A great trip to Colorado a month ago.

Guinness [my dog] and I made a long drive to Colorado about a month ago. We left on the 25th of January [Tuesday] and returned on the first of February [Monday]. It was great to get out to visit with my two sons and daughter in law. It is a shame we live so far apart.

My friend couldn't join us as he had planned to do. He had done the contact work for a part of this trip which was paragliding at Beaver Creek Resort with the Vail Valley Paragliding Club. Unfortunately health issues prevented him from joining us. He is much better now, thankfully.

We left my office in Skokie at 11:11am and drove straight through with the exception of three stops to fuel up, eat and stay comfortable. Podcasts were very helpful to relieve the boredom of that long of a drive. The speed limits are 70mph in Iowa and 75 in Nebraska and eastern Colorado which helps a lot. My Saab did very well. Cruise control is pretty essential on this long of a trip as the solo driver too. I left later than planned in order to be well rested.

We arrived at Jason's place at about 12:30 their time. Jason and his friend Terry share a townhouse in Denver which is quite large. We slept well. Jason was working the next day. Terry is student on the GI bill so he & I went out to breakfast Wednesday morning. They had friends coming from around the country for a bachelor party in Breckenridge including skiing for that weekend. We picked up a pizza for dinner Wednesday night after a friend arrived and had a very nice evening. The following day others began arriving but the groom-to-be was stuck in a snow storm in Washington, DC. He finally made it late on Thursday which delayed departure and cut a day off of the skiing for them.

Thursday, Guinness and I went to Patrick & Susie's place a few miles away in Denver after Patrick and I had lunch. Patrick showed me around his offices at Agilutions in downtown. Guinness was there a little less than 2 years prior to this trip and knew exactly where he was when we pulled up to Patrick's house. He and took me directly up to the front door. Pat & Suz had a black Labrador dog named Max who unfortunately had graduated from this life more than a year ago. Guinness seemed to be looking for Max too. I ran to the local Ace Hardware and after 3 trips there and back finally had 3 sets of new keys for their doors which were all working.

We had a great time with Suz & Pat. Suz taught me to play Cribbage which I had never done before. Guinness just observed and kept watch over us. Patrick is doing quite well it seems in every way. Suz is a great lady.

On Friday, Guinness & I met up with David Champagne of Vail Valley Paragliding at Beaver Creek. David was kind enough to help me with a flight briefing and ferry me around the resort so I could fly my paraglider for the first time in Colorado. It was free flying without the motor. I am a P3, intermediate rated pilot. There were 6 of us flying that day.

We went up a couple of high speed chair lifts [starting at the Centennial Lift & then to the Cinch Lift] to the paragliding launch area near the top of the mountain. The launch was from the start of the 'Golden Eagle' run appropriately enough. The launch was steep which is good. This means that you have almost instant altitude which is a safety factor. The flight to the golf course takes the pilot near the mid-mountain restaurant [Spruce Saddle Lodge], then near the Beaver Creek Village and finally out to the golf course for a landing about 4.5 miles from launch according to David. The landing is in a valley and somewhat restricted. The most significant lift was as I came in for my landings which made me a little longer on both of them than I had anticipated. David Champagne was a great host.

Friday night was a wonderful evening with Patrick and Susie. Susie cooked a wonderful pasta dinner and John Anderson joined us for some Cribbage. His wife had a night out with the girls on Friday.

On Saturday Susie, Patrick and I went skiing at Arapaho Basin. We joined Michelle and her husband a little later. I skiied on my own for a bit but they showed me around and took me down a few black diamond runs for a good part of the day. They are all skiing regularly and are better skiers than I am. It was a great day of skiing. We then went out to dinner afterward.

Sunday I went to Mass at a local church just north of the NW edge of Sloan's Lake at a very nice, modern church. Susie went for a six mile run. The pastor and sermon were quite good at the local church. We went out for brunch at a local spot and I did some work for the office. When I checked the weather after brunch I decided the best plan would be to leave early on Monday due to a blizzard approaching Chicago.

We went out to eat at the Highland Burger & Tap where Ed Herbold a former patient of mine was working as a chef. We had some excellent pub food. Jason, Zosia [Jason' girl friend], and Terry were able to join us too which was great. After eating we went back to Pat's place for a game of Cribbage which was quite competitive. Zosia is quite good at Cribbage and was my partner. She almost carried me but Susie & Pat ended up winning the game.

Guinness, Susie & I were up early on Monday. Susie was heading off to school and Guinness & I were getting ready for the long trip back to Chicago. It was to be a tough drive but doable. There was already a coating of ice on the car as I went out in the predawn dark to finish loading the car. Patrick got up to see us off. We left about 6:35am local time.

The highway was bad heading out of Denver. The temperature had dropped to about 15 degrees and there was freezing rain. It was hard to keep the windshield free of ice. There were a number of vehicles spun off of the road to the side and median. At one point there was an SUV being towed out of the median and the traffic was stopped by a trooper about 6 cars ahead of us for about 15 minutes with other traffic backing up behind us. The roads were snow & ice packed until we got to Nebraska about 170 miles from Denver. Through Colorado, Nebraska and Iowa it was a freezing rain which caked up ice on the car. The temperature was in the mid-teens. There was at least a hundred pounds of ice on the car by the time I reached home.

Then the weather improved as we entered Nebraska after leaving the state of Colorado. It was good until about 75 miles west of Lincoln, Nebraska, and then it was strong winds, ice and snow until we got into Iowa. The roads and weather were then good until about 60 miles west of DesMoines after which the snow, ice and wind were bad again. Finally, the icing conditions lessened as we entered Illinois but the roads were still snow packed, the snow was falling and the wind was howling all of the rest of the way to home.

It was a long drive. Guinness and I arrived home about 1:20am on Tuesday morning local time. The weather was better in the morning on Tuesday but early in the afternoon the blizzard of 2011 hit Chicago with its full force.

The rest is now history for all of us in the Chicago area.

Tandem paragliding with a furry best friend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgv_2U6WYQc&feature=player_embedded

This is a great video of an Australian with a wonderful flight companion. It amazes me how Monty seems to really enjoy the view. Guinness would do well with this too I would imagine. Guinness is about 65 pounds though. He is a great 'ground crew' member when I fly though.

Please watch and enjoy.

Let me know what you think.