Unexpected Cross Country Skiing In Texas

No. We have not received yet one more Arctic Blast, this time with snow. The snowy scene here is from earlier this century, at my first Texas abode.

I came upon this photo whilst looking for one of my brother attired like Wilma Flintstone, to no avail.

I took up cross country skiing way back in the 1980s.

In a Washington winter logging roads in the Cascade Mountains become cross country ski trails. Along with many other trails designated for cross country skiing.

I got quite good at cross country skiing. That type skiing is a bit more work than the type known as downhill skiing. I think that is what it is known as. The type skiing where you ride a lift up a mountain, and then slide at high speed down the mountain.

Prior to taking up cross country skiing I did the downhill chair lift enabled type skiing. That type skiing is a bit more challenging than cross country skiing.

With cross country skis you can go uphill. That is the heavy duty workout part of the sliding. 

I do not know why I brought my cross country skis with me to Texas. Prior to learning I was wrong, I thought Texas likely got no snow, and was real flat.

Within two weeks of my Texas arrival I experienced my first Ice Storm, along with snow, hence the photos above of me trying to slide on the icy snow.

If I remember right my attempt at cross country skiing on this occasion lasted about 10 minutes. Several years later I had moved to a location in East Fort Worth. A hilly location.

I never cross country skiied on those Fort Worth hills.

But, one winter a storm dropped many inches of snow. The roads were not iced up, so driving was easy, unlike during an Ice Storm.

So, I drove to Veterans Park in Arlington, which is quite hilly. Got there, got out the skiis and started sliding. Went up and down the hills multiple times.

I heard kids yelling, look that man is skiing. I assumed such a sight was quite rare in Texas.

I no longer have my cross country skis. I stupidly stored them in an outdoor closet on my patio. An unheated, uncooled closet. One winter, with another covering of snow, I went to get my cross country skis to find they had delaminated, from the HOT heat, I assumed.

I found the same had happened to my roller blades which I stored in my van. The heat did something bad to the plastic on the boots, rendering them broken. I discovered this soon after my arrival at my current location, after seeing how good the paved trails are here, and how conducive to roller blading they would be.

Maybe I'll do some shopping on Amazon, looking at roller blades and cross country skis...