I had originally planned on visiting my sister in Sacramento at the end of my California leg of the Sojourn, but the general manager of the resort that hit my truck said I could take my vehicle to Sacramento to get an estimate and repair. I had called an auto body shop back home in Santa Fe that had done hail damage repairs on my truck. The guy remembered me. He recommended I go with a body shop  that was nationwide so that in the event something went wrong I would have a national company to fall back on. The Crash Champions Body Shop said they could get the repairs done within a week and that their work was warrantied at any of their franchise outlets. There was a Crash Champion in Santa Fe.  The Crash Champions Body Shop said they could get the repairs done within a week. I doubted that they could get it done that quickly, but the shop in Truckee couldn’t even start the project for a week, so the alternative looked good. The Olympic Valley Inn general manager said he would prepay for a rental car when he got to Reno and that there would be a comparable vehicle to my truck for me in Sacramento.

Keep in mind I travel with two months worth of gear for winter sports, staying at condos, cooking supplies, three sets of skis, poles and a pair of cross country skis. Plus I travel in the mountains, under winter conditions, so a 4×4 was a requirement. The general manager knew all this.

I got to Crash Champions and the first rental car was a RAV 4. It was all wheel drive, but too small for all of my gear. They then sent over a Ford Expedition. It was big enough, but rear wheel drive. It would have been fine, but I was headed to my next reservation at South Lake Tahoe and snow was predicted. I have been in the Tahoe basin when snow hits (like last week) and California rear wheel drive vehicles are not equipped to handle the winter driving conditions.

I ended up having to take the rear wheel drive the first night since it was the end of the day. They said they would have a 4×4 large vehicle for me the next day. I drove to my sister’s in Elk Grove and spent the night on her couch. She has a really nice apartment and I was so glad to be able to relax with her.

I returned to the Enterprise car rental and got the 4×4 and headed to the mountains.

I had missed two nights of my reservation at the Worldmark Tramway, and over four days of skiing dealing with the truck and the resort. I felt out of sync. The opposite of Flow. I forged forward, trying to stay on task, even though everything around me seemed to be undermining my plan.

I tend not to ski on weekends as the crowds have become untenable. But I broke my rule since I had missed so many days of skiing and proceeded to the Boulder Lodge at Heavenly. Usually, this area isn’t as busy but on this weekend day the line for the lifts wrapped up the hill into the bunny area. It’s a fixed chair lift, which means it is an old-fashioned slow chair. It was a windy day and much of the mountain was closed. As I was going in, I stopped to help a person who was down. She had hurt her wrist and was having trouble getting up. Just then a snowboarder crashed onto the back of my skis!  I just looked at the guy. I felt as though I was pushing my luck, and decided to head in. I had only clocked 8000 vertical feet.

My niece Karolyn and her husband Tom joined me the next day. We were making it a tradition to ski together but this year Karolyn’s foot surgery was giving her grief, so Tom and I went to Sierra at Tahoe. This was an interesting day as Sierra had suffered major burn from a fire a couple of years ago. Tom was ultra familiar with the area and led me all over the mountain. We had the most amazing lunch at 360 Smokehouse Barbeque at the top of Grandview Express chair. I was told their barbeque was enough for two. Tom and I split the meal. It was enough for three and was great tasting, too!

It felt like skiing Lake Louise or Banff Sunshine above the tree line. The burn hand taken out much of the mountain, and the wide-open areas and barren landscape was unlike anywhere else in the Sierras. We had a good solid day and it was so nice skiing with a guy who not only knew the mountain, but the best parking to boot!

It’s always something, right? Epic snowstorms, truck losing a fight with a snowblower, now it was an Achilles Heel pain.

The pain had originally started about ten days ago at Palisades. I don’t remember hurting it. It just got sore. After the day at Sierra, it hurt even worse. It didn’t feel like the torn gastrocnemius muscle I had last year—that was a show stopper—this was just pain, bordering on severe, above my heel. I did what most doctors don’t want you to do—I googled it. The most likely issue? Tendonitis of the Achilles tendon. The treatment? Rest. The downside of not resting? Tearing the Achilles tendon.

I chose to rest.

On Wednesday I drove out of the mountains back to Sacramento, knowing I had to deal with the truck and the Olympic Valley Resort. I didn’t want to do either.