Encounter with Careful Planning (or lack there of)

There are two of them, speaking rapidly in Hispanic accents. One is short and chunky, older, at least compared to his compadre. The other is short and skinny and younger. “Yo gotta watch out for those coyotes, you know.” Coyotes? What are they talking about? The male version of a ‘cougar’? “…especially in the morning… they look at you and go, ‘ooh, there is a good hunk of meat’. Ya that is really what they say.” Oh really? The morning, huh? More than in the afternoon or night? Well then… I laugh awkwardly -several times. I didn’t know what else to do. Except for leave; which I do promptly after paying for my two gallon gas can and my two gallons of gas.

My car sits silent, in the middle of South Lake Tahoe, about a mile from the gas station. The gas gauge had read “reserve” for the past several days. I had attempted filling up once, but the pumps weren’t working correctly and after giving up, I claimed ‘tired’ as an excuse and went home, not to return to the filling station until today, out of complete necessity and not at all to my convenience. I had run out of gas; in fact, I had even run out of the fumes that I normally am able to limp into the nearest gas station with. Fail.

But my heart is happy and the day is bright. I can’t help but be thankful (and perhaps a bit smug): I’m thankful that I live up the hill, and was able to coast downhill, shortening the distance to the gas station by at least half. I’m thankful that S. Lake is a small town and easily traversed. I’m thankful I had the foresight to wear my galoshes and not my snow boots or some other sort of shoe as it is raining heavily and puddles and slush were in excess. I’m thankful that nothing pressing was listed on my “to-do” list.

And I’m also thankful that the whole situation happened in the afternoon, and not in the morning when the coyotes happened to be about.

Encounter with Green Tea

On green tea:

I love it. It comes in second place, in my list of most favored drinks (apart from water). Coffee is barely holding its top position. A place which, believe me, it has held with no competition for MANY years.

This rise of green tea is really quite a phenomenon. I have tried for the past several years to convince myself that I LOVE tea. For the past several years, I have failed miserably. Until this year. The year that I decided my relationship with tea was built entirely on false perception and that it must be consummated.

And here I am, drinking two cups, sometimes more, of tea a day. This is a good thing. And I am quite happy about the development of things, only that...

...its weird.

Its been awhile, darling

At this point in time, I'm supposed to assure you (the random blogging world, my one follower, and anybody who happens to trip across my staked out piece of internet), that I missed you terribly. That is what all the popular bloggers do. Unfortunately, I cannot do that, because I did not miss "you". My insincere apologies.

Why for heaven's sake am I back? Because I meet people, I see things, I do activities; it's life and some of it just need to be told. So forgive me or not: I'm back.

She hearts skiing.

Kayce and I are obviously sisters. We love skiing (not to mention we totally rock it)... and hot chocolate (we rock the milk chocolate mustache too).

Shred and Refresh -days 4-10

When one is busy chasing after sweet powder stashes, one has little time to seek good internet connections. And those times that we did have internet? Well, sleep sounded so much more pleasant. Do you see? When I started out on my blog-about-my-one-and-0nly-ski-road-trip-that-I-have-ever-and-probably-ever-will-take idea, I took none of the above in mind.
Therefore, here I am summing up 7 days in one.

My sincerest apologies.

Day 4: Whole Foods -would you be my valentine? Healthy food on the go; couldn't be better. Renown Hospital -I will never forgive you for giving my fan base a reason to move FIVE HOURS away from me and only 30 MINUTES from Mt Rose and 50 minutes from any bit of awesomeness around Tahoe (yes, I'm a bit jealous)! Congrats on the new adventure, C&D!

Day 5: Mammoth -steep lines and sunny skies: day made. Done.

Day 6: June Mountain - perfecting Warren Miller ski tricks and playing cards in the lodge. Don't forget a broken clavicle for Carter. One clavicle out of 8, not too bade of an average. Sadly, our party dropped down to just the original 3 amigos.

Day 7: I take back everything I ever said about the Big D's driving. He's a master. I signed him up for the Daytona.

Day 8: Alta -my eyes are still burning from an overload of helmet heads and old-school skiers. My legs are still burning from one-thousand too many moguls. P.S. I never thought I'd say this, but, I missed ye ol' snowboarders.

Day 9: Black Diamond -seriously, as much as I love your gear (minus the Joules -which I avoided all this week and opted to borrow, yes BORROW, beg, steal, whatever, my sisters K2 Phat Luvs), you need to step up the outlet department; if I wanted Mammut gear, I would have gone to the Mammut factory.

Day 10: Home -it feels good. Smiles all around.

Shred and Refresh -Day 2/3

*That is day 2 plus day 3. Not two-thirds of a day, for you technical minded folks.

**To my dear and dedicated fan base: Thank you for your continued support. I almost retired from blogging after hitting eldorado with the last post. However, you must bear with me; the fat lady is not yet singing.

A steaming stack of freshly ground wheat blueberry pecan pancakes dripping with maple syrup around 9:00 pm and 5 hr "nap" in the middle of the night welcomed in day 2. 3 am and Chelsea and Denver and I stumbled out the door into the car, for the first leg of our journey: Chiloquin to Squaw Valley. The trip was delightful; I slept -a major accomplishment when Denver is driving, I would normally be jolted awake every 10 minutes by the vibrations of the grooves planted in the side of the road, or a sudden gasp from Chelsea and a jerk of the Subaru's tires!

We planned to arrive at Squaw just as the hill opened and would have been on time if half of Sacramento hadn't had the same plan. We hit bumper to bumper traffic at Truckee and crept our way into the ski park by 10:30. Despite the crowds the snow was light, albeit chopped up, and the day was good! In fact, for a Northwest girl, the snow was incredibly light -I can't wait to be flabbergasted by Utah's glory snow!

Advice of the day: Throw a high-calorie granola bar in your jacket prior to heading to the lift line. This keeps your energy up and allows you to aviod the mayhem of skiiers/boarders tumbling over eachother in attempts to nab the one remaining lunch table at the lodge.

Lesson of the day: Attitude gives skiing a bit of pep and looks awesome hucking off cliffs (1 ft to 20 ft). Bad attitude is simply lame and doesn't huck off of anything. If a member of your skiing party appears as though she/he might sport some, leave her/him at the lodge, and don't look back.



Day 3. Voted best back-country day of the year... by yours truly. Pictures tell all:

Advice of the day: Go backcountry. Get freshies.

Lesson of the day: Track your subjects.

Shred and Refresh -Day 1

10 days, 5 ski resorts, 4 friends, 1 Subaru, 2445 miles. The goal is simply this: shred pow; refresh the body and spirit.

Wednesday before last, I hitch-hiked onto my Uncle Phil and his daughter Lauren's dad-daughter ski-day on Mt Shasta. Shout-out to a wonderful and ever so generous family! On the drive home, U. Phil commented on how a day on the mountain does so much more for his spirit then a day in church. I couldn't agree more. When I'm outdoors, my whole being is engaged in worship of my incredible God. This is not to say that worshiping God in the traditional setting with other believers is inferior (in fact, God calls us to do that); however, I do believe that we often overlook other ways of worship. With this in mind, I'm looking forward to a beautiful and completely revitalizing 10 days. God is One. He is the Creator of all things good. And I am going to immerse myself in this truth and revel in His glory. Body, heart and soul.

And because He's so freakin awesome, read this: "He gives snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes. He casts forth His ice as fragments; who can stand before His cold? ...He does not delight in the strength of the horse; he does not take pleasure in the legs of a man. The Lord favors those who fear Him. Those who wait for His lovingkindness." Excerpt taken from Psalm 147.

Today is day one. Prep day. My gear is strewn about the house, upstairs, downstairs, across the garage floor, on the dining room table, even draped from the chandelier. I'm so glad I took half of yesterday to thoroughly clean my house! heh. My roommate watched as I dumped an arm full of soft-shells, skin layers, wool socks and gloves in the middle of the living room and slid sideways out the door mumbling something about needing to go work-out. Know: this is not because I have a lot of gear; this is simply rule #1 of organizing: make a BIG mess. Now would be an appropriate time to pity those that will be sharing a small four door car with me for the next week plus.

Advice of the day: a good music mix is essential on prep day. How to make waxing skis interesting? Mix it with a few well-placed dance moves to Michael Jackson's "Beat it." It has the same effect as singing karaoke into your broom handle on house-cleaning day.

Lesson of the day: make certain that your leather gloves are completely dry prior to water-proofing. Did I really think sealing in the moisture was a good idea? I'm only hoping that having completely waterproof hands will be as warm as having waterproof gloves.