SheBuysTravel |
I had no idea Bart Wright had skied competitively in high school when I met him stepping out of his VW bus in front of my Berkeley apartment back in 1974. Nor was I aware that Harold Tobin was an avid skier when we’ d met the year before at a concert in Connecticut. Or that Stephan Quentzel loved bashing moguls, and that his brother, Josh, was a ski instructor at Jay Peak.
Our mutual love of skiing rarely entered our conversations as we formed a loose group that collectively racked up about 700 Grateful Dead shows over the years. When you spend every waking hour driftin’ and dreamin’ while dancing at, driving to, or discussing past and future concerts, all other topics— even skiing— lurk in the shadow of the moon.
The VW bus is gone, but we still know how to hit the road and travel together, in pursuit of something we love.
So here we are, 40 years later, heading out to ski in the Canadian Rockies and Purcells, our vintage VW replaced by an eight-metre Maxi Motorhome RV rented from CanaDream in Calgary. Fully winterized but lacking a cassette deck to play fabled Dead bootlegs, I connect my phone and dial up a 1991 Jerry Garcia Band live version of“ Tangled Up in Blue,” my
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Photo: CRAI S. BOWER
traditional launch tune I’ ve played to start road trips across the continent.
The Dead-related chatter that was ubiquitous during our 1980s cross-country sojourns is now replaced by talk of Banff Sunshine Village, Lake Louise, Kimberley and Fernie, our setlist for the coming week. Every winter, Bart splits time between Tahoe and Park City, Harold skis
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