Eastward Bound

All's been quiet on the Western Front since we last blogged. Seems like a long time ago, but I suppose it was just a week or so ago. Mostly we've been rocking out the snowshoes and skiing the powder (me), and attempting to sled the powder (Lauren, with limited success). We've had some beautiful weather here--after getting a couple solid snows over a couple weeks, its been sunny, calm, and warm.

Our first assault on the resort went horribly awry. The powder was so deep, and so fluffy, that it took us nearly 2 hours to climb 800'. At one point, I thought I was going to pass out since I could hardly catch my breath, and think I nearly threw up. If you want to imagine how it was, every time we took a step we had to step up about 2.5'-3', but then would sink about 2 feet down in the snow. It was like being on some sort of demonic elliptical machine at 10,000'. Also, it doesn't help being super hot and sweaty when the sun is out, then a cloud and breeze come up and you start freezing. However, as I remember from the pickup truck bumper stickers of my youth: No Pain, No Gain. The powder snow I skied down on was the stuff of legends. And I think I'm actually starting to get a feel for this powder skiing stuff. I hit up like 20 youtube videos of how to do it, so now I'm a pro. Sort of. Lauren's experience down was not quite so heavenly as mine. We have exhaustively shown that sleds do not work in powder.

Look closer, I'm not flipping you the bird.

Our second trip up was amazingly easy compared to the first. We blasted 1200' up the mountain in an hour and a half. If snowshoeing is your thing, this was the snowshoeing snow of legends. It had crusted over from the wind and sun, so for a 2'-3' base of snow, we were just cruising on top of it, rarely ever dropping more than 6" below the surface. Of course, this meant the snow wasn't quite as good for skiing. It was still pretty sick though. I had an epic faceplant at some point that knocked the wind out of me for a second because the snow was so much faster. Unfortunately, it was not caught on tape, and instead you will have to be satisfied with the video of Lauren's somersault off of her sled.

Other than all that, there hasn't been much else going on around here. We mostly haven't started any projects or anything because our days here are numbered. For the month of March anyway. In two days, we're heading out on our Most Excellent Adventure Eastward. First, we'll head back to Kansas City for a couple of days. Mostly, we want to drink some 1 Barrel Brews at the Green Room. I hear there's going to be a special tapping of English IPA on Saturday night... Also, Bonus!, it just happens that Kaitlin (Camino Sister) will be in KC at the same time as us. The Camino Coincidences just keep on coming. The real reason to be in KC, though, is to get our taxes done, pay for our car tags at the DMV, and do a bunch of other errands. Yes, even if you try to escape the world by quitting your job, packing all your possessions into a storage unit, and taking off across country, you never really get away from it all...

After KC, we're heading east to Atlanta to stay a night with a friend, then to Panama City Beach to spend a week with Lauren's grandparents. On to Miami for a week after that, of course, staying at a friend's condo in South Beach. (See how this works? I'm telling you, if you offer that we can come stay with you, we will!) From there, we fly to Exuma in the Bahamas for our official unofficial Camino Reunion Trip. There will be 7 of us there that walked the Camino together. I'm just hoping everyone is bringing their hiking boots! Hah.