SLEIGH RIDE:

On Thursday evening, Howard had arranged for us a sleigh ride to a nearby ski hut, where we would eat dinner and then be sleighed back home. The name of the place was the “Snowed Inn.” It was a fine evening.

Because there were several sittings in the hut, we had to leave early -- at 17.30. It was cold as the night approached. Two big horses pulled each of our three sleighs. The ones pulling our sleigh were Belgians, the same breed that pulls the beer wagons during Munich’s Oktoberfest. The sleighs themselves were made of stainless steel, which -- we were told – is lighter than the previous, wooden sleighs. They are manufactured in Pennsylvania by Amish sleigh specialists.

Our driver was named Travis and he was a cowboy. Chaps, ten-gallon hat, boots, gloves and a certain shy and awkward politeness. I sensed that Travis was the real thing and not some Ralph Lauren faux cowboy.

The sleigh ride to the ski hut was about 300 yards up a gentle ski slope and lasted only ten minutes, which was fine with me. It was cold in the sleigh and the blanket that we were supposed to pull over our laps had too much loose horsehair on it.

“Ski hut” is perhaps not the right term to describe the restaurant. It was more like a large, wooden-sided barn with a tin roof. A fireplace warmed the barn. Inside were many tables. Some were already occupied. More people arrived later, coming on sleighs, of course. Our party had two tables, if I rightly recall.

The place had a distinctly Western atmosphere, to include a country-and-western singer armed with a real, “acoustic” guitar. (Confidentially, when I was growing up in New York City, we used to call that kind of music “hillbilly,” a term which, like so many other things, is probably no longer PC.)

The menu was simple, the choices were few, service was prompt, the food was good and things went briskly. Even the wine was good. Afterwards, we piled back into the sleighs and sped down the hill. The horses dug their feet into the snow to slow down the weight of the sleighs.

Picture 38. A stainless-steel sleigh

Picture 39. Another stainless-steel sleigh. In the front row: John McNerney, Rush Yelverton and Paul Sper. In the second row: Gary and Nadine Beech and John and Karla Moellering.