Apologies: this post is really out of date. I was behind in the posts and then my computer died. We were moving around so much in May that it took several weeks to even have it pronounced dead. And then I could not find enough photos....And life has been rather hectic since we got back to DC and we are putting our house and our DC lives back together. One more post about Mexico and Guatemala (April) will be done and I will try to summarize the adventure. Thank you for joining us on the trip.
So, here's February!
So we left Tokyo and headed for LAX in our comfortable sleeper pods on Zipair. In LAX we made our connection to Denver and arrived around 5:00 p.m. (after 15 hours of travel, the miracle of time zones) and were picked up by Susan Schneider and whisked to their lovely Denver home for the night. We were suffering more from culture shock than jetlag. To suddenly be in a country where we could read the road signs and the menus was both startling and a joy.
I told Susan when we started our adventure in June that I was skiing in February. I am not quite sure she believed me. I grew up in Buffalo, New York, where we had lots of snow but teeny hills (500 foot vertical?). And I learned to ski there. Later in my life I learned that the good stuff was out West, in Colorado and Utah. And we have friends in both places who were willing to let us stay at their homes and ski with me. Great, right?
So for years I dragged my patient wife all over the country (and Canada) in search of good snow and fun. Susan knew I loved skiing and tried to love it. All the way through the learning process of "pizza" wedges, lessons, stem turns, and falling a lot. We went to New Hampshire, Vermont, Canada, Lake Tahoe, Vail, sometimes with the kids and sometimes with friends. After one wonderful week of snow and skiing in Vail (maybe 2005?) with friends, we were flying home and I was looking out the window at the clouds thinking that she just might finally be hooked. Shortly after that happy thought entered my mind, Susan turned to me and declared: "I hate skiing", and she followed with impeccable logic: "I don't like the cold; I do not like falling, I do not like feeling out of control; and I hate carrying all the goddamn equipment." From that moment on she was absolved from any responsibility to ski or pretend to like it for my sake.
But....I still love skiing. At age 71 it may seem a bit ridiculous. But I skied "bumps" this winter better than I had in my life. And in Utah I skied after a 24" snowfall and got some of the famed Utah powder. My knees worked well and despite Susan's perfectly reasonable expectations, I did not break anything during 17 days of sliding down mountains. Kind of amazing, really.
We spent two weeks in Leadville, Colorado, at 10,500' altitude at Bob and Susan's house with the huge picture window overlooking the Rockies. Ed and Judy (the same couple who joined us in Madeira) joined us for a week. The cast of skiers rotated as I spent 9 days at Copper Mountain. We ate well and laughed a lot. Skiing with Bob and Susan and Judy was fun. Yes, I ski bit faster on my own, but it is more fun with friends.
Apres ski at Copper with Ed and Judy.
Susan and Judy on the cross country trails in Leadville. Sorry, Bob, I have no pictures of you!
And after the maximum allowable 13 days at Chez Homiak/Schneider we flew to Salem, Oregon, to spend a few days with Laura Bruno and Tom Strauch. Now, the key information item here is that Tom was the founder of THE volleyball game in summer of 1973, from which my wife and most of my friends emerged. This gang is still the center of most of our social life. We are fortunate to have known these folks for 35-40 years, on average. Yes, we need new friends, I know. But old friends are the best. So we spent 3 fun days with Tom and Laura - we hiked and hit a winery and drove around Salem, which is a nice place. It was wonderful to catch up with them. Interesting note about Tom and Laura: they have a son who is a doctor and a daughter who is a professional clown. Seriously, my brain cannot untangle the influences there. Interesting people.
Tom and me on the hike. And, of course, the view from the top.
I have to say that Tom is a beast. Same age as Susan and I, and he took us on a gorgeous hike on the coast of Oregon. He described the hike as "easy". Well, we survived, mainly because we are in decent shape and don't give up easily. But the steeps and the mud and the slick grasses were seriously challenging. And, of course, the views of the ocean from God's Thumb were wonderful. Tom just could not figure out why we were struggling so much. It was NOT easy. And Tom is in amazing shape.
So then Tom, Susan, and I left Salem in Tom's car and headed for Park City, Utah. Only 800 miles -- Tom does it all the time to get to hikes and rafting trips. Now, here is where ihings got a little tense with Susan and me. Tom and I had planned to stay in an AirBnb in Little Cottonwood Canyon (near Alta, Snowbird, and Solitude) for 4 nights to ski together. Susan had tentative plans to visit a friend who lives in a remote area near Mammoth ski area in California for that time, but that fell through because of complicated logistics and the fact that the Mammoth area was under about 500 inches of snow at the time, with much more coming down.
"So what to do with Susan?" Seems like a good movie title, right? Our good friend Meeche, at whose home we were going to end up after the bro-ski time with Tom, suggested that Susan could stay at her home in Park City and dog-sit while she visited Mahajual (Mexico)-- which, by the way, is where we are going to end up in about a month. Let me suggest, gently, that Susan was less than pleased by the plan. Not comfortable with a strange dog in an unknown town in someone else's house. Dick's take: what could be better? Or... what's the alternative?
Susan is a reluctant good sport, so she agreed to 4 days of dog-sitting. Now here is where you have to believe that the Universe provides. We get to Meeche's house and her current dog-sitter, Bambi (given name), is ready to head out the next morning early. Tom and I head to our AirBnb and.....Bambi's car will not start. So she and Susan spend a nice day together getting to know Millie (the dog) and Park City. When Bambi leaves the next day, Susan is calm and confident and not pissed at me. Thank you powers that be.
Tom and I skied hard for 4 days and then he dropped me off at the car rental place and headed back to Salem. I drove to Park City. Meeche joined us the next day and we spent a week talking, eating, visiting the Olympic Park ((2002 Olympics) and I skied another 4 days. Time with friends is wonderful, and Meeche is a good friend and a pretty amazing human being. She has dedicated her life to teaching life skills through sports to our physically and mentally challenged brothers and sisters. Time spent with Meeche does give me the sense that there are greater things in our life than skiing and laughing. But both activities are acceptable in the course of serving others.
And finally, February was over. My ski month was over. Susan's February nightmare was over and we could fly back to DC for a planned 3 week reconnect with family and friends. Just part of an incredible year. And again, it went off without a serious hitch -- except for the dogsitting gig. Thank you Susan. And Meeche. And the Universe.
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