Travel Tuesday

About a month ago, Butch took Morgan and Mitchell skiing. Mitchell has been skiing since grade school in Kalamazoo. However, Morgan was going for the first time.

They were all going with our friends, Bruce and Karolyn and their son, Stephen. Bruce has a friend who owns a place in Beaver Creek, Colorado.

The plan was that Morgan would be in ski school the first day. Mitchell took off with Stephen. Butch, Bruce and Karolyn spent the morning together.

Shortly after lunch, Morgan wanted Butch to meet up with her. He thought that meant that she had learned enough and was ready to be done with ski school. Unfortunately, he was on another mountain and it would have taken too long to catch up to her. She wouldn't really get her start until day 2.

Day 2 dawns. Stephen and Mitchell took off on their own.

About the time they got on the lift, Morgan told Butch that they only took her on the lift once during ski school. So, Butch, Morgan, Karolyn and Bruce were taking the lift up for their first run of the day. At the top, when they were getting off the lift, Karolyn had a fall---a bad fall. Butch was afraid that perhaps Morgan, with her inexperience, had caused it. But, she hadn't. Instead, it was Bruce whose ski caught the edge and caused him to slide in to Karolyn. She ended up having to be taken down via the ski patrol. She had broken her shoulder. That was the end of her ski trip---and Bruce's for that matter. He spent the rest of the time with her.

As it turns out, Morgan learned absolutely nothing for her day in ski school. Apparently, there were too many people in the class---and several were slow learners which held the whole group up. Butch spent the day teaching Morgan---and picking her up at least 50 times. By the end of the day, she was starting to "get it!" Butch was exhausted!

The next day, Mitchell stayed with Butch and Morgan and she did great. She loves it and had the best time. Both of the kids were so happy to have gone and want their grandpa to take them again next year. I want him to do that too. What great memories for them--and that Morgan can say that her grandpa taught her how to ski!

I have to say, I am a little jealous. I'm really happy that Butch had this time with them. But, skiing is one of the top five favorite things I've done in my life. But, I'm not about to ski anymore, even if I could. I'm just not willing to risk a fall at my age. And if you ski---no matter how good you are, you will fall! Either you will lost your balance, hit a bump or someone will knock you down. I have to be realistic that a fall (as evidenced by Karolyn) would most likely result in a break. It's different for guys. They don't have the bone loss issues that women have.  Still, I'm so happy that the grands had this opportunity.

Oh, and, by the way, Butch called the ski school and got his money back. They admitted that there were too many in the class and some held the others back. Butch had a good suggestion for them. If you have a larger class and by lunchtime you can see that half are ready to move on and the other half aren't, then they should send someone else to take half the class. They apologized and readily refunded his money.