After working late on Friday night to help my sports writer coworker - Kirk Hanna - cover sports, I packed for the weekend and crashed in preparation to leave early for Steamboat skiing on Saturday.
Blink. Awake.
It's way past 6:30 a.m. Oops. Still needed to shower and get out the door. Patty began stirring... that means conversation. I got out the door at 7:30. As usual, I-80 was terrible. Driving slowly and leading a pack of Wyoming drivers, I finally got to the turnoff to head to Colorado, and the roads were thankfully better. Cruised along to music, watching the sun continue to wake up as I thought about how lucky I was to be witnessing such beautiful county.
Arrived at Steamboat at around 10:30 a.m. The fella at pay parking let me park for free, then I "bought" ski poles at Christy's Sports under the pretense of renting them. The day was awesome! Deep snow, sweet slopes, cool people, fantastic weather! Just wish I'd had someone to share it with, or even just a camera to take pictures! Definitely got a great workout on the first run down Easy Face over there on the outskirts of the resort. Decided to try to go through the gully in the deep snow instead of down the long runout... and ended up hiking out. Was knee deep in heavy powder with skis on- can't imagine trying to walk out! I'd have been up to my chest in snow!
At the end of the day, I hopped off the slopes and hit the road to get back to Craig, CO to meet up with the coworkers, Kirk and Clancy. Clancy has the city beat and also enjoys writing about Wamsutter, WY. It's a dinky little town that for some reason has him fascinated.
Perfect timing in Craig, though the guys will say I was unclear about where I'd be. They just didn't listen. Typical guys. Stocked up on some goods for the road and started road trippin' to Aspen.
Darkness fell, Clancy and I got to work as passengers. Nah, no need for navigator, shot gun, whatever you call it. Just annoying drinking buddies. Good thing Kirk didn't mind because I was really craving that beer after a day of skiing. Bonding ensued. And laughter. Much laughter. Those boys are crazy. In fact, I think I can say that it was this leg of the trip that Kirk rapped in chicken lingo to a song. That's right, "bak bak baaaak bak-bak-bak..." You had to be there.
Next stop: Glenwood Springs. Just long enough to check in, change, and hit the road again for Aspen. XGames were finished for the night, but Kirk had a stellar showing with Helly Hansen gear. And I quote:
One of the guys: Man, Argentinians are good looking people.
Me: Yeah, that guy was hot!
Kirk: They have cool names too - one of their name's was Helly, it was written on her butt, Helly Hansen.
[Clancy and I look at each other]
Clancy: Uh, Kirk? Helly Hansen is ski gear. I don't even ski and I know that.
Good stuff. He didn't live that down, nor will he. And apparently I won't live down my confession of charging interest to classmates as a child, because Clancy handed me a check today saying, "I added two dollars interest."
At the bar Bentley at the Wheeler, yes, I did flirt with the guys at the bar to get drinks for my coworkers. The problem is when I do that, as a reporter, I tend to find something interesting about them, and wind up talking to them much longer than planned. This time it was because one works for Luftansa in Denver and the other for U.S. Customs in Denver. For anyone who knows me, can you figure out why this matters?
Back to Glenwood Springs for drinks, meeting up with Chris Riley & Co. and Karl, Kristin and Jimbo. Hit up Hippy Dippity Springs, the springs situated next to the ice-cold river. Would be a beautiful location if it wasn't under the highway and serviced by a massive drainpipe that looks like it is spilling out sewage. Good ol' hot springs. Always sketchy whenever they are free.
Blink. Awake.
It's 8:00 and Clancy's damn cell phone alarm has been chiming "Oh When the Saints Go Marching In" for the past half hour. I couldn't sleep any longer, so I decided everyone else had to get up too. They were great, pulling themselves together to get to the slopes for skiing.
Clancy's a quick learner! He was tearing down the slopes to the hazard of those around him, but overall, a good showing from the athletic young chap wearing women's clothes (he had borrowed my warm ups, ski hat and gloves). And Kirk thinks he was slowing us down on the chutes, but what he doesn't understand is we don't give a crap if we're skiing or talking while waiting... the point about it all is we're together and on the slopes. So just for the rest of you, if you come out, don't feel like you're holding us up!!
Sunlight's a good resort, but I'll still choose Winter Park over it all so far. Nothing beats the trees and mogul playgrounds there!
Next up: Aspen XGames. Coffee. Food. Found myself inside the ESPN and athlete headquarters simply by not paying a damn bit of attention to what was going on around me. Apparently neither did the security guard. Clancy somehow knew what had happened when he grabbed my arm and told me Kirk didn't make it in. He'd made eye contact with the guard. Guess his Michigan garb gave him away as not an XGames athlete.
Anyway, some great pizza, a visit to the ESPN broadcasting center and a walk down the executive hallways later, we exited back onto the icy base of Aspen to check out the Snowmobile Freestyle and the Superpipe Finals. Snowmobiiles were SWEET because these massive machines were being launched off jumps right in front of us with their drivers hanging on with one or no hands performing craziness right before our eyes! Definitely worth the trip.
I can say my Uggs are not great in ice, but they do pretty well in snow, and damn are they warm. Which satisfies me as long as I have a coworker to hang onto, the purpose Kirk served by having great hiking boots that may as well have been cramp-ons.
The drive home was definitely an hour and half longer than intended, due to white out conditions for part of it, elk herds for some of it, and just terribly icy/snowy roads for the rest. Good thing Kirk was leading, he kept us sane and driving slowly for most of the trip. But when we got back on I-80 and it was 3:00 a.m. and he was still going 30 mph with 30 miles left, I said, "Sorry mate, but I can't do this for another hour," and picked it up to a speedy 45 mph. Found myself "home" at 3:30 a.m. Unfortunately, I'll probably do it again.
Blink. Awake.
It's Monday, and I need to get up and start getting my brain in work mode.
Check out Hanna's Helping for Kirk's take on the weekend (and the photos he wont' share with me).
Actual news to come, I promise! But beware, it will come all in one shot, probably tomorrow morning.
3 comments:
directions were not clear, but we made it, so no harm, no foul...
Wamsutter is mad fascinating. Please don't hate.
Sounds like you all had a terrific time! It's interesting to get a take on the weekend that "reads" saner and safer than Kirk's! I love your picture as it truly reminds me of Rawlins. Hope you enjoy your time at the Daily News.
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