Rick Rambles – A blog

We have plenty of time to get to the airport so we decide that Marlo will do some shopping and I will pack.  Well we forgot that we have several stops to make including dropping off movies and getting a refund for the unused lift tickets and it will be way easier for two of us to do it…  we pack everything up and load up.  We called to see if we could leave the key in the condo, but they would “prefer we not” and then said that they would charge us $40 if they get lost… please…  we drop off the key, the movies, the tickets, fuel up on soda and pastries and off to the airport we go.  We managed to find it without the use of electronics…  I read the signs :>
I had tried to check our flight with internet from my phone and failed miserably.  Marlo called Expedia and found out that our flight was on-time.  The weather was bad in the whole right side of the country.  We checked into Delta and immediately had a problem.  We could not use the system…  we went over to a very helpful woman and she pointed out that we were not actually flying Delta but Northwest…  ooops :>  they whacked us the $15 apiece for the skis and we were off.  Marlo checked first thing for the upgrade and they wanted $600!!!  No thanks!  We chilled at the airport and I attempted fruitlessly to get internet…  read phone support ramble…  we sat at a nice little restaurant, split a burger and Marlo had a couple of beers…  beer and travel go well together…
Next stop Detroit…  yep, Detroit.  I have never flown through Detroit…  got off the plane Marlo had a beer, her last she claims until Paris… and off we go again.  On the flight I attempted to snag a diet Pepsi and was busted!!  The flight attendant gave me nasty looks and practically made me fess up… silly boy…
Duke was ready at the airport in Hartford when we got there.  Apparently you can set it up so that the airline txts you when the plane lands so even though it was late, he already knew it, sweet.  We stop at Marlo’s so she can grab her mail and visit with her cats for a few.   We thank Duke over and over and he says that it is no problem, anytime…  I tell him to be careful what he says that we may take him up on it… he says that is not a problem.  He has lots of free time!  Most excellent!  THANKS DUKE.
Marlo crashes (not on the plane) early.  She has to work at 8:00 AM EST..  That’s 6:00 mountain time…  I leap out of bed when the alarm goes off… and then go back to sleep…

We got up a little earlier and head off to the mountain.  It is warming and snowing.  There is already 4 inches on the ground.  We are once again happy about awd!  We figure things out and get situated and off we go.  A couple of different people (side note… SCREAMING KIDS ON PLANES SUCK – earplugs help) told us the best place to ski, so we go there.  It was great.  We ski a couple of runs together and then split up.  I hit the black diamonds and Marlo sticks to the blue squares.  This is our third day skiing so the legs feel it.  I was getting way into it.  There was LOTS of new snow and there were places that have not been skied on since that last dumping.  I hit one place with no tracks and my pole (rented) would go all the way in without hitting bottom!  It was steep and deep!  I ended up closing the lifts.  I did not wipe out much.  Once my binding let go but that was basically it for most of the day until the last run.  Marlo recommended that I take the gondola down so of course I decided to ski down instead.  You had to take a lift up across the mountain to ski down…  so I did.  The lift stopped once…  this is at the end of the day and it is the fullest that I have seen the lift all day.  Only two chairs were empty.  It started right back up.  I got to the top of the lift and checked out the trails…  one was a black diamond for me:>  well my legs were a bit shot and it was steep!  Worse than that was that the track I picked was steep and deep, but somewhat packed…  I was bombing down the slope and and bamm, wipeout!  My right ski stopped for some reason and over I went.  The snow was deep and I never put those powder straps on.  I looked up hill where I thought that my ski should be.  All I saw was a hole in the snow that went down about 3 feet.  I probed with my pole and found nothing.  I said out loud that this was not good…  then I looked down the hill about 4 feet away and there was my ski.   It was sitting as pretty as can be right on top of the snow sitting upright ready to be put back on…  I did not dwell on my good fortune, but I was VERY thankful…
I met Marlo thee flights of steps up at the Smokey something bar…  the “base” of the canyons is pretty cool.  It is ¼ up the mountain and you take a mini lift up from the parking lot.  It is where the expensive condos are.  There are bars and restaurants and stores and what-not.  Kinda cool.
We crash for the night and eat in.  I head over to the hot tub in hopes of soaking my weary legs.  BUT the tub is cold once again!  I am not a merry man.  There were a few people in there.  One girl from Minnesota and one from Colorado.  They talked fast and at the same time…  I listened a little.  They mentioned that the door to the heater room was open.  There was hope…  some more people arrive.  I send them into the pump room hoping that one of them has a clue.  I am disappointed…  finally I get out of the tub soaking wet and explore the pump room.  Now, I am pretty sure that playing with electricity and natural gas while soaking wet is probably not the best of plans, but hey, I want a HOT tub.  I flip some switches and nothing happens.  I look at the burner and I notice that it is missing something crucial for heat…  Flame!  I do not see the burner on or a pilot.  I see in the dark what seems to be the valve and it looks on.  Then I see the big red button that looks like it may start the thing…  I push it several times.  After I drip dry a tiny bit.  I did whack the side of the furnace in a manner that would not kill me if the thing was not properly grounded first.  I may be foolish, but I am a complete moron…  well after several clicks nothing seems to happen.  I slide back in to the not so hot tub.  A little while later we feel heat coming out of the jets.  I was a hero.  An hour later the hot tub… was hot.  I hung around awhile talking to the Minnesota and Colorado people for a bit and then Marlo showed up and caught up with everything.  Then six or seven very young Argentinean girls show up.  Then are between 19 and 21…  pups, but still ;>  Marlo and I chit chat with them a bit and Adam shows up.  He is a disenchanted Philly person.  Apparently he was robbed and pistol whipped in Philly so he decided to move to a kinder gentler location of Utah.  He likes it.  It was a financial advisor…  not the best news, but he was nice.  Marlo said the he was good looking.  He was 27 and asked us if it was creepy if he hit on the youngings.  We heartily encouraged him.  It did not go wonderfully.  They were a bit standoffish and stayed in their pack.  He invited them over to his place for some meat.. on the grill.  They don’t like spicy American food.  They want steak.  Adam offered to supply it and invited them over the next night at 7:30.  It seemed like the odds were low that they would show up.
The tub was hot and so was I.  It was time to time to get out.  We went back to the condo ate some food that we had bought and watched “Bugs.”  It was better than expected.  Typical bug movie…  bad greedy guy builds tunnel, hides evil killer bugs, people get et, almost everyone except the hero and the hot chick die…  time for bed…

Did we say Solitude…
Well we had planned to ski Solitude but that did not work out at all!  We got up at our normal, not so early time and I attempted to find the resort on Delormes.  It had some difficulty finding it.  But it claimed that it did, so off we went.  Well we drove and drove and Marlo was not getting a good sense of where we were heading.  We ventured on.  It was also snowing pretty well.  The awd was such a good idea…  well according to delormes we arrived.  According to reality we had not…  So we pulled into the closest establishment.  It turned out to be a ski resort.  Sundance ski resort.  They told us that it was 1.5 hours to actually get to Solitude.  Marlo wanted to stay and ski here…  I acquiesced.  I really wanted to ski Solitude, but hey we were here and it was getting late.  It turned out to be a very nice, but smaller resort.  We had a great time and skied some DEEP powder.  After we separated I skied with a retired FBI special agent Steve.  He was a local and new the mountain.  We ended up skiing in hip deep powder with the crest of if flying over my head!   Yo baby!  The bad news is that at the very top was some NASTY wind and complete white-out conditions.  Steve guided us down out of the storm.  Of course he and I went back into the blizzard two more times after Marlo had headed off to the blue slopes.  We skied and skied and skied.  Marlo had headed down.  I thought that she would be hanging out in the lodge, but no, she was rocking the other side of the mountain!  All in all we had a very nice day at the accidental Sundance resort.  The people at the ticket booth said that they had nothing to do with the festival.  but who knows…
We came back and  ate at RedRock.  I had an awesome steak sandwich and we had some good appetizers.     We went to the mart and rented “88 Minutes” and “bugs.”  “88 Minutes” was pretty good and “Bugs”  was slightly better than we expected.  When we got back to the condo we discovered, much to our surprise, that our fireplace was working!  Happy day.  Before the corner had a very cold draft running through it and that was replaced by a cozy warm fireplace.
We checked out the hot tub the first second night and it was not hot.  Tonight it was very nice and hot.  We hung out for a bit and met a nice guy named Brian that competed in the skeleton, and was now a bobsled instructor.  He was a nice guy about 28.  Marlo left and then a bunch of people that worked the canyons climbed in.  Apparently  only one of them or so lives there so they all pile in.  all guys and one girl… hmmm  at least the water was hot..

Saturday we had planned to check out the area, so we do.  We go  over to the canyons and go to see the deal with lift tickets.  Before we get to far we are accosted by TIMESHARE people.  They promise us 2 tickets for $20 to listen to the spiel.  They kick us out because we are not married.  We are about to leave and they call us back and tell us how we can get around it.  They don’t care.  They get $50 a head to do the tour.  So we decide to do it.  I am strong.  I am not going to buy a timeshare.  The place was awesome.  The pitch was great.  The sales guy was great.  They wanted $28k for the unit with all these awesome perks….  I told them that there was no way I was going to spend that kind of money on whim…  I tell Coy, the sales guy’s name, that I would consider it for 15k.  Coy used to sell cars, so he was all over it.  He went to get the manager.  The manager tried to sell us an every-other year thing for 13,9.  Marlo was chomping at the bit!  I simple told her that I did not do this kind of thing.  There last ditch effort was to sell us a week rental for cheep so they could show us what it was like.  It was $900 bucks!  AND it included the access to a service for cheep condos all over the world.  That was one of the most interesting thing anyway…  we walk away spending a grand, but we got 6 lift tickets and saved $250, so we were really only down $700….  Not too bad…  the last ditch woman also told us where to ski and where to eat…
They we decided to go to Park City and check that out.  It was nice.   We went to the Spur restaurant/bar.  It was good.  We were sitting checking things out and this girl came in and we knew immediately that she was a little different.  She could not figure out what to drink so she ended up ordering a big-old beer and 2 shots off tequila.  She tells the bartender, to let’s just be honest give me shots of tequila…  she had ordered 4 shots before we left.  She declared that she did not like her real name so she wanted to be called Scuba… ok…. And she net some really organized guy and she was going to stalk him or meet him somewhere or who knows what…  she tried a couple of time for us to pay her tab…  we bailed…  we came back the next day to check out what happened.

The car is in the closest spot from the desk.  It was a nice blue color.  We throw our stuff in…  it is a wagon like thing.  I am driving (read first class wine…) and Marlo is to navigate with the laptop and gps.  She has never used the software and she is not patient with computers (actually with anything), it was blizzarding out , and we had no clue where we were going.  I declared a no-joke event until we got on our way and knew where we were going.  Well that never really happened.  ALL of the roads signs were obscured by the snow that the plows pushed out.  There was 6 inches of snow on the highways and we could not see any signs.  We were VERY glad that we had all wheel drive!!!  The snow got worse and so did the roads.  It is a REALLY good thing that we had GPS.  The problem is that were we were going to a newly developed area so my gps did not have an exact location.  Fortunately my girlfriend is smaaart.  We whip out the cell phone with VZ navigator and zero in to where we need to get the keys.  After that we have to find the actual condo.  Well neither the computer or vz navigator is working for us.  AND we had written directions AND there was snow everywhere AND lots of it was not even plowed.  If we had two wheel drive we would have not been happy at all!!!  So the smart one mentioned that food might be good so we go looking for some.  The McDonalds  was long since closed and even  the taco bell.  This is Mormon country.  Marlo says that a gas station is probably our only chance, brilliant.  I suggest that we whip out the vz nav again and find one.  A 7-11 is nearby and we stock up in the essentials; soda, chips, and a breakfast wrap.  It is about 2:20 est. at this point.  We are holding up quiet well actually…  we continue our journey to the condo.  To make an already long story bearable…  we went round-and-round several times and finally called the place.  It turns out that we have to go through the mall area to get to our condo.  It is a lot like Buckland  Hills…  we find the place with the help of the guy.  There are no lights, the signs are covered in snow and we have to find building 13…  please…  well we trudged through the snow drifts and finally find the place.  It is really close to where we should have parked :>  Marlo opens the outside door and because it is missing the spring whacks me with it…  Marlo’s boots were full of snow from the walk over.  She removes her shoes and socks, grabs a blanket and curls up on the couch.  She stays there while I move the car and bring the rest of the stuff into the condo.   The place is nice.  There is a nice gas fireplace…  it does not work… bummer.  We call and tell them.  They still have not done anything about it a day later… bummer, because it would be nice.  It’s cold outside…  I restarted the pilot and messed with it for a while, but all to no avail.  The bed is small and hard, but not bad.  The bathroom is ok.  The water pressure in the shower is good.  Around 2:00 am we decide to go to bed.  4:00am est… not bad.

So we fly into Cincinnati and get off the plane for a bit.  Marlo immediately asks the person at the gate how much is it to upgrade to first class.  It was $100.  The lady barely finished the sentence and Marlo smacked down her credit card and declared that we were in.  Now, first class is a beautiful thing.    Especially if you drink and you don’t have to drive when you get to wherever you are going…  Well I am not drinking AND we had to drive an hour to our condo.  Marlo on the other hand go the very most out of first class.  She had a beer on the ground and had wine the rest of the way to Utah…  She was actually in pretty good shape when we got there.  We had to wait for out ski bags in the special baggage area.  While I waited for the bags, Marlo went to look for the Hertz desk.  It turns out that the Hertz desk is across the street from baggage claim…  now how much sense does that make???  You can take an elevator up walk over and then back down, but nahhhhh…  We wait for our ski stuff and chat with some people that were also in first class. It turns out that they rode for free because the woman works for the airline… nice.  They had two older kids in tow.  Her grand kids…  She did not look that old…  to me… hmmm, what does that tell you.???  So we get our stuff and I throw my ski bag over my shoulder and out of the way and Marlo tosses her snowboard across her rolley bag.  Well she did not actually take anyone completely out, but there were some people making some quick moves to make the wide path.  It was actually pretty funny.  Remember this is midnight in Utah.  So instead of going up over down and around, Marlo decides to go … through….  Through the baggage claim across 4 lanes of traffic and into the Hertz office located conveniently across the street.  All went just fine until we went to cross the first street.  There was a young woman standing on the sidewalk and Marlo tapped her on the shoulder and she took one step to the left to avoid being run over.  It was all good.  One woman was laughing.  Well this one guy starts to go off on Marlo.  I have to admit, I was a little scared for him…  it happened so  fast.  He snaps at her that she has to stop right now and this can’t continue and she is a horrible person and she almost hit this girls, etc, etc…  well, Marlo whips around and gives it right back to him.  He was quiet after that, but we were long gone too…  we met the same people from first class over at Hertz.  Marlo had a coupon for Hertz for a free upgrade.  Cool beans!  Did I mention that is was snowing… a lot when we landed???  Well yea there was about 6 inches on the ground.  I mentioned the we should upgrade to something with four wheel drive.  Marlo thought that was a pretty good idea, but it was going to cost more than the free upgrade and balked at it… twice.  I pushed the issue.  We got a four wheel drive, but not a big one.  We ended up with a Subaru Empreza.  A capable car, but wimpy.  Especially our here in cowboy country.  They have some BIG trucks out here.  There were some that could have run us over and never stopped.

Ok, here we are 27,077 feet cruising at 391 miles an hour.  I know this how?  Well I have my GPS stuck to the window in the airplane :>  Big fun.  We stopped at the bar in the airport and hung out with some travels.  We found out that one guy that was going to Portland Oregon did not have to pay for his bag AND he brought a bunch of carpentry tools.  We  got whacked $15 a piece for our ski bags even though Marlo checked it out and did not think we should.  She called while we were “relaxing” at the bar.  She found out that indeed they were supposed to be free…  She is going to mail in the receipts…  She had a big beer and had to pee twice so far on the plane :>  BUT in doing so found an empty row at the back of the plane where we got to have some room.
She told the flight attendant that I was a pain in the butt because I thanked the gate guy for something… hmmmm….  One of us is got this travel thing down.  So far I have supplied her with ear plugs (two different sets because she did not like the first pair) and headphones that I “saved “from our last flight.  They did not pass any out on this flight…  I am hungy…  I have to check to see if they feed us anything on the next flight.  The next flight is actually on the same plane…
We had the usual ear-piercing airport cart go by… arg, and the real reason for the earplugs are these some humanoids that make lots of noise and these other people yattering in some foreign language…
I loaded the Rosetta Stone on eeepc (this little pc) so we can practice French for our March trip.  I don’t want to be the irritating one speaking a foreign language on that trip….  But will be :>
I just checked the itinerary …  no food on this plane… we tried to upgrade to first class but apparently we had the wrong letter in the “class” field and could not upgrade…  what-up-with-that????  It’s not like we asked for it for free…. Hmmmm.
We have to get frequent flyer cards so we can get the miles….  I  almost forgot my extra battery and the charger for the camera!!!!!!!!  Duh!  I did know exactly where it was though….  Good thing someone did not move it :>

Here we go again :> I did some laundry and I still have HOURS tomorrow, so no rush. Happy New Year!!! Tomorrow I file for unemployment… or un enjoyment :>