Saturday March 17, 2012

Today was one of the most fun, spontaneous travels days I have had yet. I left out of Tacoma with a destination of Mount Hood, Oregon. It was just a few hours drive and I had all day to get there. I had a short way to go and a long time to get there. Once I was on I-5 south I saw an exit for the Oregon Coast Scenic Byway. It seemed like a sign for me to see the Pacific Ocean during this trip. It was the closest to the ocean I have been up until this point. I quickly checked the map to see exactly where I was. Once I realized my proximity, I set the GPS for Astoria, Oregon. Anybody worth a crap knows exactly why this town is important.

I spent a lovely day carving through the forests of Washington State. I was following the Lewis and Clark Trail. I guess this is better than following the path of the Donner Party and meeting their destiny. After winding my way to the coastline I crossed over a body of water on the Astoria Bridge. In the middle of the bridge it changed from Washington to Oregon. On the far side of the bridge was the legendary Astoria, Oregon. I drove all through the seaside town streets, just taking in the sites and sounds. I pulled over and plugged an address into my GPS, 368 28^th Street. Yep, this is the famous house from The Goonies. I parked down the street like the sign requested, strolled up the hill, grabbed a few snapshots, made a donation, smiled, laughed, and left. It was hailing on me while I took the walk and grabbed my photos, which was perfectly fitting. If I had any friends I would have a nice picture of me in front of the house. I can Photoshop that I guess. The whole event made my day. What better way to honor my trip than to visit the place where one of the greatest adventures of childhood lore took place. I just now googled The Goonies movie. The images that came up rather shocked me. Here are a couple.

From Astoria I decided to drive a bit further down the Pacific Coast on 101. I drove and walked around the seaside towns of Seaside and Cannon Beach, Oregon. I believe Cannon Beach is where the rocks are that helped lead to One-Eyed Willy’s treasure, the rich stuff. Don’t quote me on this. It was a gorgeous day in those towns. A perfectly sunny 50-degree day. The beaches were sprinkled with people walking their dogs. The Pacific Ocean is amazing in an indescribable way. The towns were full of tourists wandering, shopping, and eating ice cream and cotton candy. It was an extremely serene experience. Busy, yet quiet and peaceful, nothing at all like the visits to the beach I have.

From the coast I made the rest of my journey back inland and east of Portlandia to Mount Hood. This is where I rest tonight in anticipation of playing tomorrow at Mount Hood Meadows with the Natedawg and his posse. This is the fist time I have been to Mount Hood since I came here about 100 years ago. I came here in a July with LP, who is probably my longest standing friend. We tried to go snowboarding…in July. No we weren’t stoned…well…whatever, the mountain really is open in July. However we were turned away because the Olympic team was training. So I believe I went and played golf instead. Oh, former Jimmy, what a fool you were. I’m really looking forward to tomorrow. I am finally getting around to what I hoped to do more of during this trip, hitting lesser known, random, nonresort mountains. If I had friends this might have happened more or sooner. And I would have a pic of me in front of the Goondocks that didn’t look like this. 

A lot more photos of the Pacific Ocean and Astoria added to the Traveling Photos.

I went into a diner for breakfast this morning in Tacoma. I found it on yelp, so thanks again yelp. It was called Little Jerry’s, and I had no idea what it was before I walked in. the restaurant is about 6 four top tables. It is entirely Seinfeld themed. I mean entirely. Everything on the walls, the menu, the reading material, the names of the dishes, even every coffee mug was different but all with a Seinfeld theme. I loved it. I was the only person in there eating, so I got to talking to the people working, which were a husband and wife. Turns out they just opened up the joint about a month ago. It was a great American dream story. The husband had the brainchild idea for the restaurant, they put in the legwork and effort, and not it is open. They said they are doing well and have a lot of regulars. That is all any business can ask for right now. The two of them could not have been more pleasant and lovely to chat with. Happening into this diner was exactly the type of experiences I set out to have during this trip. If I had a facebook I’d like them. But what is really important is that I like them in person. If I am every in Tacoma again this place will be my first stop. All the best to them. Oh yeah, the food was dynamite!!!

Friday March 16, 2012

I didn’t get much sleep last night. I was up late and up again early this morning. I grabbed a quick, hot, included continental breakfast and a shower. I threw on my warm clothes and dashed out of the hotel expecting a long, scary drive to Crystal Mountain in Washington State (the place that hates Fonzie). After the weather they have been receiving on Mt. Rainier recently, I assumed my drive would be terrifying. I assumed I would be purposefully driving into what could have been the worst weather of the trip. Off in the horizon there were more ominous clouds taunting me. I felt like that polygamist when he was driving directly into that storm on purpose with Paul Reisers’s wife and Auntie Em’s young niece.

The drive ended up not being as frightening as I expected. I immediately loved everything about where I was. The drive was both beautiful and thrilling. I got parked and changed quickly. It looked like quite a long walk to the base, and then I noticed there was a parking lot shuttle. Their idea of a shuttle was a pick up truck with a flat bed trailer in tow. It was like a hayless hayride. Andy the dog would have loved it here. I went into the shop and asked where I could buy a sticker for my board. The young lady said we don’t sell stickers, but we do give them away. What’s not to love about this place. What a different scene and way of life. There is no mountain village or any of the hoopla that fancy people need. Just pure, amazing riding.

One of the first things I saw when I drove in was there are areas for overnight parking. People would show up the night before and camp out in their car waiting to get first fresh tracks in the morning. What is this, the Bethpage Black course? There were plenty of people who utilized these lots. Cars were covered in mounds of snow. On the far side of the main parking lot there was an area for RV’s with hook ups and everything. Pretty badass. Seemed like the only way to fly.

I got one great run in from the top and my leg was as soar as it has gotten all winter. On the second gondolala ride up something terrible happened. I envisioned an end to the trip, at least to my day. My board fell out of the gondola holding compartment on the side of the car. I didn’t see it happened, but all 4 people facing me gasped and saw it fall to the ground. Luckily nobody was underneath. It plummeted several hundred feet at least. If you zoom in a lot you can see my poor lonely board mostly buried in the snow. There was nothing I could do about it. A nice young lady that I was riding with offered to grab it on her way down and meet me at the base. So I had to ride the gondolala back down like a lonely, solo, boardless loser. I waited at the bottom for a few minutes and a different young kid showed up with it. Thankfully it was intact and no obvious damage. I waited for the other chick and let her know that I got it, thanked her for her efforts, and jumped aboard the next car to the top.

Today I checked off another of my to do list items, another first for me. I did my first ever hike-to riding. I rode the lift to the top of where the lift services and then hiked for a while higher and to the other side of the mountain. Holy shit, it was amazing, breathtaking in more than one way. This was one of the things I said I was going to do before the trip was over, and now I’ve done it. I’m not trying to act like I hiked (almost) to the top of Crested Butte Mountain like Wifey did. It was a good 20+ minute uphill, in ski apparel and boots, carrying my board hike. It was amazing. I have ridden on plenty of fresh untouched powder this season, but nothing that has felt quite like this. It was an entirely new experience and feeling. I don’t think the entire mountain has ever heard of, believes in, or owns grooming machines, definitely not in this area. I videoed the entire trek. I can’t wait to see just how boring I can make it.

After a few hours I had a bite to eat and got back on the road. I didn’t have a destination at the time, but there was only one way to go from the mountain, down and away. Good things I didn’t need to go the other way, because it was not an option. The mountain was the last stop on this road, the rest of this road was closed for the season, impassable. I decided to head back to the Tacoma area and find a cheap hotel. On the drive back I stopped in and got Jiffy Lubed and had a couple more window cracks repaired. I’m good for another 7500 miles.

I made it back to Tacoma and am now checked into the un-luxurious Crossland Hotel. I wonder if this place is affiliated with the world famous and preeminent law practice Crossland Law?

It might be just because they are new, but I think today produced some of my favorite scenic pictures so far.

Thursday March 15, 2012

Today was an awesome travel day. I traveled from Truckee, through Reno, parts of northern California, all of Oregon (including an great pit stop in Portlandia), and finally somewhere near Tacoma, Washington. I got as far north as I could in hopes of making it to Crystal Mountain in Washington tomorrow. It is a lot later than I planned to get here, I sure hope I can get up in the morning. I still have about 2 hours to where I want to be.

Today’s drive and activities have reinvigorated me about this trip, a second wind. I had lost my momentum and thought I might be running out of Winter Carnival Juice. After I left Truckee and got north of Reno I entered back into California. I saw parts of Cali that I would have never envisioned as California. Of course there are the big cities, San Fran and LA, the impressive works of nature called the coastline, and the gorgeous forests. Today I saw giant expanses of open ranges, farms, meadows, and nothingness. I found myself in the middle of nowhere. Before today I would never have thought that anywhere in California could be considered the middle of nowhere. I am sure that is just my naïve, childlike, east cost impression I formulated from The Brady Bunch and Beverly Hills 90210. I am more than happy to have seen these areas.

At the Cal-Ore border I was welcomed the best way that Oregon knows how, by a dark, ominous, scary, Wizard of Oz like storm cloud. This cloud formation obliterated the idea that a sun may have ever even existed. I could see it coming from an hour away, little did I know it was just hovering over the Oregon border waiting for my arrival. From that point on in the drive it was a mostly miserable, rainy day. This was quite the opposite welcome I received from California, a beautiful rainbow.

As scary and gloomy as the drive was there were also some amazing parts of Oregon I saw today. I drove around and through some lake areas east of Eugene. There were giant lakes I could see on my left intermittently through the tree line. On the far side of the lake were snow-capped mountains. All around me were head high piles of white snow lying at the base of an evergreen forest. It felt like I was driving through a town called Christmas. Once I got through that area I entered what might be a legitimate rain forest. It was bright green everywhere, giant vegetation overhangs, a couple waterfalls, and a screaming river on one side. Somewhere else in Oregon I witnessed a beautiful miracle of nature. I am pretty sure I witnessed a brand new baby goat learning how to walk. Either that or I saw a drunken baby goat.

And then for the icing on the cake called Thursday I stopped into Portlandia to visit my long lost friend Nate.

Portlandia is just how I always pictured it. TV and Fred Armisen didn’t lie to me. Nate apparently lives on the corner of Hipster and Doofus Avenues. I haven’t seen him in years, possibly since my wedding. It was so great to see him and meet his chick. They welcomed me into their home for a fantastic evening of conversation, laughing, and home cooked food. They fed me a delicious meal of lasagna and something he claims was a salad. He also assured me that all the ingredients were not only local, but were all grown within 50 yards of his house. I only eat the best and freshest these days. The lasagna was delicious, I believe it even had ingredients I don’t like, but it was still scrumptious. The conversation and good times were even better. I hope to hook back up with them later this weekend for a day of riding back down closer to Portlandia.

As great as it was to reunite with Nate, meet his chick and her sister, the highlight of the evening was definitely meeting Andy the dog. Andy the dog makes Eddie from Frazier look like a schmuck. He does tricks for treats. When he’s not doing tricks he simply sits around being adorable. They play a cool game every night with Andy that I am stealing and taking home with me to teach our dogs. Be prepared Wifey, I’m coming home with canine expectations. 😉

Apparently Washington state doesn’t allow Fonzie’s.

Wednesday March 14, 2012

Today was finally the day I got back on a mountain. I went the Northstar at Tahoe Mountain. It definitely is near or at the top of my list of favorite mountains. I only spent the morning hours riding, but those hours were perfect. They got at least 14 inches of new snow at the top of the mountain last night. By the early afternoon it starts to get warm and the fresh snow gets heavy. The combination of the time of year and the area make heavy snow this time of year. It is not the dry, airy, unpackable snow of Utah and Colorado. This is a much wetter and heavier snow. My legs actually got quite soar a couple times. That has not happened in a while.

It is that weird time of year. There is a ton of precipitation predicted for this area. What kind of precipitation depends on the elevation. When I parked this morning at the base areas I was getting rained on. At the lower area of the mountains it is almost slushy by midday. Up at the top peaks it can be snowing full boar.

There is an area on the Northstar Mountain call the Backside. It is ingrained in my brain as my favorite place to ride, and after today that memory is confirmed. This area holds a special place in my heart, so there may be some biased. It is my first vivid memory of fantastic deep powder, tree, backcountry, steep incline, unbridled, no rules, no trails, and possible death at every turn riding. So it may just be a “first time” thing. This might be why it is my favorite. Similarly, probably why my favorite back seat I have ever been in was the back seat of my pop’s old 1980 Olds Delta 88.

Tuesday March 13, 2012

Yep, the title is about all I have to show from my past couple days. I have been quite the lazy sac of monkey turds lately. The past couple days have been spent working and recouping the body. I just can’t keep up with Wifey these days. The age difference is really starting to show. Maybe a trophy wife wasn’t the brightest idea…no, it was. There is supposed to be a big storm coming through the Tahoe area starting nowish. It has been trying to snow most of the day. The forecasts I have been reading keep promising a huge dumping. I think it is hopefully about to arrive.

I just got back from driving into town to pick up a nice pizza pie and pint of ice cream for myself. The semis heading westbound were all pulled over putting on their chains. The traffic heading eastbound (and down) coming out of the legendary Donner Pass were all COVERED in snow. I am going to hold out hope that these were good signs of bad weather. I have been lounging around this area waiting on promised weather. I am growing both antsy and also too comfortable with my laze. If the weather when I wake up tomorrow does not allow for a fun day on the mountain I am going to pack up and head north. What a spoiled ass I have become. There is plenty of great riding to be had, but I am holding out for the perfect storm.

I found yet a couple more reasons why this part of the country is great and makes the right coast look like the sea-level losers we are. First, they do things like this. A competition for dogs? If the Sellers kinfolk lived out here I know we would have a winner in the family. While I was waiting on my pie tonight I was perusing the local free paper. This is where I saw the advert beckoning Charlie Dog, as well as possibly the greatest title to a news article ever. The article was about the abysmal winter they have had here in Tahoe titled, “Survival, Optimism, and a Dash of Shitty”. It is a heart breakingly wonderful article.

Sunday March 11, 2012

The best way to combat the bullshit idea of daylight savings was for me to hurry up and get into California. That way I get my hour back no matter how badly those ancient farmers want to take it away from me. And what do I care if kids have to walk to school in the dark? They have cell phones for a flashlight these days. I didn’t have to change any clocks. Jimmy one, daylight savings zero. Now I just have to figure out how to help combat man versus nature in the autumn.

Other than completely dominating over the laws of nature, today was fairly boring. I caught up on the sleep I lacked from the previous two days. After that I spent the majority of the day catching up on work and personal drivel. I think I got all the months reporting done and mailed out today. I’ll realize if I forgot anything once it’s too late.

Saturday March 10, 2012

What a blurry, whirlwind past 36 hours. I got my second speeding ticket of the trip early this morning. It really is a shitty situation too. Since the first one during the initial drive out I have probably driving the last 8000 miles using the cruise control. Not entirely, but definitely for 90% of those miles. This morning I was south of SLC, heading north, and driving through a construction zone. It was just after sunrise on a Saturday morning and there was nobody working, I know that doesn’t make a difference. I thought the limit was 65 but it was 55. A cop caught me while passing someone. Because of the construction the traffic pattern was zigzagging, lane shifting, and annoying. It just really blows that I literally got caught during a 5-mile stretch where I was trying to get away from some awful, probably still-drunk, weekend morning driver.  Whatevs, could be worse. The officer was actually a really cool guy. He was nice, I told him my story, all I could do was apologize, blah blah blah. He didn’t write me up for the construction zone part, which could have been really bad. I told him that I saw the barrels and cones end, so I thought the zone was over. The funniest part is that after he got done disciplining me for breaking the law, he advised me to break more laws. I pulled off an exit ramp when I saw him behind me. I do this because I am a courteous criminal, always thinking of the officer’s safety and well-being. He told me that there was no way I could easily get off this exit and back on I-15. He advised me to go ahead and jump a few curbs and drive through a median to get back on to the interstate.

Yesterday, Friday, I woke up really early. I couldn’t sleep well because of my soar shoulder. I caught up on a little work and some TV shows while I awaited sleeping beauty. We went out to breakfast to a yummy spot in Telluride called Maggie’s…how great is that? After that we went to the mountain late, and left early. It was another stunning spring day on the mountain. We couldn’t stay all day because we had to pack up and get to the airport. We spent a few quality hours for Wifey’s last day on the mountain. I still can’t believe that she made it 6 days in a row! I still can’t believe she made me make it 6 days in a row. She was nice enough to capture some more embarrassing video of me. After the mountain we packed, had a late lunch, and drove to the Montrose airport. There were literally more employees at this airport than passengers. When she checked in she was told there was only 5 people on her flight to Denver. It must have been like flying private. It was quite a sad parting of The Sellers Superpowers.

As heart wrenching as the separation was the fact is that one of us had to muster up the strength, courage, and intestinal fortitude because the Carnival must go on. I tried to convince, kidnap, lie, and get lost on the way to the airport, but it looks like the rest of the expedition will be done solo. We did find 2 more reasons never to leave Telluride:

I drove through all of Utah and Nevada today. Nevada doesn’t screw around. The second you hit the Nevada border, BAM, casinos. I have officially gone coast to coast when I entered into California today. Not quite ocean-to-ocean, but I’m not ruling that out just yet. It’s a dream come true to have actually made it this far. Somewhere in Nevada I saw these guys. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I did the proper thing, gave them a lift.

When I cruised into the town of Truckee it was quite a site. The temperature was 50 some degrees, not exactly the greatest mountain weather. It was beautiful. All within the same eyeshot I saw ski slopes covered in snow with skiers living large, and people in the river fly-fishing. They are expecting some snow here this week, fingers and toes crossed. Regardless I am going to use this place I’m at now as a layover for a few days to rest the muscles and catch up on work. 6 days straight and 3 hours sleep in 48 hours is taking a toll. Once I get caught up and rested I’ll hopefully start my journey to British Columbia. On the way there hopefully I can make a pit stop in Spokane for a free lunch from a good friend. I can’t believe this place I am staying right now. It’s a giant 4-bedroom house, seems like a lot of abode for little old me. Not bad for $275 for the week.

Thursday March 8, 2012

Today was another lovely day on Telluride Mountain. The weather turned around from yesterday’s debacle. The wind went away and the sun came out again. If there is not going to be fresh snow, today’s conditions are a distant second best. We headed up the gondolala first thing this morning and spent the day cruising on the groomed trails and the terrain parks. I got some adorable video of Wifey doing her version of tree skiing. She got some embarrassing video of me thinking I had confidence in the terrain parks. A nice chatty local took a bunch of pictures of us.

Tomorrow is sadly our last day together in Colorado. I was hoping to stretch this visit out for another 30 or 40 years. We will probably head to the mountain again tomorrow. That will make 6 days in a row for us. That is quite impressive for her. I know this is the first time she has made it out every single day of a ski trip. I also don’t think I have gone 6 straight days this winter. Right now we are both laying here very very injured. I somehow hurt my shoulder and she was attacked by a hostile Thai iced tea.

If I can’t talk her out of flying away tomorrow night, I will be dropping her at the Montrose airport around 7pm. From there I think I will start trekking to the Tahoe area. I was scheduled to be there next week. They did get some nice weather last week, but the warmer weather has come back and there is no more snow in the extended forecast. If nothing else Tahoe is a good place to rest for a couple days after the extended run that Wife has put me through. It is also a nice layover area for the longer journey up to BC. As of now I am thinking that will be the final stop to put the exclamation point on this winter.

Wednesday March 7, 2012

It’s snowing its ass off here in Telluride right now, and this is the view from my window as I type. Yep, that’s the main gondolala. So far it has been a great week with Wifey. We started the week strong with a full day on the mountain at Telluride on Sunday. We decided to definitely take our newly instated annual trip to Crested Butte. We spent just over half the day Monday on Telluride Mountain. The weather was again very warm and sunny. Just after midday was the time to get off the mountain in case anything was going to get sloppy. We got packed up for an overnight trip to Crusted Butt(e) and set sail on highway 50. It was just over a three-hour drive. The weather was perfect for driving and we made it all the way there in the daylight.

We got a nice and cheap room in town for the 1 night. We wandered around the mountain village for a little while and had a horrible meal. Then in typical Sellers’ fashion we retired to bed just before sundown in preparation of a big day on a new mountain.

We got up, had a giant mountain breakfast, and made our way to the nonexistent lift line first thing in the morning. It was another non-winter day and the forecast at Crested Butte Mountain was for sunscreen and tee shirts. It was beautiful. We had a great time. Wifey loved being there in the winter and I loved being able to be a small part of bringing her there. She looks better on skis than I have ever seen. Her confidence level and demonstration of skills were higher than I remember. We both had an amazing time in the fabulous spring like weather. She was constantly reminding me that she hiked almost to the peak of the mountain, which was WAY higher than where any of the lifts were taking my lazy-only-going-downhill-after-a-free-ride-uphill ass. We stayed on the mountain until about 2pm, grabbed a fantastic lunch where we saw an impressive sign, and then hit the road back to Telluride.

The drive back was close to dusk and sunset so we were able to see a lot of the wild mountain animals that you don’t see in the mornings and daylight. We were only able to stop once to take pictures of these meese, or elks, or carabooze, or whatever they are. They were staring right at us as I took the pictures, and I’m pretty sure I heard the one say, “Holy crap, look at those humans in their natural habitat.” Which is fine because Wife said, “I”ll have that one medium rare.”

We got back to our temporary Colorado home just in time to have some pizza, mosey around a bit, do a little work, and fall into a coma for the evening.

Today we got a bit of a late start and an early finish. After the recent spring like weather today was a real disaster. The wind was howling all last night. The wind combined with the warmer weather and melt off created a complete ice over today. All the overnight grooming seemed for nothing. The conditions were icy and “crunchy”, and the temperatures dropped back to winter like today. Definitely not our most fun day on the mountain. We hung in there until about 1pm and then called it a day. Since then it has been a nice relaxing afternoon. I’m catching up on nonsense (including Hillside), and Wifey is resting.