We contacted all air travelers the day before to make them aware of bad weather driving to Nashville. Everyone made it to the airport on time. There were 16 people on group air, one couple had same flight schedule. We met eight people at Denver airport that came in night before, or early flights from Alabama. All this went well.
Lesson learned - contact the bus company 24 hours in advance to verify pickup time. The bus company had 10:30 PM instead of 10:30 AM as our arrival time. We lost about an hour waiting for them to find someone to pick us up, but everyone in the group was patient.
We had a one hour food/liquor stop in Wheat Ridge at Walmart and Molly’s Liquor. We then boarded the bus for the rest of our four hour trip to Snowmass.
The check-in at Crestwood was smooth. I personally delivered all lift tickets once everyone was in their condos. One boot bag went to the wrong condo, but I sent a group text and the bag was recovered.
On Sunday, we had a welcome wine and cheese reception. There was plenty of wine/beer, and there were a few charcuterie boards. Tyler Dame and Sonya (from Aspen/Snowmass tourism) came to the event. They spoke near the end providing information on skiing and local restaurants. They opened up for questions from the group.
Lisa Jennings (Snowmass tourism) left a $100 gift certificate at front desk for us for Sundance liquors. We were able to buy four nice bottles of wine and a 24 pack of beer to supplement Tuesday’s party using the certificate.
On Tuesday (2/3) we had a group dinner party in the Independence Room. We had six lasagnas,10 pizzas delivered, salad, cookies, box wine and extra wine/beer complements of Snowmass tourism. Four people in the group (Hilda/Jo Ann, Nancy H, Bunny and Meshon) offered to bake a lasagna in their condo. Everyone had a wonderful meal and time to socialize followed by polkas, old time rock and roll, and music from the 70’s on the PA system using my playlists. Many danced in spite of the 8,000+ ft. altitude. A true group effort between lasagna baking and cleanup after the event.
On Wednesday, several decided to meet for a beer at a brewery in Snowmass village. It was a bit loud and too crowded to all sit together until several left for dinner at another location. I would not recommend this.
Alison Bolnick had a fall resulting in a broken bone in lower leg/ankle. Karen Hall was with her when it happened and helped her at the clinic. Hilda also stopped there on her way back from Aspen. By the time I found out about it, they were on their way back to Alison’s condo. Alison’s roommates were amazing in helping her for the next few days along with getting her home from Nashville airport (thank you to AB Maynard, Doug Werth and Janet Schmeidlein).
On Thursday, we had happy hour in our condo. We had two types of chicken wings (from Walmart), leftover pizza, some cheese and chips. Some of the box wine was still available. In spite of our small living area, almost all 35 attended and had a great time.
We were generously allowed to use the Independence Room again for our ‘leftover party’ on Friday night. All there enjoyed themselves for our last night.
After some minor issues loading the bus, we left on time for our trek back to the airport. There was some delays/confusion checking a group in at Denver airport. We had plenty of time to stop for food/drinks before boarding flights home. Group flight was delayed one hour for changing of the front tires.
Several in the group flew to Aspen, some used Eagle.The weather was great, so no issues with their flights.