What's up! I'm Ricardo Lara. I make mortgage loans at a bank in Oklahoma City, and after the refinance craziness we had all last year I needed a vacation worse than anybody I know. So over Presidents' Day weekend four of us piled into my old Oklahoma State roommate's Jeep and drove all night to Breckenridge. This is the page about it. I've been told it's too long. I've been told a lot of things.

The pictures came back from the drugstore on a floppy disk along with the prints, so no scanning, they went straight onto the page. The date's in the corner. Click any little one to see it big.

FRI 2/12, 9:30 A.M. Made it. Eleven hours from OKC. Josh handing down his board.	FRI 2/12 First chair of the trip. Me and Gwen at arm's length. That's my glove.
SAT 2/13 The whole crew up top. Josh sat down, of course.	SAT 2/13 Josh, powder day. He says he meant to do that.
SAT 2/13 Gwen and Stef, chili in bread bowls at the base lodge.	SUN 2/14 Valentine's night. Pizza, cards, and a heart box of chocolates.
MON 2/15 Gwen's goggle tan. Also: the suit.	There are 17 more on the floppy. These are the ones everybody agreed I could put up.

Thursday 2/11. Left OKC at 5:45, straight from work, still in a tie. Josh drove most of the night with Gwen and me in charge of keeping him talking. Stefanie slept from the Texas line to the Colorado line and has no regrets. Gas station coffee at 2 a.m. that I can still taste. Came up into the mountains as the sun came up, which almost made it worth it.

Friday 2/12. Pulled into the condo about 9:30. It's an older two-bedroom with wood paneling and a stone fireplace, rented through a friend of Gwen's, and it was perfect. Nobody took a nap even though we all said we would. On the hill by 11. Mostly Peak 9, getting our legs back. Gwen and I rode up together on the first run and I took the arm's-length picture, which is the only kind of picture of two people on a chairlift there is.

Saturday 2/13. Powder day. It snowed all night and there was about a foot of fresh on Peak 8 in the morning. Josh found every bit of it, mostly with his face. Some guy from Texas took our picture up top. Lunch at the base lodge was chili in a bread bowl, which is the best food that exists when you are cold, and then we went back up until they closed the lifts.

Sunday 2/14. Valentine's Day. Great skiing until about 3. Then we found out that every restaurant in Breckenridge had been booked since about November. So: pizza from down the road, a deck of cards, a heart-shaped box of chocolates Stefanie had hidden in her bag, and some basketball game on TV with the sound off. We played hearts, obviously. It turned out to be the best night of the trip, and Gwen says it counts as a real Valentine's Day, so I'm good.

Monday 2/15. Presidents' Day, and the last day. Blue sky, no wind, the Tenmile Range lit up like a postcard. We skied until the lifts stopped. Gwen had skipped the sunscreen all weekend, and you can see how that went.

Tuesday 2/16. Drove home. Eleven hours again, but everybody was awake this time, so it felt longer. At my desk Wednesday at 8 with a sunburned nose and a stack of loan files.

• Wipeout of the Weekend: Josh, Saturday, see the picture. Plus about fourteen more we didn't get on film.
• Best Dressed, 1991 Division: Gwen. Nobody else entered.
• Iron Man Driver: Josh, nine of the eleven hours out.
• Best Skier: Stefanie. Not close.
• Most Improved: Me, thanks to the new skis. I can carve now. Ask anybody. Actually, don't ask Josh.

1. Shaped skis are for real. I haven't turned like this since high school, and I didn't turn like this in high school either.
2. The town of Breckenridge is up around 9,600 feet. Drink a lot of water the first day or the altitude will let you know about it.
3. Wear sunscreen. See Monday.
4. Book your Valentine's dinner in November. Or don't, and play cards. Your call.
5. Skiers and snowboarders can share a condo for five days and still be friends. We weren't sure.

Josh and Stefanie are getting married October 16 and the rest of us are in the wedding, so this was kind of the last road trip before somebody got responsible. We've already got the condo again for Presidents' Day 2000. That's February 21. Not that I'm counting.

Ski Breck? Board it? Got a better bread bowl? [email protected]


visitors since March 7, 1999

Last updated September 6, 1999. Labor Day. The lifts aren't open yet. I checked.