Rock Ridge yurt

It was Art's 50th birthday, and Carol had planned a surprise. No, the trip wasn't the surprise, and neither was staying in the yurt(s). The surprise was the arrival of his daughter, Kelsey, from Reno.

Since the 3 of us and our gear seemed to fill up our full-sized pickup, we were surprised they fit 4 people into their car.

After some industrial-strength packing, we headed out on skis to the Rock Ridge yurt. It's mostly pretty flat, but there were a few good climbs. This was especially noticeable if you were using wax on your skis, since it was old, rotten snow and quite warm. But with a little fresh snow on top here and there, just to add some spice (or ice) to the skiing. Julie attempted to de-ice her skis with the "Whacking" method, and found the limit of impact strength of one of her ski poles.

We did eventually get to the yurt, and the girls were overjoyed.

These yurts are pretty deluxe. All the cook gear you could want, propane cook stove, a great wood stove with lots of firewood, ... the list goes on. We had taken advantage of this by pulling sleds loaded with food and goodies... even a birthday cake. The only thing missing was a good waiter.

After dinner, the girls entertained us with their musical talents. They played some sort of Turkish dirge several times, but I think here they were playing the Beatles hit, "I Am The Walrus."

The Troutner girls.

Although it's often a hard thing turning 50, Art made the most of it before he took his teeth out, hung up his hairpiece, and hit the sack right at 8:15.

In fact, the entire evening seemed very festive. Even washing dishes was done in a chorus line.