Powder days, stealth parking & van life problems in Aspen

Vlog 28 Location: #Aspen, #Colorado Picking back top from our last video with a fresh GoPro battery. Time to go and explore downtown Aspen. While walking around, we explore the real estate listings and are shocked by what we find. I mean we've heard that Aspen is posh, but wow, we never expected those prices. Probably stick to visiting in the van. We enjoy walking around the are and hear some awesome music and go to check it out. We had heard that the apres ski scene was epic, and we found that to be correct. We follow the music to the base of the Aspen (Ajax) gondola and check out the scene at Ajax Tavern with their DJ. We head back to the park and ride in anticipation of the snow, wanting to get settled before the storm hits. We hang out, work on some videos, watch YouTube and cook a simple dinner of brats, salad and baked beans. We wake up the next morning to a winter wonderland! The snow plows came by in the am and buried us a bit, but we have shovels for a reason. However, that's for later. It's time to go hit those slopes! We take the bus to #Snowmass and check out the gondola up to the lifts. Now it's time to explore and find some amazing powder tree runs. It was a true Colorado powder day and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. But all good things must come to an end. We get back to the van at the park and ride and discover a water leak from the passenger side roof. So we scramble to get everything as dry as possible to prevent mold. There was lots of paper towels and Chris even tried flipping the vacuum around to blow the air onto the areas. While Chris is being inventive, I go to make coffee. Unfortunately, Luna decided to jump up front and hit the power cord, causing the milk frother to fall onto the ground, so there was definite crying over spilled milk. After getting both those #disasters contained, we head to Safelight auto glass to see if they could fix the massive dent in our windshield (we got from the day before from a random rock hitting us while driving). Unfortunately, it was too big to repair which means we have to now order a new windshield and hope it doesn't crack further. They say trouble comes in 3s, which was true, but didn't stop us from thoroughly enjoying our time in Aspen. We hit up a Love's truck stop to dump our tanks, get gas and get snacks and coffee before enjoying the long drive home. Time stamps: 0:00 - Aspen real estate 1:12 - Intro 1:57 - downtown Aspen 3:38- dinner time 4:06- next morning, park and ride 4:20 - gondola rides 4:25 - powder boarding 6:52 - buried 7:58 - water leak 11:14 - coffee time 11:28 - spilled milk 12:43 - cracked windshield 14:12 - driving home 14:38 - closing time Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/9... https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/3... https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/B... https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/b... https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/7... Follow us on Instagram for behind the scenes and live content: @helen_of_troyvato   / helen_of_troyvato   Hi! We're Chris and Tracy. We're from the Los Angeles area. We've been married since 2009! Chris grew up traveling with his family and Tracy caught the travel bug during our honeymoon. And we've been on the go since as much as our jobs allow. Covid has caused so many problems for so many individuals. We found ourselves in a situation that many others found themselves in.....cancelled plans for international #travel. Working in the healthcare industry, as administrator and practitioner, we found ourselves feeling the extra stress without an escape. Upon the initial opening in California in May, 2020 we decided to make the jump and buy a converted #campervan so we could still travel domestically as a means to escape the stressors of our jobs and covid. It also allowed us the ability to travel with our 3 dogs: Keyna, Maya, and Luna. Upon seeing our van, we both commented that it was the perfect shade of USC Trojan cardinal. Being lifelong fans of the football team and Tracy being an alumni, we knew we had a perfect play for a Trojan inspired name with our newly purchased 2018 (used) Winnebago Travato. And that's how Helen of Troy(vato) got her name. We started out with the hopes that we could get away once a month to make our investment worth it. We've been amazed at how much we've used our van!!! Since purchasing our van on 5/28/20, we have gone 25,000 miles and have visited 9 states and 10 #nationalparks. We've been enjoying documenting our trips via Instagram and wanted to go one step further. We love watching #vanlife videos but noticed most were doing it full time. We thought we may have a niche to fill being #parttimevanlifers. And that's where our vision for this #travelvlog channel began.