9 States in 4 Days

Last weekend we embarked on our annual ski-trip, which ended up turning into cross country tour. After plans to fly to a "real" resort fell through, we decided to drive to Indiana to visit old friends and spend a few days at "The Perfect North Slopes" ski resort, which from the website looked reasonably nice. And it was closer than the 10.5 hour drive to West Virginia, which we didn't want to make on a 4 day schedule. After an 8 hour drive to Indianapolis we finally made it to Becky and Eric Valentine's house, where we ate delicious homeade pizzas and played with their adorable 10-month-old son Blake. Becky and Eric were in our first Sunday School class when we moved to Atlanta in 2003 and were some of our closest friends until they moved to Indy in 2006. We're so glad we got to reconnect with them, despite what happened next.

Here are some pictures of Becky, Eric and Baby Blake - who just loved Jeff if you can't tell from the pictures!




Anyway, after a lovely breakfast on Sunday with the Valentines we headed to the slopes. I'll have to say we were both a little concerned, as we'd seen no mountains or hills driving in, but you just never know. So we drove the 1.5 hours down to Lawrenceberg, IN with high hopes. Now we've skiied in North Carolina several times, so we were used to small resorts, but this was more like a hill with a few lifts on it. And to top it off as soon as we pulled in it started raining - not sprinkling - pouring. Nevertheless we went in to get our tickets. I have to add that we were probably the only people in the vicinity not in camo or redneck attire, and on top of that the lodge itself smelled like BO and nacho cheese. Lovely. However, still determined to make the best of the situation, we marched to the counter to buy our tickets. Luckily Jeff happened to notice the sign by the clerk that said "closed tomorrow due to rainy weather" before we bought anything. So here we were in the IN for a ski vacation with 6 hours of sloppy slushy slopes to look forward to before everything shut down. So, at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday afternoon we decided what the heck, let's just drive to West Virginia and get in one good day or real skiing. So that's what we did. 7.5 hours later we pulled into Snowshoe, West Virginia. And I have to add that 2 hours of that drive was through extremely treacherous windy moutain roads - worse than any I'd driven in Alaska. You see Jeff had the bright idea to take the 80 mile shortcut over the mountains instead of around on the interstate at 7:30 p.m. at night. I'm not sure if it was much of a shortcut, but we made it safe and sound so that's what's important. And it was SOO worth it. Snowshoe was a wonderful resort. Not as big as what I grew up with in AK, but at least a "real" mountain with "real" snow. Not to mention the fact that they have this village you can stay in on top of the mountain, so all you have to do is walk out your door to hit the slopes. They also have restaurants, shops, even a Starbucks at the top. It was such a cool place. For those of you from Atlanta, imagine Atlantic Station on the top of a mountain. We skiied all day Monday, from 10:30 a.m. - 8:30 p.m., and just had a blast. It was about 65 degrees, so we didn't have to wear extra clothes or even hats. It was a perfect day and definitely worth the extra driving to get there. Here are a few shots of our room and me in my ski attire - until we got outside and it was so warm I dropped the hat and muffler.

It was a beautiful trip, and our timing was perfect, as it was pouring rain when we left Tuesday. That would have made for a miserable ski day. We drove through torrential downpours from Snowshoe all the way to NC, and had the weather been better probably could have made the drive in 8.5 hours.

So we made the initial trip to IN to avoid the 22 hour round-trip to WV, but ended up driving nearly 30 hours instead. Go figure. But we got to catch up with some good friends and actually had a good time visiting on the drives. And what a beautiful drive it was from the border of WV all the way to Snowshoe then back down to NC. I love the mountains, they are such a beautiful display of God's greatness. A perfect ending to a perfect trip. I'll post pictures of us on the slopes as soon as I get them developed.