So, I promised you a story about Sunday, and here it is. I'll pick up with our last games at the pond hockey tournament. Each team had one more game Sunday morning, and we thought with a record of 1-1-1 that the Holes might have a chance to advance. They played first against the Brown Santas, named such because the guy that organized the team works for UPS. Clever, huh? Skill-wise, this was one of the lower level teams we played this weekend, but they were a fun bunch. They had one gal on the team, and the captain, before the game, told me, "When you guys get up 15-0 on us, please let the girl score." We agreed that if we were up 15-0, we'd let the girl score. I filled in as the sixth skater for the Holes in this game. It was a very enjoyable game for many reasons. First, the ice on this rink was really pretty good. Certainly better that the death trap that Clusterpuck played on the day before. Second, there wasn't a lot of pressure, as it was evident early that we could have easily blown this team out. And third, we got heckled and called "ringers". Ringer? Us? Actually, the heckling was very good natured, and they really gave Mac hell after he stole the puck from the aforementioned girl. Even our own guys were booing him. We ended up winning the game like 16-9, and that 9 that they got was VERY generous of us. The "girl" scored 5-6 of those goals, I think.
My dad was able to drive over that morning to watch the games, and took a few pictures, as well. I'll try to get the extended library of trip pics posted on Shutterfly soon. Buddha also was burning up his camera that morning, so we should have a sizable collection to look through later.
On to game number two. This was Clusterpuck's last game, facing a team that hailed from Dallas. It was a fun game, and we were able to pull out a victory. It think the final was 13-9. This ice was also a LOT better than what we skated on Saturday afternoon, which made it all the more enjoyable. Scotty filled in for us on that game.
As we waited around for the other Brown Bottle division teams to finish their games, we took in some of the attractions at the pond, including live organ music. Buddha posed with the organist. On display were the various tournament trophies, one of which can be seen in the photo.
Checking the results board, it was clear that Clusterpuck was not going to advance (no surprise). We finished with a 2-2 record, and in third place in our pool. Only the top team in each pool was guaranteed to advance. Now, the only question was whether the Holes might make it through. There were two teams left in their pool that were playing each other, and would factor in the Holes' future. After scrutinizing the results, including wins, head to head, and goals against, I figured out that the Holes could advance. All that would need to happen is that the two remaining teams would have to end the game with tie of more than 17 goals apiece. Okay, so it's a longshot, but we headed on down to watch the game, mostly to keep Buddha out of hot water by making SURE that the Holes didn't advance this year. As you might guess, the 17-17 tie didn't happen, so it was off to pack up and head to the Winter Park area for the skiing portion of our trip.
The trip from Silverthorne to Tabernash (where my parent's cabin is - just down the road from Winter Park) was uneventful, and took just over an hour. The road up to the cabin is steep in places and covered with a lot of snow, so there was a little concern that our 15-passenger van with rear-wheel drive might have a hard time getting there, but it soldiered on, and we finally arrived at the cabin. We unloaded all of our bags to make room in the van for skis, boots, and poles, and headed down to the ski shop to get our gear. It was late in the afternoon, with some snow moving in, so we wanted to get geared up and make a grocery run before it got too late (and the roads got slicker). The skis took a bit to get doled out, but we got everyone taken care of, then went across the road to get some food for the next couple of days.
When we went into the Safeway, the snow was just starting to lightly fall. A "pitter- patter" as Kent might say. Not surprisingly with a group of this size, getting the items that we needed took longer than it should have, but we finally checked out and rolled our carts for the exit. It was then that we discovered all hell had broken loose outside. It was snowing. Sidewise. And up. A sticky, slippery, wet snow that quickly had all of us looking like a Yeti. As we loaded up the vehicles, our concern level for getting back up the hill to the cabin was increasing. As we pulled out on the road and were instantly engulfed in near white-out conditions, concern was quickly turning to worry. The wind was ripping around, and that nice big 15-passenger van was doing its best impression of a kite as it edged over toward the shoulder of the road with every gust. All we could do was follow the tail lights of the car in front (hoping they were still on the road, since it was rather hard to tell at this point) and keep the tires in the tracks created by the slowly moving line of traffic. As we traversed an overpass, a few fishtails told me the roads were quicly becoming very dangerous. Still, we plodded on. We did finally make it back to the turnoff off the highway and we headed up the hill to the cabin. There were several places along the road that I thought might pose problems for us, but I tried to keep my speed up and power on.
Unfortunately, shortly after the first switchback, our luck ran out. I could feel the van slowing as the rear wheels started to slip. Very quickly, our forward progress was halted, and even more concerning, the van was now moving backwards (unintentionally). Knowing that if we slipped too far back, we would be approaching that same switchback I mentioned, I tried to gently glide the back end of the van into the snowbank on the side of the road, just to stop it from sliding and get it out of the middle of the road. We made a few unsuccessful attempts to get it moving again, including every available person pushing on the back, but it was unquestioningly stuck.
There was nothing to do but call a tow truck at this point. "Marvin" at Hilly's Hooker Service told me that it would probably be about 35 minutes before he could make it. There was no reason that everyone needed to stay in the van, so my dad shuttled the extras (and our food) back to the cabin. Kent, Vrettacos, Brett, and I decided to stay with the van and wait. After about 20 minutes, Marvin called back to tell me he would be later, as he was called out by the highway patrol to assist elsewhere. He didn't know how soon he would be there, but thought it would be at least an hour. We called the cabin and had Dad head back down to pick us up, so we could at least have some dinner. We hopped in the Yukon and started back up the hill. With all the blowing and drifting snow, it was becoming very hard to see exactly where the road was, and my dad fell victim to snow. We got a little too close to the soft snow drift on the right side of the road, and it pulled the front end of the Yukon right down into the deep bank. We were actually lucky there was a deep bank there, because we might have slid right off the road and down a steep incline otherwise. Once again, some attempts were made to free up yet another foundered vehicle, with similar results to the first attempt. Nothing we could do but hike back to the cabin and wait on the wrecker to pull out two vehicles. Let me take this time to remind you that we were still in blizzard conditions, so the hike up was not pleasant.
We settled in and started on our dinner, when the phone call from Marvin came. He was headed our way and would be there in about 15 minutes. I informed him that we now had two vehicles stuck, and told him where the Yukon was in relation to the van. Kent and I bundled up and headed back down the road we just came up to meet Marvin. Still in the blizzard. One good thing - Marvin knew what he was doing. With a little effort, we finally had the Yukon freed up and back on the road, then rolled on down the hill to liberate the van. We didn't think it was a good idea at all to try to get the van up the hill, considering the maelstom going on around us, so we decided to take it back down to the highway, and park it there until morning. The van was a lot easier to deal with, and shortly (and after a considerable investment in Marvin's finacial future), the van was nestled all snug in its bed at the highway - ready for use tomorrow. Kent and I then made our way back to the cabin, going very slowly and driving right down the middle of the road.
The rest of the evening was much less exciting, other than some tense moments as we tried to talk Jim's son and his son's girlfriend through driving up to the cabin in the blizzard. Eventually, everyone made it where they needed to go, and we went to bed with the faith that tomorrow would be better. Some days are much more fun to talk about them later than to live through them.
