Were on a ski vacation

...so, who cares?

Actually, we do...we being the Orlando Ski Club members,

guests, children and various and sundry etceteras who are

experiencing this. It's about 50-100, counting bartenders

and lift operators who are aware of us.

Not many, so you say.

You're right. But you must remember, for 30 years or so I

worked at a newspaper where up to 95 percent of the stuff

printed on any given day was of no interest to ANYBODY.

At least we are likely to look at pictures of ourselves, so this is

intended to be a little journal of how things are going.

If you don't like it, go look at the Bridge Column. 

This is out the plane window on arrival day. Crested Butte is down there

somewhere. The snow you can see there was a foreshadowing of what the week

would be like. It turns out that there wasn't nearly as much snow below us

as there was above us, yet to fall.

 

Alexis knew the score...as soon as you hit the snow,

PLAY PERIOD has officially begun. It's sort of the same

philosophy Cheri seemed to have (next picture).

 

How many snowboarders does it take to sign a hotel register?

How many have you got?

The knuckle-draggers participate in the last thinking activity

they will be faced with until they have to figure out whose name is on

which airline ticket.

 

The digs. It's good to sleep with the travel agent when it comes time to getting your condo.

The view out of our 18-foot-window was Mount Crested Butte its ownself. Not a bad view at all,

and the interior of the condo wasn't hard to look at, either.

In fact, had there not been mirrors, everything I saw would have been easy on the eyes.

 

Now we move on to our more cerebral athletes -- those who have

advanced sufficiently along the evolutionary scale to use two feet independently.

John, Leslie and Cheryl are ready to rock first thing in the morning of

the first day.

 

So is the oddly spelled Hanque and the fabulous trip leader, who

wisely rented boots too small and skis too big. (What was that

insult about snowboarders a few minutes ago? At least they don't have

to pour the blood out of their boots at the end of the day.)

 

 

 

Day 2 reminded me of a line from the "Gilligan's Island" theme song....

"the weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed...."

It started snowing and the wind started blowing and we had some little

frozen tornados on the side of the hill.

 

It's a good year for skiing when you have to walk through a tunnel to get into your

favorite restaurant.

 

This is not trick photography...the only trick was in getting through the stuff when you spend most of your

life in 88-degree St. Augustine grass. This was a GREEN run that had been groomed earlier.

 

By the time we broke for lunch on Day 2, we were ready for a break....and,

if the plowing through the snow has worn you out, you can stop for

a nicely chilled beverage at the local bar (photo below).

 

 

 

Then it is right back onto the lift and right back up the hill. Let's revisit the

idea of "cerebral" athletes. When you think it is a good idea to ride a

metal chair flying through 40-mph winds on a 7-degree day, you may

be a quart low on thinking fluid. When you think it is a good idea to take

your gloves off to take a picture on that chair, you are, quite

simply and inarguably, a moron.

 

It makes you think back fondly to that bar you just left.

 

But once back on your feet, all is once again right with the world....which is at this

time 90 inches below the snow.

MORE LATER...time to go take the daily beating.

 

INTERLUDE....sorry, if anybody was actually looking at this site and wondered what

happened to the narrative, but stuff happens....

In this case about 3-5 feet of stuff and our Internet connection went out

and then I completely lost my freakin' mind and rented a snowboard

and took a lesson and the next thing you know I was

riding across Monarch Pass with Mike Ludden in a snowstorm

after leaving 50 other passengers stranded in the Gunnison

airport, which, unbelievably, has a nice bar but it doesn't serve

ALCOHOL....so, anyhow, here are some pictures of me snowboarding.

I will try to explain it all later...or will just delete what's here.

 

 

New York starts back up here.

I didn't even

want this picture of the wreath but Laurie liked it. I think she is planning on buying it for our front door.

If the Empire State Building doesn't show up in the background, this is not going to look like a very well-cropped picture. We have a story to go with it....

New Yorkers are only truly unfriendly to the people who come to New York acting like they belong there...arrogant, effete theater critics. prissy TV critics,

the artsy crowd. They have always been extremely friendly to me and Laurie because we are, at heart, a couple of Gomers. While having a beer at a

tavern down the street from the Empire State Building, we struck up a conversation with a guy about the city ...and how we are proud to be tourists.

The bartender set us up a round "for the tourists!" and the guy we were talking to gave us his business card, with a picture of the Empire State Building

on it. I still don't know for sure what he does there, but he gave us the run of the place.

There's poetry in the juxtaposition of the wisdom of the old and the natural attitude of the young...that is our niece, Princess Wonderful and her pal, Gussy the Hussy.

Rockefeller Center and the Big Tree....this is sort of like Jerusalem or Mecca for the Christmas Pilgrim....you won't see Woody Allen here,

which is another excellent reason to be here. Nothing but silly fun and a lot of tradition.

 

Just add snow and it feels like Christmas. I even grabbed a tambourine one time and did a couple of numbers with the Salvation Army lady. She liked tourists, too.

I know this may come as a shock to some of you old travel veterans, but WE WEREN'T THE ONLY ONES THERE AT CHRISTMAS. There was lots of company.

Kitty, kiddy and kodgers....the redhead without the fur coat is our niece. This is the only known photo of

her taken since she became a sophomore in college in which she is not gazing either wistfully or furtively.

And finally, home again. This picture is natural and unposed. Laurie often dresses up on non-workdays

and sits for hours at a time on the edge of a chair, gazing wistfully at the pile of stuff she bought. It

is sort of a Christmas tradition.

 

plus you see the strangest people on trips

 

CRESTED BUTTE 

Jan. 26-Feb. 2, 2008

 

You're looking at LEADERSHIP...there is no doubt about that....for two decades Jake Vest

has been in the forefront of ski trippage, providing the sort of quality experience

that others who do ski vacations can only dream about....he is a guarantee...that leaves only one real question about Crested Butte....

ARE YOU GOOD ENOUGH

TO BE A FOLLOWER?

This is not just a ski trip, it's a tradition. From the Born to Shuss pioneers of That's Jake One, a small,

but intrepid band of bartenders who blazed the dyslexic trails of Winter Park, converting runs such as

Cheshire Cat into Chester's Kitty and generally referring to all downhill terrain as Mount Vertical, to the

Dream Girls and Tater Chicks of last year's Diamonds Are Four Ever at Snowmass, this voyage

has never been just about skiing....it's about doing stuff people will look back at and say

"Can you believe we did that?"

ARE YOU OUR KIND OF PEOPLE?

IF YOU THINK YOU ARE AND YOU THINK YOU CAN HACK IT,

I WILL GIVE YOU A

FREE SKI TRIP

ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS BUY A T-SHIRT FOR $1,045 OR SO.

Or, you can buy the trip and get the free shirt...I am very flexible

about this. Before you denigrate (that means pooh-pooh) this, do me a

favor...no, do yourself a favor, and check around and see how

many other ski trips will provide you with a shirt

WITH YOUR NAME ON IT?   

(DISCLAIMER AND WARNING LABEL: Be advised that your name will also be on a shirt that may very well be the only visible garment other than ski boots

being worn by a condo full of hotsy-totsy chicks parading around near-nekkid on a ski slope. Thank goodness "you can't get drunk on Pinot Grigio"

or there is no telling what we could have happened.)

So, what's it gonna be, boys and girls,

do you want to be part of a regular old trip

with boring old people like Lana Kendall of

the Gators (even though she is an Auburn fan) who

will just go on and on about what a dandy majorette

she was and how George Wallace once had the

hots for her...or you could go with Diane Peavy of

Pensacola and watch her fry lard all week and bring

a bunch of kinfolk along who will hang wash tubs all over

the condo and get tobacco juice, or worse yet, Tobacco Jo.

on your jigsaw puzzle. Or you could go on a regular old

trip with Hank Rhawn of Sarasota...although, to be honest,

for a man the age of Hank, regularity would be a big

selling point if he could promise it. Claire Quenzler of

Space Coast, Sal of Miami...there are a lot of good people

out there doing a good trip, but do you just want to

be part of a trip or

DO YOU WANT TO BE PART OF A LEGEND?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

QUEBEC CITY

Feb. 10-16, 2008...

 

 

 

WHERE TO LOOK, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER OR NOT

YOU CAME HERE INTENDING TO FIND ANYTHING

Lake County Page

What I learned in fourth-grade, second time around.............Click on Lake County page at left

Portraits in creativity....the finalists and winners of the illustrated essay contest....Click on Lake

Assorted other various essays collected for no particular reason.........................Click on Lake 

Cartoons Page

                

                                  Assorted classic That's Jake Cartoons..................................click on Cartoons at left

                                  New That's Jake Cartoons as have appeared in Lake Magazine.....click on Cartoons

                                  New Jake in Lake Columns, as have appeared in Lake Magazine..click on Cartoons

           

 

           

            

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 Index:

                                  The all new That's Jake Cartoons and column, including my very own

                                   unsolicited and unpaid for take on Don Imus..........click on Cartoons

                                  Big Sky Stuff............................................. click on Lake County 

                                  Jake's Portfolio and resume...........................click on That's the Web

But for now,

 

 

 

 

 

         

 

 

                                             

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

          Consider this my first blog....whatever that is...or if you happen to be of a certain age, a year or two beyond acne and snotwiping, consider it a diary. Whichever, this is what I have been up to.

 

Life is as easy as ABC...or as hard... 

If life is a learning experience, it is also a forgetting what you learned experience. I have been going to fourth-grade classes to teach cartooning and along the way have been getting a secondary shot of education.

         First off, nothing is easy at the start, so you have to stick with it to get better. That seems obvious after you know how to do it, but until you pick up some expertise you have no way of knowing whether you will ever get better or not. That's where these kids are now.

        This possibly not insightful insight came to me when I was trying to draw a picture on the computer and couldn't get it to come out right, so I threw up my hands in frustration (figuratively...not literally because as I recall there was a beer in one of those hands) and said "this electronic drawing pad is useless because I CAN'T do it!) Then I had the attack of common sense that made me ask myself "what's the difference between you and the computer pad and the fourth-graders with pencil and paper?"

         Maybe that is at the heart of the education problem. We keep telling kids to try, but we keep showing them how to quit.

         If it is going to get better, it has to start somewhere, so, as a small gesture of solidarity with the little folks at Minneola Elementary, Pine Ridge and Treadway, I am now committed to learning to draw with this computer pad. The cartoon above was done completely on computer in the Salt Lake City Airport.

         It took too long and it might not look like much, but, I've been telling a bunch of kids that if they keep trying, they'll get better. If I'm not lying, so will I.

POLITICS AND WAR....

On the AOL home page there is a news item about protests on the anniversary of the start of the war and at a restaurant Wednesday night I had to endure a CNN special titled "Another Vietnam" ...lots of interviews with military experts such as Rosie O'Donnell and that twerpy little toot who was in Titanic. It reminded me that the newsroom I worked in was populated by athletes who were miraculously 4-F and people the same age as me who were somehow overlooked by the draft or who speak Canadian fluently. Those are your opinion shapers, out there interviewing each other.

It was a different story in Dave Clark's restaurant, where I spoke with an E-5 Buck Sergeant with two Combat Action Badges and the vivid memory of one truck blowing up under him.

"Should we pull out," I asked. "What are you, INSANE...or a CNN reporter?" he replied. "What we need is more people."

I suggested multinational responsibility and he snorted. "No...more Americans. We'll get it done."

This young fellow, in his 20s, wondered why the TV stations never show the schools we're building or the power system being put in, or why the local papers don't run a list of who's won medals and commendations...."isn't that as important as the bowling scores?" he added.

"I've never seen video of the kids running up to us and grabbing us by leg and yelling "thank you"...but it happens every time we go out....the camera crews aren't interested."

This kid said he would just as soon skip the Iran war, if there is one. "That gomer is crazy, but he don't want to mess with us after seeing what we did in 11 days in Iraq...he knows if an Army stands up to us it won't be standing long."

We talked for a while about guns and food and the difference between how it was when I came home from Korea during the previous protest era and they told us not to wear our uniforms because people might spit on us and stuff. He said thank God they aren't like that...yet. He felt like he was still getting treated like a hero by everybody but CNN and a few senators and Rosie O'Donnell. He told us about how food would fly toward the screen if they had her on TV in the mess hall....but you won't ever see that on the news either.

I offered to buy him a beer and he said "I wish....can't drink while I'm in uniform. All it would take would be one of us getting snooted and popping one of those Hollywood clowns and they'd be hollering that we're all murderers. Rosie would like that."

So, I offered to buy an extra beer and leave it within arm's length. To my surprise, he declined this, too. "I can't make my Army look bad...there's enough people out there already trying to do that."

Then he grabbed up all his stuff and we shook hands and he headed out and a few minutes later the server brought me another beer I hadn't ordered. "That soldier guy you were talking to bought it," she said. "He said to tell you 'thanks for listening' and 'welcome home.'"

From where I sit, he's making his Army look pretty damn good. Now if we could only bring a few people to think of it as our army.

 

 

 

 

 

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