Last Day at Stowe

i was in so much pain in the morning. Woke up at 7:59 am. Already missed the first bus to the mountain. Quickly got dressed and got some free food in the breakfast room. i was hurting, sore from the day before and hung over from all the booze i consumed. What a horrible combination of pain. But that wasn't about to stop me to rip it hardcore down the mountain. There wasn't that big a line when we got to the Quad lift. i thought the lift would never end...it was so windy that day. i was so cold i had to break out the face mask that i borrowed from rich...probably should get my own, they're key. i kind of look like a ninja, a snowboarding ninja with ninja snowboarding skills...

Manthan definitely doesn't look like a ninja, just a cold indian...lame.

Ugh, did i mention it was cold? Couldn't get the girls to come out again, which was probably better...then we could go as fast as we wanted. My legs were really sore, but after two runs down Toll House while mixing in some other trails...we got some food at the base. Also to let our legs rest. The prices were pretty ridiculous, 8 bones for a burger...but it was so delicious. Should have taken a picture, much better than that lame In-N-Out joint.

We soon headed back up the mountain. Not sure what was manthan's deal but he fell a lot, way more than usual. Probably the effects of being extremely tired. i missed it but he told me he tried to hit some powder and didn't get back on the trail in time and hit a rock...scraped up his jacket, ripped his pant leg, and sprained his finger...silly manthan. Could have been much worse though.

Go big or go home, we ditched the trail and jumped in the woods for the first time. Might not have been the smartest idea...i could barley squeeze between some of the trees. But it was fun, when i wasn't running into trees...
About half way through this run we looked at the time and it was 1:15 pm...the bus was going to be at the base at 1:30...what the driver didn't tell us was that he was leaving at 2pm. So we took some faster trails and got at the bus at 1:30 exactly...turned out we could have gotten run in, but might not have been able to walk afterwards so i wasn't too bummed out. We waited until 2pm thinking there were other people coming but there weren't.

Rushed to the room and packed to get on the bus back home. i missed the group photo :'(. Pretty sure i missed the group photo last year too...lemon. i wanted to get on the bus early so i could get seat that wasn't not behind the couple dry humping each other...but i was the second to last person on the bus and the only seat left was...right behind the grinding horny couple...ugh. As soon as a seat opened up i was out of there.

On the way back we watched like 4 movies on the bus. Pretty ridiculous...like a movie marathon. We stopped for dinner, i got Roy Rogers again...this time it was good unlike the Mount Snow trip. The buns on my burger and chicken gold rush sandwich were edible. Didn't get back to my car until 11:30pm, said good bye and honked my horn and headed home. Though i wasn't able to sleep in the next morning...had to drive manthan to his school at 7am the next morning...ugh, can't get a break.

Hitting the Slopes!

Saturday morning, managed to wake up a little before 7am. Got dressed as fast as i could to make the 7:30 bus ride to the mountain. But of course manthan held us up, couldn't find his contact solution. Turned out he left it at my house. Bastard. So we missed the first bus but that gave us more time to pig out eating breakfast. Ended up getting on the 8:30 bus ride. i guess an hour later doesn't hurt.

Last year manthan and i started on the smaller mountain, but not this time. We headed straight to the top of the big one. The trail we took was called Toll House Road...or something like that, it isn't important. An hour and 20 minutes later we made it back to the base lodge. On the way down there is a church, no pastor for it though...just whoever happens to be a pastor on the mountain leads the service that Sunday.
Improved our time by 25 minutes from last year. i believe we did another run before hoping on the gondola to the smaller mountain to meet the girls at 11.

It was snowed all day, pretty much the best conditions ever to snowboard...but manthan and i spent 2 hours trying to meet up with these people. One of the girls has skied all her life and decided to snowboard for the first time...this should be good. She should have taken some lessons, but for some reason manthan and myself thought we would be instructors for her. Soon found out we don't have any idea what we're talking about. We decided to take baby steps and hop on the Magic Carpet. A conveyor belt that takes you up about 100 ft up the lamest slope ever. Some how manthan and i missed the Magic Carpet last year, even though we walked by it several times.
Manthan and i decided to graduate the two girls to a real trail and hopped on the lift. Normally it would take a decent snowboarder 2 minutes to go down this thing, but with these two girls it took about 40 minutes. Didn't take long for the one girl Jen to ditch the snowboard and trade it in for some skis. But Katie kept with the snowboard.

After that fiasco we all decided to hit up the fire pit and take up the free s'mores and hot chocolate. Even found a little ice shelter to chill in...
Stowe managed to supply the shortest sticks to roast marshmallows on, you burned your hand before browning the marshmallow. Everyone ended up just lighting their marshmallow on fire. If only i had some string i could have lashed two sticks together...you can pretty much fix any situation with a little string or rope.

After hanging around the fire pit for a bit, manthan and i talked the five girls into following us to the big mountain and going down the super long trail we finished earlier. Three snowboarders and 4 skiers, had our own little posse...i hate posses (3:10 to Yuma reference).

Manthan and Jen..

Bridget and her silly face she made a million times during the whole trip...

Beth and Jen...Katie looking like a snowboarder...
Turns out that Manthan and i are horrible instructors. About 8 minutes down the mountain, right when it looked like Katie was getting the hang of it she fell off the trail and towards some trees. Scared the crap out of me but she was fine. Walked a bit after that. But she soon hopped on the bored and "ripped it" hardcore down the mountain. Pretty awesome for like the second time out. Maybe i would have improved by that much if it wasn't for my limbo injury...
I thought going down the small hill took awhile...going down this thing took forever. It was pretty much all Katie's fault but would have felt horrible if i ditched her. Plus manthan and i promised we wouldn't leave her. While taking my time down i managed to do my first jump! i only got like 5 inches of air, but i'm going to count it because i landed it...so i'm pretty much a pro now and you'll see me in the next winter x games.

Manthan wasn't thinking (as usual) and had us follow down this other trail that doesn't lead to the base lodge. It took us to to a lift where you go up again to another trail that will take you to the base. Of course Katie wasn't happy about that, she ended up walking to the road and taking a shuttle. Manthan and i jumped the lift and snowboarded to the lodge/bar. Took us about 20 minutes, would have been faster if the lift wasn't so slow...
After having a beer in the bar, Katie finally showed up. Took her about 30 minutes taking the shuttle. Probably would have taken her longer if she decided to take the lift...so maybe that was a good call. Around 5pm got back on the bus and headed to the lodge we were staying at. i managed to miss the free food. They said it was open from 5-7...turned out it was 5-6. They had tacos, nachos, and quesadillas. Ugh i was so hungry for that too.

The next destination was the Rusty Nail Bar. Before heading in there Manthan and i hit up the Japanese restaurant next door. Ate at his place last year..but instead of just getting sushi i thought i'd try something new and get some chicken tempura. WORST IDEA EVER. Random deep fried veggies and chicken that tasted like ass. i didn't even finish it because it was so gross, and i always finish my meal. At least the spicy tuna rolls were delicious.
Manthan wanted to try some sake. That turned out to be a bad idea too, the sake we got was milky looking and gross. i can't remember the last time i had sake...probably will be awhile before i'll have it again. Definitely i won't be having Nigori Sake again.
Some random drum banging, looked like a barrel Donkey Kong would throw...
After consuming a bunch of water and sake, it was time for me to visit the bathroom. After taking a leak i turned around to wash my hands and was welcomed by this...
Of all the places to put a freaky statue, why would you put it in the sink in the men's bathroom? i'll never know, there is probably a person following me around pulling these pranks...started with the big mac.

The damage at the sushi place was 95 bones...ugh that tempura was so gross. Should have stuck with sushi, oh well. Time for the Rusty Nail! Katie challenged me to a game of pool. Of course i won.
There was air hockey too, i beat Melissa, Katie, Manthan, and i believe someone else...i'm pretty much a big deal, people know me. For live music there was some lame band, but the lead singer looked exactly like Donal Logue in The Ex (aka Fast Track). Sorry, couldn't find a picture of him in the movie...you'll just have to watch it.
There were some freaks on the dance floor. One of the guys, maybe two, dance exactly like Elaine from Seinfeld.

So that was entertaining...the band thought we were taking picture of them, and tried to get us on the dance floor...but all of us were having plenty of amusement watching these people making fools of themselves dancing. We even got to see the making out couple on the dance floor. Not sure what the guy was wearing...had these crazy shoes. The looked almost like boots but really looked like wrestling shoes, and had his jeans tucked in them...he also had his shirt tucked in without a belt...we all know what that tells us about a persons character...

When we finally got back to the rooms, i we welcomed by * vomiting outside the lodge. Apparently after 35 years of partying you don't know when to cut yourself off. :P
It was about 11:20 when we got back...i told myself i would just have a little bit to drink and maybe sing a karaoke song...then head to bed. That didn't happen, didn't get to bed until 4 am...ugh i knew i was going to hate myself in the morning.

Heading to Vermont

It was time to head up to Vermont again. This time, no little kids are going to be on the trip so i was pretty excited for that. Also, there gets to be massive amounts of booze to be consumed on the bus. My kind of bus ride. Last year on my trip to Stowe, manthan and i weren't sure what to bring to drink. Beer was boring so we wanted to do something different. We ended up buying some orange juice and coconut rum. We might of had some vodka but what we shouldn't have brought along was Ice 101. Sure its fun and games taking shots of it at first, but its tastes like a vat of peppermints have been melted down and mixed with vodka...so you end up getting sick before getting buzzed.

We decided to maybe we should get beer, because its safe...but again we some how talked ourselves out of it and decided to make a Tucker Death Mix. It consists of Gatorade, Red Bull, and Everclear (190 Proof)...last time i did one i thought i was going to die. But it seemed to be a good idea for the trip because i could just store it in my Camlebak and not worrying about spilling it, plus i had manthan to drink some too so i wouldn't have to worry about dying again.
Wasn't really sure how much to add together. So i got about 52 oz of Gatorade (lemon-lime), two twelve oz. cans of red bull, and about 12 oz of everclear. This recipe i found said use the whole 5th of everclear, but i actually like my liver so i stuck with 12 ounces. i was expecting something delicious, but no...tasted awful. i forgot i don't really like red bull and when mixed with Gatorade it just tastes nasty. So there was only one thing to do, drink it until it tastes good. Again, my plan failed because i failed to get drunk. Oh well, at least i got some carbs in my system to burn for snowboarding.

The bus ride was a little bit more fun this year, rather than manthan and i being the only people under 28...there were some more people our age. So there was lots of singing and ridiculous games that were played, and the people in the front of the bus (the old people) hated us.

What was not cool on the trip was the music that was played. Because the person that organized the trip is 51, and a 70's music fan....thats the music we listened to for a good 2 hours...and no one changed the first CD so it played over and over. i thought i was going to go crazy, like start punching babies crazy.

Manthan and i were sitting in the second to last row of the bus, we thought we would be far enough from the old people and not have to witness anything weird or too crazy old people might do. But no, not the case...we had this couple sitting in front of us (well they were married to other people, but both are separated...) and they're like over 50 years old...but it was like they were both 16 years old kissing for the first time. Groping each other and sucking face the whole trip up to the lodge. i wanted to vomit.

We finally stopped to eat, at a McDonald's. i have the worst experiences at McDonald's. For some reason whenever i order food there it takes so long to get it, or there is some crazy mix up with my order. Like people that order their food 10 minutes after me get their meal first. Its like every McDonald's employee gets a pamphlet with my picture in it during orientation and it says to screw me if i'm ever at that particular McDonald's getting food. i got a Big Mac, this time was no exception...
That's how my big mac looked when i opened it up...i have no idea what kind of thought process you have to have to assemble a burger like that. Plus there was a piece missing from the bun, like some one took a bite out of it...but i soon found the piece of bun, it just broke off and wasn't to consumed. i hope. i'm not one to complain about food unless its extremely messed up, so i fixed the big mac...and ate it. i guess most people would have taken it back, but i've made sandwich of cookies, spaghetti, and marinara sauce so eating this messed up big mac wasn't really an issue. i was just really confused when i opened it up.

We got to our lodge around 11:10 pm, i was so happy i didn't have to witness those two sucking face anymore. But of course the guy had to get another uncalled for comment, and while waiting to get my key to the room...he said to the woman, "i can't wait to have sex with you.." for everyone to hear in the lobby. i was so happy my room wasn't even remotely close to theirs.

Go to the room and passed out, so we'd be able to get up at 7am the next day...managed to get a picture of manthan going to sleep. Might be considered a little creepy...oh well.