Sundown/Chestnut Trip 2004

We had 11 people on the Sundown/Chestnut trip for 2004 including Savannah Leslie on her first ski trip. We left Bloomington at around 5 o’clock. Dan McGurk drove up from his home in Kirksville Missouri to join the trip. Since I had a pretty small group, I went around and picked up people at their homes with the rental van. This was a popular idea. I hope I am not setting a bad precedence. We drove on I74 through Peoria and Moline to Dubuque. We stopped in Galesburg on the way to have dinner. We had fun deciding on a restaurant we stopped at Crappy’s (a sea food restaurant I guess) but Sarah did not like the sound of the restaurants name. We ended up eating a The 21 Club which was not as nice as the sign promoted but we still had a great time.

We had good weather the first day of skiing at Sundown. It was clear and sunny all day but the temperature was a little warm. They had plenty of base to ski on but it got a little slushy by the end of the day. After skiing we sat in the lodge and listened to a country band before heading for home. On the way back the hotel, I GOT PULLED OVER BY THE POLICE. Fortunately, I was let off with a warning. They were looking for drunk drivers heading back from skiing. That night the group went looking for dinner in downtown Dubuque. The Cellar looked like a nice place but they had a long wait so we ended up in the Calliope Bar of the Julien Inn, which turned out to be a pretty nice place for dinner. Pat and Sarah Rolfs went sight seeing during the day and told everybody about their day. They found a store called Knipple’s that they thought had a funny comparison to our club’s Winter Trip Chairman Rich Knable. After dinner most of the group went to the Diamond Jo Casino. Bill Vahary was the big winner for the night winning about $20 in nickels at a slot machine.

On day two the weather was not so great. We went to Chestnut and skied a little in the morning but by early afternoon rains forced us to leave early. We still found time to have a few drinks in the bar before leaving. Leaving early worked out well, however, because I got everybody home in time to see the season finally of Sex and the City.