After the Whites and Josh left, I spent the next week working, cleaning the cabin, and getting ready for my family to come in town. I spent over two hours at the laundromat washing towels, sheets, and comforters to get all the beds ready for everyone. We had nine people staying in the cabin, so space was tight and every bed was occupied. The real problem was that we don't have any storage space. There's only one closet in the cabin, so everyone had to live out of their suitcases on the floor.
I had to work most of the time that everyone was here, but I did get Wednesday and Thursday off to ride with my family. Our good family friends, the O'Neills, came to Colorado as well. There were nine of them staying in a condo in Georgetown, so when we all went to dinner together, we were 18 deep.
It was definitely chaotic to have nine people living in such a small space, but It was great to seem my whole family and we had a lot of fun.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Saturday, March 5, 2011
The Whites (and Josh) Visit
Nathan, Kelly, and Josh visited from Houston this Weekend. They flew in Friday evening and left Sunday evening. It was short, but we had a great time. Loveland got another 15 inches of fresh powder before Friday, so the snow was great. We left early Saturday morning for Loveland so we could get a full day of skiing and snowboarding in. Kelly and Josh signed up for skiing lessons in the morning and we had to lie about Josh's ability. He had never been skiing before, but we said he was a level two skier (able to get on and off the lift and stop comfortably) so that he could be in Kelly's class. After a quick breakfast, we went out to give Josh a crash course on putting on skis, getting on and off the lift, and stopping so that he wouldn't look like too much of a n00b during the lessons.
Nathan White and I dropped of the 'kids' for their lesson and went off in search of fresh powder. We found tons of it. It was some of the best snow of the season and we had a great morning riding it. We had been ducking under one of the ropes to get fresh tracks down part of the hill and got caught by one of the ski patrollers. She yelled from a distance, "Don't do it!" Then she skied up and informed us that she'd seen us duck it before. After informing us on the purpose of the rope and safety issues involved, she looked around, made sure we were in the clear, then ducked the rope to get fresh tracks with us!
We met back up with Josh and Kelly after their lesson to eat lunch and ski together in the afternoon. It turns out that Josh's n00bness had been apparent to the instructor and Kelly had to speak up to keep him from putting Josh in a more novice class (way to go, Kelly). He learned quickly, though, and was making great turns by the end of the lesson. After lunch, the four of us skied together until the lifts closed. Here's a great picture displaying Josh's n00bness. N White and I watched one of Kelly and Josh's runs part way through the morning with their instructor. When Josh tried to skillfully stop right in front of Kelly, he ended up running into her. Luckily, N White was there with the camera. Roll over the image to make Josh fall.
We walked to the Plume Saloon for dinner. We shared some great food, had a couple of beers, and played a couple games of pool. We were all tired from the long day of skiing and snowboarding, though, so we didn't last long at the Plume.
We slept in Sunday (til 8.30, anyway) and had a big breakfast of scrambled eggs, pancakes, and toast (wish I'd had some bacon to round it out). Our plans for the day consisted of taking the Coors Brewery tour, eating at Qdoba (they don't have one in Houston) then going to the airport. We took the scenic route to Golden (where the Coors factory is) and it was the first time I'd driven that stretch of road. It turned out to be a beautiful drive and one of the highlights of the trip (yes, we stopped to take pictures).
The Coors Brewery tour was awesome. It's free and you get to sample three beers at the end of the tour. They have beer on tap there that they don't even have in stores yet. We had to leave before our third beer, though, to have time to pick up Qdoba on the way to the airport.
It was a short trip, but I had a great time and look forward to visiting Houston in the spring. The rest of the pictures from the trip are on flickr. Credit goes to Nathan White and Kelly for taking most of the pictures.
Nathan White and I dropped of the 'kids' for their lesson and went off in search of fresh powder. We found tons of it. It was some of the best snow of the season and we had a great morning riding it. We had been ducking under one of the ropes to get fresh tracks down part of the hill and got caught by one of the ski patrollers. She yelled from a distance, "Don't do it!" Then she skied up and informed us that she'd seen us duck it before. After informing us on the purpose of the rope and safety issues involved, she looked around, made sure we were in the clear, then ducked the rope to get fresh tracks with us!
We met back up with Josh and Kelly after their lesson to eat lunch and ski together in the afternoon. It turns out that Josh's n00bness had been apparent to the instructor and Kelly had to speak up to keep him from putting Josh in a more novice class (way to go, Kelly). He learned quickly, though, and was making great turns by the end of the lesson. After lunch, the four of us skied together until the lifts closed. Here's a great picture displaying Josh's n00bness. N White and I watched one of Kelly and Josh's runs part way through the morning with their instructor. When Josh tried to skillfully stop right in front of Kelly, he ended up running into her. Luckily, N White was there with the camera. Roll over the image to make Josh fall.
We walked to the Plume Saloon for dinner. We shared some great food, had a couple of beers, and played a couple games of pool. We were all tired from the long day of skiing and snowboarding, though, so we didn't last long at the Plume.
We slept in Sunday (til 8.30, anyway) and had a big breakfast of scrambled eggs, pancakes, and toast (wish I'd had some bacon to round it out). Our plans for the day consisted of taking the Coors Brewery tour, eating at Qdoba (they don't have one in Houston) then going to the airport. We took the scenic route to Golden (where the Coors factory is) and it was the first time I'd driven that stretch of road. It turned out to be a beautiful drive and one of the highlights of the trip (yes, we stopped to take pictures).
The Coors Brewery tour was awesome. It's free and you get to sample three beers at the end of the tour. They have beer on tap there that they don't even have in stores yet. We had to leave before our third beer, though, to have time to pick up Qdoba on the way to the airport.
It was a short trip, but I had a great time and look forward to visiting Houston in the spring. The rest of the pictures from the trip are on flickr. Credit goes to Nathan White and Kelly for taking most of the pictures.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Pete's Visit
Pete came and visited me from Houston for for a few days in the middle of February (the weekend before Valentines day, actually). I took four days off of work and it was a much needed vacation. I hadn't gotten to snowboard enough recently. He flew in on Wednesday night and we snowboarded all day Thursday through Saturday, and a half day on Sunday, before I had to bring him back to the airport. Loveland had gotten around 16 inches of new snow before Thursday, so the snow was great through the whole trip. The weather was pretty good , too. It was mostly sunny, but a bit windy, which is about par for Loveland. The first couple days of the trip the temperature was in the single digits, but it warmed up into the 30s over the weekend. Here's the view from the top of lift 9, one of the highest points at Loveland. Keystone is the ski area you can see easily. Breckenridge is right behind the bamboo pole on the right.
We ate at Beau Jo's (my favorite pizza place) which was great, cause I hadn't been in a long time. We also went to a Nuggets basketball game for "Guys Night Out" through my work. It was a lot of fun, especially because the Nuggets won by one point with a buzzer beater. It was also cool because it was one of the last games that Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups played for the Nuggets.
The rest of the pictures from Pete's visit are on flickr.
There was a bit of unexpected excitement on the way home from snowboarding Saturday. I took the frontage road, which is a two lane road that doesn't get the best snow treatment, back to Silver Plume to avoid traffic on the highway. The road was mostly clear of snow, but there were still big patches of packed snow and ice. When we turned onto the road and I saw it was mostly clear, I said, "I'm going to do this in two wheel drive." That turned out to not be such a good idea. It's a five mile stretch of windy road and we made it about 4.5 miles without a problem. On the last downhill section, we started a curve to the right and I felt the back end start to slip. I let off the gas and tried to keep the front of the Jeep where it was supposed to be, but it was too late. The Jeep spun a 180 and slid across the left lane into a snowbank (which happened to be covering a guardrail). We stopped about 200 feet after the skid started with the engine cut off and facing the wrong way. I started the Jeep back up, put her in 4wd, and continued the drive back to the cabin, hoping that I hadn't damaged anything.
Our first appraisal of the damage showed a lot of snow in the wheels and on the rear axle, but no real damage. It seemed like we hit near the rear passenger quarter panel and I thought that the snow bank must have absorbed the impact. Pete had a second look over and noticed that the rear right rim was bent. My wheels stick out a bit from the side of the Jeep, so I think that's all that came in contact with the guardrail. We kept an eye on the tire over night to make sure it wasn't leaking any air. Despite the dent, the tire held air and we managed to drive to Loveland on Sunday for snowboarding and then down to Denver to drop Pete off at the airport.
My spare tire had the same rim as my other tires, so I took the Jeep straight to Walmart after dropping Pete off and had the tire on the dented rim mounted and balanced on the spare rim (my spare tire is full size, but a different, cheaper brand than my main four). That only cost $10. I had to order a new rim to go on the spare tire, though (I'm driving without a working spare right now, not a good practice). That set me back about $70 and will cost another $10 to have the tire mounted and balanced. Though it was a $90 mistake, I suppose I'm lucky I have cheap, steel wheels ($55 bucks a piece).
I am a bit concerned that I may have done other damage to the rear axle, but the Jeep still drives fine and I haven't seen anything that looks out of place. I'm going to rotate my tires soon and take a closer look then. When we went back and looked at the guardrail, there wasn't any damage to it. I'm hoping that means I got off easy. After all, I was only going about 25 mph when we started to slide.
Here are a few pictures of the Jeep after the mishap.
You can't see it very well, but the dent is in the lower left. I'll take a picture of the wheel and post it soon.
Here's where we hit the guardrail.
The rest of the pictures are on flickr.
We ate at Beau Jo's (my favorite pizza place) which was great, cause I hadn't been in a long time. We also went to a Nuggets basketball game for "Guys Night Out" through my work. It was a lot of fun, especially because the Nuggets won by one point with a buzzer beater. It was also cool because it was one of the last games that Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups played for the Nuggets.
The rest of the pictures from Pete's visit are on flickr.
There was a bit of unexpected excitement on the way home from snowboarding Saturday. I took the frontage road, which is a two lane road that doesn't get the best snow treatment, back to Silver Plume to avoid traffic on the highway. The road was mostly clear of snow, but there were still big patches of packed snow and ice. When we turned onto the road and I saw it was mostly clear, I said, "I'm going to do this in two wheel drive." That turned out to not be such a good idea. It's a five mile stretch of windy road and we made it about 4.5 miles without a problem. On the last downhill section, we started a curve to the right and I felt the back end start to slip. I let off the gas and tried to keep the front of the Jeep where it was supposed to be, but it was too late. The Jeep spun a 180 and slid across the left lane into a snowbank (which happened to be covering a guardrail). We stopped about 200 feet after the skid started with the engine cut off and facing the wrong way. I started the Jeep back up, put her in 4wd, and continued the drive back to the cabin, hoping that I hadn't damaged anything.
Our first appraisal of the damage showed a lot of snow in the wheels and on the rear axle, but no real damage. It seemed like we hit near the rear passenger quarter panel and I thought that the snow bank must have absorbed the impact. Pete had a second look over and noticed that the rear right rim was bent. My wheels stick out a bit from the side of the Jeep, so I think that's all that came in contact with the guardrail. We kept an eye on the tire over night to make sure it wasn't leaking any air. Despite the dent, the tire held air and we managed to drive to Loveland on Sunday for snowboarding and then down to Denver to drop Pete off at the airport.
My spare tire had the same rim as my other tires, so I took the Jeep straight to Walmart after dropping Pete off and had the tire on the dented rim mounted and balanced on the spare rim (my spare tire is full size, but a different, cheaper brand than my main four). That only cost $10. I had to order a new rim to go on the spare tire, though (I'm driving without a working spare right now, not a good practice). That set me back about $70 and will cost another $10 to have the tire mounted and balanced. Though it was a $90 mistake, I suppose I'm lucky I have cheap, steel wheels ($55 bucks a piece).
I am a bit concerned that I may have done other damage to the rear axle, but the Jeep still drives fine and I haven't seen anything that looks out of place. I'm going to rotate my tires soon and take a closer look then. When we went back and looked at the guardrail, there wasn't any damage to it. I'm hoping that means I got off easy. After all, I was only going about 25 mph when we started to slide.
Here are a few pictures of the Jeep after the mishap.
You can't see it very well, but the dent is in the lower left. I'll take a picture of the wheel and post it soon.
Here's where we hit the guardrail.
The rest of the pictures are on flickr.
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