Part 9

Katie and I quickly decide our next move – hot tub. We needed it both physically and mentally. The stress was melting away. It actually started to subside on the ride home with Ed – you remember Ed. After becoming suitably pliable, we slunk back to the room and got dressed for dinner. Delicious as always, we replaced most of the calories we had burned earlier in the day.

It had been our plan to spend Tuesday in Winter Park, the closest big ski resort which was about 1.5 hrs away. When the kids were little we skied in the area and took them to a meadow where we rented “Snow Scoots”. They are essentially mini snowmobiles. The kids loved it and we have the video to prove it. Last year Sarah and I returned and did it again. This time I let her drive her own. It might have been her most favorite part of the trip (right up there with the food) Katie was really looking forward to snow scooting on this trip. We weren’t sure if we were going to make it. I would depend on when we would get our car back. Also remember that we didn’t get to snowboard yesterday so that was on our list for our last day (Wednesday).

The next morning we had a lazy breakfast, we had time on our hands. The Ford dealer called and told me I needed a new alternator and idle valve. Great, at least it wasn’t the dreaded gasketcylinderEMCmanifold. “Go ahead and fix it”. It was a beautiful day, the air seemed ultraclear, no clouds, no humidity and about 50 degrees. We went for a walk. The hotel is right next to Colorado Univ. home of the Buffalos. The campus is pretty although everything is pretty on a day like today. We did a little light shopping in a nearby shopping center and had the random snowball fight. Around 1:30 the Ford guy called and said the car would be ready soon and they would send the van to pick us up. We hoofed it back to the hotel and waited.

We left the dealership around 3:00 and decided to try to make it to Winter Park in time to do some scooting. It was a beautiful ride as we went over and through mountains bigger then Eldora. The car drove great although I must admit I was nervous several times. We drove through Winter Park but I couldn’t find the Snow Scoot place. I began to fear the worst. We stopped at a gas station to fill up and I asked the girl behind the counter. She said they were gone, the meadow was sold to a developer and they had a hard time getting replacement parts for their scoots. Now I had to tell Katie – not good.

She took it OK but was clearly unhappy. Once again we needed a plan B. I remembered another activity we did when they were little. It didn’t turn out that great back then but maybe now that they were older . . .?