April 1st - An April Fool's Adventure! - Vail, CO

Checked out of Breck around noon. Hit the road to Vail, detoured as a white-out bizzard hit I-70 causing 67-car pile-up. Never saw the accidents--must have happened before I even left Breck. GPS tells me the trip will take 40mins as opposed to the regular 30-35mins, so I figure all is cool (I didn't learn about the magnitude of the accidents until I reached Vail). 2.5hrs later, my bladder is ready to explode as I pull into Vail where I get 3-5runs in before the lifts close. I head to grab pizza at Pazzo's Pizza in Vail Village where Chris the bartender busts some sick moves. My total for a pizza, an order of wings, 2 beers, and some shots = ........$9. Chris rocks. I left the man a nice tip for his kindness and headed to the Roost Lodge per his recommendation for a cheap spot to crash.

The Roost Lodge is the only establishment that comes up when you search "hostels in Vail"--rooms typically run for $50/nt, but tonight, due to the indefinite closure of I-70, rooms were running at $109 - $127/nt. Nutso. After making friends with the manager, Juan, the assistant manager, Raul, and one of the owners, Greg, they were kind enough to hook me up with a room for $20....the room was being renovated, so there was some considerable dust in there, so I ended up accepting the offer to crash in the manager's office instead. Cool with me, and better than a kOA--at least here I have a warm building to sleep in, a roof over my head, and I'm within 5 miles of Vail. Sweet.

Tomorrow? A big day at Vail.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Vail
• April's Fool's Day
• Jake's Cross Country Road Trip