Friday March 12

When doing my blogs I usually enter them the next day so I am entering yesterdays on my birthday wow who could believe I am no longer 50.

The weather on Friday could not have been any better. Bright blue sky's and temperatures in the 20's on the top of the mountain and 40's on the bottom. Kathy dropped us off at the lift as she does everyday even as sick as she was. We all told her to take a sick day but she insisted on helping us out. Bob and Jerry just got over this bad cold, fever sickness and she is know the next victim.

While standing in the lift line Barb, John, and Bill met up with us if you can believe this we didn't even have a cell phone that hooked us up. Back to Game Creek bowl for a warm up and Bob went searching for Kath, Mike and Frank. A great day of skiing for everyone. Kath has not skied for a few years and she has not lost her talent. Only once did we have Bob and Mike do the "trust me" that is when they say trust me you will be fine and we were. Once again apre ski was at Pepis.

When we returned back to the Sorensen's B&B we were greeted by a new guest who is staying for the weekend. Mark is a friend of Jerry's and just the nicest person you wanted to meet also very good looking (I had to put that in there). Mark is employed by a company named BobBarker and sells supplies, equipment, and van inserts with cage dividers to prisons around the US. This is a picture of the van he drives I could hardly control myself when I saw this. He offered to give me a ride and I had to decline I didn't want to be in a confined area.

Darla was gracious and invited Bob and I over for cocktail hour at the Turntable, Mike, Kath and Frank are staying there so they just had to walk down the hall. We sampled the famous Minturn green chili and homemade guacamole dip. Pictured at the left is one of the rooms that has been decorated for Perry. This room is called the Perry room and no one has been allowed to stay in this room until Perry has been there.

We ended our evening at the Minturn Country Club were Kath and I beat Mike and Frank in a game of shuffleboard and cooking great steaks on the grill. There will be discussions about the shuffle board game for a long time the boy's said that we didn't win and some little girl pushed the wrong button. Kath and I know better we rule.

Thursday March 11

It has been many of years since I was on the mountain when there was fresh powder more than 1 inch in depth. This was in my opinion a good powder day. The top of Vail and the back bowls had 7-8 inches of new snow. Jerry as our guide and found the best snow on the mountain. After a few runs he suggested we go back to China bowl. Bob, Frank, Mike, myself and Jerry as the guide went off the back to find good powder. My decision was to ski alone because I am much slower, so that is what I did. Bob managed to have an out of body experience when skiing with Jerry down the perfect run. On the other hand I went in search of great snow and ended up skiing in the trees and not having the out of body experience.

The day ended at Pepes for some apre ski cocktails and great conversations. Barb, John Bill and Judy all showed up to make a bigger celbration for the birthday week. Judy Frank is celebrating here BD on March 12.

The night ended with a fabulous dinner at TiAmo an Italian restaurant in Beaver Creek. They have the best food and we had such fun. Mike, Kath, Frank, Darla, Kathy, Jerry, Bob and I all enjoyed good food and great stories shared by Darla. I suppose you wonder who Darla is? Darla owns and runs the Turntable in Minturn, CO. She has owned it for 34 years and does a great job taking care of people. Bob and the guys started staying there about 10 years ago and the tradition continues with Mike, Kathy, and Frank all residing there for the next few days.

Wed. March 10

The trip yesterday left us short of our destination for the day so we had more miles to do on Wed. than planned. At 7:30 am we set out from Hollibrook NM in hopes of finding the perfect route and avoid big snow storms in the higher elevations. The pictures on the top are Antonito, NM this is where they have these trains with narrow tracks. I have never heard of them but Bob tells me there are several throughout the US.

The pictures at the left were taken while driving through central Co. This was the most wildlife we have seen the entire trip. There were herds of elk along the road.

The last 1 hours of the trip was the worst of the day leaving Leadville we ran into the snow storm that would dump about 8 inches of snow on the top of Vail. The visibility was very poor not being able to tell where the road ended and began.

We succeeded and after 12 hours in the car we finally reached our destination at Kathy & Jerry's house in Vail. They had our bedroom suite all ready for us and we could finally stop moving for the day. Who could believe we have gone full circle through many states and even another country. As of today we have traveled 3791.50 miles and the GPS says we have spent 68.35 hours in the car. This is pretty amazing that we are still married and having a good time. Tomorrow we will be skiing and life will become much more interesting.

Tuesday March 9

We say goodbye to Florence, AZ the weather has not been good the last 2 days. I wake up with a stomach ache and as the morning progresses I become very sick. Bob packs up the car and the weather in Florence is not bad. Bob has studied the map and figured out the best route to take in order to avoid all the snow that is falling in the upper elevations. Just as we start out we get a phone call from Kathy & Jerry and they inform us that interstate 70 is closed at Glenwood Springs which is the direction we were heading. We know have to go through the middle of the snow storm we were trying to avoid.

As we head out of Phoenix it is raining and by the time we hit the higher elevations it is snowing like crazy. From Phoenix to Flagstaff is usually about a 2 hour drive at most. It took us 4.5 hours to get to Flagstaff. The picture at the left is the traffic that we sat in for 2.5 hours never moving just sitting on the freeway. There were 3 accidents ahead of us and when they stopped the traffic the semi trucks were all getting stuck.

When we finally get moving we notice a bunch of search and rescue vehicles and sheriffs at a stopping area on the other side of the freeway. It turns out they were looking for a woman who disappeared on Monday night. We saw a flyer in a gas station right outside of Flagstaff and it has been on the nightly news.

Our plan was to get to Gallup NM but we ran into more snow and ended up stopping in Holbrook, NM enough driving for one day. There are several hotels in town and we looked around and settled on a Days Inn. Accommodation's are better than some we have had on this trip. There was a restaurant down the street named Mesa Italian Restaurant nice place the Italian food looked really good but I am still having stomach issues so a baked potato was my meal of choice and Bob had a nice steak dinner.

Monday March 8
It has been raining for 2 days but they need the rain people are telling us. So far there has been 1 inch in 24 hours. Not much to do on a rainy day in Florence so I went to the senior center and attempted and successfully downloaded the wedding video taken in Mexico.
I think I need more practice shooting movies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU2yYdxes-w

We ended the day with a great dincomner prepared by Jim. Shrimp kabobs very tasty and looked really impressive.

Tuesday we start our trip to Vail.

Sunday March 7

We have had a great time in Tucson at the rental house and it is time to check out. The weather here in Tucson is not bad but they inform us that it is raining in Phoenix. After a quick stop in Florence we car pool with Patty and Steve to the infamous Mesa Flea Market. As we get closer to the market the rain starts coming down harder. With nothing else to do we start our journey through the miles of tent like covering to find all the best deals. Bob and Steve posed for the picture and Steve bought this great hat. Once again a fun excursion to do on a rainy Sunday.

On Saturday with all the friends we played domino's and Judy talked about this game called Mexican Train with dominoes. I successfully found all the added pieces to play this game when Judy comes home and she can give us the directions on how to play.

Patty and Steven continued on to Phoenix for the remainder of week and Bob and I headed back to Florence for our last couple of days before heading up to Vail for the big birthday. A