A Day in the Snow

We took the kids on their first Ski Trip on Saturday, traveling with a group from Mebane Presbyterian Church (MPC) up to Winterplace Ski Resort in Ghent, WV. I've been skiing many times before, and Jennifer has gone on a ski trip in the French Alps (albeit not to ski, but rather to speak French), but this was a first for the kids. We were all excited, I think.

We met at the church at 6 am, and all piled into various combinations of cars and vans for the three and a half hour drive to Ghent (with one pitstop on the way.) The forecast was for snow in Mebane, but we ducked out early enough to miss it. The drive was easy and very picturesque, especially the parts on I-77 in NC/VA and WV.

We arrived at Winterplace around 10, and spent the next 90 minutes or so filling out forms, standing in lines, and collecting our rented gear. Once we got all suited up, the kids and I headed out to the slopes, while Jennifer took the shuttle bus over to the tubing area. The kids and I were all over the place - up, down, falling, sliding uncontrollably, etc.

Needless to say, it was chaotic and tiring. We were dressed appropriately, however, so we had that going for us at least.

Making our way over to Ski School, we got into a class with about seven people and one instructor. We walked to the very gentle beginners slope, and practiced our very basic moves; skating, j-turns, standing up, etc.

This slope had a carpet lift, which was far less problematic than the old rope-tows from days of yore when I was falling on skis all day.

We completed our lesson, and made our way to the lodge for some lunch. It was crowded, of course, and made moreso by people who looked like they came to the slopes to play Yahtzee. What? Get up! Some of us would like to eat our lunch sitting down (in a chair) for the first time today. Anyway, we didn't have much time for lunch, for we had to get to the tubing hill for our 3-5pm tubing tickets.

The tubing hill was impressive. Probably ten lanes, each a few hundred meters long, and a double carpet lift to get you and your tube to the top. The line was long, but it moved well, so we were able to do about six runs each in two hours.

Also as a side benefit, we saw several people get hurt. The benefit was not that people got injured, but that a ride that has an injury factor at all means it's probably a lot of fun (for those who do not get hurt.) Like old-school playgrounds, before all the fun was surgically removed by lawyers and risk-averse school administrators. This ride was definitely a lot of fun.

The bulk of the ride was downhill, with various small bumps that you could possibly catch some air on, with the last part of the slope uphill, to bleed-off momentum. If you were very low mass, like someone say, Zoe's size, there was occasionally not enough momentum to crest the final hill, and the rider would become a walker to get to the end.

That only happened to Zoe once, as she is very aerodynamic.


We took the shuttle back to the main lodge, and the kids and I boarded up and headed out.


We went back to the basic slope to practice some more, until we were all out of energy. It was kind of a shame, as we were really starting to get the hang of it by the time our endurance faded.

The rest of the church group was staying until 10 pm, but we decided to bail, mainly for the kids sake. We took I-77 south to Oakland, WV where civilization seemed to reappear. We chose a Bob Evans for dinner, since none of us had ever been to one. After eating a hearty dinner, we went to the Super 8, and convinced the nice night auditor that she should allow us to check-in, even though the rest of our group, and our group leader, wouldn't be arriving for two hours. We brought Zoe in with us, and instructed her to look pathetic, so that it would sway the lady into breaking policy for us. It worked. We got our little room, got cleaned up, and easily fell asleep.

Sunday morning we met the rest of the group at the little breakfast area prepared for us,


ate some motel breakfast food, and had a brief devotional service, led by Jim Bailey, our group leader.


I convinced the group to pose for a picture.

This wasn't easy because it was about 12F outside, and despite being on a SKI TRIP, the people seemed to be pretty cold-intolerant.

We got in the car, broke from the group, and made the three-hour drive back home, where it had snowed about four inches in our absence. Zoe got this great picture of it.

So we were a little sore, a little tired, and resolved to try it again next year. The kids asked if we could do skiing next time. I think that can be arranged.

Random January Post

Nothing all that exciting going on here, just a couple of random things to assemble in order to keep the posts coming semi-regularly.

Saturday night was the Pioneer Club picnic at Mebane Presbyterian Church. It was a lot of fun, and despite being in a big dim room, I got at least one picture that I liked. It's Jennifer holding Anika Kreider, who is just about 0.417 years old (5 months).

Anika and Jennifer Hosted on Zooomr

On Sunday the kids took a stab at splitting firewood.

Teamwork Hosted on Zooomr

Clevage Hosted on Zooomr

Brute Force Hosted on Zooomr

Woodsplitter T Hosted on Zooomr

Zoe working hard Hosted on Zooomr

Our crappy Mebtel DSL router stopped functioning on Saturday morning, so essential web-surfing is being done via dial-up. How awful is that? We tried to get Mebtel to just do an equipment swap with the faulty router, since this thing (and its predecessors of the same make and model) have been nothing but trouble for years, but they want to do some troubleshooting with us when we're home, rather than just taking the bad unit (which I left on the porch for them) away, and leaving a functioning one.

I used to be an IT professional, so you can bet that I did whatever I could to make that thing work. Here's how I think the "troubleshooting" will go.

Mebtel: Is the unit plugged in?
Me: Yes.
Mebtel: Are you sure the outlet has power?
Me: Seeing as the lights are on and flashing, yes.
Mebtel: Try this. . . .
Me: OK, did that, still not working.
Mebtel: Alright, try this. . . .
Me: OK, did that, still not working.
Mebtel: Alright, try this. . .
Me: OK, did that, still not working.
Mebtel: Hold please

(seven minutes of silence)

Mebtel: Your router is faulty, we'll have to replace it.
Me: I think I told you that yesterday.
Mebtel: Will someone be home between 8 and 5 tomorrow so our technician can come inside and plug two wires into a new box for you. . . .
Me: No, but do you happen to know how much broadband from Time Warner Cable is going for these days. . .

Zoe's Solo

The children at Mebane Presbyterian Church put on their Christmas Musical on Sunday, and Zoe had a solo.

She received a lot of compliments, and we think she did an awesome job!

See for yourself.

Presbyterian Camping

Mebane Presbyterian Church has a long, proud history of family camping trips, so when we heard about this trip to Grandfather Mountain, in the Appalachians in western North Carolina, we jumped at the chance to go.

The Traveling Roths love camping. Well, at least Jennifer and I do. We got engaged while camping north of Dahlonega, Georgia in 1994. Our niece Kayley was born while we were camping at Dockery Lake (North Georgia, again) in 1996. Coincidentally, Tristan was born while Andy and Shelley were camping. So we have street cred.

Tristan and Zoe did not enjoy camping. They've only gone tent camping twice in their life. Once in 2002 at Kerr Lake, NC (on a weekend when we all were anxiously awaiting the arrival of our nephew, Alex) where the continuous rain caused us to cut our trip to only one day. The second time was on the beach in South Carolina where a summer thunderstorm that T&Z claim was a "hurricane" was so powerful, the two of them had to stay by themselves in the tent in the midst of it all, just to weigh it down.

So Friday afternoon, we made the drive to Seven Devils, NC, about 10 miles south of Boone, and a few miles north of Grandfather Mountain. It was a surprisingly quick trip. We found the group site, and several other families were there and in various stages of setup. We were quickly losing the light, so we huried to get our tent pitched, and remember how to light the lantern, and didn't have time for pictures.

There were about seven families there. We had an excellent campfire, and several camp stoves. The chili was ready, and so were a bunch of hot dogs, cocoa, and hot chocolate. The kids quickly found their friends, and went off to do kid stuff; build a fort, throw crabapples at a wasps nest, get wet, etc.

Jennifer and I have decent camping gear, but the kids didn't. We had rented sleeping bags for them at REI, but it wasn't until I went to pick them up that I found out how overpriced the rentals were. We cancelled that, and I bought two new bags at Wal-Mart for ~$40 each. A 20 degree "King Sized" (which here just means rectangular, and heavy) and a 0 degree mummy. Buying the new bags was still $30 cheaper then renting bags and thermarests for them.

We setup our AeroBed in the tent, and got everybody arranged in our 8' x 8' space. Jennifer, Zoe, and I laying across the width of the bed, and Tristan on the ridge rest and blankets at the bottom. After not too long, Jennifer decided that her claustrophobia was a little too intense, or in tents, so she moved to the truck. The kids were out in no time; Zoe in the King Sized bag, and Tristan in the mummy. My mummy bag, which is rated for 15 degrees, I think left me a little chilly, despite my layers. But it wasn't too bad, so we got a decent night's sleep.

When we woke up, there was frost everywhere. My thermometer said 30.9 degrees (Fahrenheit). The views were spectacular though.

A panoramic of the campsite, stitched-together from five smaller pictures.

Pano Grandfather Mountain Hosted on Zooomr

Jennifer with the mountains behind her.

Breakfast cooking.
After a delicious breakfast of bacon, sausage, eggs, and grits, we split off to do whatever we felt like doing for the day. We headed down to Linville Caverns. We didn't know anything about the place, but it was on the map we got from the campground, so it was worth a look.

It was a nice, smaller cave, and other than Jennifer and her aforementioned claustrophobia issues, it was a pretty cool tour.
From there, we tried to check out Linville Falls, another place we found on our complementary map, but there were way too many people with the same idea, so with no place to park, we had to move on.

On the way, we saw several Christmas tree farms. With North Carolina within 500 miles of half the US population, it's no surprise that the state is ranked second in the nation in number of trees produced, supplying over 19% of the real Christmas trees in the US. Goodness grows in North Carolina.
The next stop was the Wooly Worm Festival in Banner Elk. For those not in the know, a "Wooly Worm" is what I grew up calling a wooly-bear caterpillar. Tomato, tomato. There are races throughout the day, and tons of crafts and food vendors, entertainment, and some rides. Unfortunately, they charge an admission fee, but we were curious enough to pay it. While we were in the ticket queue, the couple in front of us asked Tristan if he'd like their Wooly Worms. After confirming that he wasn't going to just squish them, they handed him a coffee cup with two caterpillars in them.
Tristan's pretty good with pets, and he's been taking very good care of the caterpillars. But it was now 2:30, and we hadn't had lunch yet, so we made avail of the various vendors.

A "Philly" Steak and cheese
Followed by a "Meat Gyro"
(this was damn disappointing, by the way)

And for dessert, something a little different, beignet bites
The whole festival thing would've been more entertaining had we not just been to the State Fair a week earlier.

A fortuitous missed-turn later, we found ourselves at the top of Beech Mountain. There's actually a ski slope at the top, and some really choice real estate. It looks like a good place for the kids to learn to ski or snowboard.
Five o'clock was fast approaching, and we needed to purchase some food, for the dinner was BYOM. We got some ribeye steaks, mushrooms, and onions at the Food Dog, and made it back to the campground just in time for the golden hour and more photography.

Meal prep had begun in earnest, once again. Tim had arrived during the day, and had become the de facto fire master. The meal was Bring Your Own Meat, with the community accompaniments of green beans, hot bread, and jacket potatoes, so there was plenty of prep work.
After dinner, campfires are good for

1. heat
2. light
3. dessert

It was S'mores time, once again.

Here's Jennifer and others preparing marshmallows and dough boys

Here's Zoe getting S'more instruction from an older camper, Emma Troxler

And Zoe enjoying the fruits of her labor
The next morning, although not being nearly as cold, was a little rainy. That's okay, for all there was to do was eat and pack up.

Connor Waters and Zoe, the youngest boy and girl, respectively, on the trip were old pros by now.
And Zoe and I took a few minutes to get just a little more hickory-smoked before heading back to Mebane
It was a great trip, and we can't wait to go again. I think Tristan and Zoe's opinions on camping have been very favorably altered by this trip.

Consecration Sunday and Capital Campaigns

On Saturday, the Traveling Roths traveled accross the street. Mebane Presbyterian Church is having a capital campaign to raise about $900,000 to do a lot of repairs on the Baker Building, the church's social hall that used to be the sancturary before the present sanctuary was built in the mid 1950's, as well as some important stuff for the sancutary building, like new air conditioning.

Saturday night was a big celebration dinner on the eve of consecration sunday; the day that everyone hands in their pledge cards to say what they'll be giving to the church in the next year, and additionally to the capital campaign over the next three years.

I'm on the Building Committee, and we had set up displays with our architect's 3D renderings of how the changes would look.

The parishoners seemed pretty into it.

We had a catered dinner in the big hall. The dinner consisted of salad, green beans almandine, red-skinned potatoes, herb stuffed chicken, and roast beef au jus. For dessert there was chocolate mousse or strawberry cake. Like always, here's a picture of my dinner.If you think I'm going to make fun of the food, think again. It was very delicious, and it was very generous of whomever paid for this to provide us with it.

Whoops, I forgot to mention the dinner roll. Actually, that was the one part of the dinner that was not worth mentioning. Why can't we get bread right in the South?

For entertainment, a four piece brass group played, and they were awesome. They had some very cool arrangements, and their tone was impeccable.
There were some speeches. One by Tim Gabel, the head of the capital campaign committee
And another by the guy with the beard, a capital campaign consultant from the Presbyterian Church.

Meanwhile, the kids were being attended to in the other building where they watched movies, and had pizza and soda. When we got home, Tristan informed me that he had consumed five sodas, four slices of pizza, and several cookies. Fortunately, he has a metabolism like a jet engine, so there was no real consequence.

And as a sort of an update. . .

Aerial Pumpkins

Remember the melon tree post, where we found what we thought was a watermelon growing from our dogwood tree? It turns out it is a pumpkin. Here it is. I added the mesh bag a few weeks ago, and tied it off to the tree, so it's still growing. For comparison, there is a traditional pumpkin in the background that may be from the same plant.


Another aside, this is the first post in Blogger Beta. Do you see a difference? I migrated the blog over on Sunday night, and so far I don't have an opinion.