Dec 2017
In the winter of 2017 my family was traveling to Colorado for a ski trip between the Christmas and New Year holidays. I was going to be joining them, but because I work at Walt Disney World, I did not have the entire time off from work because I work on the holidays. I decided to join them, but I would be arriving a day later and because I was going to be joining late anyway I wanted to see about going to a National Park!
I rented a car for a day to make sure that I could make quick stop at Rocky Mountain National Park near Estes Park, CO. I didn’t know what to expect or what I could even do there because of the weather impacts, but I was getting a car for the day to drive to the National Park and then would drive to Dillon, Colorado, an area near the Keystone and Breckenridge ski resorts.
Going to the mountains in the winter with snow covered roadways, was certainly hazardous – I think it goes without saying that I was unprepared for the travel situation. It had been years since I drove consistently in snow and ice and I was quite uncomfortable driving, but I did it! I entered Rocky Mountain National Park through the Estes Park Entrance and drove partway up a mountain, only to find that at the first parking lot the road was closed to further traffic due to snow. I drove to the Bear Lake area of the park and briefly got out of the car to walk to the absolutely frozen and snow covered lake, got some pictures and then got the heck out! (I don’t do well in the cold.)
I drove then to the ski areas to meet my family and prepared to ski for the next few days. I’m not sure if anyone reading has been skiing or snowboarding, but when you haven’t done it for years, it would probably behoove you to take a lesson or two. I also think that as a teenager I was completely unfazed by possible injury from a fall, ah to be a carefree teen again. As a mid-twenties adult who was not (and frankly still isn’t) in peak physical condition for sports/activities, I was tired very quickly and very scared that I was going to fall. Honestly though, my favorite thing that happened was when I did fall at one point I went to stand up and I sunk down to my hip in the powder, so that was awkward to try to get out of (all of the struggle was done safely and out of the way of others using the ski run).
After a few days of skiing with the family I was more than ready to head home and get a massage and be back in the relative heat of Florida weather. And as much as I enjoyed fearing for my life while going down a ski run, I actually mostly remember my visit to the National Park on the first day!
Daring, Dangerous, and Defining 