Day 1 on the slopes - Keystone: 17,400 vertical feet of riding

Woohoo.  Hello morning darkness…

We awake at 6:30 am in the back of the truck.  Cozy in our sleeping bags, we do not want to move.  But we also don't want to stay put.  We "stealth camped" in a parking lot last night and want to get going before anyone notices. 

Once again, the glass is totally frosted over, which provides some privacy from security guards and such.  We pop open the glass, see that no one is around and hop in the cab to warm up the engine.  We drive into town for some coffee and breakfast and end up at the same place as all the snowplow drivers.  A different crowd than we are used to at Verve.

One advantage of getting up at 6:30am is that we've finish breakfast by 7:30.  Thus we make it to the lift in time for the "first chair" of the day.  Patrick and I agree that we like being up early, it is just the getting up that is tough.

After a ride up in the Gondola and a chair we are pumped to start the season.  We try to capture a sense of our first few runs in the video below.



As you can see, we need a bit to warm up.  But after a few runs, we start to get the hang of it and we were blessed with a beautiful day.



As the day goes on and we get closer to the base, the lift lines pick up.  Pretty soon we start to notice just how out of shape we are and decide to call it at 2pm. Turns out we went 17,400 vertical feet.

We know we need showers.  Three days of travel plus a day of exertion on the slopes = smelly boys.  Thankfully, Breckenridge has a rec center.  So Patrick and I are now members of the Breckenridge rec center.  The facilities include showers, plus a gym, climbing wall, pool, sauna and jacuzzi, and so much more.

Well, that is all for today, we need to relax our muscles in the jacuzzi...

Welcome to Funemployment!

As many of you know, David and I are beginning a period of adventures. Neither of us is working right now, by choice, so that we can travel and live the dream we all talk so much about. 2013 has been a tough year for our family and we are looking forward to starting 2014 with a grand adventure ski bumming. we started this blog so that our friends, family and GOATs can follow our travels.

Our first adventure together, SkiBumming started Dec 27. We built a platform in the back of my truck so we could sleep in the back while storing gear underneath. We used a sheet of plywood and some 2x10s and borrowed my dad's tools to build a simple bed. We even installed a hatch for easy access to the far end of the bed. It's not plush but works quite well.

Once we had everything packed up we departed Santa Cruz about 5pm with the goal of reaching Las Vegas for a Friday night on the strip. We pulled into the Venetian parking lot about 230am and found a nice spot to park and camp with a view of the strip! Not bad for our first night of vagabonding. So we headed down to walk along las Vegas boulevard hoping to catch the height of the night life. Rather we encountered many people who had drunk too much and were stumbling back to their hotels.  True to Vegas form, we were accosted more than a dozen times asking if we wanted to visit a strip club. We respectfully declined.

The next morning we got up and hit the road, heading towards I-70. We made it across Nevada, a corner of Arizona and most of Utah before stopping for the night in Moab. Our plan was to get up before the sunrise to watch the sun come up on the arches. After a cold 10degree night, we got up early and headed  into Arches National Park. We caught the sun rise and used a time lapse on the go pro to record it. Video to be uploaded once I have a chance to update it. Which brings me to my next point, my computer decided to lose it's operating system and become non functional. So it is currently being recovered by a guy here in Frisco Colorado.

After the arches we headed east again to vail. We arrived in the afternoon in time to watch the second half of the forty miners game. There were a bunch of games on in the bar making for a fun atmosphere. I made friends with some people by offering them pomegranate in exchange for a seat at their table. Meanwhile, my brother made friends with a couple from Chicago who were vacationing with their three kids. They were super friendly, or perhaps david was very charming, and they bought him a beer after hearing our plans for the next month. When I came over, they already knew my story and bought us both dinner! Gotta love generous people who are jealous of our plans.

After the free dinner we headed to Keystone, getting a tip from locals that it was the least crowded place to board. So we found a parking lot to camp in and endured a 6degree night. I say endure because to most Californians that is freezing. But we are seasoned campers and had plenty of warm gear. I have two warm sleeping bags to keep me cozy. Well that's about it for the first leg before skiing. 

Oh one more thing. The blog title was derived because of our trip mascot, Sharkie. He is a stuffed shark that I have had since my college days. He has survived numerous moves and works well as my pillow, so we named the blog after him, channeling John Steinbeck in his 'Travels with Charlie'. That's all for now. 

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