Games were a joy, local resident says

Hassles? Headaches? Frustrations?

Not in these Winter Olympics.

Former Cape Girardeau resident Russ Reed, now a sales manager for a construction firm in Salt Lake City, said the area didn't have so much as a traffic jam during the Olympic Games, which ended Sunday.

About the only disappointment around the city now is that the event over.

"We're kind of in a fog today," Reed, 60, said Monday. "The whole city's been anticipating it for years since they announced it, and now it's almost like the city's in a hangover."

Reed, who operated Reed's Restaurant in the Town House Motor Inn, moved to Salt Lake City after getting out of the business in 1995. He said Salt Lake City made an ideal host for the event, which featured more than 40,000 volunteers alone.

The biggest surprise, he said, was that Olympic venues operated smoothly. Many spectators followed the city's advice and used shuttle buses, or took advantage of a new light-rail train system built by the city.

Even the added security measures were taken in stride. At each of the events he attended -- which included Picabo Street's final downhill skiing event, the Canada-United States hockey final and Sarah Hughes' figure skating gold medal win --spectators were required to empty their pockets and pass through a metal detector.

"I never saw one person complain," Reed said.

-- Jamie Hall