Bill's New Reality

Heading Back Home...Prematurely

2010-02-24T10:00:00.002-05:00

Let's just say that we are not happy today. After a wonderful day in the northern Yellowstone area we received a weird email last night from TH. He wanted to see the "video of Houdini Cooper"...weird. After numerous phone calls we find that we must return home today.

It appears that there will be no more ski bumming for us this winter. Our crazy dog has decided he is the next Houdini and managed to escape both his crate and our friends' house. After a trip down to the swamp he went home where CH rescued him. Thank you CH for cleaning him up and keeping him safe.

We are not happy about this and had been looking forward to the Bridgers skiing with friends. Now we will be driving from Big Sky country back home...it's going to be a very long trip home. Very long and very quiet since neither of us is in any mood to talk.

Now for the Unusual...Poker & Skiing?

2010-02-20T16:38:00.005-05:00

Today we woke to a few more inches of fresh snow and quite a bit more in the forecast. We decided that we'd rather ski/board tomorrow in a foot of snow so we took off for the Snowy Range just to drive around. The road out of Laramie wasn't so bad...snow blew across & you could tell that 'whiteout conditions' would not be too hard to imagine. As we drove we realized that we weren't the only ones heading out of town. An whole group of cars, SUV's & trucks were all lined up behind us...most unusual.

It would seem as if today was the day for the infamous "Murf the Surf’s Cross Country Ski Poker Run Benefit". The town of Centennial's population of 100 rose by 500 more people and untold numbers of dogs. What a sight! People in various outfits from standard ski wear, tutus, even a guy sporting buffalo hide. The dogs came prepared in their own outfits right down to their doggie booties. We're pretty sure that alcohol was the drink of choice. Why else would these people load themselves, their dogs and equipment into various shuttles that consisted of an old pickup truck and an enclosed box truck. We passed one such truck heavily laden as it weaved back & forth up the snow covered mountain road. Scary. Not sure the box truck was such a good choice for the ride up the mountain either.

Overall it looked like a fun way to spend a snowy Saturday in Laramie...should have broken out the snowshoes and given it a go. On second thought riding in those trucks looked kind of scary.

*truck photo by Andy Carpenean/Boomerang photographer from last year's event.

News from Colorado

2010-02-18T18:00:00.004-05:00

A quick note since because we could lose the wireless signal in a matter of seconds...that has made it difficult to post anything. We've spent the last 3 days in Silverthorne, Co which is about 9 miles west of where we've been skiing & boarding. Actually we've spent far more time on the boards these past 3 days...never thought that would happen did ya?

A few pictures have been taken and once we have a better signal we'll be able to upload them so everyone can see where & what we've been doing above the tree line. Tomorrow we head once again to Laramie,. WY...more snowshoeing than boarding while we are there.

Stay tuned for some beautiful pictures!

On the Road Again

2010-02-11T15:52:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow we head off on our Western journey once again. Stay tuned for the adventure...probably won't travel near as far as last year, but you just never know where the powder will fall.

First up a visit to Roanoke & Blacksburg to visit with the family then off towards Colorado by way of I-81...stay tuned!

News Flash

2009-07-12T12:34:00.004-04:00

Well we went and did the one thing that neither of us expected...adopted a dog. Since we had not planned any grand adventures over the summer we (to be honest the male half of we) decided to once again foster for Lab Rescue of Greater Richmond (LRGR). We've missed having a dog on our hikes in the mountains so we figured we'd have one along on a few hikes until Fall. It looks like we've found a dog to do far more than a few summer hikes.

Meet Cooper...big 75 pound yellow lab with gold eyes. You could not get any more opposite than what we usually prefer. It's always been the female black lab with brown eyes that we've gravitated towards. Somehow this big yellow guy broke us down & found a way to get himself immersed into our day to day lives by being the 'perfect dog for us'. He adores car rides, camped like a dream, & even went on a canoe ride without tipping us into the water. Spoiled already he absolutely insists on tagging along, especially so when McD's or Panera are on the agenda. Now if he could only pass for human during ski season...

Most Favorite Picture

2009-03-30T08:25:00.003-04:00

We are going to try and post our top 10 shots, but it is proving difficult to narrow them down so we'll leave you with our most favorite shot of the trip. Yeah, it's probably our #1 shot too....

It's A Wrap

2009-03-29T15:00:00.004-04:00

As promised we thought we'd start to wrap up our trip in a series of lists. It seems to be the simplest way of summarizing our odyssey the 13,000+ miles we've traveled over the last 2 months.

Start date: January 11th
Home date: March 15th
Total days on the road: 64
Total miles: 13,608 miles give or take a hundred or so of 'in town' driving
Total gallons of gas: 558
Average MPG: 24.3
Rubber worn off tires: 2mm from front; 1mm from rear
No. of pictures taken: 3,676
Ski injuries: none (woohoo)
Car problems: none (woohoo again)
No. of car washes: 1 (San Antonio, TX)
Coldest temp: -12F in Laramie
Hottest temp: ~85F in Death Valley (but it was a 'dry' heat)

Most interesting sighting: sled dogs on the road to Kit Carson pass, CA although foxes in the elementary school yard in Laramie was pretty cool too.

Best side trip: Vadeawoo mountains east of Laramie while on the way to Cheyenne, WY.

Best hike: The Generals trail in Sequoia Nat'l. Park...what's not to like lots of big trees, snow & quiet. Thank goodness we bought snowshoes or we couldn't have done this hike through the largest trees on earth...y'all reckon this is a best purchase? Maybe, but it could be Dansko shoes at half price and no sale's tax in Kalispell, MT or may in fact be yarn purchases!

Favorite area: Kalispell / Whitefish / Glacier Park all in Montana (Laramie, Bozeman and Death Valley ain't bad either)

Best view: Top of Whitefish mountain looking towards Glacier Park when the fog lifted and the view of the Canadian Rockies to the north.

Favorite road: Laramie to Bozeman by way of Thermopolis and Cody. How about prairie, mountains, gorges, rivers all in one drive.

Scariest road: CA 49...real skinny road, hundreds of feet up on the side of a mountain, innumerable blind turns and switchbacks, NO guardrail. Thankfully Cindi was driving.

Virginians we met: Taos Ski Valley: Bill from Henrico; Snowy Range Ski Area: Tiffany, her son, Liam and Fiance, Souman from Roanoke; Whitefish Ski Resort: Glenn from Norfolk; Solitude: six skiers from Richmond; Salt Lake City: Bob from VT class of '77 (same as me).

#Days of Bad Weather Driving: 2 with drizzle/rain, 3 with snow/snow covered roads
Location: Drizzle/fog
Spokane, WA to Boise, ID way back on February 23rd. Then again as we headed home as we reached Ohio then all the way to Richmond...the last 8 hours or so of the trip. Welcome Home...

Location: Snowy conditions
Unbelievably we only drove in snowy conditions 3 times the entire trip...the first time as we set out for a drive to West Yellowstone, MT...we went from sunny to snow in under an hour. Let's just say that there is a reason that Yellowstone is closed for the winter to cars...not snowmobiles or feet though.

The second time occurred as we left Reno through the Mount Rose area & on to Carson Pass in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on our way to Fresno, CA. Our last time driving in snow was when we were hit by "powder fever" and bailed on Laramie, WY to head up to Bozeman, MT for the second time. Although it was after most of the snow fell the roads still made driving interesting and added significantly to our car's new look.

Number States visited: 26...it counts even if we only drove through it:
Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky...

Favorite state(s): Wyoming and Montana. Why? The beauty of mountains which was so different from the Blue Ridge here in Virginia. The bright endless blue skies, the snow...light, airy and dry. How can snow be dry? The skiing/boarding in honest to God real snow. Being able to see so many animals/birds not seen around these parts. Finally the quiet...no planes, cars or people along with all of the associated noises produced. Loved it!

Least favorite state: Washington...why? Well, to be fair to Washington we had just left Montana & Wyoming so the shock of traffic and people in Spokane didn't help make a good 1st impression. The second thing was the weather...dreary drizzle & fog. Finally the scenery along the road to Pullman, WA just looked too 'manufactured'.

The animals:
Thankfully one of the great side benefits of this trip was the fact that we were able to see at fairly close range quite a bit of wildlife. Sometimes the wildlife cooperated with our photography and sometimes we didn't get the shot off in time...talking about those darn bald eagles again.

We are always on the lookout for birds that are unique to an area. On this trip we did find one that showed up in the countryside & in the towns...the black-billed Magpie seemed to be everywhere. Cindi tried to get a decent picture of the bird, but never quite pulled it off. The most remarkable feature was the tail...extra long at 9-12" according to our birding book. Too bad we never got a shot at one in flight...black and white plumage along with that tail was a pretty neat thing to see flying. Why such a long tail? We have no idea.

Since we're talking about birds we also were able to see quite a few bald eagles, one golden eagle and numerous hawks. Still trying to figure out which hawks (mainly red-tail, rough-legged, sharp-shinned, & Cooper's), but we did get some fantastic pictures of a red-tail hawk outside of Fresno, CA. He seemed to be posing for our camera.

On the other hand, for all the eagles we saw while on the trip we never got close enough for good shots. It would seem that the bald eagle is camera shy. While in Montana we also saw some of the largest flocks of wild turkeys we've ever seen...good luck for the Hokies, maybe? The first group of 30 or so birds was along the road at a gas station in Casper, WY just pecking away in the fresh snow.The second group of 100+ birds was literally attacking the stacked hay in pastureland on our way into Bozeman. The ranchers stack up their hay and enclose them in fencing to keep the deer and cows out...must not have thought about the impending turkey invasion.

We were also fortunate to see coyote (Idaho & Wyoming), big horn sheep (Colorado & New Mexico), red foxes (Wyoming), buffalo, (Wyoming), elk (Wyoming & Montana), prong horn (Wyoming, Montana, & South Dakota), white-tail deer (everywhere), mule deer (most of the West), prairie dogs (South Dakota), a few ducks swimming along the rivers & glacial lakes (Wyoming, Montana), vast numbers of ducks & geese migrating along with ring-necked pheasants (South Dakota, Iowa) and various lizards (Death Valley, CA).

Most unusual sighting was that of a horse being ridden along the highway in a Bakersville, CA gas station...don't see that along Hull Street. As we walked back to the hotel the cowboy and his horse were stretching their legs...learned one thing...always have a camera on you. You just never know what you will see.

Total Ski Areas Visited: 9
No. of days skiing: 19
Favorite ski run: Moose at Whitefish (Cupp at Snowshoe is really nice but the snow is so much better out west)
Coldest ski day: -5F at Bridger Bowl (we really expected more cold)

Snowshoe...the 'start' of our trip, but to be honest the official start for us wasn't until we were out on our own, January 24th.

Sipapu and Taos Ski Valley both located outside of Taos, NM and were our first ski resorts visited in the West...in this case the Southwest. Our first ever powder skiing in 10+ inches at Sipapu was really eye opening, exciting and way more work than we were used to on skis. Taos was terrific...our 1st "bowl skiing". Only wish we could have skied a 2nd day, but Bill decided he'd rather be sick with "allergies"...not.

Snowy Mountains Ski Area: outside of Laramie, WY in the Medicine Bow National Forest. It was pretty small operation, but Cindi regained some confidence on the board which would enable her to become the Boarding Queen by the end of our trip.

Bridger Bowl: only 16 miles from Bozeman, MT recommended by Tom H. as a terrific place for 'skiers' not one for 'pretenders' as it were. He's right we met more true skiers here than anywhere else. Way more men & women over 50, heck over 70 than anywhere else...they skied in the areas of the mountain that we dared not go...maybe next time we'll venture out with our own avalanche beacons. Maybe.

Whitefish at Big Mountain: beautiful scenery...all 360 degree of it when...or better yet if you can see it. We loved the 'personal tour' provided by Glenn on our 2nd day on the mountain and all the extra information gathered during our conversations. Now we know what 'fog balls' are and just which parts of the mountain to revisit...next year. Cindi was also able to finally figure out that she could manage a toe side every now and then on the beginner hill while at Whitefish.

Mount Rose: two things we will always remember about our day at Mount Rose...wind and lots of it make for a very unpleasant day on the slopes and the second thing is that Cindi managed to become a boarder and switch from heelside to toeside on a INTERMEDIATE hill...once again proving me right.

Solitude: after what we would call an icy day on the slopes we were once again blessed to find 12 inches of powder on our second day. One of us starting thinking that boarding beats skiing...at least if it's a powder day. We also have video proof that Cindi can in fact make it down the intermediate slope without a single stop or fall. Major accomplishment...another "knuckledragger" in the family.

Bridger Bowl redo: just 'cause it snowed and we wanted another opportunity to ski in powder. A first occurred for Cindi...she pulled out her board for an entire day...no skiing at all. Too bad we headed back to Spring in Virginia because the area has been hit several more times since we've packed up our equipment for the year. Next year we won't be making that mistake again...

Well that about does it for this trip. We're in 'discussions' about our next one...a trip back to Wyoming and Montana during August or possibly a trip north through Canada along the Alaskan Highway to Alaska. Hawaii has been mentioned too...we've only canceled that trip 2 times during the last 12 months. Any suggestions? Anyone?

Welcome Back to Virginia

2009-03-15T21:51:00.004-04:00

We're back at home tonight for the first time since January 11th. Thinking that we'll post a final writeup of the trip in a few days. We still need to unload the car & get everything put away. Then try to get back into the groove...things like grocery shopping, cooking, & especially going out for coffee. You know the important stuff so check back in a few days for our final thoughts on this trip.

I Was Right

2009-03-14T22:42:00.008-04:00

Yep, I was right about the drive today...not much of interest along the way. Cindi amused herself trying to capture pictures of birds. There must have been thousands of ducks and geese migrating North. The swirling masses of birds did entertain us for a few hours, but then it was all about the driving. As we drove we noticed that there were a rather large number of hawks along the roadside...one observation is that the Idaho & Montana hawks must be smarter than those in Illinois or Indiana 'cause the number of bodies we observed along the road was noticeable.

At least the red wing black birds know to keep your friends close and your enemies closer.....

Occasionally, a sign would catch our attention, but other than that not much else to report.

The best one is much too blurring, but fun none the less...who would like to try eating at the Possum Trot Restaurant? Anyone?

Corn sculpture is all the rage in Iowa, Illinois or was it Indiana?...who can spot the cow & pig?

Drive and Drive Some More

2009-03-13T23:00:00.012-04:00

Today we once again turned east...maybe it'll stick this time. The drive was mostly just driving. Not much to report other than the sightings of a few critters along the route. Quite a few hawks of various types...red tail, rough legged, Cooper's along with numerous bald eagles, but no photographic documentation of any on them. Extremely difficult to get a decent shot of anything when zooming along at 75 mph.

One last view of the mountains of Montana

Once we entered the flatland of South Dakota's wheat/corn country we spotted several ring necked pheasants along the roadside. Once again not able to get clear shots of the birds just take our word for it. Also the usual mule deer & white tail deer wandering along the road and in the fields.

We didn't expect to see prong horns, but we did. Maybe they need a compass 'cause they've wandered into South Dakota further than they are said to be...well past the "150 miles of Cody, WY" alleged in our research.

We'll leave you with a few more shots we did get today....moon at sunrise over Montana and one more sunrise shot.

Our next segment of driving will be even more uninteresting we're afraid...Sioux Falls to Louisville, KY...but you never know what we may find to sidetrack us along the way.

Another Montana Ski Day

2009-03-12T18:24:00.006-04:00

Not much to say today. The weather was beautiful with bright blue skies and little wind...maybe a bit on the cold side. We went back to Bridger Bowl and skied all day. I'm almost to the point of thinking that boarding beats skiing. Cindi's still dithering.

Tomorrow we turn east and drive. A lot. Unless we find powder along the way or deem Snowshoe worthy our ski/board bum days are done.

Observation for the day: 19 days of skiing and boarding this season and no injuries. Plus 2 POWDER days!

Second observation of the day...Tom, these guys are still nuts.

I'm Married to a Snowboarding Queen

2009-03-11T01:24:00.001-04:00

As of today, we have been gone for 2 months.

The TV said it was -6F this morning and I wouldn't argue. At least it was sunny and with no wind it really wasn't too bad. We put on an extra layer and headed up to Bridger Bowl. There was more snow around than when we were here a month ago and we had a 'blue sky' day; very nice indeed.

Cindi decided to start out on the board to stay warm and stayed with it all day; a first. She ain't the fastest boarder out there, but she's doing blues and blacks and she is the only over-40 female boarder that we have seen the entire trip. Pretty cool. Anyway enjoy the pics. They don't do justice, but no pic can.

Those little black dots along the top of the ridge are the insane people walking up to the death-wish area. You know, the near-vertical, double-black chutes with rocks, trees and cliffs. Tom H. wishes he was with these guys, but I'm OK just watching.

Bill and Cindi's Most Excellent Adventure

2009-03-10T00:51:00.001-04:00

We were planning on skiing at Snowy Range outside Laramie and then heading home; but then we got a big storm Monday night. Tuesday morning we checked the slope conditions (Solitude in Salt Lake City got 26 in., Bridger Bowl in Bozeman got 18 in. and Snowy Range got several inches) and road conditions and after some discussion (OK a lot of discussion) we headed off to Bozeman for a second time. I wasn't sure we would be able to make it to Bozeman in one day, but what the heck. It was around 0F but thankfully not much wind; at least not much for WY. The road had patchy snow for almost the entire trip, but with virtually no traffic, we could still make 65-75mph in most places.

We heard that the jackalope was not real, but we saw this one sitting up on a hill.

I'm pretty sure we set a new 'dirty car' record.

Sunset in Bozeman, MT.

I'm....Out.....of....Breath

2009-03-09T23:40:00.000-04:00

I made Cindi come back to Laramie mainly to go snow shoeing in the Snowy Mountains. Unfortunately I didn't really take the 10,000+ ft. elevation into account. We did go, but it was real work. We only went about a mile with 600 ft. climb, but it took an hour and we were dead. I wanted to get to the high central plateau, but no way. In between oxygen-deprivation black-outs it was really pretty though.

On the way up to the mountains, Cindi got our first good pic of a golden eagle.

The snow up here is REALLY deep.

Apparently the snow is so deep the outhouses need their own snow shovels.

Suited-up and ready to go.

View from 10,400' back towards Laramie. It's way down there in the valley 30 mi. horizontal and 3,400 ft. vertical.

Hey Bill. Are you sure that's the way back?

Sunday Morning Driving

2009-03-08T22:55:00.004-04:00

As you can tell from our silence we've been a tad bit too busy to write...oh well. A funny thing did happen to us when we walked into the McDonald's for our breakfast before heading out of Salt Lake City...we met a fellow Hokie...class of 1977 too. We invited him to eat with us so we can talk all things Hokie. About an hour later we exchanged info & finally headed off towards Laramie.

More WY landscapes

WY does wind energy.

We actually drove back to Laramie by way of the Interstate...surprising right? Not much to report other than it was a bright sunshine day and windy once in Laramie, but what else is new. Must report that when we checked the weather when we hit the hotel we noticed the impending snow dump about to hit where we just left. We ALMOST decided to head back down to Salt Lake Monday early AM...we didn't.

Side Note: Solitude received 26 inches of snow from the storm Monday night through Tuesday AM...shoot. Imagine the powder runs we missed out on...I'm really trying not to think about it.

Another Day In (Snow) Paradise

2009-03-07T20:36:00.007-05:00

It was supposed to have snowed last night so we went skiing to try some more powder. It had not snowed, but it was a 'blue-sky day' so it was still good. Cindi improved her boarding, but otherwise, nothing notable. We did get some OK pics.

Yes Tom, those are fresh tracks in Solitude's back bowl.

Engineering Break

2009-03-06T18:09:00.004-05:00

Today we took a short break from skiing/boarding. Since no snow fell overnight and there are reports of snow tonight we decided to wait for more powder & add another day to our stay in Salt Lake. One of us is more enthusiastic than the other about the possibility of more powder. The other claims she's not doing 100% powder runs since it seems to shorten her boarding time. Maybe she needs to just dump her skis and board the powder...not happening, but one can dream.

We also took the time to do our laundry...fun time.

With time on my hands I did what any other self-respecting engineer would do....I pulled out the old calculator and crunched some numbers. Since we left home we have been 10,156 mi. and we have bought 411.5 gal. of gas. The car has averaged 24.7 mpg which isn't bad considering the cartop carrier we're lugging around. Last time we came out west we got about 26 mpg headed west and about 28 headed east. So far it looks like the cartop carrier is costing about 1-2 mpg which is about what I expected.

Now for an observation...drivers seem to be in a 'rushed' state of mind in this area. It's been quite sometime since we've seen drivers like they have around this city. Who knew...last night we decided to take a tally of the bad habits & sometimes very dangerous actions we've seen in our 5 days in the city.
-as we were in the process of backing out of a parking space a car came at full speed around the corner & swerved around us to get to the light...no brake action on their part.
-car driving the wrong way to get to the drive through, blocking the parking lot
-cars (multiple) weaving at high rates of speed on a packed I-15.
-car we had just seen pulled for excessive speed pass us 10 minutes later going at a high rate of speed...multiple tickets anyone?
-how about driving the wrong direction on a 4 lane road about a block in order to get to a cross over (2 times so far)...next to the parking lot speedster this one is jaw dropping.
-rolling stops, no turn signals and speeding are all common.

What a Difference a Day Makes

2009-03-05T19:05:00.011-05:00

Today we headed back up to Solitude Mount ain for another day of fun in the snow. Let's just say that there was a bit more snow on the slopes in which to play...how about 12 inches more. Yep, a POWDER day to be sure. Since we haven't had very many of those in our 18+ years of skiing it's a bit taxing...as in more work for our brains and bodies so we weren't as able to shut down the lifts.

Hey Cindi, make sure you get the back window while you're at it.

Not quite first tracks, but close

Knee deep in powder. (There may some evidence on my back of a few falls.)

One of us chose to board the entire day and no it wasn't the girl. It's much more fun on powder to fall than it is on the ice. No pain and a big poof of snow when you hit the ground. It does mean that it is harder to get up when you put your hand down and it disappears into the snow without hitting anything hard. Loved the day especially watching everyone else on the slopes whooping it up just like us only a little more loud.

Cindi even received a shout out and new title "Queen of Powder" from some 20 something on the lift.

Here's proof that Bill can ride powder. Tom H., eat your heart out or better yet come on out. We'll meet you somewhere.

A Rather "Icy" Day

2009-03-04T19:26:00.003-05:00

Since we've been on our little jaunt to various ski areas we've heard the occasional "man, it sure is icy". We look at each other & laugh. These people have been spoiled apparently 'cause we haven't seen any ICE. At least not ice like we're used to seeing...you know the type...hard as concrete, shiny & fast? Well we haven't see any...until today.

Yep, it took us until we reached the great state of Utah...license plates around here claim the "Greatest Snow on Earth" and "Ski Utah". People even apologized to us about the lack of good snow. We must say that although it was not as bad as Snowshoe can get it wasn't as good as we had hoped. At least when we compare today's snow to Montana's. Guess who wins? We've been told to hang in there because snow is in the forecast tonight, Thursday, Friday & Saturday. We may have Utah Powder yet. I'll stop complaining now...starting to sound like some of the locals. We did find a few slopes to be in much better shape than others so we still had a good day on the slopes.

After lunch we broke out the boards since the light was getting flat making the skiing even more difficult.

Cindi's getting pretty good boarding now. Now that she has the turns down, she's trying to pick-up the speed. She's falling a bit but coming along quick.

OK; OK. I'll Catch-up

2009-03-03T01:37:00.001-05:00

I'm 4 days behind, but here goes with catching-up.

I'll be brief. The giant sequoia trees are, in fact, giant and you could, in fact, die in Death Valley. As a side note it would be a really pretty place to die.

Basically, the pictures don't do justice for either, but words will do even worse so I'm not even going to try.

I hope y'all enjoy the pics.

These trees are REALLY big.

As we drove along one of the side roads we found a grove of some sort of fruit trees outside Fresno...a lot of trees in shades of lovely pink & white.

A red-tailed hawk gave us a pose on an old chimney on our way out to Sequoia National Park. As you can probably tell he really likes his perch & uses it quite a bit.

We got lucky and it had in fact rained several days before we arrived in Death Valley. The desert west of Death Valley had some green and flowers. It wasn't exactly a 'desert bloom', but it was still nice & quite a radical change from the surrounding areas that did not get the rain.

Coming in from the wes t, one of the first sights in Death Valley is a large set of sand dunes created by prevailing winds meeting the mountains at one end of the valley.

We had quite a time hiking out into the dunes. Unfortunately we didn't find any Sidewinder's...only lizards. But this guy seemed to like it out on the dunes & in the yellow bushes.

If you double click and zoom way in, our car is back on the road. Cindi was right, the top of this dune was a lot further than it looked.

This guy didn't make it back in too good a shape. We imagine he had quite a bit of sand in areas that he wished he didn't. Sand Angels are probably not a good idea.

In these parts, it's all downhill from here.

At least it's downhill until you get here. This is the lowest point in the US.

This is a look at the mountain behind the sign above. If you double click and zoom way in on the little white rectangle in the upper left, you will see where sea level is...mmmm, hoping for no earthquake
about now.

Pics from a hike to a natural bridge and beyond.

Hey Cindi, that rock over your head looks pretty unstable.

Don't look down now!

We found a salt bed called The Devil's Golf Course. The blocks are about 1.5 ft. across and the salt formations are nearly as sharp as glass.

As we walked across the 'course' we found it a wee bit difficult to take closeups...where do you put a hand to get up? What if you fell? Thankfully no mishaps among the crystals...close calls though.

Some great views from Dante's Overlook which was 5,500 ft. above the valley floor.

Only a few of the 1,000 pics we took in Death Valley. (I hope you people appreciate the work I'm doing to sort through all these pics!)

This raven had obviously been fed by people. He liked to pose...a lot.

After lunch on the second day in Death Valley Cindi decided she wanted to try out the 4-wheel drive so off we went on a none-to-good jeep trail. It followed a creek bed up into the Echo Canyon area of the Funeral Range. We didn't know how far or where it went, but it was pretty.

After 10 mi. it ended at the abandoned Inyo Mine. They tried to mine gold here off and on from 1897 to 1941 with obviously little success. Apparently the claims are still valid. (Google's great, ain't it.)

THE END. Oh wait there is a little more below.

After Death Valley we took off for Salt Lake City to ski some at Solitude. There isn't much on the road to Salt Lake City except Las Vegas. But, since that's not exactly our style we did not get any pics.

We took a rest day on 3/3. We drove up to Solitude to get oriented and Cindi went to a yarn store. What we could see of the drive up to Solitude was quite pretty. The road follows a creek up a narrow, rocky canyon with lots of snow. Unfortunately the wind in Salt Lake valley was gusting up to 50 mph which created a dust storm and you really couldn't see much. It looked like light fog; you could see up to about a mile, but pics were just gray.

Tomorrow we ski Solitude if the weather cooperates: wind and possible rain in forecast. We'll see in the morning.

Most Impressive Drive

2009-02-26T23:11:00.029-05:00

Last night I studied Google maps to find the least obvious way to get to Fresno and I think I did pretty well. We only went 316 mi. but it took us 10 hours...an average of 31.6 mph for you non-engineers. We started out going back up Mount Rose Road and crossing over to Lake Tahoe. It was foggy, snowing and windy at the top of Mount Rose and did not clear until we were almost at the lake.

We were really excited about the possibility of driving in the snow today. Yeah, we know that's a crazy notion, but we find it to be so much fun. Afterall we do have a 4 wheel drive vehicle that hasn't had an awful lot of chance to use it's capability...gotta a chance to test it today. It passed!

What we could see of Lake Tahoe through the snow squalls was gorgeous and the 30-50 mph winds coming across the lake towards us created waves 2-3' high.

After we crossed into CA, we listened to the road condition radio and found out that the passes we intended to take across the Sierra Nevada mountains (Luther's Pass and Carson Pass) both required 4WD or chains. We've got 4WD and the chains so we stuck to Plan A and headed out for what we hoped would be an adventurous drive. Man it snows a lot up there. Going up the east side of the mountain the snow along the road was 12-18" deep and it was snowing pretty good, but the road was clear of snow...darn. We proceeded. Between Luther's Pass and Carson Pass there is a high plateau that was just plain beautiful. There were lots of places to go cross country skiing or snowshoeing. Too bad we were on a tight schedule...yeah I said it we had an actual schedule today.

We did see a dog sled and stopped for a few pictures as they were getting harnessed. We had no idea how excited these dogs were to start running. They were barking and jumping around like crazy until they took off and then they were all just running flat out with a sled hooked to them. The musher and her 'cargo' of people must have had to hang on for dear life.

As we approached Carson Pass on the west side of the plateau the snow along the road kept getting deeper, it kept snowing harder and the road got covered pretty well. It was slow going, but great fun.

Even watching the snow plows work was great entertainment.

Kind of deep isn't it? No idea how it stays up on the hillside and not on top of us.

It was really pretty, but I ain't stopp'n....

By the time we got down off the mountain it was 60F and sunny. What a difference a few thousand feet makes. After lunch, Cindi took over driving and we followed a series of large reservoirs (New Melones, New Don Pedro and McClure) along the base of the Sierra Nevada's until the road headed west over to Fresno. The reservoirs are built in REALLY DEEP valleys and the road is barely hanging on the edge of the mountains. In the direction we were headed we were almost always on the outside edge and once again there was a 12" wide shoulder with NO guard rail...Cindi loves that...well not really. It was pretty spooky and Cindi spent half her time on the other side of the yellow line trying to keep away from the edge. I just tried not to look down. The scenery was spectacular though.

The road was already narrow, but sure enough it got narrower.

All the reservoirs were way below full (about 170' below full). Overall, CA reservoirs are about 65% of normal. I suspect that southern California is in for a water shortage this summer. Seeing these reservoirs also gave me some insight into what the environmental wacko's out here are looking at. There are so many reservoirs and they are so big that they capture almost all of the free-flowing water coming out of the Sierra Nevada's and redirect it to Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley. In one place, we were driving along the river downstream from one of these reservoirs and the river bed was all-but dry. I can't remember which one, but McClure for example has 1,500 cubic feet per sec coming in and they are releasing only 47 cfs. Whatever normally would use the water downstream (both people and/or wildlife) are in big trouble.

The four pipelines from one of the reservoirs heading up the mountainside towards Southern California.

You can see where the water would be if the reservoir was full. That small patch of blue in the lower left is the actual water level.

There is a frog jumping contest May, but we didn't see any frogs. I guess it's too early.

Once out of the mountains, we actually saw our first signs of Spring...green grass and some wild flowers. Tomorrow it's back up to the mountains in Sequoia National Park to see some really big trees...hopefully drive/walk through General Sherman.

I heard that CA drivers were wild, but this is ridiculous!

From snow to palms in five hours. Amazing isn't it?

Mount Rose and the Wind

2009-02-25T01:22:00.003-05:00

Today we headed up to Mount Rose Ski Resort just outside of Reno. When we arrived yesterday in Reno we found temperatures in the 60's and worried about what to wear skiing today...figured we may have spring like conditions. What we found was not Spring in any form. When we arrived at the parking lot which happens to be at 8620 feet we found wind, cold and some snow flying around. Glad we decided to wear our usual gear...really glad once we were on the lifts.

On the road up to Mount Rose we noticed a very important sign. We didn't stop.

The winds were blowing between 25-30 mph at the summit (9700 feet) which was not pleasant, especially when the lift we happened to be on didn't have a safety bar. Really not pleasant when we strapped into our snowboards...anyone for snow sailing from a lift? We're thinking that this place would have some really beautiful scenery...if you could see it, but the clouds & fog weren't helpful in that department.

The skiing was affected as well with the low visibility and high winds making the skiing so unpleasant we decided to switch to our boards right before lunch. The bunny slopes were a little too flat for working on Cindi's boarding so we took a break before trying something a tad bit steeper. Little did we know that things were about to get very interesting. You see when we came back out after lunch one of our boards went MIA...as in gone. The board simply vanished...not pleased after looking through all the racks and under the decks Cindi headed inside to report the theft of her board. Thankfully a fellow skier noticed us looking around & asked if we were missing a red board 'cause it just so happened that he'd seen it take off down the hill at a rapid rate. Apparently the high wind had blown it off the rack and gravity took over from there.

I dragged Cindi back outside to search the hills & ravines for her board...really wish we had bought our snowshoes out to the slopes because there was a good bit of snow to sink our feet into as we headed down the slope & into the woods. Thankfully we found the board stuck in some brush so we could resume our day without having to go board buying...thank goodness!

After some coaxing, Cindi agreed to head up to her first significant blue run. After some getting used to the steepness, she took to carving turns like a pro. Well at least she was making turns on some pretty steep stuff. Next, I'll have to work on her speed.

View of Reno from Mount Rose Road.

The gas station next to our hotel.

Coyotes and Dust Devils

2009-02-24T23:21:00.012-05:00

Today we headed down to Reno, NV. It's a long way and not much in the way of excitement. Snow covered mountains are always in sight, but the drive is through mostly flat desert. There were four places where the road actually went absolutely straight for 15-20 mi. Which means it must be pretty boring if the best thing we could do was measure the straight pieces of road.

This is the road out of Boise.

The road into Rome, OR.

One heck of a straight road.

We did see a coyote cross the road right in front of the car and he stuck around for some close-ups. That was it for wildlife, no deer, no pronghorn, nothing but one coyote...oh and the usual cattle & horses sprinkled through parts of Idaho, Oregon & Nevada.

After passing through W innemucca, NV the excitement for the afternoon was watching dozens of dust devils spin across the desert.

In Rome, OR we saw this sign. The town is composed of one derelict building so I guess the 'Congestion' refers to the six horses behind the building.

Only one more thing to say about the long drive...why does Oregon post speed limits of 55 MPH when the road is straight & absolutely nothing for miles? What's up with that...every sane person traveled much faster.

Smurf Field

2009-02-23T00:30:00.002-05:00

We hit the road early and happily left Spokane in the rear view mirror. It was rainy and foggy for the first twenty or thirty miles but just before we reached Pullman, WA it cleared-out.

So long Spokane.

Pullman seemed to be your typical college town (Washington State) and reminded us of Blacksburg except it was REALLY hilly and there was NOTHING else anywhere close.

Here's the Washington State Cougar.

Here's the biggest thing to hit Pullman since WSU beat UW. At the time both were winless in Div. 1 but it still took OT to determine the biggest loser. UW finished 0-12, WSU 2-10. There other win was Portland State. Maybe we'll have to come back for the Lentil Festival in Aug. so we can make it back to B'burg for actual football.

The surrounding countryside is called the Palouse Region and is very rich rolling hills that have been converted from prairie to wheat, barley and lentil farming. It's really amazing that they farm virtually road-to-road. It makes the region seem very artificial but they must turn out an amazing amount of wheat. The region has an unusual earthworm, the Palouse earthworm, that is white, grows to 3 ft. long, smells like lillies and spits in selfdefense. Who knew?

Further south we came to the Snake River canyon. The road just breaks over a hill and then plunges into the 2,000 ft. deep canyon. There are no trees and it's so immense you loose all perspective and get a little (OK, a lot) dizzy. We took the old road built in 1917 and it had a million switchbacks. There was no guardrail and Cindi didn't care much for the expansive view when she was on the outside edge. I didn't care much for it when I was on the outside either.

View into the Snake River gorge. They ain't kiddn' about the shoulder either.

"Hey, what are you looking at? I was here first, and I don't need no stink'n fence!" (Note that this was on the road down into the Snake River gorge and those rotten posts are what pass for a guard rail in the few places that there is anything.)...get this the road's name is "Old Spiral Road" at least according to George (our GPS).

From there we followed various rivers and creeks all the way to Boise. One comment on the economy was when the road followed a spur railroad that had a line of furloughed pulpwood rail cars that was 17 miles long! That's a lot of lumberjacks, railworkers and millworkers out of work. The river gorges and high plateaus were spectacular and overall this was some of the best scenery of the trip. It would have been even better if the weather was better, but at least we got a few periods of real rain that washed the car off. This was the first rain of the whole trip.

We didn't get any really good pics, but here are the best we got.

On the last downhill run to Boise we left the rain behind and got a rainbow.

This has nothing to do with anything, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't name my convenience store chain 'Stinker'. I'm really sure that if there was a convince store chain named Stinker and I was Jack in the Box, I wouldn't get affiliated with them.

Hey, what'da know, Smurf Field really is blue.

Tomorrow, Reno or Bust.

Washday

2009-02-22T23:40:00.002-05:00

We needed a break from the action today, we washed clothes and had Thai for dinner. Sorry, no pics.

Taking a Wrong Turn

2009-02-21T18:17:00.000-05:00

As we were trying to leave Kalispell we noticed the local car & dog wash located at a gas station. Can you imagine a place where you can get both the car & dog all washed as you get a cup of coffee...imagine the new business opportunities this could bring to Midlothian.Cindi also decided that she had to visit the local yarn shop, Camas Creek. After reading about the shop online she had to stop by to see it for herself on our way out of town. She claims that it is the most beautiful shop she's been in...we know she's been in quite a few so that's quite a statement. The couple renovated an old 1925 building...restored the tin ceiling and added quite a few sofas, chairs and even a faux fireplace to knit beside. Not to mention the yarn & all the supplies to go along with knitting...she wished she'd dropped by earlier in the week. Thankfully for the budget she didn't get the chance.

Finally we reluctantly left Montana and headed off towards Idaho by way of another one of those scenic highways. As we drove along we kept seeing Bald Eagles roosting in the nearby trees alongside the road. We'd love to post pictures if only the camera person could have gotten the shots off in time. (Edited: by Camera Person...the driver should have pulled over whenever she pointed out the eagles.) So you'll just have to take our word on the fact that yes we did see 5-7 bald eagles along the Kootenai River. We did get a shot of one of several nests we saw along the way though...not an eagle, but it will have to do.

We drove through one of the last towns in Montana called Libby that claimed to be the "home of eagles"...yep, it pretty much was as you can tell by their sign. There must have been 6 or so different sculptures of different eagles along the route. Not sure how you go about erecting something so large, but all were very realistic. We don't know about y'all, but we learned a different way to park
our cars at school. The town must
have a rather large art community or an awful lot of free time.

About the only other thing we can say about the drive was that once you hit Idaho the term "scenic drive" didn't exactly fit. No really big mountains or wide vistas so not much to see why this was called a scenic highway in Idaho. Although it does seem that ice fishing is a popular activity...lots of frozen ponds with people & snow machines. We don't get it, but there were quite a few people out on the ice staring into the holes...must be the beer.

One other thing we noticed...drivers must have Idaho potatoes between the ears because why else would they need this reminder?Once we arrived in Spokane Valley you could tell that we must have become "wyomingnized or montananized" because between the traffic & number of people in these parts we both wanted to head back there. Not much else to say other than that about our first impressions of the area.

On a Clear Day You Can See....Stuff

2009-02-20T22:45:00.019-05:00

Today we went back to Glacier Park to hike to the McDonald Creek water fall which is about 2 mi. upstream from the end of the road. When we left the hotel room we discovered that it was actually a clear day, so we were pretty psyched about possible photo ops...we were not disappointed. We parked at the McDonald Lodge and hiked up the same snow covered road as Tuesday, but this time we followed the map instead of my hunch. Between the scenery and the blue-sky day, we came out with some really good pics.

I'll bet it's cold up there.

I know it's cold down here at McDonald Creek water fall.

Avalanche! Now where did I put that avalanche beacon?

Looks like I walked her straight into a nap.

The happy couple at McDonald Lake, Glacier Nat'l. Park.

Cindi, look out for...........the ice!

Wow. We really need to get back here when we can drive all the way on Going to the Sun Road.

More than 2 Virginians Ski Whitefish

2009-02-19T21:41:00.003-05:00

Today we headed off to Whitefish for another day of skiing. Our mission for the first run or so was to see if there happened to be another slope for a boarding beginner. One not too steep or too narrow so not to die going down toe side...very important for the beginning boarder.

After one run we headed to the top of the mountain before the fog totally enveloped the area. Guess who we found right by the slope side map...a fellow Virginian by the name of Glenn. Whitefish has Resort Ambassadors who help out on the slopes. They also conduct "tours" of the resort which is terrific since it is a rather large place. We happened along just as Glenn was preparing for one of their scheduled tours...he offered to show us one of his favorite runs and off we went for a tour of over 2 hours. What a great way to get a feel for the mountain and how to get from one lift to another without pulling out our map. He was a great guide and full of good information about the area. We must say that we were pretty much ready for a break after all the runs we managed to squeeze in that 2 hour period...Moose's was a favorite and the Ptarmigan Bowl was a wee bit scary due to flat light, but man was it fun. After Glenn left us we headed in for some lunch and to warm up. Since we had learned so much new terrain with Glenn we decided to hold off boarding for a little longer & head back up to the top for more skiing.

In time though Cindi had to practice her boarding skills & we switched out our equipment. She's improving all the time, but still gets concerned about the "obstacles"...you know things such as other skiers, both big & small, along with the cones that instructors put all over the darn hill. She really dislikes all of these "problems" so she needed some instruction or a better word would be ORDERS. Cindi followed the orders pretty well and did exactly as the Instructor said...until he said to turn toe side when heel side was the correct "order"...she fell. At that point she ignored his orders and did exactly what she wanted...until her brain turned off & it was time to pack it in for the day.

Sorry we were unable to take any pictures of our day on the mountain...flat light, fog, fast skiing, & having way too much fun to stop...take your pick.

Snowshoes Anyone?

2009-02-18T23:46:00.011-05:00

Today we took a 4 mi. stroll in Glacier Nat'l. Park on snowshoes. We thought walking would be tricky but we just strapped 'em on and started our walk. From where the road was blocked off, we hiked up the road about 1.5 mi. and then took a side trail another 0.5 mi. up to a small frozen lake called Johns Lake. We then found that we could take the Sperry Trail through the woods that ran parallel to the road all the way back to the car. The walk through the woods was magnificent with large red cedar, pine, fir and hemlock trees. To top it off it was snowing. When you stopped walking it was one of the quietest places we have ever experienced...with no wind, no bugs, no anything to make a sound. We hoped to see some wildlife, but we never saw anything other than some deer tracks and only heard one bird, but it was still a beautiful walk.

When we got back to the parking lot we noticed a map that we had missed before and it turns out there is a water fall on the other side of the road from Johns Lake. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to go back.

Nice macro shot!

Ski Whitefish

2009-02-17T22:43:00.001-05:00

We've gotten pretty spoiled with the skiing we've been able to do. Today we headed out to Whitefish Ski Resort...formerly called Big Mountain. Out of everywhere we've skied we had the most perfect parking spot...how about 25 feet from a lift. Can it get any better than that? Nope! By being so close we could head back to the car and switch gear and even grab lunch. With so much terrain to ski we were not able to get to much before we needed a break to warm up our toes.

Whitefish definitely had the most spectacular views of any ski area to date. Off to the North you had views of the Canadian Rockies and Glacier National Park and to the South you could see the towns of Whitefish & Kalispell along with several frozen lakes. Thankfully, we had mostly clear skies and not the dreaded fog the top of Big Mountain is known to have in the winter. Unfortunately, we didn't have a bright blue sky to set off the mountains...

After lunch and a great conversation with some Canadians visiting from Alberta we broke out the snowboards. Cindi spent the next 4 hours or so figuring out the idiosyncrasy's of heel to toe edging and the importance of choosing a "leading foot". Ultimately she was able to achieve success and link everything together into a couple of pretty decent runs. She was even able to get off the lift upright...well most of the time anyway. On this trip she was the one run into by another newbie boarder. Not to worry though she took him out when he ran over her board.

How would y'all like this job? No way I'd do it...

Another Monday Morning

2009-02-16T18:06:00.000-05:00

Today we decided rather than ski over a holiday (after all we're "retired") we'd drive back out towards Glacier N ational Park & points south. The park's main road, Going to the Sun Road, is open from the west entrance for about 10 miles to Lake McDonald. Unfortunately for us the whole road is not open in the winter...the views would be incredible based on the pictures we've see around town & elsewhere.

We drove to the end of the road and realized that we really do need some snowshoes so we can really hike in the "backcountry"...or maybe cross country skis perhaps? Instead of moose sightings maybe we'd catch a glimpse of mountain lions or bears. At least that was what all the warning signs posted claimed. Not sure either of us wanted an actual lion or bear sighting...not close anyway.

As we headed back out the road we found a boat ramp for some picture taking...even in less than perfect conditions it's simply stunning. We left the Park & headed on Route 2 until we traveled across the Continental Divide at Marias Pass and had a car picnic.

On our trip back towards Kalispell we came upon a mountain side that you just knew had wildlife somewhere on it. We've been on a moose hunt since Laramie so we pulled over to investigate...thank goodness we bought the binoculars.

After a couple of minutes we found one lonely deer laying out in the open which seemed odd to us so we kept looking for his friends. We then discovered a small herd of 10 or so Mule deer foraging through the snow cover.

After a bit we even came upon a small herd of Elk foraging above the deer. In the herd we saw our first male Elk with his antlers still attached. You gotta look hard to see them, but he does have a rack. Still no moose sightings so we have to keep looking...

As we drove back through Hungry Horse we chose yet another side trip to see the Hungry Horse Dam. Pretty impressive hunk of concrete at 564 feet tall. They even allow cars to drive across the top of the dam to a road on the other side, but no we did not discover where that road led since it was getting late.

More shots from our day in Glacier...left to right...click to enlarge.

Top Row: Going to the Sun Road, Mountain Views south of Glacier, Railroad's "avalanche protection" tunnel.
Middle Row: Obelisk dedicated to Teddy Roosevelt at Marias Pass, More Mountain views
Bottom Row: View from Hungry Horse Dam, another Rail avalanche tunnel, Hungry Horse Dam

Sunday Traditions...Now

2009-02-15T21:12:00.000-05:00

Our habit on this trip has been to do the driving on Saturdays, then wander around the new town on Sundays. It seems to work very well & we avoid problems with traffic & parking in downtown areas. So today as is our custom we drove out to W hitefish Mountain Resort (formerly Big Mountain) to check it out prior to skiing. Located right outside the town of Whitefish, MT you can see the mountain runs long before you get to town...at least if the fog hasn't enveloped the mountain you can see them.

As we drive up the mountainside we noticed quite a bit of real estate for sale...so we decided to check out what was available. What do you think? Which did we choose? Mmmmm...

After we drove around the resort we discovered the perfect spot to park for our ski day. Located right by a lift the attendant said that rather than a $5 lot as it was on Sunday it would be free during the week! Yippee for free...almost a ski out location slope side. Heading back through Whitefish we stopped at the local McDonald's for a quick break and found this sign outside....good to know.

After the excursion up to Whitefish we headed off in the direction of Glacier National Park. We ended up in the towns of Hungry Horse & West Glacier...too bad the weather was mostly too foggy & cloudy for much in the way of picture taking. The scenery was breathtaking even with all the fog...you knew that there were some big mountains all around us.

Valentine's Day Driving

2009-02-14T19:19:00.005-05:00

Today we left Bozeman and headed north for Kalispell, MT. Kalispell is about 30 miles west of Glacier National Park. The area has quite a few large glacial lakes...both Flathead & Whitefish Lakes are both frozen solid at the moment, but there seems to be a good number of boaters & fishermen around this place. We never thought we'd be this far north so early in our trip, but the weather has been terrific for both driving & skiing/boarding. Although on the drive from Bozeman we actually drove through several snow showers & fog so for the first time no pictures from the actual drive...well except for one.

As we stopped for gas in Missoula, MT we noticed this sign...click to enlarge

After arriving in Kalispell we drove around a bit to see where we could go for a Valentine's dinner...ended up at Mackenzie River Pizza. Must say that the pizza was excellent as was the beer...Driftboat Amber. Cindi even got a rose from the visit...good thing since I had not gotten any flowers for her. We'll have to visit again before we leave since for some reason pizza & skiing go very well together.

More Bridger Bowl

2009-02-13T00:08:00.002-05:00

On 2/12 and 13 we went back to board and ski at Bridger Bowl. Cindi's get'n a lot better at boarding. She can now control both heel and toe edge pretty well, can transition from toe to heel easily and can usually make the heel to toe transition. Of course she did run into a fellow female boarder who was just sitting in the middle of the slope getting a lesson, but other than that, she's doing pretty good.

It was a really pretty day on 2/12.

We both got a little hurt on Friday (hey, it was Friday the 13th). Cindi took a tumble boarding and pulled a muscle in her abdomen. She still skied the rest of the day, but had to watch the turns & bumps. Then, late in the day I decided it might be fun to try a long, black set of moguls. Unfortunately, that's really not a great idea when you're tired. I caught the tails on one of the turns and somehow it twisted my ankle. I still made another couple of runs, but it was pretty sore later.

I twisted my ankle when I dropped-in right here just at the bottom of this pic. It is also a good shot of where the death-wish guys come down. You can see their tracks in the sunny area above the trail.

Hey, what's she doing in the scenic shot?

A Rest Day and Some Snow Pics

2009-02-11T00:22:00.001-05:00

Today we took a drive down to West Yellowstone, WY which, surprisingly, is the west entrance to Yellowstone Park. On the drive down we followed the Madison River through a wide glacial valley with massive moraines similar to Jackson Hole. The moraines are piles of rubble left behind by glaciers. They look pretty weird because they are completely flat on top and since they are so porous, there aren't any gullies on the sides like you would expect.

Along this part of the drive we saw our first bald eagles. For some reason there were three of them sitting in a small grove of trees along the river, but we did not see them anywhere else. I guess the fishing is good there or something. (The pic is pretty pixelated because they were a really long way off.)

Here's the Madison River close to West Yellowstone. (This pic could end up on the wall.)

The town of West Yellowstone obviously gets a lot of snow. While Bozeman currently has no snow on the ground, West Yellowstone had a couple of feet and it was snowing hard when we were there. People had even taken snowmobiles to McDonald's.

Here's the McDonald's parking lot in West Yellowstone.

The road back to Bozeman follows the Gallatin River through a narrow and deep valley; very pretty.

They plow the roads a lot!

Like I said, the road was very pretty.

Snowshoes would probably have been useful here.

More Skiing (and Some Boarding)

2009-02-10T22:49:00.009-05:00

Well on the 9th and 10th we got back to skiing. This time we are at Bridger Bowl Ski Area, 16 mi. north of Bozeman. We don't have many pics because Monday was overcast, snowing and/or foggy most of the day and I forgot to bring the camera on Tuesday. Actually, I had it all along but I did not know it until we were finished for the day. Bridger Bowl is run by a non-profit foundation and at $45, it is remarkably inexpensive for what you get. It is a pretty big mountain (1,600' vertical for almost anyone, 2,000' vertical if you're braver and a grand 2,700' if you have a death wish) with more than enough lifts to prevent any lift lines.

Monday we just skied and explored most of the mountain. We both discovered "Bridger Bowl Reach for the Pole" was not just a corny saying...almost fell off the seat of the darn 2 seater lift. Why a pole in the middle of the seat? No safety bar and low arm rails to boot. Cindi started her day by losing not one pole, but both of them on the very first run. To be fair rather lose the poles than the person off the lift. After lunch, I finally got Cindi up on one of the higher lifts and the last 500' is almost straight up a cliff which was pretty impressive. The mountain above the upper lift house is 1,000' up and all rock, also very impressive.

There ain't but one way down from here, and you're lookn' at it.

Here's a shot of the upper 1,000' of the mountain. The death-wish guys actually ski that stuff. If you click the pic to expand it, you can see their tracks coming down to the trail in front of Cindi.

This is just one of the lift houses, but hey we are from Virginia...you can see the "Bridger Pole" in the middle of the chair.

On Tuesday, Cindi decided to put in some time on the board. I told her that one long run from a real lift beats the heck out of twenty short runs off the bunny lift. She actually bought it, so we headed off for a big-girl lift. She wound up making four runs and got both heel and toe edging down and a pretty good handle on toe-to-heel transition. The old heel-to-toe transition still has her baffled though. I must say that you would think she could at least get off the lift by now, but she fell all four times and took me out once...her third attempt proved that helmets are useful & essential since the chair went over top as she hit the ramp. She's getting really good at getting back up quick though. After a break, we changed back to skiing and had a relaxing afternoon.

This is nothing special, I just thought it was a nice shot.

A Pleasant Sunday Drive

2009-02-08T22:27:00.008-05:00

After a breakfast of Champions...cereal basically...we checked out of Motel 8. One of us went to check out while the other packed up the car, waited...waited some more...phoned...waited a while longer and then dragged out the computer while waiting some more. Finally appearing he explained that he was chatting with the 2 college students about Bozeman and why each had chosen Montana State...mountains seemed to be the theme.

The "delay" allowed us to change our plans slightly since the local Costco would now be opened. Off we headed to see if by chance they would have some cheap Ski Tickets...they did...only for Whitefish which is no where near Bozeman. We then headed off to see what Bridger Bowl Ski Area actually looked like on a beautiful Sunday morning. After parking the car we walked up to the lodges and the lifts. What was amazing was the fact that there were no lines...anywhere...which is unheard of from our experience skiing on any weekend. We thought for a few moments about heading back to the car and suiting up for some skiing, but ultimately decided to hold off until Monday.

After an attempt to call Tom to make him so very jealous we headed off for a drive down to Virginia City. Not much happening there in the winter...nothing open so we breezed right on through without stopping. We did stop for some pictures of grazing pronghorn and discovered one thing...they will not jump over fences. We came up on two standing right by the road rather than in the field with the rest of the herd. After pulling over to take their picture they ran up & down the fence looking for an escape route, finding none they just kept changing directions away from us. How are they moving through the ranges in vast numbers when there are so many fences? After exhaustive research Bill found this little nugget* regarding why they don't go over fences. Now we know.

View of Madison Valley from the top

*All these adaptations have made pronghorns excel in cursorial locomotion, but they can no longer jump because they have lost the suspension mechanism that cervids have. This explains their apparent fear of fences.

As always click any picture to enlarge

MT or Bust

2009-02-07T00:27:00.003-05:00

This morning we headed off to Bozeman, MT by back roads. The trip to Casper is wide-open space with far-off mountains. We did see our first elk herd just off the road. There must have been over a hundred. This pic is less than half the herd.

There's a whole lot of this from Laramie to Casper.

Just before you get to Thermopolis you go through a really magnificent gorge.

There is a rail road on the far side of the river through the gorge. Here is one of several tunnels.

Another gorge pic showing the river. It's a lot more impressive in person.

The road from Thermopolis to Cody.

We made it to MT! We still had 180 mi. to go. No more pics today. The MT mountains are big and the scenery was OK but just not as interesting as WY. There are a lot more trees and stuff, and it's probably very nice when it's green. But now it just kind of looks dead.

WY Skiing At Last

2009-02-06T23:26:00.001-05:00

Cindi got over her cold today and we set off for Snowy Range Ski Area 30 mi. west of Laramie. We had snow showers most of the day so the pics are pretty dull, but in person the scenery was pretty good. Snowy range is definitely a local place. It is small (by Western standards),only has 3 lifts, with only 2 running when we were there and almost no black runs. But overall, it was probably twice the size of Wintergreen or Massanutten and there were no lines at all on Friday.

Hey, that's me; and it's snowing!

A look across the valley.

A little to the left of the far mountain and thirty miles away is Laramie.

We went into the lodge for a break after a couple of hours and met Tiffany and her son Liam who had just moved to Cheyenne from Roanoke. Small world!

Later in the afternoon, I got to the lift and waited and waited and waited for Cindi, but she never showed. After sending one of the employees out on a snowmobile to find her, she finally showed-up. She had gone down the far side of the mountain to the second lift, which had not been open earlier. I need to give her a GPS transponder so I can keep track of where she goes.

For the last hour Cindi finally dragged-out the board and played on the bunny slope. She's OK on heel-side, but we need to get her something a little bigger to finally get her on toe-edge. Maybe MT.

First time on a magic carpet. It's OK but really slow.

She's look'n good heel-side.

Toe-side needs a wee-bit of work.

Another Day Off in Paradise

2009-02-05T19:40:00.017-05:00

Cindi was not quite up to skiing today, so we set-off to explore Vedeawoo again.

Some landscape shots from the top of a small hill we climbed.

Hey that's our car way down there!

Whod've guessed we would meet a woman terrorist on a hilltop in WY?

How the heck did they get that rock up there?

Be verwy, verwy quiet. We're hunting moose. We never did see one, live & in person.

More rocks! Wow, who knew there were so many? In balance with the universe? We think so...

Back in town we had to get a pic of the local yarn store, woohoo!

Cindi also got a nice pic of a section of downtown Laramie. But where are the cowboys and horses?

Tomorrow Cindi claims that she's going skiing whether she feels better or not. It is supposed to get to 50F so maybe she'll be OK. Right now she's complaining that she can't taste the 'orange' in the chocolate orange she got for Christmas. A bad sign don't you think?

Cindi Toughs It Out

2009-02-05T00:54:00.011-05:00

Cindi was still not feeling well today but we did walk around The University of Wyoming campus, got hair cuts and took another drive up to the Snowy Mountains.

Here are a couple of the UW buildings around Prexy's Pasture. It's about 1/10 the size of VT's drill field, but it's very pretty.

This is the old Territorial Prison. It's the only prison to have held Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid and is supposed to be really interesting inside but it's closed until Spring. I don't know how they got out.

Another Snowy Mountain pic.

Albany makes Centennial look really big (see 2/03/09). Why they have a sign is beyond me, but the view from the hill is pretty good.

Hopefully Cindi will feel up to skiing tomorrow.

Cindi's Sick Day

2009-02-04T00:14:00.001-05:00

Today Cindi called in sick and stayed in bed all day. I'm pretty sure she wasn't faking 'cause she looked like crap. I just took a drive back up to the Snowy Mountains and took some more pics.

View from between Snowy Mountains and Laramie back toward Laramie. A whole lot'a not much!

View from the same spot towards Snowy Mountains. A whole lot'a something!

I finally got pretty close to some pronghorns.

And some deer.

And the Centennial, WY police car.
(Note Centennial has a population of 100. The red lights are really painted coffee cans.)

Ve-what? Vedeawoo (& Cheyenne)

2009-02-02T22:23:00.000-05:00

Today we headed off to Cheyenne and of course we took a little detour through Vedeawoo (Ve-day-woo) National Recreation Area. This is a spectacular area east of Laramie where a layer of granite sits atop the normal soft sandstone in the area. This has created some very impressive terrain with boulder capped rolling mountains.

We started out on a very nice paved road but when we saw that one of the many dirt roads through the area took us back to I 80, well you can guess which way we went. The road was well maintained but the snow had drifted a couple of feet deep in many places, but due to Bill's expert driving skills we made it through. Cindi did check that we had the chains in the car.

The scenery was breathtaking, but taking pictures really took your breath away, litterally. It was about 25F and the sign on I 80 cautioned of wind gusts over 50 mph; wow was it ever cold. We really need to get back to this place in good weather; hiking heaven.

We saw our first wind farm of this trip just west of Cheyenne. It was pretty small with only twenty or thirty windmills, but they could've put a million windmills between Laramie and Cheyenne today and supplied all the electricity for the country. We heard that they also just approved another farm of 130 windmills for installation in '09 or '10.

We finally made it to Cheyenne, took a quick drive around the capital and had lunch down at the old restored train station which acts as the tourist info center. You could spend a couple of days seeing everything , but we had spent so much time in Vedeawoo that we had to choose so we went for the Wyoming State Museum. It's small but nice and was well worth the price (it's free). Overall our impression is that Cheyenne is another very nice, well maintained WY town. (So far in two trips we have only seen one WY town that we think would be unpleasant to live in. Rawlings, WY appeared to be a 'pure' cow-coal-and-oil town. Dusty streets and a lot of steel buildings. It is still well-maintained and nice for what it is, it's just pure utility.) By halfway through the museum, it was clear that Cindi had aquired my cold and she was fading fast, so we just headed back to Laramie.

This is the WY state capital building.

WY was a territory when it was the first jurisdiction to give women the right to vote in 1869 and Congress almost rejected their statehood because of this. They also had the first woman juror and first woman justice of the peace both in 1870 and first woman governor in 1924. This statue in front of the state capital is Esther Morris who was a primary proponent of the bill to allow women to vote.

Laramie, WY ??? Are you nuts?

2009-02-01T22:06:00.007-05:00

Today we took it easy so I could continue to recuperate from a cold by driving around Laramie. The town is only a couple of miles accross but it is really pleasant. It is basically a college town, but it is still a big rail junction. The old downtown is only a few blocks square but is still going strong with the usual college-town mix of coffee-shops, restaurants, bike shops, etc. The old late 1800 and early 1900 brick buildings have been maintained in perfect condition and they even retained the perpendicular parking.

The college campus is pretty small and appears to have become somewhat crowded. Remarkably, the main architectural theme is Hokie-stone. Actually it is a native reddish limestone that is cut like Hokie-stone but it still gave a familiar feeling to the place.

Here is an example of the stonework:

Of course we went by the Cowboy stadium as shown here. It's not Lane, but it ain't bad.

There are UW Cowboys everywhere. Fence post caps, most all of the UW signs, all street name signs in town and even the license plates. The one below is a full-size bronze statue located outside of the stadium gounds.

One of the downtown churches is also made from the reddish Hokie-stone. This is just one example of how well kept the town really is. By comparison, Taos seemed dirty and run-down.

Believe-it-or-not the pic below was taken at the police station. We don't know who put the state flag up-side down, but another flag at the opposite corner of the building was right-side up.

Now here's something you don't see back East. This pair of foxes had set-up home in the front yard of an elementary school. The plot of land was probably 100 ft. by 150 ft. with homes on three sides and the school on the forth. OK, behind the school was about 50 miles of open prairie before you hit the next set of mountains, but still it was pretty cool.

After touring town we headed up to the Snowy Mountains 30 miles west of town. Boy, they got the name right. Last week Laramie got 4 inches of snow while the mountains got up to 4 ft. The Snowy Mountain Scenic Highway goes right across the mountain range, but in the winter they close the road part way up and open up 225 mi. of snowmobile trails. You can see snowmobile tracks in the pic below.

We also took a look a Snowy Range Ski Resort. It's small (by Western standards) with only a 900 ft. vertical but it looked really nice for our modest snowboard abilities. Hopefully, I will get over my cold and we can board and hike the mountains later this week.

Tomorrow we plan to take a day trip to Cheyenne.

10 Hours to Wyoming

2009-02-01T19:54:00.011-05:00

We headed out of Taos Saturday morning for Laramie, Wyoming. After a review of all options for the drive we decided to take the "road less traveled". Everyone knows that given an option to avoid interstate travel we'll take it every time. Yes it did mean a rather long driving day of 10 plus hours versus the 7 1/2 hours through Denver (according to google maps), but have you been through Denver? It cannot be a sane drive with multiple interstates coming together...we may have made better time our way.

As we left New Mexico for Colorado we passed a community of "earth dwellers"...must say it was one strange collection of homes. Many had "art gardens' with fanciful wind socks or metal objects blowing & twirling in the wind...won't see that in Virginia. We passed into Colorado on one of the straightest roads the state must have...right across a valley straight as an arrow with mountains all around us. No traffic and speeds of 65 mph...perfect. We passed a large solar power farm which certainly fit the location.

We got on I-70 just west of Vail and the traffic was as expected...the road actually was a pretty though. We drove past Vail and could see some of their slopes right from the interstate...crowds too. After we noticed the sign for "Tunnel Ahead" we changed our plans to include the pass through the Loveland Pass tunnel. Bad mistake because as we exited the tunnel traffic was at a stand still or actually a creep. Why? We have no idea, just like a drive on I-95...lots of cars, lots of brake action and no sign of anything except a long downhill. We finally made it to our exit and happily got back into our back road odyssey.

Check out the route

View Larger Map
...zoom in close, especially on US 40 just north of I 70!
As we drove along there were quite a number (1000's?) of vehicles driving south back towards Denver after a day at Winter Park which happened to be on this road. While we were in Winter Park to fill up the gas tank we noticed the perfect business opportunity...imagine one of these in a college town near you!

Quite a drive & a wee bit unnerving for the driver. Within a couple of miles there were warning signs for Avalanche Zone, Falling Rocks, Deer Crossing, Elk Crossing, Icy Patches, Snow On Road and Watch for Snow Plows. The only sign missing was Moose Crossing, but that came a few miles later. We arrived in Laramie safely after only 10 hours of driving through some of the most beautiful scenery to date.

Sick Day

2009-01-30T01:01:00.001-05:00

Well we had a sick day rather than a ski day...poor Bill decided he'd rather spend the day being sick rather than head off to the slopes. Yesterday he kept saying it was "allergies" from all the dust created from the street sweepers. Mmmm, think not because by the evening he was down for the count.

Today he spent his day napping...kind of normal for him....while I spent the day taking a drive/walk around town taking pictures. The mission also included adding to our sticker collection. We've decided that our car top carrier needs some enhancing so we blend in around here. Now we have stickers from Sipapu & Taos Ski Valley ready to go on the carrier which needs a bit of cleaning first. I even took some time (yeah I know) to drop by the yarn shop to get just one more skein of yarn. Interesting to note that when I asked the owner about the lack of crowds I found out that it's normal for the end of January. Good to know that little detail.

Not much else happened so I'll leave you with some pictures of my day....oh and Bill seems a bit better tonight. Tomorrow we're heading out of here and on to Wyoming.

Date snowboarders allowed to ride at Taos Ski Valley

Chili peppers hang everywhere around here...Will would be in Heaven

Ice...enough said

The twisty winding road into Taos Ski Valley

Driving the Enchanted Circle

2009-01-29T18:03:00.000-05:00

After 2 days of skiing we decided that our bodies could use a day to rest & recuperate. Hard as it was not to ski in such perfect conditions we made plans to drive the so called Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway around Taos.

Leaving dusty Taos we took a side trip out to see the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge that went across the 650 foot deep chasm...impressive & dizzy inducing! Even though there were pedestrian walkways on both sides of the bridge we only walked a short distance out...the trucks blasting past made the bridge shake more than either of us liked. After a few pictures we headed back to start our drive around the circle. As we drove around Wheeler Peak we found a few Big Horn sheep grazing on what looked to us to be dirt or maybe rocks. Not sure how they got to be that big by eating dirt & rocks , but it worked for them. We stopped for a coffee break at a small shop in the town of Red River. The town was kind of slow for a ski town...the lifts are right there in the "downtown" area. The streets reminded us a the "wild west" cowboy town...saloons included. As we headed out of town Cindi's favorite sign appeared with a new twist added...too bad we don't have the photo. If you substitute a rock for an upside down cow you'll get the picture!

There also is one more ski resort on the drive called Angel Fire which according to the locals was a great spot for snow boarding. We continued on and didn't stop to see if that was a true statement...maybe we should have because it wasn't long after that one of us developed "allergies" & ended up down for the count by sunset.

As always click any picture to enlarge.

Ski Taos

2009-01-28T21:05:00.009-05:00

Today we headed out to Taos Ski Valley Resort for more skiing on big mountains. The ride out to the ski area was uneventful. We would have loved to have a few photos, but there was not enough space to pull off heading into the valley. Cool road although it has no guard rails where there really should be according to Cindi anyway...it was on her side coming back that really got her.

After we parked and got our gear on we headed off walking. Gotta tell you that walking uphill at 9000 feet elevation in ski boots & carrying your gear is NOT FUN! We really should have waited for the shuttle...actually it was a truck with chains pulling a wagon full of crazed skiers & boarders. It would drive through the lot and everyone would hop on...except us. The walk was a good warm up even though we both were short of breath by the time we hit the lift ticket window.

As we headed for the lifts what was the first thing we saw?...a sign saying not to panic & the steepest possible slope we'd seen in a long while...maybe ever! It didn't stop us though as we headed off to see what Taos Ski Valley had to offer. Thankfully we had some idea where to start thanks to the ticket window staff who was nice enough to point out which lifts would lead us to the greens & blues rather than the dreaded double diamond slopes. He even pointed out which run would lead us back at the end of the day from the far side of the resort. We had no idea just how large an area was available until we switched lifts and hit the top elevation served by the lifts at 11,000 plus feet! It was so awesome that words don''t do it justice for that matter not sure the pictures do either.

Man does it have some steep terrain and some crazy people who hike up the ridge line to ski/board down through the steeps & trees. Not sure why anyone would want to hike along a ridge to take the hard way down, but plenty of people seemed to be doing just that. Fun to watch...no way did either of us want to join them. Another thing we wondered about was why ski through a forest of trees when the slopes were clear of obstructions? Better yet, why ski on a trail that had a very large rock which had been kindly marked as a cliff by ski patrol...we saw people on the trail as we rode the lift overhead, but no one went off the cliff. Must say we were disappointed.

At the end of the day though we got braver & decided to try skiing the Hunziker Bowl...well one of us went first and dragged the other protesting for another go on our last run of the day. Who do you think was the guinea pig? Yep, it wasn't the girl. Must say that the bowl was the best part of our day on the mountain. A small hike up to a break that opened up into a very large bowl shaped area. So beautiful and quiet, except for the 2 Air Force jets that buzzed the area. Plenty of powder still on the slopes and we even beat the instructor & his students down through the moguls...whoohoo! What a perfect way to end our day.

Our First POWDER!

2009-01-27T23:10:00.010-05:00

Yep, the title says it all. Our first truly powder day in over 15 years of skiing. Our original plan for today was to tour about the town of Taos. That all changed when we realized that the ski areas received about 10 inches of fresh snow overnight. Off we headed to Sipapu Ski Resort before we even ate our breakfast...couldn't find the McDonald's. After only 5 minutes of driving we were heading up into the mountains on the "High Road to Taos"...one of the many scenic roads we've found on this trip. Sadly no pictures of the drive up since the plows had not made enough room to safely pull off...didn't need any close encounters with one of those plows. Wow do they drive fast & furious!

The best part about skiing at Sipapu today...well other than the powder...was the lift ticket price. This place has the funniest and longest list of "freebie" lift tickets we have ever seen. How about skiing for free if you're 40...not 49 shooot! Our deal today was buy one get one for free...tomorrow is Car Load Wednesday. Everyone in the car skis for $50!

Not sure why people don't flock up to the place because today was dead...no lines and whole slopes to ourselves. Ten inches of powder and not a line in sight. WOW! The resort is pretty old, no upgraded lifts, or fancy food courts and pretty narrow runs so maybe that's it. The lift we rode did have one really weird feature...for us anyway...how about no safety bar? Narrow seats and no safety bar makes for a wee bit of nervousness as we rode up the lift.

At least the snow was soft and I should know....

Gearing up for Big Snow.....as always click any picture to enlarge!

Taos, NM

2009-01-26T23:36:00.004-05:00

We drove to Taos today. Up until the last 20 miles it was pretty uninteresting with some mountains and a lot of desert. The road then follows the Rio Grande through a spectacular ginormous gorge for 10 mi. or so. The gorge is just wide enough for the river and the road and there are constant landslides that try to eliminate the road part. In fact, the road crew was out cleaning-up a slide today.

We also took a the 20 mi. drive up to Taos Ski Valley to check out the slopes. The drive was beautiful as the road followed a creek up a narrow Alpine valley. You can only see one slope from the parking lot, but it is straight up. It looked like a double black in my rating system, but it is rated single black according to Taos Ski Valley. Hmm, skiing out here could be a wee-bit different. We'll see how it goes. There are several smaller and less steep ski resorts in the area, so we might give them a try first as a warmup to the big boy slopes.

Editor note: Bill and Cindi did not follow protocol and did not take any pics today, even though the scenery was worthy. They will be docked a days pay.

Response to editor: Yeah the scenery was worthy, but we couldn't stop along the Rio Grande 'cause, as I said, there was barely enough room for the road. By the time we headed to Taos Ski Valley it was almost dark so the pics would not have come out anyway.

The 'Real West' at Last

2009-01-25T21:31:00.013-05:00

Well we left San Antonio on 1/24 and headed out US 90 down to Del Rio on the Rio Grande and on to Alpine. As far as Del Rio it was just flat grassland except for this great sign coming into Hondo, TX.

From Del Rio on it was what Easterners like us expect 'the West' to look like just dry scrub along with canyons and mountains. The Pecos River's bridge is 273 feet above the river, but it looks like a mile when you're on it. It has a 'No Diving From Bridge' sign. Which struck us as funny because of the 273 ft. tall bridge and only about 2 ft. of water down below. I think they should just go ahead & let anyone who wants to take a dive. Think what it could do for the gene-pool.

In Sanderson, TX we stopped for gas and Cindi almost ran off with some real cowboys. They were hauling cows and horses in a couple of trailers along with a black lab in the truck bed and all had on spurs...(Cindi's side note tight jeans 'nough said). I had to push her back in the car and get her out of there before she ran off with them.

We drove past Alpine, through Marfa around the mountains west of Fort Davis and back to Alpine. We discovered that the movie Giant was filmed in Marfa...who knew.

The Marfa courthouse was pretty impressive.

As were the mountains west of Fort Davis.

Back in Alpine we ate at the Edelweiss Restaurant & Brewery. Good meal, but great dark German beer. Since we had so much food we were unable to drink a second beer...yes we did split a dinner between us or at least thought we had. Those cowboys must have huge appetites because we thought the waitress had messed up the order. The ticket proved she had in fact split the meal onto 2 plates...beer $2.25 each and a full plate of schnitzel, Bavarian potatoes, & onion rings for only $12.

We stayed at the Antelope Lodge in Alpine, TX for the night. It is a remodeled cottage-style motor lodge originally built in 1949. It was really quite nice and even had the original all-tile shower in turquoise and pink which was pretty cool as it was hokey.

We hit the road early today (Sunday) and headed out US 90 to Van Horn, TX and continued on north to the Guadalupe National Park on the NM border. The views from the road are great and the Guadalupe mountains are pretty impressive. Guadalupe Peak is the highest peak in Texas can be found here at over 8700 feet in elevation. We had no idea we'd find such large mountains in Texas. While inside the park we took a 5 mi. hike up into McKittrick canyon that was really pretty although rocky. We walked up to the Pratt Cabin which was built back in the 30's totally out of stone & heart of pine. The back porch chairs were the perfect spot for our lunch of apples & sun chips.

Sunrise between Alpine and Marfa, TX.

Yours truly and Cindi at Guadalupe peak in Guadalupe National Park. It was really windy and I had a bad hair day.

Pics from our hike on McKittrick Canyon trail

Pratts Cabin w/ hot model. Note the all stone roof. I have no idea how they keep it waterproof.

From there we headed through flat grassland to Roswell, NM. Through that stretch we ran across our first tumbleweed. When you hit them at 70 mph they pretty much explode. I was expecting Roswell to be just a crossroad with all kinds of UFO and alien stuff. It turned to be an actual city a couple of mile across, with a downtown, stoplights, car dealers and even several 8-10 story buildings. It was a big let-down, but we did see The International UFO Museum and Research Center. It was cleverly disguised (probably by aliens) as an old movie theater, but I'm pretty sure it was a crashed UFO.

We are spending the night in Ruidoso, NM. I'm not sure what it's claim-to-fame is or better yet was, but it looks like it's time has come and gone. Most of the town is old and somewhat rundown. A bunch of the older and unique businesses like the 'Burger Trolley' are closed. It certainly sounded better when reading about it online...it doesn't show well in person. Tomorrow we're heading up to Taos, NW for our first taste of Western Skiing.

Edit: Boy were we wrong about Ruidoso. We thought we had gone though town but we just went though an old part and there is a small area that doesn't have much which we thought was the end of town. When we left town the next morning we went further and found the real town. It is all new and growing. I think it is mainly based on skiing at Ski Apache, but unfortunately they have had almost no snow and it was 55F as were were leaving town early in the morning. Ski Apache is less than half open and the town is dead right now. I suspect it really gets crowded when it snows though.

Blog Catch-up (or is that Ketchup?)

2009-01-23T16:51:00.003-05:00

On 1/19 we drove from Columbia, SC to Jackson, MS. Nothing to report on that drive except a long day.

But on 1/20, based on my brother's recommendation, we drove the Natchez Trace Parkway from Jackson to Natchez. That is one really pretty road very similar to the Blue Ridge Parkway, but through semi-swamp with lots of Spanish moss hanging down from the Live Oaks. It follows the original Natchez Trace which was a wilderness road back in the 1800's. There are a few short walking trails, but mostly just a really pretty drive. There are also a couple of Indian burial mounds right along side the road. I had heard about Indian mounds up in OH and IL but I didn't know they were also down in MS. I knew they were big, but when you're standing there and thinking about piling up all that dirt by hand and with stoneage tools they become really big.

We hit I-10 in Baton Rouge and took that all the way to San Antonio. The 20 mile-long bridge in LA is cool and Houson driving is insane. The rush-hour must be incredible, hopefully I will never see that.

We have spent the last few days in San Antonio with my brother and his wife. We haven't really done much and it's been a nice rest. We did go up to Austin to visit my niece & meet the newest members of the family, Hamilton (3 yrs) & Benjimin (2 1/2 months). We all headed off for dinner at a place called The Salt Lick for some real Texas Bar-B-Que. It was great...you could get a heapn' helpn' of all the saturated fat you should have in a month for just $12.

Tomorrow we head off to west TX for a day and on to Taos and our first western skiing ever.

What Would da Vinci Do?

2009-01-17T23:54:00.001-05:00

On Saturday we were able to visit the South Carolina State Museum with my sister & brother-in-law. The museum is located in an old cotton textile mill dating back to 1893. What a great way to use such a magnificent building. The Museum was hosting a collection of Leonardo da Vinci's "Machine's in Motion". Machines designed by da Vinci were set about the exhibit for us to actually touch and set in motion. Models of his glider, olive press, printing press, bicycle & even a robot were on display for everyone to play with.

After we went through the exhibit it was time to go to the movie that originally appeared on PBS. We missed Part I, but were able to catch Part II. The basis of the movie was showing how two teams of engineers took da Vinci's designs and recreated them using his materials & methods. The first was a huge crossbow...ultimately the crossbow split before it's full power could be harnessed, but the team proved that it was possible to throw a cannon ball using it.

The second team fared somewhat better with da Vinci's glider. After some tweaks to satisfy the pilot's desire for a way to guide the glider it got off the ground & flew much like da Vinci described. All in all a good way to spend a cold day in South Carolina...who knew it could get to 15 degrees!

Board not Bored

2009-01-13T21:40:00.003-05:00

Today was our first day on the boards this year. I boarded this morning and lasted 3 hours on greens and blues. A couple of falls, but nothing exciting. Meanwhile Cindi took a header on one of the big piles of snow under one of the snow guns while skiing. I didn't see the fall but she said it was really good and she did have snow on her helmet when I saw her.

After lunch and a nap Cindi took a whack at her board. Last year she made it all the way down on a blue but today she claimed she was 'tired' (I think it was that age thing) so she was only at it for a couple of hours and never got off the bunny slope.

Snow Daze

2009-01-12T23:05:00.007-05:00

We got to Snowshoe yesterday.

I got a new pair of skis as a retirement gift to myself and this was the first time out. They are a lot stiffer and shorter (and slower) than the old ones. Actually, that works out OK since now I can follow the wifey without running over her ;-)

Today was Cindi's birthday and I didn't forget. I did forget it a few years back and it wasn't so pretty. I called from work and asked what was for dinner at which point she informed me that she didn't know since she doesn't cook on her birthday...oops!

The kids even made her a surprise birthday cake today. They bought all the stuff at the Snowshoe store and it cost about $20, but it was a really good surprise.

Cindi's turn...just a bit more elaboration on my cake from the kids since we "forgot" to get a picture before the cake was eaten. They made me a devil's food cake with what else but chocolate icing. Since Snowshoe didn't stock candles for my cake they also hit upon the grand plan of using M & M's to spell out "Happy B'day". The only problem arose when they had to buy the candy from the vending machines...how about over a $1/pack. I'm telling you it had to have been the most expensive cake I have ever had! Thanks go to Thomas, Rob, Amanda & Landon for the surprise & wonderful cake. Oh did I mention that I was able to get 2 pieces of cake? It seems Rob was concerned that we'd have to leave cake behind so he helped in the disposal by eating 5 pieces. Lesson learned...not to leave my cake in the kids condo.

We're Off in 6...5...4....hours

2009-01-10T01:15:00.005-05:00

The journey starts in just a few hours. Let's hope nothing "important" has gotten left behind & we bring nothing broken on our return. See everyone in a few months!

Five Days

2009-01-05T21:26:00.005-05:00

It's now only 5 days until we begin our travels. Our first stop will be Blacksburg and then we're off to Snowshoe for a few days of skiing with the kids. Let us hope that the weather will be cold & snowy which will be a marked improvement from our last ski trip. It will be our first ski resort of the 2009 Winter...it will not be the last.

Our plan is to keep everyone posted on where we are headed so stay tuned. Five more days...let the count down begin!

P. S. Thanks to Martin from Molins for the info that Capital Ale House in Midlothian has proper British bitter (yes, they actually have to pump it out). It's listed under 'Cask Conditioned Ale' on page one of the menu and the handles are all the way down at the far end of the bar all by themselves. Thankfully Cindi was DD when we went on Sunday since I had way too much. Man, that stuff is the nectur of the gods!

The New Mantra

2009-01-01T21:40:00.003-05:00

I don't want to.

I don't have to.
You can't make me.

I'm Retired!"

Thanks go to Clare for my new "Mantra Pillow"!

Great Party

2008-12-31T23:33:00.001-05:00

New Year's Eve just so happens to be the last day of work. Tonight we are having a neighborhood 'retirement party' rather than a New Year's Party because there is no way anyone will stay up till Midnight. A simple affair with good friends, good food, a few drinks, & college football. It all seemed to be the appropriate way to spend the evening. Too bad none of us stayed up to watch that darn ball drop.

My dear neighbors' have a plan to keep me from being bored during retirement. Do you think the list is long enough?

I could knock this out pretty quick if only I'd be around to do so.