A travel day today into a new timezone and also new climate. We were heading from the warmth of Texas to the frigid temperatures of Colorado.

 

There was no easy way to the airport with all roads around Austin in grid lock but we finally got there with an hour to spare. Time for the suitcase shuffle. It ended up that we only had to move stuff from one bag to another to get them all under 50 lbs and it was not from the suitcase we thought it would be.

 

Just after takeoff there was a “moment”. We took off at the usual angle but we were only at about 3000 feet when the plane leveled off and the engines were dropped right back. It appeared to be only just enough thrust to keep us moving forward. Another couple of minutes at this altitude then the engines spun up again and up we went to the usual cruising altitude. All I can think is that there may have been a near miss with another aircraft. I guess we will never know.

There were no more mishaps and we were soon landing in Denver, however there was no gates free so we waited out on the tarmac until one came free.

 

It certainly was a lot cooler here than in Austin with both of us soon grabbing jumpers.

 

Picked up the car then picked up some supplies and motored down the 70 towards the mountains. The highway was 2 to 3 lanes in each direction for most of the trip but the amazing thing was the rapidly reducing outside temperature.

It was novel when it reached 0C but then it kept going down … -1C … -2C … -3C … -4C … -5C … -6C … -7C … -8C … -9C, when was it going to stop. When we arrived in Breckenridge it had dropped to -12C and the sun was still out. We were not ready for this.

 

It was interesting driving a rental car not really set up for snow and ice on the road but the rules are not as strict here as in Australia. Stopping and starting on ice is fun.

 

We found our accommodation OK and it is very nice. We booked it through Air BnB. It is a two bedroom condo (with 2 bathrooms) of which we have one bedroom and share the rest of the condo with the owners Anna and Dustin as well as Indy the Golden Retriever. It was still -12C so it was a quick emptying out of the car without slipping on the ice and snow.

 

An old school mate, Paul was also in town with his wife Sophie so we headed out to meet up at Mi Casa Mexican to catch up and have a meal. It was good night and we made plans to meet up tomorrow and spend the day skiing. Of course the meals were huge so looks like leftovers for another night.

 

On returning to the condo we chatted with Anna and Dustin (our hosts) before hitting the hay.

Tomorrow is going to be our first day on the slopes.