Jackson Hole 1D,
Jan. 30, 2023,
Hi Everyone,

It’s been a long day, 14 hours door to door travel time. I was up at 6:00 and had a taxi waiting for me at 6:30. I always take Atlas Taxi as it is run by a group of Iranians who are always very friendly. One of my Iranian patients started off the company with a few partners several years ago. I got to the airport 3 hours early and was able to make it to the plane with half an hour to spare. The friendly USA has its own border customs in airports all over the world. I was able to grab a quick bagel and cap just in time for the final board call.

I don’t know why US border guards have to be so surly. ‘Where are you going?’ “Jackson Hole” ‘Where?’ “Jackson Hole” ‘Where’s that?’ “Wyoming” ‘Why you going there?’ “Medical conference” ‘Business or pleasure’ “Medical conference” ‘I said business or pleasure.’ “Ok, business” etc… I always try to be polite with border patrollers as they are always bigger than me, are armed and can call in reinforcements. Anyway, I got through it alright.

I flew to Newark, then on to Denver and finally to Jackson Hole. I had ¾ of an hour between flights and had to run across the airport to make my next flight. I ski on Salomon, QST 92 underfoot which is a powder ski. I recently bought a pair of Rossignol, Elite, Multiturn, 74 underfoot which is a carving ski. The Salmons are western skis and the Rossignols are eastern skis. I brought both pairs of skis to Jackson Hole, just in case… I was able to pack them both into my Dakine double ski bag into which I can put my  boots, my ski accessories and all of my clothes. Luckily it has rollers as I can’t lift the thing. They don’t weigh skis (secret) at the airport so I got on the plane with only a small brief case for my iPad and camera. I was worried that the skis would not make the transfer between planes but was delighted that we all arrived together.

I am staying at ‘the Hostel’ a rather cheap accommodation in the center of Jackson Hole at the base of the mountain. The conference is at a hotel called Snake Lodge a few minutes away and considerably more expensive. Usually I rent a condo with my kids a few minutest away but that option was not available this year. The Hostel caters to university students and I appear to be the white haired professor. Oh well! I split the cab ride with a couple of urologists as the airport is 25km away from the village. I am paying 250 times what I used to pay for a bed in a youth hostel in 1970 in Europe but I have my own room with a shower.

Tomorrow I will ski on my powder skis and check out the tree runs and chutes. They have received 250 inches of snow to date with a large snow fall 2 days ago. Today however it is freezing cold, -25C with a bluebird day expected tomorrow.

I am sitting at our old watering hole, the Mangy Moose and had an American special, a hamburger with French fries. The hamburger was 3 inches high with a salad in between the bread which I removed so that I could open my mouth to eat it. France is a country with 1000 recipes and 1 religion. The USA is a country with I recipe and 1000 religions.

See ya all tomorrow after a days skiing .

Love.
Brian

Jackson Hole 1C
Jan 30, 2023,
Hi Everyone,

I have been to Jackson Hole on multiple occasions over the last 30 years, always with a combination of a medical conference and skiing. People laugh, but the conference is superb. The conference runs from 6:30 am to 9:30 am including breakfast. On powder days, I cut out of 8:45. The conference resumes from 4:30 to 7:00 including ‘refreshments’. We are usually 75 urologists present which allows people to ask questions to the professors. The big American and European Urology Conferences have 10-12000 people present not including the reps from pharmaceuticals and medical equipment companies. I usually get lost in big conferences.

The Jackson Hole Urology Conference, also named the Ralph Hopkins Urology Conference after its founder.  About 12 years ago I started getting short of breath. I didn’t notice it that much as I was playing squash twice a week and hockey twice a week. My blood pressure was 105/55 and my pulse was 52. How could I have cardiovascular disease? I was almost dead wrong.

30 years ago I took Antoine to a medical-ski conference in Whistler. The next year I took Melanie and eventually the twins. Gradually the group grew from 2 to 3 to 4 to 8. Dominique joined our ski group and then came the boyfriend, the girlfriend, the husband and the wife. On our last trip to Jackson Hole we were 7. This year the 2 of the couples can’t come and the other 2 have 2 year old children and the voyage would be too difficult. Alas I am alone this time.

I tell the kids that we will start the day with some double black to warm up and then do something more difficult. At the top to the mountain we would climb up a little more, slightly out of bounds, to get some fresh pow-pow. (Powder snow or freshness) 10 years ago at the top I was gasping for breath but with no chest pain. I remember telling Alyson that my climbing days were over as I was too old!

I knew Ralph Hopkins as I had attended a few conferences and he new me on a first name basis. After one of the last sessions, he came up to me to have a chat. “ Hey Brian, how are you? How do you like the conference?” ‘Oh, I really like it.’ “Will you be back next year?” ‘Yes of course’. We shook hands and parted as friends and colleagues promising to see each other next year. 2 weeks after returning to Montreal, I had 3 heart attacks in the space of 10 days while playing hockey. I kept returning for the next game in spite of the angina. Eventually I had a quadruple bypass. I was playing hockey 3  months later and have done 10 triathlons since then. Ralph had a heart attack 3 months later and passed away. I came very close to seeing again and wonder if he is still waiting for me.

Love,

Brian
Sent from my iPad

Jackson Hole 1B
Jan. 30, 2023,
Hi Everyone,

The next paragraphs contain a little introduction to myself dedicated to those of you who are new to my blog. You may wish to skip this introduction if you know it by heart or have heard it several times before. I graduated McGill at age 20 in 1970 with a BSc in science and a major in psychology. Even at that time there was not much that I could do with it except to hope to get into medical school.

I worked for the summer with the Fuller Brush Company as a door to door salesman mostly selling household products. That was my 3rd summer with the company and I convinced them that I should be a manager and teach other students how to sell. Eventually, that summer I had 27 students working for me and I received a percentage of their sales. I accumulated a small fortune with enough money to pay for a trip to Europe for a full year.

I left Montreal on Sept. 10, 1970 with my friend Bram, and flew to Paris on a one way ticket for $82. This included free alcohol. We booked our flight with Tourbec, so all of the passengers were McGill, U of M and Sir George Williams students. Alcohol was free on board and real meals were served. This was the hippy generation and smoking tobacco among other things was tolerated. I still remember as we approached Paris, the pilot announcing that he wanted us to all ‘come down’ with the plane.

We stayed at a small hotel in Paris for 22 Fr (about $4). The Canadian dollar was worth something in those days. After 4 days , we grew tired of the Paris drizzle and hitched hiked to Marseille. We grew tired of hitching and eventually bought small motorcycles. It was harder for 2 guys to hitch together. Later I learned to either hitch alone or pick up a girl to hitch with which insured a ride. Bram had an accident and returned to Canada after 6 weeks. I returned 6 years later although I did go home for the summer 2 years later and every summer afterwards.

My budget was $3 a day, $1 for food, $1 for rent and $1 for gas. I slept out on beaches and in parks ⅓ of the time leaving me some money for alcohol which was dirt cheap then. I rode around Europe for 6 months, crossing North Africa and taking a ferry to Sicily. The bike was stolen in Italy so I hitch hiked for 6 months. It was an amazing time to be young as everything was safe them. I bought skis in Austria and skied for 2 months in Austria, Switzerland and Italy, sleeping in youth hostels where I met people from around the world. A ski ticket in Grindelwald cost me $28 for 14 days. I was rich beyond belief. Eventually I ended up in Israel, sleeping on beaches and working on a Kibbutz for 2 months.

My parents and my girlfriend kept my letters which I have not looked at for 51 years. Eventually, for my retirement, I will read them and write a travelogue. I flew to France in June 1971, took a French language course in Montpelier and enrolled in medicine at the Faculte de Medicine de Reims, the capitol of champagne. I also met my wife, Dominique there and imported her to Canada.

I travelled as much as possible during my 5 years in France. My love of travel never left me. The list of countries that I have visited is beyond the scope of this letter as my wife and I try to do 1 or 2 trips a year and I have done at least 30 ski trips out west. Hence my trip to Jackson Hole where I can combine a medical conference and fabulous skiing.

Love ,

Brian

Sent from my iPad

Jackson Hole 1A,
Jan. 30, 2023,
Hi Everyone,

I have been travelling for 53 years. Over the last 20 years I have documented my trip with a ‘blog’, sometimes accompanied with photos. I sent my blog to my family and friends. Over the last few years, my list has grown to over 100 people. Eventually I created several groups of readers. Still it became somewhat arduous to send the emails given the internet difficulties in different countries and while on the sea. My kids suggested that I creat a website-blog that people could go to to receive my news.

My daughter, Marion, used to work for a public relations company where her job was to approach ‘influencers’ to promote different products. Her company’s sponsors would pay thousands of dollars to certain people that had a large following. I asked her how I could be paid $10,000 for this type of work. I replied that I had at least 100 people on my list of ‘friends’. However, this did not seem to count as I was writing to them rather than them going to my website. So….Antoine, my son, helped me set up a website. Thus, my blog, gobriantravel.wordpress.com was created. Although Marion no longer works for the same company, my financial goals are still the same and I am hoping to accumulate 10,000 visitors to my website.

Love,

Brian
Sent from my iPad