The Snowy White Peaks - Day 1

Last weekend was one of the most painful (physically) in recent memory. I am still In Colorado visiting Professor Plum and since we saw the Rocky Mountains in the distance we decided to go skiing. Well, skiing for him, but since I am a bit more radical I went for the snowboard. Let me tell you a little secret: I haven't been snowboarding in about three years.

So we wake up Saturday morning before the rooster and start packing up our stuff to hit the slopes. We had decided on Breckenridge since that's where Skittles and his roomie Jen had passes. The lift tickets weren't too much for me though since i had the foresight to visit the Safeway before we left. While at Safeway the customer service counter closed and we were told to get into lane six to talk to the assistant manager on duty. So, we do and it turns out that Michael was very supportive of our cause. At first we thought he might give us grief but we could tell that he really didn't want to be there and so he promptly closed his register to get the lift tickets. These are the wonderful type of people that you meet here in the midwest. Anyway, we wake up at 6:30 and get on the road with snow coming down. About 30 minutes into the drive we encounter traffic which reminded me of GA 400 on any weekday morning and made me miss my job for about one half of a second. So we finally get there and rent equipment and i decided to buy mittens since i had no hand coverings. This was a very interesting decision for me since i hadn't had mittens since i was three years old. It turns out that although you lose almost all hand functionality they are about twice as warm.

Finally on the slopes i try to remember how to actually ride this board strapped to my feet down a few thousand feet of ice and snow. Not at all easy but it comes back pretty quickly - like riding a bike i tell myself. Making it down the mountain at a snail's pace i only manage to fall about 18 times. Not bad in my book. We repeat this process about 15 times throughout the day and finally decide that since i can't feel any part of my body, namely butt and legs, that it is time to call it a day. We were skiing blues all day and American was probably our favorite run with Frosty's Freeway a close second. Major injury of the day - slightly sprained wrist.

Back at the hotel that we chose blindly off of Hotwire for a mere $63 ended up being a Holiday Inn with Holidome and boy did we need that hot tub. It turned out that I hadn't packed my bathing suit or any shorts so i had to go in with only my boxers. Normally this wouldn't be a problem but on this day I had worn my only pair of white boxers. Everyone knows what white underwear means in the water. So yeah i had to get in and decided to stay in until nobody was left around. That ended up taking longer than expected so i might have frightened a few people, who knows. That night we had a lovely dinner in quaint Breckinridge at Breckenridge Brewery home of the 2001 Great American Beer Fest pale ale winner. Yeah the beer was ok. Oh yeah did i mention the amazing tournament games that we watched before we went. Both Saturday regional finals went into OT. I was really pulling for WV and Pittsnogle but they didn't pull it out. That night after we gorged on nachos and burgers we went home and were all asleep by 10:30 agreeing to get up at 8:30 to hit the slopes again. This was one of the longest nights of my life. Matt and I were forced to share a bed and two guys well over six feet tall do not fit well in a double bed. I woke up every 30 minutes and turned over a minimum of 100 times trying to stay on my side of the bed. Not to mention my only pair of boxers were still wet so i had to sleep in jeans. Beyond that, while getting out of the pool my wrist gave out and i bashed my shin on the side of the pool. This caused much bleeding both on a pool towel, my jeans, and the sheets. The maids had to be curious.