bobanddenisewanderlust

Saturday- We woke up early, after a comfortable night at the Days Inn in Lakewood. I missed my bed and dogs though! We had a cup of terrible coffee and I took a nice long, hot shower. Can’t do that in the motor home as we would run out of tank space!

We went down the street to the Mimi’s Café for breakfast. We each had scrambled eggs, which came with hash brown red potatoes, a muffin and OJ. We ate a little of the muffins and took the rest home I also took most of my potatoes and OJ  home.

We wanted to wait to avoid  the ski traffic, so we went to the Super-Walmart just down the road. We bought Bob two pairs of smaller jeans and two smaller shirts for square dancing. We wanted to head over to the Cracker Barrel to pick up a couple of items. About half way there, Bob said I don’t feel well. He turned white and started vomiting. We think what happened is that Mimi’s either cooked the eggs or the potatoes in the same pan as some bell pepper. Since Bob became so ill, relatively fast, we think he was exposed to the bell pepper oils. The poor guy was so sick. We had a list of errands, so we continued on, and finally, at about 11:30 when the traffic thinned, we started up the mountain.

He started to feel better about the time we arrived home. I walked the dogs and made some sandwiches for lunch. He was able to eat by this time, and he needed to eat so that he could take the antibiotic and pain medication.

By late afternoon Bob was doing well, so we went to the Saturday night barbecue at the Activity Center. We had a great time talking with everyone, returned home and went to bed.

Sunday- My GSA day. Brian and Kathy picked me up and we went to “work”. We all laugh when we call it work, because it is so much fun! I was scheduled on Peak 9, so I took the bus over rather than ski over. I passed out trail maps and peanut butter granola bars( the good ones!) at the base of the Quicksilver  lift. At 9:45 I headed up to the top of the lift for my second assignment at the hut, from 10-11. One of the ski school instructors asked me to take one of her class kids up. It was a little boy named Milo, who was 4 years old. We chatted on the way up, and when we arrived at the top, I said “ready Milo” and just as we pulled into the top of the lift to get off he, turned around to get off backwards! EEEK! The little kids have vests on them with a handle on the back. I grabbed the handle and the lift attendant pulled back on the chair, as the Milo was going under the chair. The other lift attendant hit the emergency brake. I jumped up, hauling Milo with me and slid down the little slope with him going backwards, on my skis, as of course, he had crossed his little skis. A Warren Miller Ski film moment! So once we were out of the way, they re-started the lift and I got Milo facing the right way. He of course thought this was fun! My heart was racing!. Anyway, I told the instructor so she could teach him how to get off the lift properly.

About half way through my shift, a ski instructor skied up to me with 3 little kids, sort of yelled at me that their instructor was on the way, took one kid and skied off. This happened so fast I did not have a chance to say anything. So now I was the proud owner of 2 four year olds! Not my job, but what was I going to do? So obviously my first priority was to watch these kids. Of course, the instructor that they belonged to was 5-6 chairs behind on the lift and the lift stopped two times. She collected her kiddies, and took off. When Mike, my team leader arrived. I asked him about this. He was not a happy camper. No, the ski instructors are not supposed to drop off their charges. It is okay for us to assist with taking kids up on the lift, but at the top we are supposed to be answering questions and talking to the guests. So he is going to discuss this with the other supervisors and send it up the chain of command.

I went up the Mercury chair, and answered questions at the map at the top. Jim relieved me about 20 minutes later. I ate lunch at the Peak 9 restaurant. Then skied down Bonanza 3 times. Then I skied down Silverthorne, the beginner slope. At the bottom, the first time, I was asked to assist another instructor with little kids, but this time we were all on the same lift. She was talking to the kids, and mentioned the ‘graveyard’, a little park in the trees. One of the kids asked, “what’s a graveyard?”. She looked at me and said, with panic in her eyes, “ how do I answer that"? I said, change the subject! So they went into a discussion of having hot cocoa in the 10 mile restaurant.

We had our meeting at 3PM in 10 Mile restaurant. I took the Peak 8 Super Connect over to Peak 8, and skied down to the locker room. While on the lift , the wind picked up and it went from pleasant to chilly. I was really glad that I was done for the day!

I met up with Brian and Kathy in the locker room, and we took the gondola down. Bob was supposed to meet us for happy hour, and just as we were arriving at the restaurant, Bob called to say the restaurant was closed. Teresa called Kathy right then, and they made an executive decision to go back to Blue River, where we had been last week. So I called Bob back and he went to meet us. We are not allowed to go to happy hour in our uniforms, even just the pants; I had called Bob to bring my black ski pants. So I changed pants in the car, right on Main Street! Not a problem when you are wearing thermal underwear, as I was more covered than if I was in a bathing suit!

There were 12 of us this week. We did the same as last week. Appetizers, martini’s and beers were 2 for 1, so we ordered two of everything and passed everything, except the drinks,  around. This restaurant has wonderful calamari, spinach and artichoke dip, and baked brie. This week I went straight for the “Orange Dreamcycle Martini”. Yum, amaretto, orange liqueur, and a touch of cream.

We returned to the motor home, watched 60 minutes, then had some homemade Chicken Tortilla soup that Bob had made in the crock pot. It was really good.

Monday-  We slept until 5:30 when the dogs woke us up. We think they wanted to go out, but that did not occur to us until later! We both went back to sleep and I was up at 7, and Bob was up at 7:30.

I went to the Rec. center. Wow, I missed exercising Wednesday and Friday last week and I could really tell! I was also very tired. I returned to the motor home, ate cereal, and took a 2 hour nap! What was with that, sleeping from 9:30 –11:30…both of our phones rang during those two hours and I still slept on… hummm.

Bob talked to the MD office and his appointment on Wednesday is for 9:30, so we will be making an early trip down the mountain to Denver. So far the weather is for snow on Tuesday and Thursday, but of course, that may change.

We went over to the Activity Center and took showers, then ate lunch. We went to Breck to the UPS store and I mailed a baby afghan to The Linus Project, who gives blankets and afghans to babies and children. This was pink and white, and I had made it from left over yarn.

We ran over to Silverthorne to Target. They have cookie mix and more importantly, Del Monte canned vegetables on sale for 0.49 cents. We throw a handful of French style green beans in the dog food, so this was a very good deal. We bought 20 cans. So far this year, that is the least expensive that we can find the canned veggies. Walmart is 0.68 cents per can, for their brand, but sometimes I can find them on sale at Safeway or City Market. We also did all of our grocery shopping there, so it was not a wasted trip.

Back at the motor home, Bob laid down to take a nap and found his side of the bed wet. We suck the quilt in the dryer and the duvet is drying on the bed. He is not sure why the bed is getting wet. At least this year it is on his side of the bed!

Tuesday- I rode with Craig and Terilu to the 50+ at Breck. On the way out of Tiger Run, there was a guy walking with a Guest Services jacket on, so we picked him up. His name is Dave and he is a paid GSA who works Fri, Sat, Sun. His wife is working at the Peak 10 restaurant and they are staying the winter at Tiger Run. So we had a nice chat on our way to the parking lot and on the bus. I was the only one who had a parking pass! We grabbed our stuff in the locker room, and Terilu went to take her free ski lesson. GSA’s get one free lesson per month. We ran into Brian and Kathy in the parking lot and they met us in the locker room. Craig, Kathy and I went up to the T-bar, where we signed our releases and joined the 50+ for the year. Brian had just bought new boots, so he ran to the shop to have them tweaked. Kathy and I skied with the slower Blue group.  We had a guide in training, Linda, and Joan who I had skied with quite a few times, plus Joelle, who I skied with last year. Craig and Brian skied with the Blacks, but there are no black runs open!

I left at lunch time and Bob picked me up at the base of the gondola. We stopped at City Market, as it is the end of the sale for last week and they had a 1/2 gallon of milk for $1.25, so since it was on the way we stopped to pick up a 1/2 gallon.

At 12:30 we left for Mahjongg. We played with Donna and Betty. Bob won two games! His first time wining! We returned to the motor home, ate dinner, watched TV and went to bed.

Wednesday- The alarm was set for 6 and we left at 7 for Bob’s follow-up with the surgeon. Of course, it had snowed during the night, and was currently snowing. We had about an inch, but it was snowing pretty hard. The road from Tiger Run to I-70 had one lane clear, and it was not snowing in Frisco, but once we were on I-70,  it snowed harder as we were approaching the tunnel. Once we were through the tunnel, the snow slacked off rapidly and pretty soon we were in the sunshine outside Denver. Most of the snow is to be on the Vail side of Vail pass or in Telluride and Crested Butte, in the south.

We arrived at the MD office at about 9:10 AM for our 9:30 appointment. The surgeon took out the drain ( yea!). He told me to take out the stiches on Monday. He did not have a disposable suture removal kit, so we tried Walgreens and two medical supply stores, none of which had the kits. So I called my friend Jeanne, who is a Nurse Practitioner in Denver, at one of the Walgreen clinics. She was just leaving her house, getting ready to go to Tiger Run. She ran back in her house in Denver and picked up her kit and is taking it to the mountains so that I can use it.

We were both really tired when we arrived home. Bob walked the dogs, then we both took a 2 hour nap. We ate dinner, and at 6:30 we headed over to the activity center to play Mexican Train with Craig/Terilu and Brian/Kathy. We had a great time with lots of laughter!

Craig and Terilu now have their parking pass and they rec’d their helmets. They had to pay for their helmets! Breck gave them a 40% discount on them. Ours were free last year, but ours still belong to Vail Resorts.

Thursday- Since we have been so busy this week I decided not to go to Keystone today, so Bob and I remained home. I worked on the article. Since this article is 4  CEU’s, it is taking a lot longer than my usual 1 CEU courses. After lunch, we went to the activity center and took showers. I prepared pizza dip and at 2:30  we picked up Craig to go to Loosey Goosey. Terilu was exhausted! This was her first time at Keystone and she was skiing blues. She has progressed rapidly and is going to be able to ski when she starts her GSA next Wednesday. So Terilu stayed home and took a nap.  Brian and Kathy caught up with us at Loosey Goosey. I zapped the pizza dip in the microwave at the senior center, and it was gone within 10 minutes!

We had a great time. Brian and Kathy joined Loosey Goosey and the Senior Center. Kathy says she is determined to do more this year than they did last year, so they are joining and participating in all the activities. Terilu caught up with us after about an hour.

We returned home at 5:30, walked the dogs, fed them and settled in to watch TV. We were both a little hungry at 7, so we ate the left over soup and spaghetti.

Friday-  Bob’s GSA day. Since he cannot wear his helmet yet, he already knew his assignment was going to be on the plaza. I went with him and sat in Ski Hill Grill, drinking my coffee and reading a book until 8:20. Today is Breckenridge’s 50th anniversary. This was the first day that the lifts were opening at 8:30. Loosey Goosey/square dance friend Nancy Macy was being honored this morning. Nancy, who I think is incredible, had skied the first day Breck opened, 50 years ago today. So she was being given the honor of ‘first chair’ today. Nancy has replaced hips, knees, is on oxygen when skiing, and has severe osteoporosis, with a hump back. Her back had been severely hurting, and she had not skied this week, so she was brought in via the handicap parking lot and stayed warm in the Ski School until it was time for her to go to the lift. . She is a 50+ guide at both Keystone and Breck, and used to be  one of the original GSA’s. She was also one of the founders of the “Babes on Bumps’ ski program at Breck. We think she is in her 80’s and the woman on her worst day can out ski me on my best day!

I was  allowed to walk up by the lift attendants to take pictures. Thought I had caught Nancy looking right at me but missed. The gentleman, in red, on the lift is Mr. Trygve. Trygve’s run and terrain park are named after him. They went up the lift where they were greeted by the press and all the spare GSA’s who skied down with Nancy. Nancy headed to the left where the GSA locker room is located, so I missed a picture of her coming down the mountain, as I was standing near the lift line entrance, to the right of the lifts.

I went back to the motor home, walked the dogs at 10:30, and headed back to town for my Chiropractor appointment. I picked Brian and Kathy up on my way to Frisco for Mahjongg. While we were playing Mahjongg with Jeanne, Craig called and asked if we wanted to go to the Dam Brewery( the brewery was named for Dillon Dam, but they use Dam for the name) for dinner as it was their 33rd wedding anniversary. We had just been talking about the fact that none of us had taken anything out of the freezer for dinner. We all agreed and made plans.

Bob called about 4:10 that he was done and ready to be picked up. We finished our game and went to pick him up. Because of the DEW tour, the town was mobbed. I called him to ask him to walk across the street and we would come in from another direction to pick him up. He said “I’m in the F lot”. Huh? So we re-routed and picked him up in the “F lot”. The line for the gondola had been all the way out on the snow, so he went to take the Black bus. It was full, so he thought he would take the Green bus to the F lot, then catch the Black bus to the gondola base, but the black bus does not go that direction, so he was stuck. We all laughed and fortunately, we were going the right way through traffic, so it was a quick ride back to Tiger Run. Most of the traffic was from the fact  that they were giving away free beer ( a special Breck brew from Budweiser) and cupcakes in town, and they had a special concert with a group called Los Lobos.

Bob said that one of the special programs for the day was to pass out cupcakes to anyone who had a birthday today, since it is Breck’s birthday. They had 3 trays of 48 cupcakes each and had not passed out any during the day. So Team Leader Tom, at the 3 PM meeting, said lets get rid of these things! So after a safety lecture about staying out of the way of the stampede, they started passing out the cupcakes. Bob said that they were all gone in 1 minute, 42 seconds, he timed it!

At 6, Bob and I picked up Jeanne and Dave while Brian picked up Craig and Terilu. We arrived at the brewery at  at about 6:20 and had a 20 minute wait. All breweries have T-shirts for sale. We all cracked up at one of the T-shirts which said, “I’d give my left ear for a DAM beer!”, after what Bob has been through in the last week we thought it was really funny! ( Bob’s surgery was on the right ear).

We had a nice dinner and laughed a lot. Bob had the beer sampler. He did not particularly like the Stout, as it had a hickory flavor. He really liked the wheat, Raspberry, and Brown Ale.

Here is a picture of Brian, Dave and Jeanne.

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