Day 11 - Park City, UT

I don't know what time it'll say I'm posting but it's about 2:15 AM here. You'd think that I'd had a big night on the town...far from it. I love skiing but after doing it for about 8 hours, I got back and intended to get some food and chillout, instead I ended up falling asleep for about three hours. The only thing left open for dinner at midnight on a Sunday in Salt Lake was a Denny's about three blocks away. Cultural experience to be honest, but I'll get to that.

Anyway, I woke up pretty early and went to the ski rental place about two blocks from the motel. I was pretty impressed to get a discount lift ticket for Park City and full rental for a total of about $70, cheaper than Wintergreen anyhow. Luckily I don't have but so much of an ego around people I don't know, because I had no qualms with telling the guy that I was pretty green to skiing and needed the easiest setup they had. He hooked me up and I was out within ten minutes, yee-haa.

The drive up was about the most beautiful 20 miles I'd ever seen. The main route up is through the Wasatch National forest, a park of red rock jagged peaks and pristine mountain rivers. It was kinda hard to pay attention to the road to be honest.

Park City is only about half an hour from downtown SLC, but jeez what a difference. It's pretty similar to Jackson, really high dollar and uppercrust. I guess skiing is what rich people on the west coast do eh? It makes sense though; no offense to Wintergreen but it's gonna be awfully hard to go back to skiing in VA. Seriously, this place was nuts and cheaper to boot! To give you an idea, there were about 50 separate runs at the resort I was at (one of four in the area). A 'run' is also quite different from what we know too. For example, my intermediate slope (a few times with no falls! woot!) started at an elevation of 9770 ft and ended at 4000 and some change. There weren't even lines at the lift for the most part. In the end, I probably spent 70% of my time actually skiing in the eight hours that I was there. It was a blast, but I was pretty damned sore when I got back to the car. Still am, but its a soreness of accomplishment, battlescars if you will. I skiied Park City and only made a minimal ass of myself, I wasn't the worst person there, which is quite a feat for me. It was the perfect day for it too, 61 degrees with 80" of powder, just awesome. I got back to the car, thoroughly worn out but quite satisfied with myself. Let me say real quick, thanks go to Matt (my new roomate and soon to be mr. x-tine) for the ski gear, it did great and it's all accounted for.

After driving back, I ended up falling asleep as I said. I hadn't planned on too much for the evening anyway, so it wasn't a huge loss. The only thing open though (as I said) was the Denny's. Something I've been noticing in myself since I've been on this trip, I end up people watching a lot. I guess it makes sense, usually I'm having dinner at home or with people so I guess I don't notice the other groups around me. It's actually pretty entertaining, especially since they don't generally notice you watching, since they're with their own groups. So who exactly occupies a Denny's in SLC at midnight on a Sunday. Well emo hipsters for one, there was a whole table of them...not laughing or even talking much...just drinking coffee and looking despondent. Poor waitress, I'll bet the whole tab for the table of five was ten bucks and I'm sure they were planning on being existential for quite some time. The other group around me was a bunch of early 20 somethings that must have just come from a bar or club. A few of them seemed pretty intoxicated and they only seemed to order fries. The best part though (i apologize for not having a picture) was the one kid in full prep gear, popped collar pink polo, patch plaid pants, mussed hair....and a neckbrace. I had to go to the bathroom to laugh my ass off, so they didn't hear me. Seriously though, a popped collar and a neckbrace. If you happen to have a neck injury, you should probably just give up clubbing for a few weeks. So many friends and yet none could tell him that he looked ridiculous? I had a good time though and I overheard a great little joke. Apparently only about 40% of SLC residents are Mormon, but they rule the town obviously. Therefore, its fairly common for non-Mormons to refer to the LDS as the "Local Dominating Superstition." I thought it was pretty clever anyhow.

So the plan for tomorrow. After getting an oil change (3200 on the trip odometer now), I'm heading on the last long haul before the Pacific. If all goes well, tomorrow night will be spent in Reno, $25 a night for the Sands resort. Gambling towns really are great if you aren't a gambler, I'm looking forward to a six dollar steak.