TORONTOI write this to you as a free man after boarding the Air Canada plane that gave me my escape from Canada. Its been an interesting last 14 hours attempting to get home from Ottawa after this past weekends highly successful NHL All-Star weekend at Scotiabank Place.
It all started with such familiar beginnings: I had a cringe-worthy 6 a.m. flight from Ottawa that was aiming to dump me into Boston around 10 a.m. in time to cover Bruins practice. I was locked and loaded to leave when my Blackberry alarm sounded off at 4 a.m. in my room at the Courtyard Marriott in downtown Ottawa.
There was one big honking problem however.
I had been using my passport along with a couple of boarding pass stubs as a bookmark for the first Game of Thrones book that Im reading. The book and the passport were on the nightstand in the hotel room when I left to cover the All-Star game early Sunday afternoon and all was well.
It was a warning sign right away when I woke up in the wee hours of Monday morning, and noticed the book was set pages down on the nightstand with nothing tucked inside the book. The passport was like one of the Sedins when things get a little dicey on the ice: nowhere to be found.
I ripped apart the bedding and pulled the nightstand from the wall looking for the only shining beacon on citizenship that was going to get me over the border. No such luck. After a few minutes searching and rearranging hotel furniture I hurried down to the front desk with my packed bags in tow. The two well-meaning night managers were then on the search team as well, and exhaustively scoured the room looking for my little blue passport booklet.
No dice once again.
Now it was getting perilously close to the time Id miss my flight with a 20-minute drive and a car rental return on tap before I could even check in my bags for the International flight. Both night managers shrugged their shoulders, said they were sorry, and that was about it. I imagine that was the last thing they wanted to deal with at 4:30 a.m. as well.
So I drove to the airport ready to hop on the first leg of the flight to Toronto with my drivers license knowing full-well that the passport thing would become an issue in Toronto. I just wanted to grease the wheels of getting homeward bound after five days away from home in snowy Ottawa.
Before I could check in for the Ottawa-to-Toronto flight I had to file a police report with a sleepy Ottawa Airport police officer at 5:15 a.m. My scheduled 6 a.m. flight was off the tarmac by the time we were finished. Did I mention I was also supposed to do a 7:20 a.m. radio hit with Toucher and Rich on 98.5 the Sports Hub to talk about NHL All-Star weekend in the middle of all this?
Fat chance that was happening, but I knew my good buddies Fred and Rich were riffing on it because thats when the tweets started pouring in. Its also when I decided it was time to wake none-too-amused Mrs. HackswithHaggs with some certified awesome news.
Thats also where the freejoehaggerty hash tag started popping up on twitter with TSNs Bob McKenzie, former Bruins defenseman Aaron Ward and Yahoo! Hockey blogger Greg Wyshynski among a rogues gallery of good humor that chimed on my epic struggle to escape Canada. Just like John Candy in the movie, Canadian Bacon, I was inspiring others to well something.
Here are some of the best tweets of the day with a few taking aim at my rugged good looks as a certain former Bruins defenseman did:
@aaronward_nhl: Assume if SHE thinks you two look similar,she's easily found @HackswithHaggs:Appears maids @ Courtyard Marriott Ottawa swiped my passport."
@wyshynski: Real issue here is that a maid at the hotel thought she looked enough like you to use your passport. freejoehaggerty
@RJFlynn985: cross the border at Cornwall. The river is narrower there. Remember to duck when the shooting starts freejoehaggerty
@TSNBobMcKenzie: As KPD would tell you, just hang out at Timmy's (Horton's, not Thomas), say "eh" a lot and you already have the hockey thing
@GarrettQuinn: At border just ask nicely & declare you are bringing Cuban cigars in. They'll be cool. FreeJoeHagerty
@SuicidePass: Chris Pronger stole @HackswithHaggs' passport. we all know it. we're just too scared to say it.
@RachelGoldblatt: Is it too late to cancel my order for the freejoehaggerty t-shirt?
@JustinDOY: It was easier to Free Lucic then to Free @HackswithHaggs
@SkosLovesYou: Dear Canada, give us back @HackswithHaggs or we will send back Celine Dion
It was pretty funny even if I started reading on the US Consulate website that it might take 10 days for a replacement passport to be approved and issued. That wouldnt have been so funny anymore, but the social media world was keeping me company in a moment of medium-to-high stress.
Full credit to my wife, Alyssa, and brother-in-law, Alexwho works for the state in the homeland security departmentfor both flooding the US Consulate in Toronto with phone calls calling for a speedy processing period for a replacement. When I arrived at the Consulate, after snapping off a couple of passport pictures for 11 at a downtown Toronto pharmacy and printed out a copy of my birth certificate at a Toronto hotel, it was no more than 30 minutes before a replacement passport was issued.
That sent me on my way to the Pearson Airport in Toronto whereafter a delay for a second security check before we could boardI was on a 2:40 p.m. flight back to Boston. A few hours later than Id anticipated after knocking the sleepy seeds out at 4 a.m., but who cares as long as I get to see my dog and my wife at the end of the day?
One footnote to the story: the Courtyard Marriott in Ottawa eventually tracked me down on twitterlove the social media world we live into let me know theyd eventually uncovered my passport wedged between a piece of furniture and the wall on the opposite side of the bed.
Thats nice and all, but it must have been hell of a clean-up party the maids were hosting in my room if my passport ended up yanked out of its safe place in the book and tossed onto other side of the room.
The careless piece of tornado-force cleaning sent me on a wild passport chase through the streets of Toronto that I wont soon forget. But Ive learned my lesson. Next time the passport always stays in my inside suit pocket like its been on every one of the dozens of trips Ive taken outside the sweet home USA.
Having one Free Joe Haggerty movement in my life is more than enoughthank you very much.
On to the links:
The Montreal Gazette is really looking for legal action with the James Todd column arent they?
CSNNE.com compatriot Danny Picard says that Nathan Horton is still not symptom-free from the concussion suffered against the Flyers more than a week ago.
Tim Gleason signs a four-year contract extension with the Carolina Hurricanes. There go all those rumors he was coming to Boston.
The unquestioned personality of the NHL All-Star game was Flyers roughneck Scott Hartnell, who won people over with his mouth, his wit and his one registered hit in Sundays All-Star game.
Alex Ovechkin says hes pretty well-rested after skipping out on the NHL All-Star game once he was suspended.
For something completely different: Grantland.com has some pretty good prop bets lined up for this years Super Bowl.