Another Week in Colorado

Thanks to Team Racing for Veterans, we were able to afford another trip to Snowmass, Colorado, for the Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic. This year, they had a record number of veterans (about 350) from across the country for the event with disabilities ranging from PTSD, to missing limbs, to Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs), to blindness. Plus they had me--a partially paralyzed guy with a feeding tube. I'm still the only tubie there. Once again, we had an amazing experience! And once again, you will be subjected to several pictures of me eating.

The day we arrived, we ate at the same place we went to last year, The Stew Pot. There's nothing like a warm bowl of Belgian beef stew after hitting the slopes in Colorado. The staff, as always, was very understanding about me needing my food blended and had no problem taking the Vitamix into the kitchen. Unfortunately, the stew was hot and blending it on high for a couple minutes made it hotter still. It was absolutely scalding to my tender tummy. We normally stir ice into the blend when it comes out of kitchens on the hot side. In this case, it needed a lot of ice. By the time I got it down to a tolerable temperature, Grace was done with her stew (she said it was delicious) and ready to leave. I really like this place, but I think next time I'll just get mine to go and blend it back in the hotel room after it's cooled down.

"Das ist heiß!!!" (See, Frau Mitchell? I still remember some German!)

The next morning, we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant, The Snowmass Kitchen, and ran into Jeff Haugh. Jeff has Multiple Sclerosis, a TBI, and is one of the founders of Team R4V--also he played for the Academy football team when they were ranked #10 in the country. He is just one of the many inspiring veterans at this event.

I'm wearing my Team R4V shirt. What color would you say that is? Yellow?

Since the first year we came to this event, the Snowmass kitchen has been very accommodating to my feeding tube. This time was no different. I went to the breakfast buffet, put the food I wanted into the pitcher, then gave the blender to the staff. The entire community of Snowmass is extremely supportive of all the vets throughout the week.

The other main meal that first day was called "A Taste of Snowmass." Several restaurants from the village set up tables outside for the veterans to come and taste their dishes. We got out there early and I lined right up for the best dish: filet mignon kebobs, mashed potatoes, broccoli, and a flourless chocolate tort for desert. Then I brought the whole thing up to our room so I could blend it up.

Duke/Gonzaga game. Why am I always so bad at filling out brackets?

I blended up the meal really good, brought it over to the chair in our room, started to push in the first syringe-full and...uh-oh.

I got it on the walls too, but couldn't fit the entire blend splatter in the picture

I didn't have any oil or butter to lubricate my plunger so I ended up pushing down on it really hard and as a result I got some chocolate-steak-broccoli on my pants. The Snowmass Kitchen came to my rescue though! They gave me a small cup of olive oil that I used whenever I ate in the room the rest of the week.

And now I'm using a blue towel

On Monday morning, I was scheduled to go snow shoeing. So we ate at the breakfast buffet that our hotel (the Westin) provided for the veterans all week.

She looks absolutely thrilled, doesn't she?

The staff at the Westin has gotten to know me over the last three years. I just take my pitcher through the buffet line, then blend up the meal at any wall outlet along the side of the large conference room where we eat our meals. When I'm done eating, I give the pitcher to someone on the waitstaff and they wash it out for me while I wash out my syringe and plunger in the bathroom.

Traveling and eating on the road has gotten pretty routine--at least in this country. I'd imagine if/when I try eating out in another country it'll be a bit more stressful.

Anyway, snow shoeing was excellent. A really good workout on a beautiful day.

How I miss the aspen trees in Colorado

There was a fast group snow shoeing up the ski slope and a slow group. I chose the slow group because I wasn't sure about my limits and I didn't want to slow down the fast group. As it turns out, I'm in better shape than I thought so I think I'll try going at a quicker pace when I do it in the future. I really liked snow shoeing. I was much more unsteady and prone to falling when I cross country skied last year, but show shoeing is something I can really do independently. If I lived near anyplace that had a steady amount of snow, I think I'd go more often.

It got so hot that day I could've done it in shorts

After our exercise, we were served lunch on the mountain by the local Elk's Lodge. Since there wasn't an outlet to plug up the Vitamix, I had to get my meal (turkey, mashed potatoes, and a Cesar salad) to go and eat it back in our room.

Betsy was kind enough to clean out my dishes in the bathroom

For dinner on Monday, all the veterans were given meal vouchers for the local restaurants. We chose to eat at another of our favorite places, Slice Italian Bistro. All their pizzas are available gluten free. Plus, they offer a selection of gluten free beer!

At this altitude, I only needed to smell it before I got a headache

We had dinner with our friends Mike and Courtney. Mike is a blind veteran who lives in Arizona. He always brings his (now 13 year-old) daughter, Courtney, to Snowmass for the Winter Sports Clinic and Grace absolutely can't wait to see her every year. Seriously, that's all she talked about on the flight to Denver.

For my pizza, I got the 'Greek Peak,' which has sundried tomatoes, olives, chicken, artichokes, and spinach.

Thanks, Courtney, for being so patient with Grace!!!

Tuesday was snowboarding day! Our breakfast buffet included an omelet bar, so I got an omelet with everything on it for the Vitamix.

Caught the omelet bar dude mid-flip

Once again, we set up the Vitamix on the periphery of the conference center where all the veterans ate.

The spinach in my omelet gave a the blend a slight greenish shade

When I started this blog, pictures of tubies eating in public were pretty rare, but now I've taken so many, I feel like I should start hiding secret messages in them just to make them interesting so you're not just staring at my ugly mug every time. Not on this trip though. Just more pictures of me tubefeeding in public.

Selfies of me tubefeeding are now called 'Telfies.' This is not a telfie because Betsy took it. Just FYI.

Snowboarding was fantastic--even better than last year. For the first time, I got to go with Betsy and Grace all morning! I'll talk more about it in a separate post. The lunch the clinic provides to the veterans is usually pretty sparse, at least for gluten-free eaters. So, I brought plenty of Real Food Blends to supplement what they gave me. For Tuesday's lunch, I added a Real Food Blend to mashed potatoes, baked beans, and coleslaw. I also threw in a Lara Bar that I brought from Tennessee.

Kinda looks like she's in pain here

The veterans were split up into teams at the beginning of the week (Go Team Headwall!!!) and we had team leaders who helped make sure we all got where we needed to be and looked after us for the rest of the week. Our team leaders were an amazing group of volunteers coming from all over the country, but mostly from Colorado. One of them, Jake, has a 3-year rivalry with Grace in which they both try to scare each other all week. On Friday, she caught him unawares with a snowball and he repaid her by holding her upside-down in a snowbank.

Another team leader, Jessica, is a recent college graduate from Grand Junction, Colorado. She has always been so helpful to us, especially at mealtimes--making sure Grace gets her food while Betsy and I get my blender ready

Thanks for all your help, Jessica!!!!

For Tuesday's dinner, I had pork loin, roasted potatoes, a vegetable medley, and a spinach salad in the blender. They feed us pretty good there!

Maybe next time they could give us wine at meals. *Hint Hint*

Wednesday, I was scheduled to visit Glenwood hot springs all day. Before I left, I had breakfast with a fellow veteran from Tennessee, Mark Brogan. I've talked about Mark before on here. He is an Army veteran who has a Traumatic Brain Injury because of a suicide bomb attack in Iraq. Mark was the one who initially got me into the horseback riding I do every Friday, and he encouraged me to sign up for the Winter Sports Clinic three years ago. Mark and his wife, Sunny, are a very inspiring couple and I am extremely honored to know them.

Once again, I had the breakfast buffet in my blender: scrambled eggs, bacon, mixed fruit, and potatoes.

Grace photobomb!

So we went to some hot springs. On the way there, we stopped at the Elk's Lodge in Glenwood, where they served us an absolutely delicious meal for lunch. I blended up elk (apparently calling it an 'Elk's Lodge' is a trick to lure in unsuspecting elk), antelope, pheasant, trout, mashed potatoes, and green beans in the Vitamix!

Some animals were harmed in the making of this photo

The hot springs were a disappointment to me. I was picturing secluded pools of steaming water, surrounded by towering Rocky Mountain cliffs, with the only sound coming from the wind and the gentle clacking of frolicking mountain goats. Instead, I got a huge swimming pool:

Some dreams were shattered in the making of this picture

The bottom of the pool looked dirty. I'm sure the water was clean; probably cleaner than what I would get in a swimming pool. But it didn't look clean and add to that a whole lot of little kids running around doing who-knows-what in the pools and I didn't feel very comfortable getting in there with my feeding tube. I did it anyway, though (didn't get any infections-yea!). It felt nice, but I could've gotten the same thing from the hotel's hot tube, minus the screaming kids. Add to this that I had to ride on a bus for an hour to get there and Betsy and Grace couldn't come because Betsy wasn't feeling well and they didn't want to be liable in case anything happened to Grace on the bus. So, this was definitely my least favorite activity over the past three years.

Wednesday's dinner was back at the Westin hotel. I had a cobb salad, meatballs, and a vegetable medley in the Vitamix. Thursday was another snowboarding day AND another omelet bar in the morning!!!

The only thing better than an omelet bar is a regular bar

Betsy and Grace skied with me while I snowboarded again! Before we left, they got outfitted in their Team R4V shirts. Thanks again, Team R4V!!!!

There's no danger of losing them in those shirts

I signed up to snowboard all day on Thursday. The morning was rough because it was pretty icy, I fell down a few times and I got discouraged. I decided to try again in the afternoon on a part of the mountain that, hopefully, would be a bit more soft and wide for my gentle snowboard turns. Before that though, I had a fast lunch consisting of a taco salad and a luna bar:

Refueling before re-hitting the slopes

Thursday afternoon went much better for me and I got my confidence back up in both my balance, and using the outrigger while snowboarding! I'll share some photos and a video in another post.

Dinner on Thursday was meatloaf, a spinach salad, and mashed potatoes:

Refueling before we hit the dance floor for the 6 Million Dollar Band

On most evenings, they have a dance for the veterans with a live band providing the entertainment. Wednesday night's act was the 101st Airborne Division band. Thursday, we were treated to a group called the 6 Million Dollar Band. They are an 80s cover band based out of Denver and they played pretty much every hit from the decade. Grace said they played "6 million songs." She couldn't get enough of it, and was out on the dance floor until way past her bedtime (10 PM!).

So, it was a weary group that went to breakfast on the last full day of the Clinic. I did the usual breakfast bar and added a Carnation Instant Breakfast to the blend for some extra calories:

Ready for Race Day!

Friday was race day, when every veteran gets timed going through a slalom course. I didn't think much of their slalom course. The flags were more geared toward skiers and I ended up falling a couple times and it took me forever to finish. But my trainer, Michelle, was kind enough to take me back up the mountain for one last run on a course I'd done really well on Thursday. So, I ended my week of snowboarding on a high note!

After that, we were treated to another Taste of Snowmass in the Village. I got beef stew and added in a Real Food Blend and another Lara Bar back in our room.

No tube explosions this time

It was the end of another great week in Snowmass. I'm always sorry to see it end, knowing that I'll have to wait another year for the next one--if we even go to the next one. We can't count on Team R4V to cover our costs every year and flying the three of us to Colorado for this event is outside our price range. So, I'll be on the hunt for sponsors to get me to the next Sports Clinic!

Friday evening before bed, we shared wine and desserts with Mike and Courtney while promising that we would stay in touch and hopefully see each other between now and next spring.

I drink my wine out of plastic cups because I'm classy

And now it's time for a little break from traveling (but not blogging) before possible trips to Minnesota, Germany, and Washington over the summer!

We got interviewed!

Jeff Haugh, one of the founders of Team R4V, the organization that sponsored our trip to Snowmass this year, was interviewed on a new podcast called "Beer 30" (sounds like my kind of podcast) earlier this year. Here's a link: http://beer30.podomatic.com/entry/2015-01-16T14_38_37-08_00. If you have 37 minutes to spare, you should check it out; Jeff's story is really interesting/inspiring. Pay no attention to the picture depicting someone with Muscular Dystrophy. Jeff has Multiple Sclerosis, so I think they confused the two. Despite this faux pas, it's a great interview!

While we were at the Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic in Snowmass, CO, last week, we reconnected with Jeff and he introduced me to Joel Hunt, one of the guys who does "Beer 30." Joel is a paralympian alpine skier and purple heart recipient. I'm sure he has a fascinating story himself, but I selfishly only talked about my own story with Joel because he decided to put Betsy and I on his podcast too!

I've been interviewed for newspaper articles and for radio segments, but this was my first podcast. Feel free to have a listen if you like: http://beer30.podomatic.com/entry/2015-04-01T18_31_28-07_00. I must admit that I cringed listening to it. For one thing, it's a little hard to understand me. For another, my voice sounds pretty weak. You know how when you listen to a recording of yourself and think, "THAT'S how I sound??? I never imagined my voice sounded like that!!"? Well, hearing myself on that podcast is that times 1,000. I'm higher pitched and have trouble enunciating my words with occasional drool thrown in. So while inwardly, I believe I sound suave and sophisticated when I speak, the reality is that my voice resembles Beaker's.

"Meep, Meep, tubie, Meep, Meep!"

Or sort of like the Office Space stapler guy?

"Excuse me. I believe you have my stapler."

But anyway, feel free to listen to the interview if you have 30 minutes to spare after you've listened to Jeff's interview. I think Betsy's voice makes up for my 'meeping.' We threw in some good plugs for Team R4V, but I regret that I wasn't able to segue the conversation into talking about Real Food Blends!!