Ski Trip 2005

I went skiing at Timberline in West Virginia with my Youth Group. It took about five hours to get there. Mr. Adams drove the van and Mr. Ritchie sat in the passenger seat in the very front. I sat near the front of the church's fifteen passenger van with Mr. Ritchie's son Andrew who is nine. The seat behind me held Michael and Kiern;behind them sat Jane and Lindsay and Elder Freeman; behind them sat Christian and Eddie. As you can see it was pretty crowded in there! John Adams (No relation to Mr. Adams) drove his car with Eric,Nick and Freeman. In the Church van Christian and Eddie farted and burped most of the time; Jane,Lindsay and Elder Freeman watched Gilmore Girls on Jane's Portable DVD player; Michael and Kiern was asleep most of the time and Andrew played a little game and I read a book for a little while and maybe once in a while dozed off. After a few hours we stopped at McDonald's. I really don't like McDonald's but the other choice was Taco Bell and I don't like that any better so I picked McDonald's. I had chicken selects, French fries and Sprite. The chicken they have at McDonald's is way better now that they have changed it to white meat. Anyway after about a half an hour later all of us got back in the van or in John Adams car. It only took a hour I think for my ears to start popping from going up the mountain. The road up the moutains were very sharp and winding. It seemed to take forever to get there because toward the end of the trip Eddie and Christian started letting any farts they had left ripp. It was so nasty; I kept having to open the window of the van to air it out. After about an hour of that we finally got to Timberline.



When we first got there John Adams had to check us in and find were our bunks were. Right when we got there I headed for the Ladies Restroom. When I came out of the restroom Christian was saying that he and Eddie saw a security guy fling some drunkard out the door. Later on I found out that there was a brawl in the bar upstairs involving three drunk guys. After I heard that John Adams gathered us all together in the Ski Rental place and told us the rules etc... By then it was sort of dark when we all walked out we saw the figure of the man that was thrown out by the Security Guy standing over a bucket. I think that drunkard ended up in the hospital. All of us got in the church van or John Adams car and found where out bunk was. The house we were in was called the Nordic Haus in the bunk number 7. The boys bunk was the next door down (number 8). Well when we got in our bunk the people who got there before us put their suitcases on our beds. So we gently moved their suitcases to the side. There was a top bed, middle bed and bottom bed. I slept in the very bottom bed with my blue and yellow sleeping bag,cheetah pillow,blue traveling pillow and my white and red stuffed doggy. When everyone was in their beds the boys in the other bunk banged on the wall and yelled something where three sets of beds were. Well the girls banged back and yelled something back. This lasted for about a half hour finally they stopped and resulted in whispering and giggling pretty loudly. So the some of the girls in my group were like "Be quite we are trying to sleep" I was like "Deal with it". The counselor explanation for them being so rowdy was that they were cooped up in a van for ten hours and needed to vent. I was thinking in my head " Big whoop we were in the church van for half of that time with boys farting left and right but we aren't banging on walls are we?". Anyway I finally got to sleep at 1;00 in the morning ish.



The next morning I woke up to the rustle of girls talking and getting dressed. I of course am a very modest person so I got dressed in my sleeping bag because I hate dressing in front of people I do not know. Well you are supposed to have a buddy when you go to the lodge to eat or go skiing but none of the people wanted to eat breakfast so I waited. I waited a little too long because I forgot my Ski lesson was at 8:00 so John Adams carried my skis and I carried my poles and ski boots. I missed breakfast at the lodge and I wasn't entirely happy about that. I got to my ski lesson right on time. The instructors showed us how to stop and turn then we all went down the main hill. As I went down the hill the instructor was supposed to be behind me but he was busy talking to a lady from Maryland and didn't notice me yell "wait up!" so I didn't know how to stop or slow down very well so my first instinct was to fall. I fell the correct way but I couldn't get back up. I saw Kiern over on the deck so I yelled to him "Kiern come get your butt over here and help me!". He came over and helped me up and said you need to learn how to get up your self. I saw Elder Freeman in the Cafeteria drinking hot chocolate I waved and basically talked to her by reading her lips. Then after that very discouraging incident I went back to my bunk were I found Mr. Ritchie. I told him what happened that morning then offered to help get better at skiing. So Mr. Ritchie and I went down the main slope and were about to get on the little ramp to get on the ski lift to the Bunnie Slope. Well I started skiing backward and my first instinct was to fall and I did. Mr. Ritchie helped me up and we tried again. This happened about five times. I think the fourth time I fell and couldn't get up was when Christian and Kiern came by and was like " You need to learn how to get up by your self". Well that was about the last straw for me I said "SHUT UP" and let a few tears fall down my face. Then I got up and tried again. Finally we were in line. I did very well in getting on the ski lift but getting off was a problem. I got off went to fast my instinct went off and I fell. (Are you starting to see the pattern in the day?) A guy from the ski lift came and helped me up and I got up. So here I am going down the Bunnie slope and of course falling most of the time. Anyway I finished the Bunnie Slope and went in to get warmed up. Then I took my skis and poles up to the bunk. There I got out of my gloves coat etc... I think for a while a read a book Everyone went in the church van and we went to GiGi's Pizza down the road On the way there I learned that Michael was Deaf until he was six and he knows sign language The pizza was very good.. Then I went back to the Bunk with my Skis again I read some more. Then came Dinner I had Pork Roast,French fries,mashed potatoes,glass of water and pudding. The Pork roast did not taste good at all! After that I went back to the bunk again. While I was reading the boys where doing the banging number like they did the night before. John Adams came in and talked strongly to the counselor in the girls bunk on my side. When he started talking I had my PJ's on so I quickly ran out side and grabbed my bathrobe. Well I got into the hall way outside and outside leaning on the banister was two girls and two boys about my age staring at me. I said "Don't ask" but then I said "If you really want to know two counselor in there are talking kind of loudly about the banging on the walls thing last night". After a while I quickly went in and took off my bathrobe and threw on my coat. Then I as like "Is this better?". Anyway after a while John Adams left the girls Bunk and went in his. When there is a fight in between two people and I am on the opposing party I feel like I am one to blame although I am not so I ran inside without anyone seeing my face and got my books and ran back out side. I tried to read outside but it was wicked cold so I tried to see if I could read on The boys side of the bunk but no one was there so I ended up on the other side of my bunk talking to a lady. After a while of talking I went in my lowest bunk and read my book facing the wall so no one could see my face. After that little problem Lindsay and Jane came back to the Bunk Lindsay was crying and I asked her what happened and she said "SHUT UP ANNIE". (Are you seeing the other thing that keeps happening during this trip?) Anyway I went out of the bunk and came back. Lindsay was in my bunk and I didn't know it and sat on her (her butt hurt and that is why she cried when I sat on her by accident). She cried and then said to Jane "Lets go to the First Aid. So they did. They called the Ambulance and she went to the hospital in Maryland forty-five minutes away. Well she was there at the hospital for about three hours. The doctors predertermined that her butt bone was bruised really bad then she came back to the bunk while everyone was asleep




I found out that the guys who were banging on the wall the night before pulled some pranks on their friends. I got dressed and went to eat breakfast where I ate bacon,biscuit,soup and a glass of water. Then I went skiing with Mr. Adams and Elder Freeman. I fell only once going down it that time. I was so happy. Then I went back to the Bunk with my skis where all of the girls from our church went in the boys bunk and talked to John Adams and the boys from our church. That is where I got my head bumped. I went to jump on top of John Adams bed because there was no where else to sit and "BANG" went my head went when I bumped it on top of the bed. It hurt soo bad. So now I have a bruise on my head. Michael also said that he got wiipped out by a snowboarder (He was one too). The same girl who's butt got bruised was like "You might want to go to First Aid you might have a concussion". Michael was like "it isn't that bad I will live". Christian had this bright idea that he should freeze the other Bunk mates on the other sides boxers. Well it was their last pair of boxers and they got all angry. I was thinking in my head when I heard that was " You know you can wear the same pair of underwear twice and who really only brings four pairs of underwear to a four day thing you might want to bring some extra ones just in case?" Anyway after that same-old-same-old same thing as the day before The only interesting thing that happened was that it snowed real snow over night and there was a total of 9 ambulances in the parking lot of Timberline because the Salamander Slope got hot and then cooled down so it turned to ice. I heard that they had two people in each ambulance . I heard that 2 guys broke there necks and one guy was paralyzed from the waist down. The Salamander is called a "easy level" but the way people kept getting hurt on it I thinks it might need to be a couple levels up.


Monday was the day we left to go home. My stuff was all packed and the first in the trailer hooked to the back of the van. We got on the road it was really slick from the snow so we had to go pretty slow in some places I learned something else that Michael likes poetry. He wanted to know why Lindsay was so mean to him so he wrote a poem then he would give it to her then she would read it and write one back. I would analyze what the poem ment. By the end of this little game I found out my analyzed was wrong (But I am not sure or not because I didn't see the last poem Lindsay wrote because Michael wouldn't show it to us) and when I wrote a poem about how mean the people in my youth group are to me the other people thought I ment I likes Kiern but I knew they were kidding. Anyway after a hour or so we went to eat for Lunch/Dinner most of us went to Subway a few others went to McDonald's. I got the Chicken Bacon Sandwitch meal. It was really good. The all of us either went in the Church Van or John Adams car. Then we were off again. Everyone fell asleep except me and Andrew. I was awake the whole time. Jane and everyone else started a game called what" I like about you". You would say what characteristics you like about that certain person. Finally we got to the church. Mr. Adams did the annual sharp turn around the parking lot. It was fun. I really enjoyed the ski trip except for the farting part of it.