March 20, 2009 by steve.

This month’s CurbCrusher trip is a repeat. In September of 2007 we stopped here for a couple of days on our way to Chattanooga and visited family in the area. We thought the park had potential, so we’ve been waiting to go spend a long weekend at the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park. We did not want to visit during the summer as there is no swimming in the park, so we figured a March visit would provide the right kind of weather.
We made a long weekend out of it, headed up on Thursday afternoon, and coming home on Sunday. It is about a three hour drive in the motorhome from Orlando to White Springs, which is located just north of the intersection of I-10 and I-75. We spent Friday wandering around to some other parks in the area. Big Shoals State Park is only about five to eight miles away and has a number of hiking trails. There are two shoals, Big and Little. The Big Shoals are the only class III rapids in Florida when the Suwannee river is at the right height. To get to Big Shoals from the parking lot is about two miles, and the trail to get to Little Shoals from the end of Road 6 is probably three-quarters to a mile in length. It was easy hiking and an pleasant walk in the woods. Our pictures from Big Shoals are here.
After wandering through Big Shoals, we visited the Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park. This is the site of the biggest Civil War Battle to take place in Florida. There is a small (and I mean small) museum, and you can walk around the battlefield. The big event here is a re-enactment that takes place in February each year.
Campsites – There are 45 campsites at this park all with water and electricity (30 amp). Probably a good third of these campsites are pull-thrus, and they are big pull-thru sites. Plenty of room to hook up the car. The rest of the sites are good sized. The two times the we’ve been here the campgrounds have been very clean. There are two bathhouses that appear fairly new, and they also are kept clean and tidy.
Stuff to Do – As noted above there is a bunch to do in the area. The park itself can also keep you busy. There is the Stephen Foster museum and carillon, along with a craft area. The carillon chimes on the quarter hour from 8AM until 6PM, and plays a concert of Stephen Foster songs three times a day also. The craft area houses people doing a variety of crafts, the variety dependent on who is occupying the houses at the time. While we were there, a wood carver, blacksmith, quilter and “aroma therapist” were in residence. The last time we were here, there was no one present in the craft houses. From what the ranger told us, they are usually occupied all winter. There are also some great trails that you can walk or bike that meander along the Suwannee.
Overall — It was a great weekend, of course any weekend spent in the RV and not doing yard work is great. This is a nice relaxing park, lots of campers seem to be walking or biking around the park continuously. There is no TV here, we got one PBS channel with the digital converter active, and three weak channels using the analog signals, so after June you’ll only get PBS at this park. I really like the part of Florida this park is located in and enjoy visiting.

You can find our pictures here.

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March 9, 2009 by steve.

Well combine a business trip to Denver and a couple of free tickets on Southwest Airlines and what do you get, an impromptu CurbCrusher ski vacation. To end the month of February and start March, the CurbCrusher gang ditched the RV and hopped on a plane and then drove a bit and spent five days at the Keystone Ski Resort in Colorado.

Lodging –

We found a condo in the Buffalo Lodge located in the River Run area of Keystone through Summit Cove Properties on the web. The price was very reasonable, and the location was great. We were about a five minute walk from the Gondola so it was easy to head out skiing the morning, take a lunch break and head back out after lunch. At the end of the day, we took a short walk and were “home” for the evening. We had a one bedroom unit that had a king-size bed in the bedroom and a murphy bed in the great room area. There was plenty of room for all three of us. the kitchen was good sized and well equipped, so we were able to cook all our meals in the condo. The condo was on the fifth floor, so we had a decent view of the River Run Village and the side of the mountain.
Our only real complaint about the lodging was the key system they had in use. We were issued two different electronic keys, one for the room and another for the common areas (lobby, ski lockers, garage, hot tubs, etc). The common area keys were awful. The first keys issued got us into the garage and up to the room. When we returned after getting our skis later that day, the common area keys would not let us in the garage or the lobby. So we went back to the rental office and got new ones. The new ones would not let us in the garage, but one of them would let you in the lobby. So we called the rental office. A representative came out and gave us two new keys that worked, well sort-of. Over the next four days we found that sometimes they worked and sometimes they didn’t. It was lucky that we had two common area keys and patience , because sometimes after 10 or 15 tries with one key, the other one would work on the fifth try. It sort of became a joke as to whether we’d be able to get back in or not.

Activities – And of course by this we pretty much mean skiing. We spent most of our days skiing at Keystone, and with Little CurbCrusher we spent most of the first three days on the green slopes. Finally on the last day, Little CurbCrusher wanted to zip down the blues in front of us, making the old people work hard to catch up. Night skiing is available at Keystone, but it feels a big dangerous. It’s not because the runs aren’t lit, it has to do with the people zipping down the mountain that don’t seem to be paying much attention. The slow ski zones and caution seem to be discarded once the sun goes down, and with the slopes being a bit emptier, folks are more willing to take chances and you feel like you’re going to get run down in the dark. In our four days of skiing, the only time we saw the Ski Patrol hauling anyone off the mountain was Saturday night. The final day we spent about three hours skiing over at Arapahoe Basin, which is only about four or five miles from Keystone. A-basin was a great place to ski. Very wide runs and a lot of fun. The day we were there was fairly warm with the temperatures in the upper 40’s and lower 50’s, so it was very comfortable skiing. I think a couple of us even ended up with goggle face.

One evening we went Tubing at Keystone. A couple of years ago we’d been tubing at Steamboat, where the tubing was on a beginners ski slope, and that was pretty much what we’d expected here. No, Keystone’s tubing is more like a toboggan run. They’ve got tube runs that are iced down, and very steep. The ride probably last 20 - 40 seconds, but you are moving. Then you get to ride a “magic carpet” lift back to the top. We probably got about eight or nine runs in during our hour on the tubing hill. There are also a couple of lanes where you can go down up to five at a time. It was a blast whether you went down tied to someone else’s tube or by yourself.

Equipment Rental – Since part of the purpose of this blog is to tell our travel stories, I’ve included this and the next section on ground transportation, because both are important when you go to Colorado to ski. We rented our skis from Mountain View Sports in Keystone. There were a short drive from the condo, but located in the same shopping plaza as the lodging rental company, Summit Cove. Their prices were great, about 40% off what we had seen online at the other places located at Keystone, and free rental of a kids package when an Adult rental. My skis were ok, but looked like they had been repaired with a fiberglass repair kit in a couple of places. Lady CurbCrusher’s skis, when held together looked like they had spent a good amount of time riding a bull they were so bowed. I don’t know what fare the other rental places offer, but you seem to get what you pay for at Mountain View.

Ground Transportation — One of the choices we faced when making the trip was how to get from Denver International Airport (DIA) to Keystone. In the past we have always tried to avoid driving in winter conditions, assuming that it is best left to the folks that live there. However, this time our cheapness (or is it frugality, that sounds better) got the best of us. When pricing the shuttle van rides on the internet, the best we could do was about $150 per person round trip from DIA to Keystone. At worst a car was going to cost the same $450, plus give us the freedom to do some grocery shopping on our way up (a half-gallon of milk in the Keystone “grocery” store was $4.00, at the Super-Walmart in Denver on the way up a whole gallon was only $2.29). With a little bargain hunting and daily watching of the prices we were able to get an SUV class (it turned out to be a Suzuki XL-7) from Advantage Rent-a-Car for over $150 less than what the shuttle van would have cost. So we rented the car, stopped at the Super-Walmart that is about 10 miles from DIA (and thus saved a bunch more on groceries for the week) and then headed up to the mountains. The drive is mostly on I-70, followed by about 12 miles on US-6. There were snow showers and freezing temperatures on our way up, and it was sunny and warm on our way down. The Colorado Department of Transportation does a great job clearing the roads, so even though there was some limited visibility on the way up, the road was fairly clear and the drive was non-eventful. I wouldn’t want to drive the RV in those conditions, but it was not uncomfortable driving the car, it just required paying a lot more attention to what I was doing. The trip is about 80 - 90 miles and we completed drive in under two hours each time. Apparently there are times when the tunnels back up and road conditions can make it a three or four hour trip, but if you are a competent motorist, there’s not reason not to drive yourself.

All in all, the CurbCrushers had a fantastic, week. It was nice to get back to Florida and the warmer temperatures and even more importantly the humidity. We’ve discovered that were a family that likes our humid Florida air, and too much time in the dryness of the west sucks the moisture out of our bodies and leaves us feeling like sandpaper. All that’s left are our pictures of Keystone and Arapahoe (I think there are some videos in these picture sets too.)

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