When you decide at the last minute to head to a major sporting event, you pretty much abandon all hope that you’ll find good accommodations. Usually finding merely “ok” or “structurally-sound-and-kinda-clean” accommodations would be a minor miracle. Our miracle did not get answered.

Instead we got the Valley View Motel in Tooele, Utah. Tooele is a small community on the outskirts of Salt Lake City. The regular rate at the Valley View Motel was $29/night, if that’s any indication as to the level of quality we’re dealing with. (Our Olympic rate was $150/night, but that’s not the point.)

The manager was friendly, and he did happily agree to keep our Gino’s East pizza delivery (direct from Chicago) on ice until we returned from the days events.

For future Olympiads we step up the accommodation game considerably, from the spectacular Via Po apartment in Torino, the Pan Pacific in Whistler, and the cruise ship in Sochi. But for the 4 Falcons, our Olympic Odyssey started at the Valley View Motel in Tooele.