Fulford

We had a game last night at Vail Mountain School (VMS). Crazy! It's expensive to send your kid there. ($18,000/year) It was the first time I've ever see the school, and it's crazy nice! Big too, although it is K-12. Sits right across I-70 from Vail mountain. Most schools have a bike rack outside. VMS has a ski rack, with lots of ski's in it. Just really foreign to me, but pretty neat! Below is a picture of the cafeteria... Our cafeteria for sure does not look like that... :-) (we won our game, although they would prolly for sure beat us in a ski competition!)

On the way up to the game I spent some time talking to the 8th grade coach who is a long time local (native) and spends lots of times up in the hills. He also is in charge of the county roads dept. There is a town about 20 miles up the mountain from us called Fulford. We go up there in the summer every year to go hiking and just exploring. It's absolutely gorgeous! Anyway, there is an old mining town up there, that might have about 50 residents at it's busiest time, and only 2 year round residents. It's a ghost town now (no mining) but still has some shacks and houses. The only resident who lives there full time is also a bus driver for the school dist. The cool thing about this is the fact that the town is completely snow blocked from about September till June.... She keeps a truck and trailer at the point where the road is plowed to (about 5 miles from her house.) She has to ride her snowmobile down to her truck every morning, then back home every night. She also drives an event bus, so that means she won't be getting back to her parking lot until maybe 9 or 10 at night, then still has a 5 mile snowmobile ride back to her house in Fulford. The coach said he sees her sometimes when he is up there at 3 in the morning plowing the road, and she will say hi, and offer him some fresh baked cookies as she is getting ready to drive down to the bus barn for her morning route.... It's just such an intriguing lifestyle, and so completely removed from everything modern! They do have solar electricity, but not much else. I think it's so cool!