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It is one of those stories that I want to start with....
Once apon a time, long , long ago, in a land far, far away there were two dufus (DU-FUS Dumb and fumbling stupids) that took advantage of the possibility of jumping on a bus to ski Austria.
My grandfather used to say that if you had one boy you had a helper, if you had two boys you a recipe to a garenteed disaster.
Well if you have one dufus you have the making making of a good entertaining story and if you have two dufus you have the recipe to story that people will say there is no way anybody anybody could be that dumb and fumbling stupid.
Just about anytime that that Mike Ike and I went skiing drinking would somehow get involved you woiuld have a tale of two dufus.
One day while sking at Flachau, where I had only been once or twice I ran across Mike Ike. When we took a break it just so happened that we decided to have lunch which of course included drinking.
On this particular occasion, Mike said I should give the propietor of the ski hutte a hard time and complain that his jagertea was crap too weak and to small to warm a person up.
What the heck, why not? So I did. Apparently he was well respected and very proud of his drinks and food that he sold. I could tell right aawy the guy was more then a little pissed off. but it ws to late and the damage was done. I remember the amount the guy charged me was way more then I expected to pay for a jagertea.
Mike and I got our food and sat outside to wait for the drink to arrive.
We were laughing and joking, the usual dufus behavior whenI see the guy bringing THE DRINK. It's a bier hall mug jager tea, the thing is so hot the guy has the glass handle wrapped in napkins and there is so much Stroh's Rum in the thing that even outside in the open, people are turning thier heads way as he walks by.
My first thought was oh christ, how am I gonna drink this and get off the hill but of course I was gonna make the best effort to drink it and back then my alcohol tollerence was a lot higher. Just to make sure that we consume it the guy who made the drink keeps checking on us.
Well we do get it down but it takes alot more time then I expected and the it was time to make a few runs down the hill, call it a day and take the bus home. Simple plan that was now very complicated.
The simple idea of finding the skis was rather trying and getting the skis on was even more complicated. Those two simple points were a challenge and a source of great entertainment for anybody watching. By the time we had lunch and found the skis, got the skis on it was time to head to the bus.
Now as that only requires gravity to work and for the ski to be flexible to not fll down and slide down the hill it should be simple.
Getting down the hill was simple. Getting down on the right side of the hill was the complicated part. Mike ended up on the right side of the hill but I ended up on the wrong side and short on time. A very dufus move.
So I am at the bottom of the hill and not enough time to call a taxi and I doubt that I had enough money anyhow.
I have my ski and poles over my shoulders trying to trot and hitch-hike at the same time.
As luck would have it a car load of Austrian girls stopped and gave me a ride. My german was always better after afew drinks and right theni was a fluent silver tongued devil, the girls gave me a ride around to where the bus was.
Mike was there waiting on the bus, everybody on the bus was uspset at being held up, but somehow for some reason being delivered by a car load of smiling young ladies made it a little better.
I never again critizied the jagertea on Flachau and was a little more hesitant about listing to Mike Ike.

But it was agreat afternoon all and all.
Joe P.