Final Road Trip Days

We stood in the back of the Annunciation Church for their eight o'clock mass on Easter Eve (beautiful bright yellow interior space filled with parishioners), did our photo work on Easter morning and spent the rest of the day at the Cottonwood Hot Springs down the road in BV (Buena Vista). Ted met up with some friends from Carleton. We stayed in the dorm at the hot springs and next morning headed east, up out of the Arkansas Valley, across South Park, and back to Fort Collins. Ted linked up with some more friends, did a Fort Collins brewery tour, played cards and next morning it was out to the airport and, well, end of this road trip. Looking forward to the next one.

An Object in Motion Tends to Stay in Motion

Ted's final day of skiing was at A-Basin, testing out some of the new runs and chutes in the newly opened Montezuma area. I was spending the day at the Silverthorne library and rec center. Did I mention the dislocation of my shoulder while on an early morning run at Winter Park a few days before Ted arrived? Anyway I was out of commission.

And,then, on his last run of the day, Ted also proved Newton's First Law of Motion (or at least the second part of it), that is, "...an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force."

In Ted's case the unbalanced force was the surprising appearance of the opposite wall of a chute that he did not expect when he made a jump on a downhill run. In my case it was an bump of snow and ice on an otherwise well groomed run. So there we were at the Frisco clinic with matching slings, so clearly members of the same family.



The picture was kindly taken by a young woman whose boyfriend had also just arrived from A-Basin with a broken collarbone. We, by comparison, were in relatively good shape.

The Road Trip Continues

So then it was back on the road to Winter Park for more skiing, staying at the hostel in Fraser. Along the way we developed a photography project. Ted would take pictures of what he saw; I would take pictures of Ted taking pictures. We would pair them up in an exhibition (the whys and wherefores to be determined). A few days later, in the Proving Grounds coffee house in Leadville, we put our computers side and side and began to match them up.




These shots were taken in Granby at the motel where we stayed our first couple of nights.

On to Steamboat

Steamboat is such a contrast to Winter Park. Overbuilt condos, hotels, townhouses and shops crowd the base of Steamboat...a virtual city of consumers. But the mountain itself rises above all the traffic and noise...great white runs coursing down its forested sides. This year Steamboat has had some 380 plus inches of snow; the powder in the trees is deep and silent.




We stayed in one of my favorite apartments, right across the street from Howelsen Park, the local ski hill that still, during the week, uses a tow rope to take folks to the top. And it was not all about skiing (well, it never really is). We tripped out to the waters of Strawberry Hot Springs. The pools were a bit crowded, but it was ideal people watching thought the steam rising from the springs. Snow lay heavy on the surrounding hills and the simple, whimsical structures of wood and stone that form the complex.




And besides hot springs, there was the food at Johnny B. Good where we sat under huge Hollywood murals and iconic 50s and 60s signs. It was over plates of hamburgers that we decided to launch our photography project.

Spring Break Road Trip

Ted Wolff flew into town for part of his spring break. We had planned a ski and hot spring road trip for some while. My ski season had, unfortunately, ended the previous week due to dislocated shoulder (ouch…could I have something for the pain?). Luckily the accident occurred while I was doing a run at Winter Park rather than, let’s say, while cleaning out the garage.

Tom was still in town after his Twelve Cents shows in Fort Collins and Denver. So we spent the opening days of the Werge-Wolff reunion road trip at Winter Park. The snow was good. Deep powder on the back country runs. The new Panorama lift and the Eagle Wind lift have opened up whole new stretches of the Parseen bowl to be explored.
Tom’s face mask and helmet made an interesting counterpoint to Teddy’s more freestyle approach to the slopes.

Prom Party

Tom and Twelve Cents threw a prom party at Road 34, a combination bike shop, bar and music venue on March 14. Charlotte got me a $3 tux (with senior discount) at Goodwill while picking up a snazzy red dress for $5. Tom flew in from Miami in the early evening; I wore the tux when I went to pick him up at the airport. I made up a large sign with “Tom” printed on it. When he saw me, he came up and said, “You must be my driver.”
The band was great as always…lots of energy, good vibes…and Charlotte and I finally got to go to the prom together. She made up corsages for all the band members and we danced the night away or at least til we could not stay awake any longer….life has a way of picking up when Tom and Twelve Cents are back in town.