Park City, UT

Our Park City skiers gathered at the Frontier Tulsa Ticket counter at 5:30am on Wednesday leaving behind loved ones to struggle through the weather and power outages that gripped Tulsa. Our first mishap came when the agent reissued Jim Constantine’s boarding pass under the wrong name of Mike Jones, and Jim went through two pictured ID check points before finally being caught at the screening machine.

The group arrived at Park Station Condos about noon for a FREE half day of skiing. James’ brother, Calvin, traveled from Virginia and met the group at the Salt Lake City airport. Before Jim got his luggage in the room, Bill Obermark was changed and waiting anxiously in the lobby for others to ski. James, Jim and Calvin headed off to Deer Valley to pick up the lift tickets for the group and scope out the mountain. Regina Mullings, Jan Bartek, and Colleen Williams were seen strolling to downtown Park City for an afternoon of shopping and sightseeing.
 

Lowell Whitlock skied Park City with the four Bill’s (Millis, Fesler, Obermark and Wright). The group met at the Pig Pen Saloon for après’ skiing drinking and dining where we were treated to free drinks, appetizers, hot sandwich and a Jolly Rancher shot by the establishment. The only mishap of the day was a fall suffered by Calvin Carpenter at Deer Valley. Unfortunately he landed on his shoulder and not his hard head thus suffering a Type III (both ligaments severed) shoulder separation.

The group woke up Thursday morning to new snow and the anticipation of skiing Deer Valley with eleven new runs opened. Jerry Bush was sidelined with a swollen ankle from a previous injury and spent most of the trip relaxing. Rick Hiskett was joined by a friend from Los Cabos so, understandably, he spent most of his time with her. At noon, Bill Fesler, Bill Millis and Lowell Whitlock skied to the base area for lunch while Bruce Dawson, Bill Obermark, Trey Sophy, Calvin Carpenter, James Carpenter, Jim Constantine, Mike Jones, Michael Buedden, Colleen Williams, Bill Wright, Jan Bartek, Regina Mullings, Jane Meyers and Phil Boushon enjoyed fine dining at Stein Erickson’s Lodge. Jim set the record for lunch with a $70+ tab. Mike Jones spent two mornings in Salt Lake City getting new foot beds from a renowned boot doctor.
 

Thursday night a group of us went to the Pizza & Noodles Restaurant in downtown Park City Mike Jones and Bill Obermark ordered the rotisserie chicken which apparently had spent way too much time in the kitchen and had ripened. Bill Millis, Lowell Whitlock, and Bill Fesler skied the Canyons on Friday while the rest of the group went to Park City and Deer Valley. Carolyn Fesler enjoyed her stay at Park City shopping and dining. David Marshall, Jim’s friend, joined James Carpenter, Colleen Williams and Bill Obermark for a fun day of skiing at Park City. Bill Wright joined the group at lunch and skied the afternoon with us.

Because most of the group could not keep up with Trey Sophy, he skied by himself the duration of the trip. It was reported that Trey was setting the blue runs on fire because of his speed and skiing the mogul runs like a pro. Friday après skiing found another group of us at the Pig Pen Saloon for more appetizers and drinks. Jane Meyer toured a local condo as a perspective buyer and received $150 cash and two bottles of wine. The group awoke Saturday to more new snow and a fun day full of adventures for all.

Regina Mullings took cross country ski lessons while Jane Meyer, Phil Boushon, and Colleen Williams skied Deer Valley. Trey Sophy’s newly purchased skis did not arrive on time so he had to rent skis for the trip. Bill Wright and Jan Bartek spent the after noon shopping. Mike Jones was encouraged by James Carpenter to ski down McConkey’s Bowl. After struggling down Mike exclaimed that the run “was way too steep to be a black” only to be informed it was a double black run. Mike’s next comment cannot be repeated.

The highlight of the trip was the gumbo feast purchased by Regina Mullings and prepared by Chef Lowell Witlock and accompanied by Sous Chefs Bill Millis, Bill Fesler and Carolyn Fesler. The majority of the group enjoyed a fabulous meal of gumbo with rice, great conversation, and the last of Bill Millis’ incredible lemon squares. The evening was topped off with a very competitive game of “Oh Hell” with Colleen Williams proving to be very competitive. The final mishap of the trip was the cancelled flight in Denver. The group was given meal vouchers and a $150 flight voucher and expecting a long wait to the 9:15pm flight.
 

The flight was re-instated shortly thereafter causing the Tulsa Ski Club group to scramble to find everyone. Of the seventy people that should have been on the flight, only twenty-three made it with all 18 of our group on board thanks to a select few well placed phone calls and announcements. The flight attendants did give complimentary beverages to everyone on the flight thanks to Bill Fesler’s idea to donate all our unused meal vouchers to them.