Stateside

It was my first white Christmas - that I can remember anyhow. Beth and I spent a fantastic Christmas with family in Laramie enjoying the delights of a Christmas in the U.S of A. It is probably fair to say that we were spoilt, but after the last few months of travelling we were more than ready to stop and be looked after. So Auntie Margaret, Uncle Mel, Ian, Lisa and the triplets together with Eric and Lindsey - thank you all SO much!

Although we were looked after, this didn't mean that we just sat around. Our first suprise came on Christmas Day in the form of hand warmers, feet warmers and toe warmers together with a little slip of paper which gained us access to numerous ski lifts across the vast Winter Park - a world class skiing area in the Rockies. A few days later, donned in various layers of warm clothing, and armed with our snowboards, we headed out into the hills (if British read: mountains - as we were at 10000') to carve up some powder. I'm not sure if we carved powder or whether the mountain carved us. Both Beth and I managed to do the occasional full flip, notching a few g-forces on the way as the downhill edge of our snowboard cut into the snow. There was no warning - just the thud as you hit the deck and the slight whiplash that made you feel like you had been in a mosh pit for a week or so. But snowboarding was such great fun and the scenery at Winter Park was so picturesque, trees loaded down with snow and occasioanlly outstanding views of the rest of the Rockies.

Not content to treat us to one snow based activity, we headed across to the Snowy Range, to try our hand at snowmobiling. I'm not sure how you describe sitting on 150bhp of raw power whilst skimming over 3' powder across an alpine meadow doing 60mph holding onto the handgrips for all you're worth - adrenalin pumping to say the least. These machines can easily get you to speeds of over 120mph - very very quickly. Our guide through the maze of snow capped mountains, deep forests with trees heavily laden with snow and across frozen lakes was one of the photo shoot riders for Yamaha, a rancher by the name of Chad, who was particularly quick through the woods and could turn one of these machines on a dime, akin to cutting back when surfing. Chad thought it would be good fun to take us tandem on his supercharged snow mobile and blast up a huge hill, normally a good hour or so walk over boulders in the summer but only seconds over deep snow on a snowmobile! Our hats go off to Auntie Margaret who clung on and not only made the quickest ascent of the massive hill but also popped over the lip and caught some air! We covered over 70 miles in one day even stopping for a sizeable lunch in a refuge in the snowed in hills.

Not far from the snowmobiling is another ski area in the Snowies where Aunite Margeret patiently taught us the skills of skiing. One classic memory is of one section of downhill slope where I was carefully practising my turns. I was just beginning to feel I was making some progress when I heard someone shout at me and so instinctively got out of the way. Who should come by but Beth, flying down the slope like she had waxed her skiis, tearing into the corners and disappearing out of view, the light settling of carved snow the only indication that she had passed that way. Eventaully I caught up with her, swallowed my pride, and congratulated her on an outstanding performance. It was only then she told me that when I had heard someone shout, and courteously got out of the way, Beth was in fact out of control and figured the best option was just to point and shoot straight down the mountain as any sharp turns would have meant painfully hugging a tree. I was still impressed!

But it was not just out on the slopes where we were introduced to new things. American football, once shrouded in mystery, has now become an exciting spectator sport. I still can't work out why it is called football when virtually everyone uses their hands - but there are some things that are just..well..American. Take eating. We're used, in the UK, to have a savoury main course followed by either a sweet dessert or a cheese board. But we were introduced to new combinations like chilli with jell-o (if British read: jelly). The jell-o is used to cool the mouth rather than for the flavour. I also finally had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (if British read: peanut butter and jam sandwich). But when it comes to doughnuts, burgers, cinamon roles and the like, our cousins across the pond definitely have the upper hand. Very tasty indeed.

Too soon our time in the States came to an end and we were packing once more, heading to warmer climes in the mountains of Ecuador.