Holiday Valley - Day Five

Heading Home I was up once again just before sunrise. It was 6:40am. Judging by the ski rack just outside our door, it looked like we got another two inches of fresh snow overnight. I had coffee brewing and my exercise routine completed before 7am. I did a little web surfing and TV watching before setting out on my run. I was eager to run early so that we could pack, eat, check-out, and ready for a day of skiing before 10am. By the time that I dressed for a run the sun was shining brightly. This time I took my camera along. I got a few nice pictures of my trail. Mindy was still in bed when I got back, but got up minutes later. We made sausage and fried eggs for breakfast, and started packing at the same time. It didn’t take long at all. We were packed, showered, and loaded to go before 10am. Loading the Honda was as challenging as unloading. We had to make four trips each. We pulled out of the lot to go turn in our condo keys at 10:05am. We weren’t sure where we’d park for the rest of our ski day, but the Holiday Valley Realty office advised that we could park at our condo until 2pm or so. After returning our keys we drove back to Snow Pine Village Like each of the four days prior, we headed up the Wall lift to the ski park. Mindy wanted to ski the Tannenbaum run before departing. We did that one right away. Both of us were skiing tired, plus my ankle was sore from wearing ski boots for five days straight. Even still, neither of us wanted to leave before doing a few runs on our park favorite – Falcon. We skied over to Eagle. Once again, there was next to no crowd. Cool! Before doing Falcon, we did Hoot Owl. Mindy somehow forgot our plan and ended up at the Morning Star lift. I waited at the base of Eagle. She eventually made her way over. We made our way over to Falcon. It looked even more ominous today. Like a lot of today’s runs, it was extra mogully. I headed down first, and missed my third cut after hitting an icy patch. My speed went quickly out-of-control as I inadvertently headed over to the large mogul field. It wasn’t if, but rather when. Next thing I knew I was soaring through the air eventually tumbling & bouncing off the mogul tops. I lost one ski. More importantly, though, I was OK. Looking back up the run, I saw Mindy take a quick spill. If I fall, she typically falls, too. Not sure why. We skied down to the bottom of Falcon and agreed to hit it one more time. This time we both nailed it. We rode the Eagle lift up one last time. We then charted our trek back to the Honda. We skied Upper & Lower Woodstock then took the Cindy’s lift up to get over to Bob Sled and eventually to our vehicle. We were on the road by 12:10pm. Next stop, Ohio for lunch. The drive out of town was peaceful. We hit some serious snow squalls just west of Jamestown that continued all the way into Ohio. There were more than few white knuckle moments along the drive. Several times we encountered snow drifts blown across our lane of travel. Yikes! Despite many slow downs we were making decent time. We stopped at the last rest area just east of I-271 for a potty break. We also stopped just south of the Lodi exit for gas & lunch. Once again, we ate at Wendy’s. Mindy had their new fish sandwich. I had a double combo. The burger was even better than the one I had on the trip up. It was fresh, hot & juicy. Yummy! We called Jimaken as we reentered the freeway to arrange for the kids. We estimated our arrival time to be 5:30pm. He planned to have them home about the same time. We then called Courtney to let her know that we’d be home earlier than originally planned. We also called Lindsey just before arriving home to let her know that we’d be picking up Rocky & Landon around 7pm. We arrived home right at 5:30pm. We quickly began carrying in our gear wasting no time at all. We pretty much had all of our gear carried inside by the time that Jimaken pulled up with Jacob & Bella. We talked for a few and thanked him for caring for the kids in our absence. He soon departed. The house looked good. Initially everything appeared to be in order and clean. We thanked Courtney for her services. She soon left for home. Mindy and I continued unpacking and stowing our gear. By 6:45pm, when we left to pick-up Rocky & Landon, everything was put away and the laundry started. We arrived to pick-up the boys at 7:02pm. We weren’t there long. Landon was sad to leave his momma for the first time that I can remember. Rocky gave her several hugs and kisses just before we pulled away. They both seemed happy by the time that we got back home. Rocky was more than a little pumped up. He was borderline wild. Sadly, they both reeked of cat piss. Once again, I don’t think that Kelly can smell it after living amongst it for so many years, but it’s overwhelming to others. We threw their coats in the washer almost immediately. Mindy gave the boys a quick bath. By 8:15pm we had all the kids in bed. Mindy was still upset about Lindsey’s accusations regarding Landon’s well being. Mindy made arrangements to miss work on Monday and called Kelly to let her know that she’d be taking Rocky to school. Kelly and Mindy talked for a long time. Most of the conversation centered around where we’re headed with the boys. Mindy & I feel strongly about having a plan in place, and right now it doesn’t seem like one exists at all. After 90 days, we want a goal laden plan in place. Kelly can’t speak for Lindsey but apparently didn’t disagree with anything we offered up. In the end, she asked that we discuss the situation with Lindsey. This will most likely come to a head soon. We want what’s best for the boys, first and foremost. We headed to bed at 10pm.