Day 178 - Brian Head, Utah - January 30th 2005

We awoke to an absolutely frozen RV. I had not left any heating on over night! We had kept each other warm at night but it was all I could do to get out of bed and turn the heating on. The water in the sink had frozen.

We fiddled around and headed up the mountain to the ski resort - Brian Head, Utah. The weather was appalling. As we edged up the mountain it got worse and worse. It was snowing, blowing a strong wind and visibility was poor. With the wind chill I can only guess that it must have been down to neg 20 deg C or more (as I have experienced in Canada). Still we were in the mood to ski.

Half way up the mountain there was a lay by with a flashing sign warning that only 4 wheel drives and cars with chains should go beyond this point. All the cars were chaining up. Now the RV has 2 wheels on each side at the back rather like a truck. So I figured that was your four wheel drive. We kept going and in places the RV was forced into first gear, all 10 cylinders and 6.8 litres of the engine straining to pull the thing up. I have rarely driven up such steep gradients. And the snow was starting to fall heavily. Luckily my theory was right. My traction was good and we make it up to the top.

We rented all the gear (skiing is such a pain - you have to have all the right equipment which is very heavy and cumbersome and all the right clothing) and got our lift tickets. The snow by now was falling heavily. Although I wouldn't have called it snow. There was nothing soft about it. More like ice pellets. It blew into your face, sandpapering and stinging as it went by.

It was murder from start to finish. The only experience the boys have had of skiing so far is the beautiful blue skies of Vail, Colorado. This was not what was expected. None of the chair lifts had safety bars so Sammy was left terrified for the upward journies that he would slip out. I had to devise a way of placing our ski poles across the seat to pin him in.

In fairness if the weather hadn't been so abysmal the skiiing would have been quite good as the runs were quite good and the snow was excellent. We managed about 6 or 7 runs in total and took the gear back to the rental shop. The manager was very good telling us to leave all the kit in one place then call him tomorrow to check the weather conditions. I had told him we wouldn't be back to do this again unless there was a break in the weather. We left and headed back down the mountain.

This was a trick in itself. I went along way in bottom gear as the snow had now built up substantially but with the weight of the RV and the 4 rear wheels I didn't have any problems.

When I got down the moutain I wasn't really sure what to do or where to stay. I was convinced weather like than would last for ages and that the chances of skiing tomorrow were slim. We came across another RV site and went in to have a look around. It was OK but I was not convinced. I said we were going to get some food and would think about it. On the way out I saw a card advertising the local Baptist Church and it had Sunday evening services (it was after all late Sunday afternoon). We decided to check it out on our way to the restaurant.

It was the usual small hut type of affair and they had a 6:00pm service due to start in 15 minutes. So we decided to join them for their service and get supper afterwards.

Within seconds of entering the building a little boy of Julian's age came up to him and asked "Do you like knives?". Not exactly the sort of topic you bring up in church but then he proceeded to get out this amazing swiss army knife type of thing. Of course Julian was completely gone. But the boy sat next to Julian (away from anyone else in the church) throughout the whole service and found all the bible readings for him and shared his song book with him. At the end of the service after we had been given the usual discourse on our status and travels, Julian was presented with a book by the boy (who I then discovered was the Pastor's son) which had been in their family through all of their children. It was a christian reading book. They were so sweet. The Pastors family were so amazing. 3 boys and 1 girl who was the spit of the girl in Mermaids who had just discovered her womanhood. She had a "Waltons" frock on and wouldn't let us go. The Pastor gave the boys a special lesson in what the Mormons were doing wrong, as Sammy kept asking me why we couldn't go to those big lovely new churches over there. We were lucky there was even a Baptish church. In most small towns across Utah other churdes have been run out of town (according to the Pastor). The Pastor also taught that there were many so called christians setting up organisations not teaching the Word as it is in the Bible. He mentioned by name the Vineyard churches and "certain evangelicals" who start teaching way beyond what is actually in the Word (I think he was mainly refering to the fruits of the spirit). He actually didn't deliver a sermon, it was a bible study. But a fabulous time was had by all. He even offered us the facility of "camping" in the car park as they had the requisite RV electrical hook up (for some reason). We politely refused as I was on the track of a hot bath by then. He also showed us all around the baptism pool.

After church we went for a meal and I agreed with the boys that I would take a motel room as long as they promised to bath as soon as we got in. So we found this Quality Inn place that gave us the regular double twin room for $45. They didn't have internet but did have the phone hook up so I was able to spend about 4 hours that night (after boys had fallen asleep almost immediately) catching up with work and some blog.