Don’t mean to sound grumpy, but I don’t like travelling. I enjoy skiing, catching up with mates… which means I have to ‘travel’.
For someone who doesn’t like travelling, I did get up to lots of travelling in 2024. And it was a blast!!!
It was only a couple of weeks in to January and my mate Patch and I drove the 4hrs north to Bundaberg (where my Mum was born). I don’t know whose idea this was, must have been over a few adult drinks.
Patch’s best mate Greenie has a place on the golf course and it was a hoot of a trip!!! Coral Cove has a par six and one of Greenie’s lady golfing mates, she tees off three balls….
Family photos below. Lynne, pictured to my left, is not the lady golfer mentioned above. My imaginary girlfriend is the one on my right. Hahahaha.
Back from Bundaberg, I had enough time to pack and get on the plane to Vancouver. Joe and Mia are some of my oldest ski buddies. I met Mia and Joe back in 2004 (Queenstown and Big White). Jesus, 20 years ago.
Joe is a great walker (he is 84yo) and when Mia invited us to watch her Wheelie Rugby we thought that would be awesome. Walking in Joe, being a gentleman, offered to give Mia a push… hahahaha, Mia does loops around both of us.
Had the snow been better, Joe and Mia would have joined me for the road trip east to Fernie. It still feels like home (this is where I was ripped from when the COVID restrictions started). I was welcomed back by the Mayor of Fernie, Oscar (and his boss, Governor of Fernie, Diane who took this photo).
This is what it looks like in a ‘bad season’ hahaha. They got real snow, just a little later than when I was there.
My old snowshoe/hiking crew invited me along for the day. This is the crew that took me out to see Frank’s Slide, one of my Top Five Awesome Hikes (https://www.tomgrindlay.com/franks-slide/).
Terry, the guy who runs the trips is pretty amazing, I think he arranged the moose just for me.
On the way back to Vancouver, I swung by Kicking Horse. I nearly bought a block of land here 18 years ago. Was great to finally ski it!!!
Then it was off to Colorado to hang out with my adopted folks.
Since I was 21yo, I have skied every birthday (end of January). I’ve missed a few because of the ‘rona’ so when celebrating my Birthday back in Colorado, J-Bird put out three candles for the three birthdays I’ve missed. Pretty cool!!!!
Toddy, the guy on the right here is one of my sporting buddies from when I was at uni (I was never at uni, but you know what I mean). Was pretty cool getting some runs in with Marty (I mean Todd, inside joke).
I’ll interrupt the run of travels and show you guys some photos from my office this year…..
OK, so back in Colorado and I got to hang out with my old mate Eric and his crew who were just fantastic. This little fella is the heir to my Denver Broncos Season Tickets.
Before I got on the plane home, I had to catch up with K-Love. Caleb has bought and sold all sorts of vehicles for me when I lived in Colorado and now he lives in Florida. So, to Florida I went.
Getting home I was crook as a dog, early onset liver failure and COVID (what happened to get jabbed and stop the spread?). A few days later my Bribie mates Sharnie and Dan lined up a camping trip. Couldn’t ask for a more Aussie welcome back!
Then it was May and I ducked down to see Dave the Sailor in Port Macquarie. Just a boys trip with a bit of engineering work, a Park Run and a big hike.
On the way back I was driving past Mt. Warning. It is one of the COVID orphans and has been closed since.
What do you think I did?
Then it was a couple of quiet months until I headed south skiing with Little Spoon and Mandy.
Snow wasn’t great this season, so I got a little bit of hiking in.
On the drive back north I swung by Ulladulla and looked after a mates horses for 3 weeks…..
That was it for my my year of travels…
Ow, no, I ducked up to Mackay to see Jarrad and Annie in November. The real reason for the trip was for Jarrad to help me fix this:
Jarrad fixed it. And we went jetskiing. And on the way home I drove inland and spent a couple of days at the Carnarvon Gorge.
And that sums up my year of not wanting to travel…… 2025 is already looking like lots of travel.