Jimmy V Foundation Charity Event in Reno/Tahoe

Last week Katie, Amit, Trishelle, & I went on a 3-day vacation to Reno, Nevada for a charity tournament. The organization putting together the charity tournament was the Jimmy V Foundation and if you’ve never heard of them, you should definitely google the name, Jimmy Valvano. He was a basketball coach who took a Cinderella team, NC State, to a national championship but unfortunately succumbed to cancer years later. ESPN endorses the foundation and it is cancer research group. Anyways, on our one hour flight from LA to Reno we were able to get some drinks in. The flight attendant gave us two right off the bat and then told us we could get another one on the house. Having never refused a free alcoholic beverage, we obliged. As soon as she delivered the drinks we started our descent and the flight attendant basically started telling us to chug. She even starting rooting us on. Chug! Chug! Chug! Needless to say, when we arrived at the hotel we were already a bit tipsy. We all took a nap then decided to do drink the night away. I tried scotch for the first time, which actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I must’ve been very tired because once 9:30PM rolled around I decided it was time for bed. I can’t tell you the last time I went to bed before 9:30PM. The last time that happened I’m pretty sure was back when I was 11. Just goes to show how much of a night owl I am.

The next day we took to the slopes. It was Amit & my first time ever. After having to buy $200 worth of ski clothes and filling out some waivers, we were good to go. Katie and her friend Tara had already gone on 3 runs before we even got our skis on. Once we did, they told us to take the skis for a ride and somehow I didn’t fall after going down a small hill. Amit however wasn’t so fortunate. Granted he didn’t hurt himself or anything but it still was funny to watch. Speaking of watching it, you can check out my Youtube account, Roothlus1, and watch exactly what I just described plus other cool videos. Amit and I were able to get lessons from a really cool guy who was a great teacher. We learned how to stop and turn from side to side on our skis. After about an hour he felt we were ready to go on the easiest ski trail. I fell a few times initially, not because it was hard, but because I had trouble stopping. Apparently, a guy my size can really start going fast if he’s on skis. On skis, I’m kind of like an 18-wheeler. Takes a long time to get going but once I do, look out! So after a few falls we got going again and our instructor was riding a little faster in front of us. He was swerving back and forth when I started picking up steam and couldn’t get myself to slow down. I screamed “Watch out, watch out! I’m coming!”. He didnt hear me and I crashed into him. Luckily we weren’t going too fast so we were okay. Amit was behind us both and he was able to maneuver around us.

As we’re down on the ground laughing we hear him make some sort of a yelp while trying to dodge hitting us. It wasn’t a scream or a yell, but a yelp. We’re down on the ground watching him and he can’t stop himself either. There was a fork in the trail approaching and he decided to go the uphill way but when he angled his skis that way, he turned to fast and went off the trail at a decent speed. He hit a bump and got airborne and he smacked into a stone wall with his skis first. We had to see if he was okay and once we saw that he was, we burst out in laughter. It was hilarious watching him fly into the wall especially when he’s perfectly fine after the fact. Once we finished the trail, the lesson was over and overall our first day on the slopes was a success. Back at the lodge we had some Bailey’s and hot chocolate and that is now officially my new favorite drink. It’s phenomenal. Here’s a pic right after we put on our skis.

Later that night we played in the charity tournament. I ended up having both Amit and Tara at my table and I knocked them out in back-to-back hands. Go figure. I was able to play with Jan from the Brady Bunch, which I thought was pretty cool. She was really nice and made our table a lot of fun. I ended up going pretty deep in the tournament getting 17th. Jeff Madsen busted me and hopefully that footage will show up on ESPN when they air this. I was almost happy I busted because there was a guy who was making us take Patron tequila shots ever 15 minutes and I could not keep up with that. Matt Graham ended up going on to finish 2nd and hopefully got some tv time as well. A local Reno poker player scooped up first place so that
was cool that a local beat out all the poker pros there.

The charity even was a blast and I would happily go back again if they decided to have another one of these. I’ll also be way more inclined to go skiing now that I learned a thing or two. Now I’m off to Fort Lauderdale to visit the fam and then Mohegan Sun on the 6th. It’s always nice to visit home and see old friends. It puts things in perspective a bit and makes me appreciate everything more. Until next time peace out!

Posted on by Roothlus in Blog

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