Dave & Roan's North West Trip.

Well it has been awhile since we have taken an extended trip together and we wanted to do some snow skiing. We decided to drive so we could more easily take the dog and so we could stop more places, so it ended up being a longer trip than otherwise. Since we were going to be up in the Colorado area we thought we would take in San Francisco and Lake Tahoe as well. We plan to be back Sunday March 17th

Heading out 6:30 AM - First stop San Antonio TX to check out their cool underground River Walk and have Mex Dinner w Jesse. Forgot to bring the camera with us. VERY Windy Here. Showed Jesse the Alamo.

Click any Small Picture For Full Size Version
Then just close that Windows should return to this Windows
The Alamo, Jesse thought we said Alpo

Then head on to Scottsdale/Phoenix. Drive all night across Texas- Wish You were here :)

Arrive noon Scottsdale/Phoenix Az - The Arabian Horse show. (24 Hour driving time from New Orleans)

See the instructions on the above picture.
Entrance to West World Arabian Horse Show in Scottsdale Az

Then luckily find a place (Red Roof Inn) that will put us up for the Night. We are beat. Boy, these cities sure make New Orleans look small time.

Back to the Arabian horse show to watch the working cow class. Then drove 2 hours to Sedona Az (recommended by Bill, my brother and Mary Marti) to see some red rock painted mountains 4PM - 6PM.

Arrive San Francisco 7AM scenic sunrise, drive across a big beautiful bridge. Another beautiful day, a little cool. Man some of these streets are REALLY Steep! At least they help keep Roan's mind off earthquakes for the moment. Walk around Fisherman's wharf check out the seals. Eat breakfast. Find a place to stay - Best Western at Fisherman's Wharf. Take Jesse for a walk and swim by the Golden Gate bridge at the bay. Get some needed sleep. Check out some other hotels (they all seem to have small rooms) and walk through Chinatown. Eat at some Fisherman's wharf stand. I find San Francisco very charming and interesting. I get the feeling that it is more a tourist attraction than a major city. Parking and driving here is difficult, but I think I would like living here. Lots of people hang out, jog, walk their dogs by the bay. Do to the limited real estate space probably expensive. Roan would not want to live here, but Jesse seems to like it fine.

Pacific Ocean / West San Francisco Surfers are out.
Picture from Beach Level and from Above Cliffs
The views are better than this narrow lens camera can show.

Ø Day Six - Tue Feb 26

View down one of the roads we hit early in San Fran and worried the heck out of Roan

Leaving San Fran via the Golden Gate Bridge

A stream we passed on the road to Lake Tahoe

Our Chauffeur

Lake Tahoe ahead looking through a smudged windshield.

Left San Francisco 8AM. Arrive Lake Tahoe 4:30PM and find a place to stay. Go to real estate agents this time to try a home/condo rather than hotel for a change, so Jesse will be more comfortable while we away most of the day. Eat at Caesars Buffet, and get some rest.

Awake in Lake Tahoe. Not the best snow conditions here as it has not snowed here in a while, but I think it will be good enough for us to ease into skiing. Ski Heavenly mountain 10am - 4. Not to cold, packed and icy snow. NOW I find out Roan can't ski! :( She hangs out on bunny training slope and takes some lessons. Than I manage to get her up on a green slope and pry her hands from the chair lift in time for her to get off. She crawls down that hill and catches a ride down to the training hill. So there won't be many pictures of us skiing, since we won't be skiing together much, maybe/hopefully after she gets some more lessons? This mountain has two sides California and Nevada. The California side has great views of the lake. Another beautiful sunny day.

Up 9am, Weather channel says a big Winter storm will be hitting Colorado tomorrow so will be staying here till Saturday, besides the weather is great here. Head to Squaw Valley Ski Resort - 1 hour scenic drive by edge of mountains over looking the lake and bay. As Roan puts it very scenic, but don't look. Get Roan a private ski lesson and I take an advanced lesson. Ski some green slopes with Roan, then do a little Ice Skating - a lot harder than it looks on TV. Roan says - The most beautiful place to be, Great slopes for beginners not to steep but a nice long run.

Emerald Bay and Lake Tahoe on route to Squaw Valley
- One hour winding ride to North West side of Lake Tahoe.

Back to condo to eat with Jesse. Roan goes to sleep early, so after I update this web site I try my luck at Harvey's casino. I have my typical amount of gambling luck. Had hoped the Harvey (My grand father's name on my mothers side) name would be more fruitful. Oh well I don't risk much.

Dog Day: Give Roan a break from Skiing and hang-out with the dog. Explore a few State Parks on Lake Tahoe. Take lots of Pictures. Jesse is the most photogenic. We were tempted to only take pictures of him on the trip. The scenery is much better than this camera can show as it does not have a wide angle lens. And another beautiful sunny day - so that's nine for nine.

	Eagle Fall's State Park. I tried to stay on the rock path when possible as I discover it is very hard to walk up hill on Ice/Snow wearing smooth bottom tennis shoes. View of Lake Tahoe in background.

	Roan and Jesse by a river stream.

	Me and Jesse by a snowman

	Self explanatory. Dave Bunyan

	Jesse loves playing in the snow.Such a Ham for the camera.

	Roan and her hound dog.

	Jesse posing in front of the lake. F.Y.I. The third deepest lake is the U.S. 98% pure they claim.

	View from some road side Vista point on the way to Squaw.

	Jesse's a little too nervous to look. ha Roan's fears seem to be rubbing off on him.

	Down by the lake. Beautiful view

	Jesse running by the lake.

	Jesse back in the water. A short time later he discovers water freezes, and he ain't to happy about the ice sickles that form on his legs and belly. We dry him off and heated him up in the car. He lives to travel on.

	RC & JC in front of the Lake on a windy day. The beach is partially white.

Then back to the condo to eat, nap, pack up and get ready for 2 days of driving through possibly hazardous road conditions.

Travel Days: Head-out 9:10AM toward Aspen, I-80 through Nevada. I typically prefer to drive at night, but in this case; unfamiliar mountain terrain and possible ice problems, we decided to drive during the daylight hours. Plan to stop for the night in Salt Lake City (9 hour drive). Then continue on to Aspen (another 8 hour drive) arrive there around 5PM Sunday afternoon, and find any place to spend the night, and Monday look for a decent place to stay awhile. Looks like we will skip skiing by Salt Lake and go to Aspen instead of Vail or Breckinridge, since Aspen has the best reviews as the most dog friendly ski village. We plan to stay in the Aspen area longer than we have stayed elsewhere. Fortunately the roads were cleared by the time we drove through. Standard procedures went well - drove in Aspen - found a place near W/E Main street, walked thru square around 10pm and it was so COLD! wondered if we would be staying long at these temperatures.:)

Aspen/Snowmass: Called all real estate agents and gave them a good laugh, requesting a place for us plus one well behaved dog. Check out of the Limelite hotel. I.E. dogs bears tigers are welcome, BUT don't you dare mention you smoke cigarettes. Not wanting to push our luck, we take the place and make Roan's day. Nice place, $200 with parking and a couch. Such a great price - the minimum worthwhile place we could have hoped to find. A bit better than your typical $50-$70 Best Western/Red Roof ... type place, and on the slope with a shared pool, Jacuzzi, kitchen etc. Turned out to be another sunny and unexpectedly warm day. Sure we had at least 3 layers on, but soon left off the gloves and coat, and decided to skip skiing today and go play with Jesse! So found a place to (cross country ski WITH a dog). We cross- country skied on a golf course. ha The dog had a great time and would have lapped us five times. I finished a distant 2nd and Roan was just happy to finish :). So here we are inserting the only noteworthy moments for the day;

	Well this is one reason I went on this trip - Sure looks like he is having fun!

	Jesse frolicking in the snow.

	Jesse's tripping me up (pretend to wipe out to cheer Roan up. Just 1 of 5 such stumbles for me, on these thin skis. Roan fell only once, shortly after I ran into her.:)

	Roan becoming the next champion cross country skier.

	Jesse waiting for us to catch up. "Come on... let's go guys!"

	Sometimes I think he is a bit out of place in New Orleans.

	Dave posing for a cross country ski shot.

	Does not seem like he's shivering to me. He likes to burrow thru the Snow. Think he prefers this climate to New Orleans.

	"What, what...I'm not doin' nothin"

	Might could sell this picture to a dog winter magazine for thier cover shot.

	He's tucked in and tuckered out. Such a baby.

I hear we stole the Sun from New Orleans having now had 3 more sunny clear days = 100%. One nice not to cold day time snow storm a while before we hit the road would be nice.

The first two cross country skiing places we called would not take dogs. VERY few lodging places would either! Other than offering free doggy trash container stations around these towns, We don't see what makes this place so dang dog friendly) BUT we are on the slope, with a dog, without any prior reservations, during their main season driving via San Fran/Tahoe, and are booked for 6 nights at least, with great weather. Clear star-y night. So we feel very fortunate Good night GB.

Sidebar: Another observation I have made (when traveling around Tahoe and Colorado) is that - you don't want to light-up or walk in a restaurant with a cig, Unless you like the feeling of incurrent stoning. Man they jump up from clear across the room and act like there about to catch cancer. The kind of thing you wouldn't notice unless you happen to still participate in these bad habits ;)

Sidebar: When traveling through temperatures below 20F don't try cleaning your windshield with your water wiper - unless you like instant sheets of ice obscuring your vision, in this case on mountain roads.

Aspen is made up of four mountains. The maps they provide skiers generally include all four so we will consider it all Aspen. We/I end up staying on Snowmass mountain as it is the most convenient (right on our ski in/out hotel so easiest to visit Roan and Jesse from. The two mountains on Aspen or more tailored for experts and the fourht is buttermilk which does not offer anything we/I cannot find on Snowmass.

Ski Day: Rent Skis etc, I skied Snowmass mountain and Roan joins me around 1PM and we ski together for about 2 hours. Another sunny beautiful day. Not too cold. Have some dinner and walk through the village.

Serious Ski Day: Up around 7AM. Dress up warm today. Watch the weather channel, looks like another sunny day, so I plan to do a lot of skiing. Roan finds a place to ride a horse and take Jesse. We both had a great day. I tore up the mountain till closing and was about the last one off the slopes. Skied my thighs till they were burning good. For those that might be familiar with Snowmass mountain, my favorite slope on this mountain is Sheer Bliss - Wide, not very crowded at all, many spread-out Aspen type trees to ski around. Many great slopes. Only about 5 wipe-outs today. One particularly nice one, feet over head skiing through a deep side with rocks and hit a buried rock. Well like water skiing I figure if your don't wipe out some your not learning or going for it. Great ski conditions; not to cold, don't really need the jacket, not icy, nicely groomed blue slopes, Skied about 6 hours. Did most every blue slope. I pass on the black slopes, since I'm in it for fun no a workout. Roan went horseback riding with Jesse. She says the horse was in snow up to his belly and that Jesse did a lot of deep snow jumping. Lots of deer to see on her 2.5 hour ride. Jesse got to chase some deer.

YE-HAH....rodeo cowgirl. Gotta catch that deer.
She looks a lot more relaxed here than on skis

Photo of one deer out of many that she saw.
Very hard to capture with a digital camera

They are predicting a big snow storm for later, but I manage to get in a full day of skiing. Very windy and cold at top of mountain, some snow falling. Hard to see where I'm skiing, but stick it out and probably the last tourist to ski off the mountain today. Back to the hotel to warm up. Take Jesse for a night walk on the mountain while the snow storm is getting closer to its prime. My Brother Bill and his wife Susan left for a week in Hawaii today. Folks are in Destin with Paulette. Lynne in Panama City for Spring Break. Seems a lot of us traveling at this moment. No pictures today.

Up around 8AM and notice everything outside is white. Lots of snow fell last night and still falling hard this morning. Wind is blowing hard and lots of snow falling which continues all day. Some people are skiing, but they won't catch us out there in these near blizzard conditions, besides t is a good day to take a break as Jesse kept me up/out late. I was actually hoping to see a good snow storm several days before we drove out so it was a nice day. Roan takes some pictures of Jesse in the snow storm although not snowing particularly hard when these pictures were taken. I take Jesse for a late night walk on the mountain during a bit of a snow storm. He pulls so young kids on their slope slide saucer. Later Jesse plays tug of pizza war with me some - One of his favorite games which he always manages to win at.

	Jesse in a snow fall.

	Snowy morning

	He likes to burrow through the snow with his snout.

	Windy and

	Deep too. "Swimming in the Tchefuncte is easier than this."

I do a full day of skiing. Roan walks Jesses and takes more "dog in the snow" pictures. Sunny but cold day. Meet up with Roan around noon and we do some skiing together. I get her up two green lifts high. We forgot to bring the camera. I ski a while longer after Roan has had her fill. 9PM and we notice that the Jacuzzi and pool are empty so we relax awhile. Another clear stare night.

	Jesse next morning after the storm.

	Jesse hopping down the bunny trail.

	Jesse with a snowy face.

	Me or Roan in the jacuzzi. Behind the steam. Then who took the pic? Jesse? Ok was just me in the tub/clouds, probably one of my better pictures!

	Roan in the hot tub/Jacuzzi. They don't allow dogs in the Jacuzzi so we had to settle for people pictures. I hope this is not to risqué, I had to egg her on

Another very pretty, warm, sunny day for skiing! Have to change hotels for a day I load up the car and let Roan do the leg work check into the nearby Wildwood Lodge as I cannot coax her into joining me on the slopes. I go decide to learn something new - snowboarding. So hang out on a lowly green slope with a group of people of the same mind. 10am - 3pm lots of tumbles, but learn the basics of snowboarding. Some cuts and turns go real well and then others I wipe out big time. I am number one or two in this class, learning to turn and surf the green slope half ass, but fall a lot, Minor sprains to my wrists and neck. I'm thinking I should stop early, but hang it out till 3:30. I have enough of a feel for this and will return to standard skiing tomorrow i.e. I ain't gonna (southern slang) become a pro at this, with only two days left and my wrists etc., probably won't hang in there that long - learning snowboarding. Get to the hotel and feeling pretty beat-up, but satisfied. No pictures today. Roan took the day off - silly thing to do on a vacation! Have a nice steak and salad dinner with Roan. Watch some in room popular current movies as no theatres near-by.

Ski day for me again: Another sunny beautiful not to cold day. Roan walks Jesse through some scenic trails and then through the village to gets lots of beautiful dog compliments. She notices or mentions that the guys here are much cuter than in New Orleans (other than me?) - Well at least she is finding some interests. I'm sore, but ski my brains out and do better than I have so far. Good narrow cuts and and no/zero wipe-outs today, yes I was being a bit slow, but being a bit tired/beat up can make one a bit more cautious. Did a black slope which I was told was easy and it was on a new part of the mountain, very secluded - I was the only one on this long run and the lift back up was equally empty. 1PM take a paraglide ride off top off right part of mountain. Lasts about 7 minutes very scenic, wish it had an engine/fan motor so it could be longer and more extreme. Anyway I had the camera today so I took pictures as best I could, having to point the camera toward myself. (As usual only included as small number here).

	Paraglide off Snowmass mountain. They won't let me drive this thing so I'm just along for the ride. I have to take the pictures myself so point/guess as best I can. Caught part of the sail and my mug on this shot take shortly after glide off.

	Another Paraglide shot with me and the driver. They make you sign a serious release form and then make you wear a small helmet.

	A view looking down from the paraglider - fancy parachute.

	Another view looking down on a black mogul slope called campground. Next to the one I did, but this one much more mogully, but pretty smooth from up here.

	Now a view looking down at the landing area.

	The only distant shot I could get of the flight - A shadow of us off the mountain.

	After the landing the diver gather the sail of the ski path.

	A view of the next paraglider for reference, as I could not get a shot of us from this vantage point.

	Some guy that looks a bit beat on the lift back up toward the top of Campground and Sam's Knob lift area. Looks like the cut and scab on his nose is healing well. His face and nose is still well wind burned.

	A narrow shot of part of the scenic view from the Campground/same lift. Wish I could get Roan were up here with me.

Then ski more, till the lifts close again. Then return the skis and join Roan. Move car back to new/prior hotel. Buy some pizza and milk. Feeling pretty beat/sore, hit the sauna then pool and hot tub. Eat in, Update this web site, TV, bed.

Last Day of snow skiing for a long time and another pretty day so I go for it naturally. Breakfast with Roan then I ski till the lifts close. A few wipe outs today and I do not ski as well as yesterday. I think my muscles are shot and I think I have had enough skiing for awhile. I got in seven full days of skiing here plus two in Lake Tahoe. Roan decided to take a scenic hike with Jesse and the camera so today's pictures are once again of Jesse frolicking in the snow - his last day in the snow.

	Jesse in the snow again.

	Ditto.

	Ditto.

	Ditto - Seems happy.

	Jesse frolicking in the snow.

We take it easy tonight and will be heading out early tomorrow as they are predicting snow later tomorrow, (and the following days do not look to be ideal here) and want to get out of the mountain roads before it hits.

Time to leave the Aspen area. Take a few tourist type pictures in Snowmass's village then hit the road for 8AM, hoping to miss the predicted snow storm scheduled for later in the afternoon. Drive out the way we came - West for 6hrs through mountains. Nice weather. Stop to take some pictures at a scenic rest area. -

	Jesse says his goodbyes to Snowmass.

	Another touristy type photo in Snowmass village.

	Some goofy pictures at a scenic rest-stop about four hours west on I-70. Very windy here.

	Yep looks like we managed to stay ahead of the predicted afternoon snow storm. ;)

	Think Again :( Feel like we are driving inside one of those Christmas type crystal snow scene balls. Roads are icing up and it is very windy.

	Arrive alive! Decided to take Roan to Las Vegas as she has never been here and thought she (and Jesse) might like to take in a few shows and sights. Besides I wanted to see it again as I heard it has grown a lot and has added a lot more entertainment since my last visit.

	Jesse and Roan in Vegas Wednesday night around 10PM. Lots of people walking about. Watch part of the Treasure Island Pirate show till a security guy says no dogs allowed - no surprise. We just taking a walk and will check it out later without the dog.

	Roan and Jesse in front of Caesars. We would have stayed in one of these huge magnificent hotels but none of the big names would take a dog. No big deal, we prefer to have Jesse with us.

then our luck ran out - ran into a snow storm and roads icing-up and very windy to boot. Seems we miss calculated as a late afternoon storm in Aspen equals an early afternoon storm when one drives five hours West into Utah. Last hour West on I-70 and the following hour south on I-15 was tense. Saw two cars that were blown or slid off the road. Weather cleared up after about two hours and the rest of the days driving was very windy, but went smoothly, other than almost running out of gas, (Destination till empty gauge got to zero - in the past it has run out of gas at about 11 miles left on the gauge) but luckily we made it to a Mobil station. Arrived in Vegas for 5PM and found a nice place (Hawthorn Suites) near the strip that would take a dog and had a suite available for a few nights. Take a walk on the strip with Roan and Jesse. Take a few pictures near the Treasure Island, Mirage and Caesar's Palace hotels.

Hang out in Vegas. Check out some of the big fancy hotels and their attractions. Have to leave Jesse in room so sorry no doggy pictures today. We started out with the Mirage's Dolphins/Sigfield and Roy tiger park. Then to Caesars do some 3D rides which was a bad idea as it made Roan feel poorly. Later we took in some shows - our favorite being Cirque Du Soleil - 'Mystere'

	Dolphin exhibit at the Mirage. These two flipped for us.

	Some Fountain on the strip.

	Roan gets romanced by Wayne Newton. Or is this guy waxed, in the wax museum?

	Roan steals the show at the Sigfield and Roy show. Or are we still in the wax museum?

	The gondola ride inside the Venetian Hotel/Casino.

	A picture of the free Pirate/British ship battle outside of Treasure Island.

In Vegas. As we won't have time to stop and see the Grand Canyon by car, we take a two hour helicopter tour of Lake Mead, Hoover Dam, part of the Grand Canyon's West Ridge, and the Vegas Strip. We sat in the back seat. Did it to Roan again - hope she forgives me. Later when her motion sickness abides we go see a few shows. Today's favorite being Cirque Du Soleil - 'O'.

	Helicopter ride. Picture of pilot and some passenger.

	View of a part of lake Mead (probably only 20% of it) from Helicopter through a window.

	View of Hoover Dam through window in helicopter.

	View of part of the Colorado river and Grand Canyon on the Arizona/Nevada border. These pictures do not do the actual view justice as my camera can only catch a narrow window per shot.

	Another shot of the Colorado and West edge of the Grand Canyon from the helicopter.

	View of part of the Las Vegas strip. Again through the window of the helicopter.

	Went to New York. Didn't know there was a roller coaster ride behind the statue of Liberty. Or this might be the New York, New York Hotel and Casino on the Vegas strip. Shot from ground level.

A lot of other sites, attractions, shows we would like to see, but no feasible in just two days. So back to hotel for 11PM to check on Jesse and get ready for tomorrow.

Time for the dreaded 28 hour drive home. Plan to get home Sunday night. Probably won't be adding any new pictures or noteworthy information. The drive actually took 38 hours with a 3.5 hour stop for a nap and various road construction slow downs. Arrived home at 2AM Monday morning. At least the weather was pretty good - hit one very short snow storm just east of Vegas and a very tiny bit of rain.

Misc Notes:
    Jesse was extremely well behaved in the car, provided one does not try and make him stay in the back as he prefers the passenger seat or to lay on the passengers lap. Often we can get a compromise having him lay over the console between us. The entire drive went well, no rain to speak of, (but two hours in a snow storm), had two traffic problems on the way home, caused by road construction and no tickets.

    Finding places to stay at the last moment with a dog was no big problem..

    Think we need a vacation after this trip.

Some of the major life issues we hope to learn from our travels include;
Can one stop in popular resort towns with a dog and without any reservations and find a place to stay? - Seems so, this year
Can we travel this far by auto without getting a ticket (well moving violation) got $50 parking ticket in San Fran.
They're not registered ticket traders with New Orleans I hope.
We did not get any moving violations and never was stopped.
Will DCI customers be understanding of my unusually long vacation? - Seems so,
Can I stay on my diet and travel with Roan - Who likes to eat regularly? - No

Stats:
    Mileage we put on my '84 Jeep GCL = 6,879 miles!
    Gas costs (just gas not tune ups etc) = $531
    Total Costs: Well more than it cost to go to the beach and less then Mr. Bill Gates makes in an average hour.

Sorry this page probably takes a long time to load using a modem connection. I'm using a modem too and only takes about a minute to load - AOL maybe much worse as is their norm for web access. I used only small thumbnail picture links on this page to help with the speed, but there are a lot of pictures and breaking this type of document into multiple pages just seems too anal.

(: If you enjoy this type of broadcasting please wire us money so we can continue the show :)
just kidding - I must say, cause some offered to wire money - i.e. got to love your parents.

A special thanks to;
Matt for looking after the house and cats (Indy & Dax),
Joe, Mom, Shelly, etc for the loan of the Winter ski clothes,
Maury for the "Canine Colorado" book,
Tina, Karen etc for caring after Snazzy
My customers for their understanding during my absence,
John Arbour and M for looking after our customers,
and Chris Simmons for helping Dixie Mill
and others that would prefer to remain anonymous.

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	Jesse seems ready to go home. He often would sit like this to have a look ahead a guess.