S.K.I. Takeover Weekend

Devils Head Ski Resort

By Liz Boston

It was a small group of 7 that took on Devils Head the weekend of Feb 1-3, which included Ralph Smith, Brad Debolt, Dan McGurk, Debbie Young, Liz Boston, Diane Urey and James Schwartz.

We didn’t know that the Eagle grocery store parking lot in Normal was such a popular place for bus pickup until we tried to figure out which of the 3 buses we saw was ours. But when the Springfield Ski Club’s bus arrived, we knew we’d found friends. And they had snacks and adult beverages on board, and liked to share! We also partook in a share of state and local politics, thanks to one Springfield lawyer in particular; seems she wasn’t able to quite leave her job at home until the next day.

This was the S.K.I. Council’s Midwest trip, so we joined not only Springfield on the bus, but also Peoria and Decatur’s clubs at the resort this year, for a total of 67 skiers. While Devils Head was light on snow on the walkways, the slopes were ski-able and the light competition on the slopes made it fun and easy to try some new things out that we’d never done before. Debbie tackled shaped skis for the first time after an 8 year break from skiing, and Liz tried a small jump twice, caught a little air, and survived to tell about it.

While Ralph had the misfortune to succumb to an illness the second day, Brad and Dan just kept going, and going strong. We thought we never saw those newlyweds James and Diane for other reasons, but it turns out that they were spending all their time on the slopes after all. We awarded the coveted "Devils Head Mug" award to James, who as a first time skier went from the bunny slopes all the way up to the black diamond slopes in two days, and on classic straight skis!

We stayed in the resort’s hotel itself for the first time, and everyone seemed quite pleased about how well that worked and how convenient it was. The food was surprisingly good, and our trip cost included not only two breakfast buffets, but also a dinner on Saturday night at the upscale restaurant on site. After dinner, the band in the bar was definitely ROCKING!! Liz and Brad were trying to figure out how to get them to come from Wisconsin to play for one of our dances.

We were all happily exhausted for the trip back, it’s amazing how quiet those return bus trips are compared to the trip up to Wisconsin. But we also discovered, to the delight of the football fans aboard, that those video monitors on the buses also have a TV tuner, so we were able to catch some of the Super Bowl for an hour or so as we neared Bloomington. When we waved goodbye to our new Springfield friends, they were not feeling good about "their" St. Louis Rams at that point. But we all were feeling great about our ski weekend.