Friday when we arrived in Breckenridge I was a bit puzzled that we were being sent to a Ski Rental shop to check-in. I had talked to one of the local lodging dudes, explained that I'm interested in a king bed, somewhere walking distance to the place to be at night, and at least walking distance to the bus up the hill. It usually works great, because when you don't know anything about the place and you tell the people who do what you want, it gets done.

Things are more expensive in Breck, and I understand this, so ended up paying $169 for a studio with a Murphy (the one that goes in the wall) bed and ski-in/ski-out. I should have taken pictures. The TV was one of those 13" white/VCR combo's. It had "cable", but NBC and FOX came in snowy which made watching football a bit disappointing. The bedding was insulting. The fitted sheet didn't fit, and one of us ended up lying on mattress by the morning. The sheets and blanket were somewhere between hospital and prison quality. Everything else was meh, but whatever, to be expected and no big deal really. But how the hell can you charge me that much a night and not spend $1k on bedding that fits and a small flat screen to hang on the wall? It looked like no money had been put into the place in twenty years. It was the 4 O'clock Lodge, and I booked it through Breckenridge Lodging. Don't stay there or book through them.

We had a good time that night. Dinner at some cute Italian place, the food was cheap, and the service was excellent. People in Colorado are just plain more stoked. From there we walked to Cecile's, and we found the first un-stoked guy in Colorado tending the bar. We didn't even order a beer cause he was such an ass. Went upstairs to the Liquid Lounge, we were the first people in the place, and Matt the bartender was awesome so we hung out. Eventually the place turned into a club, was packed, and we were hammed. I've never done that before. Start a bar. Kinda wish we closed the joint, but we wanted to ski the next day.

On these long road trips you forget what day it is. It's one of my favorite parts. If it weren't for online tournaments on Wednesday or Sunday, then I'd never have any idea what day it was. I didn't remember that tomorrow was Saturday until the next day. Skiing at Breck on a Saturday when the weather is good is asking for a headache. I knew this, but when you're leaving Crested Butte today, that means you ski Breck tomorrow.

Most of the adult populations of Denver and Colorado Springs were on the hill. Lift lines were 10 min minimum. Even at the T-Bar. I quit at lunchtime, just too frustrated with the crowds. I chilled out that afternoon, and then headed up to Keystone for some night skiing. Cool part about Breck passes is that they work everywhere (Keystone, Arapahoe Basin, and sometimes Vail and Beaver Creek).

I hadn't been night skiing since high school, and it was great. Nobody out there, good snow, and Keystone had enough of the mountain lit to be awesome. I really dug the village, hanging out in The New Moon Cafe, where I listened to a chick with a guitar and had dinner. Pretty much every single bar and restaurant had ski racks in front of them, and they were all full. There were skis and snowboards scattered about everywhere, and the bars were packed with people still in their gear. Best apres ski scene I've ever seen.

Sunday I played online, and FML. It wasn't that bad, but I had a ton of stacks in awesome spots and only managed a 7th in the UB 100r. I think I lost a few bucks. Walked downtown after, hung out at Eric's downstairs, fed a bunch of money into the Guitar Hero arcade game while drinking Breckenridge Brewery's Lucky U IPA.

Today's Monday. We drove up to Steamboat Springs on recommendation from Jamesifer, checked into the Inn at Steamboat, and have an AWESOME room for $100 a night. I went from the worst value room I've ever stayed in to probably the best value. It's beautiful. We're gonna stay here til Friday, and now since it's 3:45 and people are getting off the mountain, it's time to walk to the village. Perhaps some local idiot will do something funny.

Peace and good luck,

Devo