Snow Skiing at Sugar Mountain

For Christmas this year, Kevin and I decided to give each other a trip. Since it was time for Kevin to clean out the chicken houses, it was a slower work time for him. Before Christmas we decided to go to Sugar Mountain in North Carolina to snow ski. I took the day off of school on Friday, (the first day of school I had missed yet) and as soon as I got home on Thursday we headed to the mountains.

Thursday, January 21st: It was a 5 hour drive. We didn't get there until 10:00 that night. On our way, we did get lost in Charlotte and had about a 20 minute detour. But we soon got back on the right track. And just for the record, I was reading the directions correctly, the driver got lost and went his own way, but then did admit that he was the one that got us lost. Then, Kevin kept saying he wanted to eat at Arby's for dinner. I saw an exit that had Arby's and was like there, over there, so he cut across 3 lanes of traffic and cut off this tractor trailer, to pull into....nope, not Arby's, I was one exit too soon, but a weigh station. It was pretty funny. Then, we found the right exit and we went in to order. Kevin asked the guy where we were (meaning what town were we in) and the guy said, Arby's. We have laughed about that all weekend. We were staying in Banner Elk, NC. When we got to Boone, NC it was completely iced over. The roads, trees, everything was ice. It was very pretty, but also dangerous driving. We had to drive up the side of a mountain with it raining, icy, and foggy, it scared both Kevin and I. We were so happy to finally get to our hotel. We both learned a lesson: If you have never been somewhere before, leave so you will arrive there during daylight.

Friday, January 22nd: We got up about 9:00 and headed to the ski slopes at Sugar Mountain, which was about a 2 mile drive down the road, at about 10:00. We decided to watch a few people at first before getting all of our gear. It was a misty day, it was rain, sleet, and snow all mixed in one coming down. It was very foggy on the mountain. We paid for a full day of skiing. It took us about an hour to get all of our gear and everything together before we could get to the slopes. We started at the bunny slope and went down for about an hour with it. I didn't fall any there, but Kevin fell a few times. Then we took a lunch break, which was crazy trying to get food and find a seat. In the resort there, they had a cafeteria you could eat at, you had to leave your skis and poles outside. After lunch we decided that we were ready to try the ski lift and try a bigger slope. The first time we got off the ski lift, we both just busted it right there. They had to help us up, mainly to get us out of the way so someone coming behind us wouldn't run into us. We fell a good bit going down. One time, this lady stopped me and she was with the Ski Patrol. She gave me some quick tips that made all the difference. Our last run for Friday, Kevin was trying not to hit this girl and he fell down to keep from hitting her, and ended up bouncing down into this ditch almost hitting a tree. Thankfully, he wasn't hurt and didn't hit the tree. After a day of skiing we ate downtown Banner Elk (which there isn't too much more there than there is in Blackville) at a restaurant called Stonewalls. It was very nice and very good too.

Saturday, January 23rd: We decided not to do a full day of skiing but a half day today. We rode up the mountain to check out Beech Mountain Ski Resort, but decided to come back to ski Sugar again. This time it only took us about 30 minutes to get all our gear and get in line for the ski lift. However, being Saturday it was a lot busier than it was on Friday. But we had a great time. Neither one of us fell more than 5 times. However, one time we were coming to a stop to get in line to ride the ski lift and some how both of our skis got tangled up and we both crashed into each other. It was pretty funny. Our last run for Saturday, we had gotten to a place on the slope to stop to take a break. We were at the same spot where Kevin had fallen down the ditch yesterday and realized there was this person in the ditch. We noticed that no one was with him and he wasn't getting up. So Kevin, went to check on him and he was hurt. I went to where they were. It was a little boy and he was 11 years old, parents- were down at the bottom of the slop waiting on him, they should have been right there skiing with him. He said that he had hurt his back. We stayed with him until the Ski Patrol could come and get him. That evening we had found this little Mexican restaurant and we ate there for dinner. We got everything that we normally get at the Mexican restaurant here in Barnwell, and it was 4 dollars cheaper.

Sunday, January 24th: We got up at 9:00 this morning and started our long drive home. It actually wasn't a bad drive or ride. Even though it was raining this morning and rained on us most of the way home, it was much better driving during daylight hours. When we left Banner Elk it was 38 degrees and when we got back to Blackville at 2:00 it was 68 degrees. I had to put on a t-shirt in place of my sweat shirt to continue to unload the car. We had a wonderful weekend. It was so nice for us both to get away from work and just enjoy spending time with each other. We also had a great time snow skiing and plan to go again sometime.

Enjoy a few pictures of our trip!

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