feels like with 1.3 billion people in this huge country amd 7.5 million just in the city limits of Beijing doesn't mean they can send people out to work at all hours of the night. Folks go home when their shift is over.

Instead of waiting a full hour for a shuttle to the hotel, I decided to take the shuttle to the Main Press Center then the shuttle back to my hotel. That's supposed to take about 50 minutes. But the first ride to the MPC was stopped clear short of its mark at the entrance to the expressway, which was gated and locked shut. The driver didn't even realize it until he sent the bus escort out to open the gate.

The driver eventually took the scenic route through Beijing to get to the MPC. By scenic I mean it felt like he drove in circles getting closer and closer to the middle of the swirl at the MPC but still driving around and around and around.

That wouldn't have been so bad except he was going like 20 miles an hour. By that time it was 12:55 a.m. Beijing time and eventually the journalists started asking questions. Loudly. Before I knew it, my peaceful bubble of privacy hastened by the sounds of Steve Perry ripping "Wheels in the Sky" to shreds (in an awesome way), was being smashed.

I open my eyes and see our escort take two frantic runs across three lanes of highway to try to flag down a policeman to come unlock the thing. And, not surprisingly, when that failed, antsy journalists on board revolted.

As one gentlemen kept repeating, "Why so slow? Why so slow? The light is green, yes? That means go, yes?" there were urgent walkie talkie conversations with persons unknown back at the transportation hub. Then four photographers insisted on being let out in the middle of one neighborhood near their hotel, a clear violation of security protocol for the shuttles, as our young escort was trying to communicate.

We made it back in time for me to jump on the bus back down south to my hotel at 1 a.m. But I had been sitting a good five minutes when I was told to switch busses. Then I waited another half hour because, though the first was scheduled to depart at 1, the second bus was scheduled to leave at 1:30.