Love that day

ahhh...skiing in the South... It's truly a special treat for Jacob and me every time we partake in it and this Valentine's Day we decided we should, in lieu, of fine dining, flowers and other love-knackery. So come 7 a.m. we dumped our adorable little cupid Gus with our wonderful and truly amazing friends, Lynne and Mark, and headed to Sugar Mountain about 2 hours northwest of Brevard.

ahh...the mayhem near the ski rentals, the melee of staggering ski-booted people boarding the shuttle bus, the slushy and yet icy man-made snow laid out in skimpy ribbons of death, not to mention hordes of people with no discernible skiing skills happily hurling themselves down the mountain with no plans to stop...it all simply goes with out comparison...well, you could try to compare it to, say, skiing in Colorado, but that would be obvious...in fact, Jacob and I have come to agree that if we could take the Southern skiing scene to the well-groomed snowy slopes of Colorado, we would - and charge admittance. Because here in the South skiing is a lot funnier than anywhere else I've ever been.

Here are some of my favorite nuggets of the day:
- The guy slowly and carefully making his wedges down the mountain, his poles clamped securely under one arm to free up the ungloved hand on the other to enjoy the cigarette he needed to smoke to calm his nerves at the adventures ahead...his pack stuck out of the breast pocket of his camouflage coverall.
- The obviously relieved father pumping his fists over his head in triumph at having managed to get off the lift still on his skis...meanwhile his shrieking daughter - who had not fared as well- became the shrieking foundation of a solid ramp pile-up of least 3 people high before we lost sight of it.
- The guy in the stylish fleece North Face Jacket and Cabbelas hunting cap riding high on his head - style is strictly optional in a Southern ski resort
- At least three sightings of people skiing in jeans - JEANS!!! And one of them had a VERY wet butt
- The pouty Ashley Simpson-look-alike, who slid to a halting stop, after a painfully slow and seemingly frustrating descent on the shortest slope, briskly taking off her board and wordlessly trowing it at the feet of her equally pouty looking and only slightly better snowboarder wanna-be-dude boyfriend, then turning on her heels and wordlessly marching toward the lodge. Just one of the many well-meant Valentine's Day dates we saw go sour before our very eyes.
- Three black ladies - one in saggy pink sweatpants - purposefully walking down the slope with their skis and poles nilly-willy cradled in their arms. They looked like they had no intentions of ever putting their ski gear on...

Needless to say we laughed a lot (to ourselves) and skiied the two double-black-diamond runs (each at least 30 feet long) as others watched in hushed awe...

A powder Day at Sugar Mountain!!!

Jacob drooling at all the powder he is about to rock out on (and some rocks to rock on too, as well)

Our friends Russ, Brandon and Ashleigh, who joined us for a fun and foggy afternoon of skiing. You guys were awesome, keep making those wedge turns and keep working on those hockey stops and make us proud.