What a day! We got up super early to make the drive up to Big Bear Mountain for skiing/snowboarding. Accompanying travelers had an option to skip this, but since we were chaperones, no option, we were going with the kids. So we put on our warm clothes, I took my Dramamine, and got on the bus for the 2-3 hour drive. Unfortunately, we were on the bus that kept overheating, so the 
driver put the heater on to cool down the engine and kept going up the mountain, having to pull over every 2 miles or so to let it cool down. So the 2-3 hour drive took about 6 hours one way. We finally pulled over for an extended time because several people needed a bathroom stop and had to go in the woods to take care of business. The kids all got out to stretch their legs and wound up 
having a snowball fight with 
snow laying on the ground. They found out quick that they needed to go back to the bus to get their gloves. But they had the best time there, on the side of the road. At the end of the day, the kids said that was the best part of the day, that they liked the snowball fight better than snowboarding! After not having radio or cellphone reception for most of the time, the driver was finally able to call for help and another bus came to get us at this place.
So we finally got to Big Bear, around the time we had been scheduled to leave to go back down the hill. The kids had to go straight to their snowboarding class. The first thing I heard from the tour organizers when we got there was, how come you guys didn't call to let us know you were going to be late??? Hello, ever heard of no cell phone reception when you're stranded on the side of a mountain?? We heard later that a couple of other buses were late - one got into a fender-bender on the freeway on the way and another one went to the wrong mountain. So overall things didn't go as planned. 
Even for me...they told us that if we didn't ski or snowboard, we could stay in the "lodge" and relax. I'm thinking "lodge" as in fireplace, comfy couches, warm and snug. Brought my laptop so I could catch up with email or blog. Actual "lodge": messy, wet, like Ice Palace at Stadium Mall. Oh well!Here's Ryan in his snowboarding gear.
Some of our boys on the truck to go up to the mountain.
The snow was beautiful. The boys said that snowboarding was hard and because we were so late, they didn't really have much time to try it. Falling down a lot was a common complaint. We got them some food and after they ate, we had to get back on the bus for the trip back down the mountain.
Unfortunately, one of our boys broke his arm while learning to snowboard. Luckily for us, his mom was one of the chaperones so she went with him to the hospital, otherwise it would have been me or Darrell going with him. Poor guy, what a rotten way to end the trip.
But our troubles didn't end with getting down the mountain...
No comments:
Post a Comment