I'm in Mammoth Lakes, nothing too unusual about that, at this time of year. However, a couple items *are* significant; one, there are precious few ski trips this year, due to the lack of snow (that'll do it every time...), and this marks my 25th year of driving Mammoth ski trips! Hard to believe, a quarter-century of running US395, braving the elements and incompetent drivers. How things have changed; many of our trips in the 1980's involved alcohol, LOTS of alcohol. Not the drivers (grin), the passengers. Often, we would arrive at midnight or later, with a bus that was absolutely trashed. Bags and bags of trash off the floor, empty beer containers everywhere, the bus smelling like a brewery, and, occasionally, the "remnants" of someone's dinner, that they had been unable to keep down, due to too much alcohol. Those were the "bad old days", IMHO. Nowadays, a rowdy crowd is an aberration, downright rare. GOOD! At last count, I'm somewhere near 250 trips total, more if you include other "snow" trips I do to other locations, like Yosemite and Bear Valley. Oh, and BTW, I got a wife out of this deal! In the winter of 1985-86, I met Jacqueline, who was a housekeeper at the Sierra Nevada Inn, in Mammoth. We were friends for a number of years, but after her husband passed away in 1993, we started dating in 1994. She moved down to San Diego later that year, and we were married in 1995. Pretty amazing how things work out.
Anyhow, I'm kickin' it here at the Shilo Hotel, utilizing their Wi-Fi, but thinking about going for a ling walk. The weather's beautiful for January, too nice, in fact. The town needs snow, badly. But, at least for me, it makes my job much easier. The group this time requires very little service, another bonus. Oh, and it's crazy back in San Diego right now, tons of work, drivers putting in long hours. This is *MUCH* better (grin).
