Thursday January 19, 2012

Well, today wraps up this leg of the Carnival. Thank you Vail Mountain for a fantastic last day and memorable week. The conditions today were as good as they were going to get. I finally got into some tree skiing in one of the bowls. I made it out alive. It was wonderful, beautiful, hypnotic, mesmerizing, and serene all at the same time. Since I thought today might be my last day I tried to get to all the lifts and parts of the mountain that I had yet to see this week. I thought I did a pretty good job of seeing most of the mountain. Just as I thought I grasped how gigantic this mountain was, I rode the lift with one of the Information people. He told me that the back bowls (which are still not open) are twice as big as the entire front side of the mountain that I had explored. That idea almost made my brain melt. Another final day ritual is to get a new sticker for my board. A little secret, this entire trip is just a ruse to collect stickers for my snowboard. I stayed out there today from almost open to close, assuming it was my last day here. I rode the entire time minus one cigar break (thank you again Hillbilly, he really does know me better than anybody). One of the great things about tree skiing is you can go an hour without seeing another human. There are times I felt like I had my own mountain. I say human because I did have one chipmunk visitor during my cigar break. I tried to get him to pose for a picture but he was wayyyyyyyy to busy. In the middle of the mountain woods, unstrap the board, prop it up as a backstop and sit against a tree having a nice cigar for myself like a gentleman…nothing more relaxing and peaceful.

GMB is officially gone. He left on an airport shuttle a couple hours ago. Now would be a great time if anyone else wants to jump on the Carnival bandwagon. He says he had a good time, which I think he did. This afternoon he and I went out for his special treat for being a trooper yesterday. Our travel agent blew it on the Vail Cookie Company, but we found him some sweets.

I just made the decision that tomorrow will start the first detour of the itinerary. I had scheduled to head to Telluride tomorrow or Saturday. Jackson Hole, Wyoming is getting pulverized with snow recently and this coming week. Part of this journey was the ability to revamp and go where the snow is. That is exactly what I am going to do. I flipped a coin, honestly, and 2 out of 3 tails told me to go to Wyoming. I just reserved a room in Jackson Hole starting Saturday for a few nights. I will play it day to day after that. The cheapest room they had came with my new favorite thing in the world, a Murphy bed. I was excited to go from one MB to another. Then I accidentally saw that a regular room with a regular-persons-non-fold-out-of-the-wall bed was only $35 more. I splurged. Now that it is too late I think I made a bad decision on the non-Murphy bed room. I may still end up in Telluride before next week ends, but who cares, that feels like a lifetime away.

I saw two other really unusual things today. I saw a bunch of the snowcats lined up first thing this morning. You don’t usually see them out in the day. They work like Santa. I know they exist and what they do, but they do it in the middle of the night while everyone sleeps. Then when you wake up in the morning and run downstairs their handiwork is obvious. I think they were going to stage a runaway snowcat marathon. Oh yea, and look at this guy! Adorable! Miniature Australian Shepherd.

Thanks again Vail. Sometimes the idiotic drivel goes over at The Daily.