This morning I woke up
early (as I have every morning since arriving in Colorado) and I called the ski
resort we were planning on going to confirm that it was in fact open, their
hours, yada yada yada. As I lay there in the dark room, eyes still closed, listening
to the recording, I hear: “Good morning from Monarch Mountain…..something about
the slopes being 100% open, all natural powder….with a temperature of twenty
five below! I nearly turned into an ice cube at the sound of those words being
uttered through my phone. Twenty-five below! This wasn’t the after wind-chill
factor number—this was the real deal—the was the actual temperature before
accounting for any wind or other winter weather conditions.
Now I suppose it was
just meant to be a cold day, because not long after my startling discovery of the
temperature at Monarch Mountain (-12 degrees colder than what it was in the
springs) Dad came into the bedroom to inform me that there was no hot water and
that he had just took the coldest shower of his life. He said the water was so
cold it hurt (what is it with this painful cold we’ve been subjected to?!) We
had both skipped showers the day before so skipping today wasn’t an option for
either of us—which is why Dad torturously finished his ice cold shower before
coming to warn me. I wasn’t about to go
through the same torture so I opted to boil water and take a sink bath—so I put
some water on the stove and then took it to the bathroom—but decided to try the
hot water in the shower before taking a not so desired sink bath and to my surprise
it was warm! Took a super quick shower and made it out before it turned cold
not having to use my very warm awaiting pots of water! J
Oh but the morning’s
story doesn’t end there. Just before we were getting to walk out the door I was
mentally running through the list to make sure we had everything we needed and
asked Dad “You have both the key and the access card, right?” “No” he says. “Well
you should, you had them last, last night when you ran out to the truck” I
respond. So he searches his pockets and
finds the keys but no access card. So we look around a few places…still no
access card. So we begin to frantically look everyyywhere! Under the couch, in
every pocket possible, under the stove, etc. etc. We absolutely could not find
it. So I had to end up going down to the office and explain to them how my
friends have so kindly allowed me to temporarily stay at their apartment and
how I’ve managed to lose their access card. She gave me a loaner for now but if
I don’t find the original within a week-it’ll be $50. Not what I wanted to
hear, but what can you do?
So after that dilemma was
temporarily solved so that we could at least get back into the building later
that night we headed on down to the truck. I was putting the information into
the gps as we discussed whether or not it would be worth the 2.5 hour drive for
only 2 hrs of skiing after this set-back. We first decided that it wouldn’t be,
so we tried to come up with plan B—the best we could come up with was Garden of
the Gods—but as we headed in that direction I could sense the disappointment
from Dad. So I said, you know what…turn around…let’s just go! That way if you
don’t get to make it back out to Colorado during ski season you can at least
say you’ve skied here, whether it was for just a couple hours or not. So we
went!! I was happy to see the smile that spread across Dad’s face as we drove
closer and closer to the mountains he would be skiing on! It really was too
cold to be out for very long so the two hours was enough I suppose. At least
enough to satisfy him for now and enough to keep that smile on his face for the
remainder of the day/night! Dad enjoyed
the skiing, I enjoyed the views, he was happy, I was happy---I’d say it turned
out to be a pretty good day and well worth the trip!!
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