Day 68: Beaver Creek... and I have now visited all 7 resorts that my pass gets me in to!

By the way. I added pictures and a few somewhat unimportant sentences to yesterday's post. If you want to look at them.

I hear Jason get up. Ughhh, so early! It is like 8:00. He had said something about not being in a hurry today. Oh well, he still has to shower and stuff so I go back to sleep. Next thing I know, I am being pelted with pillows. I make my "ugh I hate mornings go away" sound and roll over on my tiny shelf bed thing. Well, I didn't sleep great but I have slept much worse. I finally get up and get my gear on.

We load up our cars and go to check out. I ask if they can send a fax. I need to send in my paperwork for my new job. The fax does not go through. They try again. Still no go. 15 minutes later, the lady realizes she is entering the number wrong. She enters the right number and my paperwork is sent off. I e mail my new boss and boss's boss (Craig and Newt) to let them know that I have sent it and to watch for it.

Jason and I get on the bus that will take us to the ski hill. It is a pretty ride. So many insanely expensive houses up on this hill....We get to the hill. Jason! Waitt! No, I did not forget my gloves this time. I need to pee!  I walk out of the bathroom and check my phone one last time before I ignore it for the day. Newt has called about my paper work. I call him back and everything is straightened out. We talk about my trip and me starting my new job. March 27th is the date we decide on. Sweet!

Finally, we make it up to the hill at around 11. I am shaky on my board. What is up with this?!?! I did adjust my stance from the last time I boarded at Keystone but that should not make so much of a difference. I am riding better than at Keystone but not much. There are a lot of icy spots that I am not pleased about. Maybe that is the problem.

Lookin down on the cute little village!

We hop all over the mountain. It is a pretty wide resort and we go from one end to the other and back. We hit all sorts of runs. Groomers, black runs, really steep icy runs, slushy runs, good snow runs, etc. Nothing amazingly inspiring but not a bad day. By half way through the day, my riding is finally improving back to where I should be.

View from the top

Toward the end of the day, I am strapping in and notice my binding is loose. Apparently when I changed my stance I did not get the screws tight. They are all really loose. And one is missing. Damn. I will have to go find another screw now. Jason has a tool so I can get them tightened. I wonder how long that binding has been loose. Oh well, it is betterish now.

We do a few more runs before calling it quits a little after 3. Sweet. I have now used my pass at all 7 of the resorts it works at. I feel pretty accomplished. Jason and I wander through the village in search of a happy hour special. We find pizza and beer for $6. Um, yes. 

We sit outside in the almost 60 degree weather and wait for our food. This is definitely not skiing weather. This is like summer weather. It is a good time.

We take the bus back to the hotel and load up the cars. We say goodbye again and set off on our ways. I am staying in Glennwood Springs for the night. It is a nice town with reasonable prices on lodging from what I have heard. I called a place this morning and booked a room for $49. Not too bad!

The drive is really pretty. I am driving through the Rocky Mountains. for 13 miles, I drive through a canyon. This is pretty cool!  I try to take pictures but fail. I find the hotel pretty easily.

I go to check in. The front desk lady is very nice. It seems that she is the or an owner of the place. She gets my info and asks what my quote was. $49. Apparently that is lower than they usually give rooms for but she gives me a room for that price anyway. She explains that it is a budget room and people seem to love it or hate it. She had one lady complain. She then thoroughly checked the room for any problems and could not find any. I assure her that I am sure it will be fine.

The motel is kind of cute, all European style nestled in the mountains....

I go to my room. It is not huge but it is pretty nice. I can't find anything wrong with it. It is way better than my last hotel which was a smoking room. I check the time. A little after 4. I think my mom is off work. I want to call her to tell her about my job!  I give her a call. No answer. I go out to my truck and pop the hood to put more washer fluid in it. I am trying to get as much of the cold weather fluid in there as possible before I get back to cold weather. While I am doing this my phone rings. It's my mom!

I sit in my truck and talk to her. I don't know why I am sitting in my truck. She is excited I got a job. And that my start date is soon which means I am coming home soon. We talk for a little more before she has to go. I decide to go to a local brewpub for dinner and local beer. I am going to miss all of this Colorado beer. They have some good breweries around here! Jason thinks that some of it is available at Gold Rush back home. I hope so! 

I head off in the general direction of the pub. It's a pretty small town. It can't be hard to find. I drive down main street and pick a spot. Tanya calls and we talk for a while as I wander around looking for the place. Where is it!!! I try following my nose to the smell of brewing. That fails. Eventually she has to go to her flight simulator session or something cool sounding like that. I check the location on my phone. I am close!  A few more blocks.

I find the place. It is nothing amazing but the food and beer is good. I try their raspberry wheat. It is a little sweeter than the one at Mooses Tooth. Mooses Tooth still has the best raspberry wheat. I also get a bison burger. Yum! 

As I walk back to my truck, some guy passes me and looks me up and down. "Helloooooooo" he says. I completely ignore him. He yells back at me "Well aren't we unfriendly." Actually, I am not unfriendly. But you are kinda creeping me out and that is absolutely not the way to start a conversation with me. I think you are the kind of person my mom told me to stay away from when I was young.... Anyway, he keeps walking the opposite direction. One of the bouncers at a bar sees the whole thing. "Yeah, that is Main Street for ya." he tells me. Shit, it looked so nice and safe in the daylight!!  Luckily, I run into no more weird people on my short walk to my truck.

I get in my truck, happy for its protection. I drive back to the hotel. Ok, little past 8. What to do... Hot tub! I try to decide if I just want to use the one at the motel or actually go to the Glennwood Hotsprings. I decide I am too lazy to drive anywhere and don't want to spend the money. Hot tub here it is!

I change and wander out. The hot tub is like one of the ones that you see in peoples backyards. And it has the cover on. Hmmm, can I take it off? The lady said it was open until 10. I lift the cover. It smells very strongly of chlorine. I mean, I like how chlorine smells and all but that is a little much for me. Ok, too much work for not enough reward. I go back to my room.

Ok. Maybe I should just go to be early... or maybe I should go to the springs.... decisions. My aching legs and the fact that I am already in my swimsuit convince me to go to the springs. They have a discounted entry rate from 9 to 10. I don't want to stay for more than an hour anyway so that should work great!

I arrive 5 minutes till 9. I ask the admissions lady if I can do the 9 to 10 session. She says sure, but I have to wait until 9. Really, is the 3 extra minutes going to kill you?? (by the time I park and walk in it is only 3 to 9) Oh well. I wait 3 minutes and then pay my $9 and head in.

The hot springs! you can kind of see some of the pool and water slides....

Mmmm, the smell of sulfurous hot springs!!  The water does feel quite nice. Maybe not nice enough to pay for. However, after all the skiing and riding I have done lately, I conclude it is worth it. It is a big facility. There is a smaller pool set at 104 degrees. When I say smaller, I mean it is about the size of a normal swimming pool. There is also a cooler pool for swimming. It is almost 2 blocks long and 100 feet wide. Crazy! There are also water slides. Unfortunately, those are only open in the summer.

I soak for about 40 minutes before deciding I am hot. And I want to leave before everyone is kicked out. There are a lot of people here and some of them seem pretty oblivious to the world. Sitting in traffic with them will not be fun. I make it back to the room a little before 10. Excellent. Time to blog and then sleep! 

I am drivin to Utah tomorrow. Sad to leave Colorado, it has been everything I had hoped it would be. Random side story here. In 2nd grade, I had a friend whose family had a lot of money. Anyway, she went on ski trips in Colorado every winter. I was really jealous of this and have thus always wanted to go skiing in Colorado.... Funny how those weird 2nd grad jealousies affect what you do later in life.....The end!