Friendship

Something I've come to appreciate over the years is how awesome it is when and old friend with whom you've mostly lost touch with comes back into your life and it doesn't seem that much time has been lost. So it's turning out that reconnecting with Sandy and Dan has been one of those "Godincidence" events that has turned my injury into a good thing. My mobility is such that maneuvering the steps into the motorhome isn't yet possible. Thus, Gary and I have been staying with the Dahls....it's a tough life as you can see from my "hospital" room view!

They've owned a condo here for years and then this summer rented that and out and moved into their new townhouse. And guess what....we moved in too on Thursday night! Gary and I have been made to feel more than welcome and Sandy and I have been catching up on years of events and emotions.  Then to top it off another Delta Delta Delta (Darlene (Engst) Goodwin arrived in town late Friday and we celebrated her birthday yesterday at her condo with a room full of their Sun Valley friends.

I'm feeling enough better today to be on the computer updating this blog while they are all out enjoying the slopes. And since they each promised to make a run for me I too am enjoying a day of vicarious skiing!

YEAH we finally get to add actual SKI to the ski odyssey blog

So "per those in the know", three nights of grooming and snow making/blowing would restore the slopes...and they were right! No "crack of noon" skiing today...we were up the lifts as they opened at 9:00!
The six degrees of separation concept was also at work. Over the weekend I'd received a call from one of my old sorority sisters who is in Ketchum for the winter so we were meeting at 10:30. In the meantime, as Tom Watson, Gary and Laurie got off the Christmas chair we immediately saw Doug Cameron so it was fun to have him join with us

Caught up with Sandy (Tri-Delt sister) and Dan Dahl. The three of us started our instructing "career" back in '75 with the Boeing ski school Skibacs. For you NW skiers reading this it was quite fun to meet  "Legendary Lenore Lyle" up at the Seattle Ridge lodge

It was a fantastic day of skiing UNTIL IT WASN'T . That would have been at 2:30 when the light suddenly became flat. Laurie unwittingly launched a Firefox 14/40 (per latest Warren Miller film) off the cat track see didn't see on Upper Warm Springs. Sandy saw the whole thing and initially was afraid she'd seen her friend die in the horrible accident. Apparently it was reminiscent of the Herminator Olympic crash minus the orange fencing. Of course I didn't want to immediately go to the emergency room so loaded up on ice packs

(Can't believe I am willing to post this most attractive pic!) But I actually felt worse than this shows so I eventually went to the emergency room. A bunch of exams and XRays later confirmed the best possible news...lots of bruising and muscle injury but no breaks or spinal cord damage. So, even though I'm not going to be able to ski for at least 10 days,  my attitude is one of gratefulness!

Sun Valley At the Loewy's

 "Camping" in the driveway of MP and Richard.....look at this sunrise.

 However, per reports from locals it may look inviting but the rain storm/deluge of Sunday "injected" the slopes that were then groomed and became a sheet of ice. So we took the opportunity to repopulate Laurie's phone with all of her contact info that had been lost in the process of upgrading both phone and Apple for "tethering" purposes. Thanks to all of you who have emailed me your phone number!

First days on the road!

We've continued to refer to our adventure as the "ski odyssey" yet so far it's missing the "ski" portion! We sort of left last Thursday night. That is if you count the fact that once we had the jeep in tow mode we discovered that the turning and brake signals weren't working. The place that installed it all is in the wrong direction but we decided since the trip was just beginning it was best to go to the source. So we (seriously!) spent the night at the Walmart at I-5 and 164th in Lynnwood! For those of you new to our blog we found it funny how many people told us about how you can stay in Walmart parking lots for free. Not exactly being experienced Walmart shoppers, the irony of that was such that on our first outing back in Oct. we made a point of staying there our first night out. Since then, when we've been in "transit mode" we've made "Walmart West" our new home port. OK back to the part of finally getting on the road. We we're on the doorstep of Glen's Welding as they opened Friday morning and three hours later we were on the road with all systems "go" and headed in the direction of skiing.

Or so we thought...that was before monsoon season hit all areas of the NW. The plan for a Friday night clinic group at Mt. Hood Meadows changed to wine tasting then dinner at Brian's Pourhouse in Hood River. One thing you've gotta love about your ski friends is they're great fun on or off the slopes!

Again, since this post is the first one that lots of friends outside of the NW are reading for the first time...Hood River is an cool little town on the Columbia River and is a world class wind surfing/kite boarding destination. It's also half hour from Mt. Hood which is open almost year round for skiing.

We'd met John May at a summer ski clinic at Hood in '08 and he is now a BFF and was our weekend host.  Although the rain continued it's onslaught we had a great time shopping (ok that would have been Laurie shopping....thanks Holly Tencer!)), eating, talking, drinking, and laughing.

Turns out not ALL Walmarts let you stay in their lots and Hood River was one of them and all the campgrounds were either closed for the winter or full. Fortunately, the good folks at "Naked Winery" heard of our plight and offered a parking spot for the weekend.

On Sunday we hit the road again with the aim to get as close to Sun Valley as possible. The good news of the rain is that the sometimes treacherous passes through the Blue Mtns were just plain wet. We even got some clearing as this pic outside of Pendleton illustrates:

We got as far as Boise (yes of course we're in the Walmart lot) and with Starbucks across the street have a great wifi connection that allowed us both great coffee and a chance to finally put up this post. Next stop Sun Valley!

Getting ready to roll!

Well, it's time for the winter ski odyssey to really begin! Sure additional sign of my being retired is that I said bu bye to the Mercedes sedan for a four door Jeep Wrangler that we can tow with the motorhome!!(yeah...the kind you take the whole top off of and really go four wheeling!).  Gary is installing ski racks into the side compartment today. More as we get on the road this Thursday!