Denver, CO to Portland, Maine

Hello all,

that's right. We drove from Denver, CO to Portland, Maine and it took a total of 2 long days behind the wheel of a van, Ryder truck and 5 extra hours of driving on Sunday the 19th of March. We arrived in Portland on Tuesday the 21st at 11pm; after starting that day in Columbus, OH.

I must say that I've had some long trips in my life as a promo-road warrior. But this seemed to be crazy as we where racing the storm that hit Nebraska hard. Due to the storm we also went further south thru Kansas and St. Louis, which added 200 miles to our trip, but kept us out of the snow and we only hit rain. Rain is ok, but better then snow.

During the trip and those that road in the Van, no-one wanted Farvra to drive, so Joel, and Kyle split a lot of the time along with Andy and I in the Ryder for most of it. Good times driving cross this great land a total of 2190 miles with 6 people that want to pee at different times and when a phone battery dies, watch out...That's why I spent most of my time in the Ryder this year to avoid the drama in the van...:)

It's been great being home for my first event ever in Maine. Of course since I'm here my folks are NOT, as there in FL enjoying the sun and warm weather. But after Sunday I'll be done with Snow events for a while and back to warmer weather and triathlon, marathons and flying. Have to love working for PowerBar!

I can say that since I've been back here in Portland. I've made it a point to eat seafood, at Gilberts, Newarks, a good burger at Ruby's and of course a great hearty breakfast at Becky's on the water with the fisherman in the early AM hours. I feel that most of the crew has enjoyed their time here in Portland too, with seeing some of the sites and enjoying the mild temps and great fresh air.

Tomorrow we're off to Sugarloaf to get ready for the last event weekend of the season before everyone gets on a plane to go home from Boston and Andy and I drive to NY to drop off all the elements and fly home!

I'm sorry that there are no photos attached to his entry. My computer crashed in Jackson Hole, WY, hence the reason for no updates for so long. It is still running a little slow in "safe" mode and it will not let me upload photos from my camera. So those great photos of skiing, large plates of food and me and my cowboy hat will have to wait a little longer.

Well friends. Take care and hope everyone is good.

JR

2nd Jackson Hole visit

Hello ya'll.

Well today we made it back to Jackson Hole and we've moved into our Condo again. What a great place and it's 1000x better then staying in a hotel. We're all getting along and enjoying the full size kitchen. Heather and Katie made lasagna for the whole crew for dinner and it was AWESOME. We have a chess board too and Kyle and I have been playing for a good part of the day since we got here and I'm up 4 game to 2. He's learning quick, and I know we'll be playing a lot more.

Today was a good day. Andy and I had breakfast at the "bunnery" again which was great as always. After that I made the stop that I've been waiting for all winter along. A visit to the "Jackson Hole Hat Company" for my custom made Cowboy hat. It was great to pick it up. Granted it was a little pricey but I feel that it's 100x worth every penny as I've been saving for it all trip long. CJ, the owner also branded it for free with the Wyoming state logo, which was mighty nice.

We also made great time on our drive yesterday from Copper to Jackson, WY. The total time took us 9 hours and 25 minutes to get here via the back road, my favorite. I suspect that it will take us close to 8 hours to get to WinterPark on Monday the 14th too. Before then we have some good times ahead of us here with skiing, shopping, and picture taking too. I hope that you enjoy the photos of the Jackson Hole area along with my new bride and joy, "The Hat"!

To add some fun into our lives. Kyle and I decided to play "Chubby Bunny". The game consist of stuffing as many marshmellows in your mouth, one at at time. Each time you put one into your mouth you have to say the fraze "Chubby Bunny". I can eat a ton of food and fit a full size dougnut into my mouth, but this game is crazy hard. If you ever want to feel like you are a member of the famous "Blue Man Group" this is the game for you... Kyle was able to reach 10 marshmellows before he couldn't take any more. I however was 1 shy. I had 9 and 1/2 of one in there before Katie said a joke and made me laugh and gag...It was nasty and sticky but a good time. The bad part was that Kyle and I did this game not once but three times to see how much better we could get. We didn't improve at all. we made each other laugh to much.

Well everyone. Enjoy the photos of the compitition and the new Cowboy hat.

3-4-06...Copper, Colorado

Well everyone I know it has been a little while since my last update. Sorry for that.

We're now in Copper Mt, Colorado working out next to last event in this state. The weather has been great all week long with a little snow on Wednesday with 4" of new fluffy snow for Thursday morning of great skiing of the back bowl here at Copper. Andy, Kyle and I skied all day Wednesday which reminded us of skiing back east with lots of ICE and little powder. That all changed for Thursday as we headed out again to the back side for some good steep trops and a few bumps and 1 jump! It was on purpose too. Sorry MOM and Elisa. It was a ton of fun however and the skiing was great that day.

Also Wednesday was Kyle's birthday and his folks flew into town to see their boy and celebrate for it. They where extremely nice to envite us all to dinner for the ocasion which was a great time. We've been skiing with him and his folks and it's been a blast.

Also this week thanks to the great eye and nose or Glen (semi driver) I've found my new favorite place for Breakfast in the Summit County area. It's called the Lyon's Cafe. I've been there the last 3 days eating like a king. On Thursday Andy, Glena nd I went to breakfast and while I was finishing up a man came to the table and asked

"Did you just get out of Prision?"

my reply: "NO?"

"You ate like you just did"

Andy and Glen then bust out with a luagh and a look of like he's right. I like to eat and can eat a lot for those who don't know. What I ate was a ok size meal for me. It was just 2 frech toast, 2 eggs, potatos O'Brien, 4 pieces of Bacon and that wasn't enough so I also had 1 breakfast taco which consisted of 3 eggs, hashbrowns, tomatos, pepers and more bacon! It was a great filling breakfast which helped the day head on the MT skiing!

In case you're wondering. Fridays breakfast was much the same. However NO Taco this time. Just two blueberry pancakes!

Also Friday, Our (Andy and I) boy Jeff Ayotte "dream job" (we work PowerBar with) was in town and came up to visit and ski with us along with his gal Carie. We had a good day on the slopes getting sunburnt and laughing it up. It was a busy day on the hill but a good day none the less.

No it's work time and it was crazy today at the base. They are saying that there wa 12,000 people on the Mt today and we saw about 1/3 of that by the cars and hanging out for the raffle for the end of the day as well. It was a good day for the event and for the weather. We hope for the same tomorrow too with temps in the 40s...Spring is around the corner. I hope this holds true when we head back to JH (jackson hole) on Monday.

well everyone. I hope that you're well and you enjoy the tales and photos.