Road Trip

 

The sun rose in the rearview as we merged onto I-70 about 6 am

Bubba scraped his window for a better view.

Going through the tunnel into Glenwood Canyon is still exciting enough to wake sleeping kids even though they are now teens.

Ascending up on Grand Mesa.  The valley all carved out from the once mighty Colorado River, now mostly claimed by California water rights.

Probably would not be a good road to get caught by an avalanche.

One of the two cats at Thunder Mountain Lodge. Bailey.

G2 unloaded the sleds at the cabin.

This wasn't from this trip but Neil sent it and I liked it.  Chuck and G2 on Rabbit Ears.

Just a little snow there, G2 is up to his armpits.

Part of the group at Grand Mesa.  (I am in the purple) The snow was good, although old.  Hey snow, I know the feeling.

Electric Mountain Lodge was the home of fiery propane explosion, March 2005.  Every year for 16 years, we were there the last Sat. in March during Spring break.  Every year except 2005 when we changed our plans.  The snow wasn't good and we tried a different place, Flat Tops. I can't tell you how freaking scary that is.  Three kids lost their lives in the explosion. They were in the pool room, where we most likely would have been.  They rebuilt the lodge.

  We had some pitchers of beer and a sandwich and watched Minnesota disseminate the Cowboys.  Mark said it looked like our waitress had been rode hard and put away wet.  She was really nice,just very thin.

Dean had a good time before,during and after the ride Sunday.  He is one of the premier riders of the group. Notice the guac,cocktail sauce, and other tid-bits on his shirt.

Hey, life is good, no reason to impress anyone, was just us.

This was a ramp at Electric Mountain, the new owners are extreme jumpers and wanna make it a camp for free-stylers.  None of us snow-dogs would qualify for leaving the ground to this degree.

Coakley.  In the snow.  At the bottom of a hill.  Hey it's no Pucker Butt Hill but it looks steep.

Sweet Mags in the Thunder Mountain Lodge.

Bubba stuffin' his face in the Lodge.

Started to snow when we were leaving.  Good, they need snow.

The road out.

A wintery day. Monday, MLK Day

I am glad I wasn't driving during the winter-like conditions.

Storm King Mountain west of Glenwood Springs on I-70.  This is where 14 firefighters lost their lives a few years ago click here for more about the tragedy.

We passed our friends on the way out of the canyon.

The following are ski areas on the way down I-70 and through rt. 9 south:

This is Beaver Creek.  It is a high dollar resort that has near vertical slopes up top.  The lift ticket here is about $100/day.  It has a base of exclusive homes.  G2 says it's worth every dime and I should check it out, he'll buy.

This is the famous Vail, Colorado.  It's also about $100 bucks to ski here.  It is massive and can really handle a crowd due to the famous back bowls of Vail .

This is also Vail.  Once we parked here and one of my friend's zipper of his snow pants had fabric stuck in it and I tried removing it with my teeth and this guy walked by and by the look on his face you could tell he didn't think I was doing what I just said.  Don't tell anyone. Funny.

This is the notorious Vail Pass.  It closes a lot due to adverse weather. Wasn't too bad Monday.

This is Copper Mountain.  One of my favorites.  They got it all built up now though.

The pine beetles have really damaged trees between Frisco and Breckenridge. Whole ridges of trees have been taken out.

This is Peak 7,8, 9 of Breckenridge.  They need snow here.

The town of Breckendridge had no snow piles as they usually do.  Next week is the snow sculpture competition I hope to shoot.

These three 14'ers are Bross, Lincoln and Democrat, I climbed a few of these when I was a young pup.

This is Mt. Quandry to the right.

Alma Co, a pough dunk mountain shit hole town.  I used to have friends who lived here but the girl cheated her way out of the relationship so I haven't seen her, or the town in years.

This is the backside of Fairplay.  This town is the model for the cartoon South Park.

We passed another friend who was heading home from Rabbit Ears.

Went to Grand Mesa for some snowmobiling and relaxing.  Did 35 miles Sat. including kids.  Sue's tired out old 550 seized.  It had over 6000 miles on it.  Watched some football in the lodge.  Saturday night, we were in bed by 9 pm due to our early drive start time of 4 AM.  Sunday, we drove over to Electric Mountain Lodge, about 70 miles in total.  After the ride, we watched San Diego get beat, which warmed my heart.  Yay, their kicker missed 3 field goals.  I can't imagine he'll kick again.  Bummer.  We ate brats and  played Catch Phrase later on.  Steve could not get that game down.  Okay, he had been drinking, but he was dumber than a box of rocks.  Honestly, he kept pressing the wrong button.  I know he's a smart guy.  Things I forgot to bring: guitar and poker chips.  Things I forgot in the cabin: cutting board.