Masha takes the driver seat. It's her turn, moreover Natasha drove extra hour and a half. Everybody is exhausted with gas adventure and quickly falling asleep. We pass Cortez, Durango and enter Rocky Mountains in the meanwhile. We are on back road, but nobody realizes that except for Masha. By 6 am I feel Sienna stopping. "What's up? And where are we?" - "Somewhere is the mountains" - Masha replies. I see a huge log cabin on a roadside, see start and hear howling. Coyotes? Or wolves?... It's cold, 10F probably. Masha seems tired. "I drove about 100 miles, but the road is so curved, I am not used to that" - she says.
I take the wheel. Girls are momentarily falling asleep. The road is quite a beast indeed. It climbs up and slithers like a snake, and we are on some mountain pass half an hour later. Princess, my navigator, wakes up, but goes back to sleep. She seems to be scared with what she sees. Switchbacks follow switchbacks, we are going down now, on a second gear, breaking with engine a lot.
I make 60 miles in two hours, but then it's light and mountains are behind us. We make it to Grand Junction, CO in next hour. Crew is asleep or somewhat asleep, but it's time to think skiing and about a place to sleep next night. At 11 am we stop in Glenwood Springs at a cafe called Sacred Grounds. There is Wi-Fi there! I find my laptop under a seat, dust it off and plug-in. Need to see where to go skiing, where is the snow. Turns out it's Keystone - resort near Dillon, Co, the town Masha and Natasha visited in their skiing trips.
All suddenly wake up and start moving around. Breakfast is great, coffee is fresh, we finish and drive to Dillon in two hours. Natasha researches area hotels and picks Best Western that is close to the resort, has sauna and jacuzzi, and offers discounts for lift ticket. Indeed, the Best (Western)!
It's hard to believe that we were raising red dust in Havasu Canyon only yesterday. Nevertheless, we were, but by 3 pm we are by the ski lift in Keystone, with skis and tickets on, ready to try the slopes. Let's go! We think we will ski till 7 pm, so we can catch that jacuzzi after and before crashing. By 7 we indeed are tired. First day of the season is always hard. Sanya and Princess, however show good skiing skill, whereas Varya and I are even managing moguls. But it's time to call it a day.
By 8 pm we make it to sauna and jacuzzi - pretty nice I should say. Water is too hot, so we get out and run on the snow a little bit. Feet feel fire not cold, interesting. Other people in jacuzzi room seem surprised by this behavior and soon disappear :)