REPORT #1 “Race team arrives safely, but bed didn't make it!”

March 1, 1985: The Paris bed race team is in Hawaii to represent Canada in a world-wide field in the annual Carole Kai Bed Race. Team captain Darren Jack will be filing regular reports to us on events leading up to the March 9th race

HONOLULU We're here, but the bed isn't. All members of our Paris bed race team, plus adults, arrived safely on Thursday at about 3.30 p.m. Hawaiian time (8.30 p.m. EST) after smooth flights down to Dallas and over to Honolulu We all found our luggage, but the bed didn't make it. The airline immediately put out a 'searcher' and discovered it was still in Dallas It should he here Friday If so, we'll have our first practice run on Saturday. If not, the practice will have to wait until Monday. It's 6.45 p.m. (11.45 p.m. EST) as I phone in my first report to the newspaper Most of the others are out for something to eat. We're all excited, but dead beat tired. Everybody has jet lag. More than anything else we need sleep That hasn't stopped Dan and Donna Verschoor, though. They're out jogging, getting ready for Sunday's Great Aloha run in aid of crippled children. Already about 11,000 runners have entered for that 71/2-mile race. We've been told there are now 93 teams entered for the annual Carole Kai Bed Race set for March 9. We should get to know something about our opponents on Friday when we get details of last year's results and this year's entries.

Sometime next week we're going on television. We don't know much about it yet, but it seems we have travelled the farthest to take part in the race. On Thursday's flights Toronto to Dallas and Dallas to Honolulu we were identified to other passengers by both American Airlines pilots, and they wished us luck. One other interesting event between Dallas and Honolulu we saw a U S jet fighter being refueled in the air. On arrival in Hawaii, we received two lei greetings each, one from Marlin Travel, the firm that made our travel arrangements, and one from officials of the bed race. Apparently, it was all set up for a group of high school cheerleaders to join in the welcome, but they missed us. The race officials gave us rides to the Coral Reef Hotel The fellow I went with had a Rolls Royce. They all seemed quite affluent. Well, I'm completely exhausted. We left Paris District High School at 5 30 a m and, of course, couldn't sleep on the plane. I don't think it will be too long before we all get to our beds. Oh, by the way, it was a little cloudy when we got here, but the temperature was 81 degrees. No snow! …