Major accomplishments are afoot

It has been a tougher time than I thought decompressing from such a mind-blowing journey. I was on cloud 9 for a while, and I still am most times. One thing that is helping is looking forward to a major milestone accomplishment from the Sellers Family. Lady Sellers, Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, will be graduating law school any day. Along with the achievement comes a party full of ale, Lords, Ladies, fighting, wenches… wait, no, that is not right at all. I think this will be the biggest accomplishment of anyone who has been lucky enough to have the Sellers name. Granted, I have only known a handful of Sellers’ and she stole the name from me, but that does not take away from the accomplishment. Along with the colossal accomplishment comes great reward. She was nice enough to let me have the Winter Carnival, so August is all for her. I haven’t come up with a name for it yet, maybe The August Affair? Hmmm, no, probably not a good idea. After the Bar exam the end of July, August is a free month until full time work begins. We have some great things in the planning stages for August. We started taking some steps on Tuesday and went to the doctor for some vaccinations, inoculations, and immunizations. The past couple days have been extremely rough. I never expected the side affects to be so horrid, but we have both been ill. Not really sick, but all the symptoms of sickness, which might be even worse. The mind says I am fine, lets do this, but the body does not cooperate. Whatever happens it will be well worth the experience.

I finally got around to making another montage video of my favorite Cheesehead and Utah visitor, Bradford. I wish there was something embarrassing to say or show, but unfortunately there is not. I wasn’t sure if music would help this video along, but apparently Bradford hates music these days. It’s never too late to add music.

What is more adorable than this?

I wager to say nothing is more adorable than this little ski bunny. Wifey is another person that has a fairly boring style. She just goes down the hill at her own pace. Never falls, never knocks anyone down, never embarrasses herself, simply enjoys the cool wind in her hair and the visions of bliss. One of these days I’ll get her up in a helicopter.

Heli-skiing video Revelstoke, British Columbia

I finally got around to putting my videos together from the day of heli-skiing in Revelstoke, British Columbia. I am actually fairly happy with how this turned out. I am sure it is still ultra boring to anyone that is not me, or Wifey pretending to be interested because the law says it is her duty. I like it, and I am sure it stinks on YouTube. On 60 inches of 1080p high-def television it looks pretty amazing. If anyone does actually watch this, at least watch it in full screen in the higher quality. Or ask me to mail you a DVD.

Fun with Facial Hair Week is over

Congrats to my dear friend Bradford for making more people! Thursday he and his wife brought another beautiful baby girl republican into the world. I am extremely happy for their little middle of the country family.

I am clean-shaven, and apparently Wifey is happy. I asked her to look away because I’m hideous. It was fun while it lasted. I noticed that bearded and mustachioed people treat each other differently, like some kind of secret club. I thank those for having me in their club while they did. I didn’t get to learn the handshake, but I am sure it was something extremely manly. This definitively marks the end to the Carnival.

Time lapse possibly to come…apparently I am a narcissist, or something that sounds like that.

I can’t stop being Cowboy Jimmy

You can take the cowboy out of the mountains, but you can’t take the mountains out of the cowboy. Apparently no matter how hard I try I just can’t stay away from the mountain-man activities. I had to saddle up yesterday and come to the rescue of Wife. She was stranded in the woods with 2 horsies and only 1 rider, which is where I come in. I jumped on and rode back to the barn. It was so powerful that it forced the sun to set at 1pm just so I could be riding off into the sunset. After that I performed my first act as a dying cowboy, started whittling away at my beard. 

Coast to Coast

Saturday March 31, 2012

Well, it is just about over. I have now also seen both of North America’s oceans in the same trip.

West Coast:                                                               East Coast:

Somewhere shortly after I crossed into the state of PA (the only state you can simply call by it’s 2 letter initials), I had to take a leak. After a few minutes of driving through the “mountains” (ha-ha) I found a rest area. At the rest area I saw a sign that was quite disturbing. Between this sign, paying tolls for using roads, and the too heavy, sea level air, I knew I wasn’t out west anymore.

I just bookended the trip nicely with injuries. The very first day and the very last day of the trip I took really bad, painful falls. On the first day I slammed my head on the ski slope and actually broke my helmet. I had to buy a new helmet. Today, the last day, I just slipped and fell in the kitchen on the slippery tile. I have apparently hurt my elbow pretty badly. Of course I didn’t get to see the fall, but I know for a fact it looked just like the crazy cartoon falls that I see on TV. Both feet went out from underneath me, straight out into the air, and straight down on my ass. Ouch. Now I am typing one handed with ice on my elbow. More than anything I wish there was at least someone here to have seen it, what a waste.

Soon I will be reunited with Wifey and two puppies. I am very excited.

Hello America, thanks for letting me back

They’ll let any old scumbag into this country. Nothing like Canada. Made a visit today to Fargo, ND, just so I could say I was in the town that is the namesake of one of my all time favorite movies. While I was there I had tacos, got gas, and watched a person use an actual paper check to pay for stuff at the gas station. What a weird country this is turning out to be.

How do I ever go to Blue Mountain again?

Tuesday March 27, 2012

Seriously, I have no idea how I go back to an everyday life after today. Cross the last thing of my winter checklist, I am the happiest person alive. Today I went heli-skiing. I can’t believe there was even an ounce of nervousness about doing it. It is the greatest thing I have done up until this point in my life. Such an unequivocally amazing experience. I went with a local outfit here in Revelstoke called Selkirk Tangiers Heli-Skiing. They assisted me in Living My Dream. I decided just a few days ago to try to get into a group, I thought it could be a great ending to the trip of a lifetime. I thought correctly. Todays experience was the perfect exclamation point to this entire winter. I am going to start driving toward home tomorrow, there is no sense in even trying to do anything else this winter. Game, set, match…it’s over Johnny.

The day started out with a yummy breakfast, meeting some of the other people in my group (bunch of celebrities), and orientating with the guide. Dave was our guide, but there were 2 other guides that came along. 3 guides and 9 passengers made for 12 in our group. The first stop was somewhere along the side of the road that looked like we could have easily been raped and left for dead in the middle of nowhere Canada. It was time to learn and familiarize ourselves with avalanches, procedures in case of problems, how to use our avalanche beacon, and finally starting an avalanche with only the power of the mind. Seemed odd, but Dave wanted us to know how. After that was helicopter safety and orientation. In total it was about an hour and a half, maybe 2 in safety training and instructions. It was all quite interesting actually, either that or I was just too excited about the upcoming activity to know any better. After all the instructions we were then moved by van from highway rape area number one to potential murder site number two. This was to be the pickup point by the helicopter for my group.

We were taken to a little place known as “I Have No Idea Where I Was”. All I knew was it was at the top of a mountain. We did a total of 4 runs. The routine was dropped off at the top then ride down to a flat area the helicopter could pick us up. After the third run we ate a nice lunch on the mountain. The scenery was gorgeous snowy mountain scenery for as for as the eye can see. The terrain was the perfect mix of extremely steep to moderately steep, perfect for cruising. There was one area that was a giant bowl, then the next time we were going through trees. The variety and assortment of terrain was just perfect. We would all stage up at the top of a downhill and Dave would lead the charge. Then we took turns dropping in about 5 seconds apart. There was nothing but the most pristine, virginal untouched tracks. We were supposed to ride next to the others tracks so we could stay in the group. One time I was the lead guy after Dave the guide. I saw someone hit a tree so I looked over to give myself a good laugh. It’s fine, she was laughing so I knew nobody was hurt. When I looked back Dave was gone. In that split second I lost him. Luckily the guy behind me noticed, called out, and got me back on track immediately. Thanks Paul from Never Summer. It couldn’t have been too bad, it all goes downhill, and I’d have seen him eventually :-). There is only one thing that could have made it better, and this goes for almost everything fantastic, more of it.

I filmed the entire thing, but unfortunately the crappy first person perspective does not really translate the brilliance of today. I did get my new friend Jeremy the Kiwi to wear my helmet for one run and tape me. Because of the way we had to space out it’s not that great, but I truly appreciate the Kiwi efforts.

Our entire group was so diverse and everyone was great. There was a local, me from The States, 2 young siblings from Portlandia, a Kiwi from New Zealand, two ladies from Deutschland, a Vancouverite named Paul, and John pronounced Yon from Holland. Everyone had a great time. Amongst our group there were a couple celebrities, I don’t want to say who they were, so I’ll just say Liam Neeson and NPH.

I’m sure I’ll have more to write about today after I come down from this high.

Aren’t dogs just the greatest?

Monday March 26, 2012

Still here in Revelstoke, British Columbia. I got up early and went to the Revelstoke Mountain this morning. I knew I was only going to stay a few hours at most, so I wanted to get the best I could. What another unique mountain. So many mountains are just vast expanses that sprawl on forever. This mountain is apparently very new and still in development, but already beloved by the local people. This place was recommended to me by at least a dozen folks I spoke with. There are only 3 or 4 lifts on the entire skiable area. The ride down from the top takes forever. It does not seem or feel like it should be that long, but this mountain boasts the longest vertical descent in North America. Fun facts are fun. The place was empty, oddly empty. I was the first person on a couple of groomers as late as 10am. It felt like I was trespassing. The entire place had the feel of someone’s private mountain, but that person said, sure come play on my mountain. The base area is nothing more than a hotel with some retail on the ground level. I read that there are plans to build the place into a giant resort with condos, golf, etc… Right now the entire town is in the middle of nowhere, even the locals will tell you that. I went top to bottom a few times and a few different ways, and then decided I would be done for the day. As I got to the bottom I saw a sign that piqued my interest.

It was an advert for tandem paragliding. Spoiler, I didn’t get to do it. After I saw the sign, realized I had the rest of the day free, and spoke to the chick who sells it (and also done it a few times), I was ready to sing up. My timeline is very limited, so I was being greedy with when I could do it. After finding out that I couldn’t do it until a couple weeks from now I wasn’t too upset. There are 3 pilots that do it, one had a family emergency, another was in Brazil flying, and the third was away on holiday. So I don’t feel like I just missed doing it by a day or two. She showed me some pics and video, it looks amazing. You get into the air by running and jumping off one side of the peak of the mountain. You wear your skiing gear so when you land you land on a ski slope and just take off downhill. I have been lucky enough to check almost everything off my list of things I wanted to do this winter. If all goes well the last thing will be checked off the list tomorrow. That means it will be time to make a new list. I am adding both the paragliding and whatever the hell this is. I saw a couple guys on a frozen lake riding snowboards with giant kites. I guess it is kite snowboarding. I had to stop and take this video. It looks completely safe in comparison to downhill riding. The only danger is possibly plunging below the surface of a frozen lake.

I did see something that I thought very inappropriate. The top of a mountain is a very serious and sometimes unsafe place to be. I do NOT think this is the way anybody should be acting at the tippy top of a mountain, especially when she is supposed to be working. Worse yet was that this gal was hanging around this sign, and yet not at all on guard.

But then later I saw this TV commercial while having lunch and all was forgiven.

Speaking of dogs, I saw these 2 dogs today. This is more proof that Charlie could have come with me. There are plenty of doggies that just hang around and wait for their skiing companions. Seems like it could be a good life for a mountain dog.

And finally I got this sticker for my board. It is definitely the best one yet. Today was a very doggie oriented day.