Friday - January 29, 2010

Hit the road today on a Road Trip with ski buddy, Dan Giesin, heading to Colorado to attend our NASJA-West Meeting in Winter Park.

I just got the Suburban out of the shop and there seems to be a problem with the fuel delivery and having hard starts and running kinda rough. I usually like to take the big mobile as in the past I had been relatively dependable and Chevy parts are available just about anywhere… as oppose to my H1 Hummer.

Made a decision to cram everything into the Subaru WRX-Sti and headed off across Hwy 50. Having produced the Oatbran Bicycle Tour across Hwy 50 for nearly 20 years, the route is very familiar and nice to see what the terrain looks like in the Winter.

Always a great drive across Nevada. I love it out in the middle of nowhere… Made the Stop in Austin for lunch then up and over Austin Summit thru Beautiful Eureka, then onto Ely and out to Baker past the Great Basin National Park.

Continued on Hwy 50 thru Delta Utah and then across I-15, staying on Hwy 50 to Salina, Utah where we stayed in a Super 8, as they offer Wi-Fi and breakfast. Had dinner at the

Denny’s across the way and that was an unfortunate experience. Under staffed and it happened to be a night with local High School Basket ball games were going on. But got out of there in about an hour and a half.

Bedded down that evening as the next day would be another day on the road to Salida, Co.

Saturday – January 30, 2010

Got up early as usual to gather the info for the daily ski report… actually 5:30 as usual, but 6:30 Mtn Time. Got all the info put together, although the internet service was a lot

Slower than what I am use to. I recorded my KTHO Radio Report and converted it as usual to an MP3 Audio file and went to transfer it to the station’s computer as I do every morning. Well… it didn’t go thru. Worst nightmare that I was not able to make it on the

Air when the Report is to play. I also converted my word report to a htm document to transfer to my website, bikeandskitahoe.com… and guess what? It didn’t transfer as well. I guess the signal was not strong enough to transfer files. I ended up calling Paul Middlebrook, station mgr of KTHO and was able to email the MP3 file to him to see if he

Could download it to play on the air. He did receive the file and hopefully the report played for the rest of the day.

As for the Update to the website, I still couldn’t get that to load, so I had to just let it go and get on the road for the days drive across Utah and to Gunnison and up and over Monarch Pass to Salida, CO.

The drive was beautiful, as we continued on Hwy 50 / I-70 East. Beautiful Red Rock Canyons and snow covered pillars and buttes… absolutely stunning scenery. I do have come back thru in the Summer to spend time discovering all the natural wonders of Fishlake National Forest. We came down the Canyon and stopped in Green River, Ut,

Popular in the Summer with lots of river rafting. Came into Grand Junction, CO and departed south on Hwy 50 to continue as I-&70 heads north east towards Vail.

Came up and over Blue Mesa and the resevoir were lots of Ice Fishmen were on the ice covered lake fishing and actually a few snowmobiles out there… Guess they were trolling. Got into Gunnison, the gateway to Crested Butte, but continued up and over Monarch pass to Salida, Co on the eastern side of the Continental Divide. This Super 8’s internet seems to work stronger and I was able to update my bikethewest.com website.

Tomorrow will be another adventure and hopefully I will be able to get my morning duties done on time be able to get up and make turns on the Continental Divide and Monarch Ski Resort.