I had a great weekend. I will never forget skinny dipping in a blizzard.

It’s about a 5 hour drive from here to the Timberline Lodge. Most of it was uneventful—except for the last 6 miles. As we drove up the mountain, it started to blizzard. The last 6 miles is steep winding, icy and snowy. I haven’t driven in snow for a few years. I ditched the truck. Fortunately it was easy to push out. A good Mexican man with 4WD helped us. After that I put chains on the truck. The Mexican followed us the rest of the way up the hill to make sure we were ok. It’s amazing how long 6 miles is when you can only go 15/20 MPH. When we got to the top of the hill, we gave the man $10.00, and invited him in for a drink. He said no because he had to go.

We had thanksgiving dinner at the Lodge—great meal. It was a spendy dinner, but worth every penny. The table next to us was having a bad time. All the adults except one man, were at one end of the table. The kids, and the man, were at the opposite end. The separated man and a man on the grown-up side of the table kept glairing at each other.

After dinner, we went swimming! The lodge has a heated swimming pool; about 80F. Under water was beautiful. Above the water our heads were pelted by snow.

We stayed in for about an hour. No one else was in the pool, so we skinny dipped.

After swimming we went to the lodge bar and talked to the staff. Almost all of the staff drives Subaru’s.

We were in bed by 11pm. Because of the blizzard we didn’t expect to snowboard on Friday.

We were wrong. Friday was a beautiful, sunny day-- perfect weather for snowboarding. The three of us have very different styles. I started snowboarding last winter, so I’m still green. I fall a lot.

Bruce is more of an explorer. He wants to hit all the paths on all of the trails, just to see what’s there. He’s not afraid of any conditions because he knows he has the skills to get out. Bruce rarely falls. He makes basic snowboarding look easy—as if he just looks where he wants to go, and magically his snowboard transports him there.

Chris loves jumping and stunts. He is weak in soft and deep powder. He becomes nervous if there are no people around.

One time, we were on a very quiet trail with no one else around. Chris and I both fell in a dip. The snow was very soft and at least two feet deep. When the snow is that deep, every step is a big effort. We had to struggle to the top of the dip. Chris got a bit nervous. I was very tired and also nervous. We had never been on that trail before, so we didn’t know if it was going to get worse. Bruce on the other hand was very nonchalant. He was watching us to make sure we didn’t get into trouble—ready to take off again once we got back on our feet.

After boarding for the day, we swam again and relaxed a bit. At one point, we got out of the water, naked, made snow angles, and then jumped back in the water. It’s weird feeling the cold snow against wet skin. It’s not painful, but it’s not pleasant either.

We decided to go to town for dinner. We had to dig the truck out of a huge snow drift. It was a big struggle and took about 30 minutes. By the end, we were all tired, hungry and a bit edgy. We had dinner at the In-Between, in the town of Zig Zag.

We were back at the lodge by 8pm. Bruce went to bed. Chris and I had a drink by their huge fire place

We both hit the sack by 10pm. Unfortunately, Friday night our neighbors were nimrods. The lodge has very thin walls. Our neighbors decided to get stoned on crappy marijuana. They would puff a bit, and then cough a lot. They played gangster rap. They telephone many friends and shouted “Hey doodz! You’ll never guess where I am!” We were too tired to complain. Most of the time, we slept through it.

On Saturday the blizzard returned. The lifts were open though. So, we went snowboarding. Going down wasn’t too bad because the trails are protected by trees. The chair lifts up were cold. At some parts you got the full brunt of the wind. Still, we went down 5 or 6 times.

At about 1pm, we called it a day. We started back for Seattle. Bruce and Chris slept most of the way. At the beginning of the ride, Bruce and Chris we kind of short with each other. After a meal, and their naps, everything was good again.