Thirty-nine ski clubbers headed for Upper Peninsula Michigan for the annual New Year’s Trip. We had some of the long-timers (note I did not say old-timers) on the trip: Roger Gingrich, Ed & Fran Eickenberg, your trip leaders Laurel & Brian Kutash. After about three years of sparse snow conditions, we were welcomed back to the UP with lots of the white stuff to play in. The UP was again living up to it’s name of "Big Snow Country".

It’s not easy to know everything that goes on during the day, but from my perspective we had three ladies in contention for "Rookie of the Year" award. Mary Rodak, Alise Clark & Carlyn Beal were traversing the slopes on their first day. Mary tried backwards skiing and ended up sitting in about three feet of powder, ski backs buried up to her boot heels. Fortunately, Hugh Ivany was on the scene to help dig her out, proving chivalry is not dead. Mary found out twice about that Chivalry stuff, when that evening she became the recipient of a spontaneous dollar dance. The dollar dance was repeated for Liz Boston the following evening.

The Stewarts, Tammy Randy & Carol, along with Sherrill Leslie, rented snow mobiles and spent two days on the tracks of their choice. They had a great time and covered a lot of miles. We celebrated New Year’s Eve in our usual manner with dancing and champagne. We were joined by several members of the Milwaukee Nordic Ski Club as we rang in the New Year with horns, hats and hugs. Tammy Stewart was the "Star Queen" and got a lot of kisses at midnight. (Tammy got kisses, Mary Rodak & Liz Boston got dollars. I must be doing something wrong.)

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the dinner fiasco when Sarah Glenwright tossed a butter pat to Tammy Stewart. Yea, you guessed it, Tammy didn’t catch the butter in her hand. It landed on her "shelf". Because this is a family publication, I won’t spell-out what was compared to, but it’s the name of a drink called "Buttery _ _ _ _ _ _." I also would be remiss if I didn’t tell about the ten-year old skier who ran into Alise Clark on the slopes, causing them both to crash. The kid was very apologetic and kept saying "Sorry Sir!"

Our Aussie friend, Gary Miller knows how to enjoy life no matter what he is doing. He left, on-purpose snow angles on the way to the UP and he left a few, not - on-purpose snow angles on the slopes of the UP. Gary joined the "polar bear" club by going from hot tub to roll in a snow bank and back to the hot tub again. Tom Crawford started this sport on the first night of our stay and was kicked out of the hot tub twice by the hotel management.

Jen and Jess Crawford weren't too happy when their roommate-dad returned at 4 a.m. and Jenn though "an elephant got in the room." We also had Peoria ski clubber, Mike Baumann, with us who must have packed light since his New Year's Eve attire was swim trunks, a towel, and a cell phone.

Well, that's what the New Year's Eve ski trip is all about. Getting away for three days, catching up on some movie watching & book reading on the bus, getting in some fast & furious skiing, having a few beers because you won't be driving anywhere, spending time with some old friends, meeting new people, ringing in another new year, realizing the whole adventure is over too soon.