What I Did On My Vacation, Part Whatever

Miss me? Doubt it. Again.

Yeah, I write about vacations often. Just so happens that I like to travel. I suppose that's part of what draws me to the broadcasting business in the first place -- although, with all due respect to my current digs of downtown Indianapolis, the "work" trips usually pale in comparison to the "fun" trips.

I should mention, however, that if one has to travel for work, Indy is highly underrated. Downtown Indianapolis is everything that Downtown Orlando would love to be, if only Downtown Orlando ever got out of the house. Within a five-minute walk of my hotel, I can find a museum dedicated to the history of the NCAA, plus the RCA Dome, the utterly stunning Conseco Fieldhouse, the soon-to-be stunning Lucas Oil Stadium (next year's home of the Colts), the minor-league baseball Victory Field, plus the state capitol, a dozen great restaurants, and about a zillion friendly people. My wife gives me a hard time about how much I enjoy Indianapolis -- and seeing as how I once got her a press pass for the Indy 500, wherein she hooted and hollered like the good racing redneck that she insists she didn't marry, she really ought to simmer down.

Anyway, I am here because the Orlando Magic are playing the Indiana Pacers tomorrow night on FSN Florida. How I got here, however, is worth a few minutes.

Mrs. Red Sox Nation and I just celebrated our 10th anniversary. I know, I know, I overachieved. Or, as I prefer to call it, I outkicked my coverage.

For this momentous occasion, we worked out a plan to take a vacation without our precious children. We love them very much, both of them; we also needed this. The plan, to make a long story short, was to go skiing. With all the planning of a dart at a map, we chose Taos, New Mexico.

For those who have never made the trip, the Taos ski area is just about the hardest place to get to among any vacation spot you can imagine. It makes Auburn look like Atlanta. You fly to Albuquerque, which is only forever, then drive two-plus hours straight uphill through some of the most breathtaking country you have ever seen. "Breathtaking" is actually a cop-out -- despite my rep as a writer, despite my English major and allegedly vast experience on the road, I honestly cannot capsulize the vistas we enjoyed while piloting a rental car up to 9,400 feet above sea level.

Ever heard the phrase "Big Sky?" It's usually attached to a ski area in Montana. All I can tell you -- and again, I'm struggling -- is that I have never understood the phrase "Big Sky" as well as I do now. New Mexico, and the American southwest, is Big Sky. Mammoth. Endless. Overwhelming. Please, if you take nothing out of anything I write in this space, please please please treat yourself to a visit to this region of America. You will be humbled. You will bore your traveling companion with repeated references to how bloody enormous and vast it looks. You will never look at a strip mall off I-95 the same way again.

So once we had literally climbed the mountain, we finally arrived at the Taos Ski Valley, which is essentially an Alpine village tucked into a crevice among the sharpest, most hostile terrain I've ever visited. There are about five restaurants, four hotels, two ski shops, and maybe 100 permanent residents of "TSV." And it's in the middle of absolute nowhere. Needless to say, we had a blast.

We hit the slopes like mad. And why not -- there's nothing else to do there. Fully 51 percent of the mountain is rated as "expert," which was way beyond my skill set, but worth every minute. We ate like kings. We signed up for a wine dinner wherein we met the owners of a small vineyard in Alexander Valley, California, who asked us for our e-mail addresses. By the end of the week, we knew every employee of our hotel by their first names. I'm skipping everything, including two days visiting Santa Fe, my cathartic experience of driving past "The Pit" at the University of New Mexico, and an utterly bizarre dinner at the oldest hotel in TSV, but it's only because I'm excited and exhausted. Once I get home to Orlando and recover, I would like to go into Taos Ski Valley in greater detail, only because I found it fascinating.

But mostly, I'm wiped. And we have a game tomorrow.

I'll be home on Sunday, about three hours before kickoff for the Super Bowl. In all seriousness, I hope your week was as wonderful as mine.

Back to reality. See you on TV.