What's Avon Like?

The Vail Vally consits of a string of towns from East to West... (upper valley) East Vail, Vail Villiage, West Vail, (lower valley) Eagle Vale, AVON/Beaver Creek and Edwards. Locally there are references to the north side or south side of the I70 which connects not only all the local towns together, but a whole bunch of US states as well.


http://www.mtvacations.com/map.html shows a simple map of the valley. The combined area's year round population is arounf 47,000 Vail itself was around 45oo, Avon around 5,500



Where I live in the Buffalo Ridge Appartments is in Avon (zip81620) on the north side of the vally. Almost directly across from the "Ritz", on the south side of the Valley and above Avon is Beaver Creek, a very wealthy ski-resort town and mountain (which also ads its own local sales tax onto existing state taxes, I think another 6-7% which is not uncommon in the very wealthy resort towns i.e. Vail) ...so even though everyone raves about how cheap things are to buy in the US prices are pretty much the same where I'm living, as they are at home in Australia .



Some things are cheaper... I totally love the fact that you can by 2L of WATER for 69c!!! this is totally reasonable to me. And also the fact that I have not seen a pair of Jeans (inluding Levis and other big names for over us$30. But then some things are more expensive. On average the prices in resort areas are the same as back home. Onions are rediculously HUGE and Cabbages are rediculously SMALL (think softball size) Cheese is rediculously ORANGE and it was blown away to find James Boags Premium (from Tasmania!!!) for US$5 at the OutBack Restaurant. But since only having earned US$510 it was probably actually an AUS$8 stubby - making it the most expensive beer I have ever tasted :)



This photo is the one in my collection which I think pretty well sums up Avon in winter...





A couple others that I though were worth posting... I am not sure how well they come out on this blog...

This one is actually Edwards Station



Avon almost has an Australian sense of humour about it too, we have this great Liquor Store in town (let me remind you Beaver Creek is just up the hill from Avon...)


This store also has a humour range of apparel and accessories, but I think you will find that there main website slogan is ..."100 million men, and a few women... can't be wrong!!!"

I have not yet found these ones, but not too far away there is also "Beaver Divers" a dive shop and also a "Master Bait & Tackle" :D



The police cars (Dodge Chargers :D alright!!) and 4WDs up here are awsome they look like they mean business (those that are inclined will think twice about trying to outrun them:), but I still have not yet gotten any good photo's.



AND the police are so vigilent and ever present around the valley it really highlights how under funded Melbourne and potentially australian police are. And then they also have the State Troopers (I think are highway patrol) and The Sherifs Department aswell. You see all 3 Departments out and about regularly... In Australia I think I have only ever seen a Sherif's car once!!!


This is actually a photo from above East Vail and I am not sure how well it comes out in reduced size but it gives a broader picture of life up here... and note how the cloud cover is still cutting off the sumit of the mountain in the distance... We are very high up 2265m in Avon. Vail 15mins away is even higher, and that is before you head up the mountain 3527m (3.5km above sea level!!!). The highest elevation I drive to is actually about 3249m above sea level over Vail Pass and also through the Eisenhower Tunnel - the WORLDS HIGHEST automobile tunnel - which is 330m below the summit of the Continental Divide.

Understandably the altitude is affecting all the newbies to one degree or another. Typical problems are, headaches from dehydration if you are not drinking enough water, dry lips, dry skin, blood noses, and shortness of breath. Typical Daniel did not notice any of these untill it was pointed out to me that I was 'supposed' to be having problems with the altitude :D I am so increadibly suggestible :) ...luckily though the only real symptoms I notice are dry lips and shortness of breath. I'll be having to catch my breath after climbing only two floors in our apartment building... I am going to be knackered when I finally hit the slopes!!!



The walk from home down the hill to Avon is about 20 mins. That's if we can't be bothered waiting to hitch a ride part of the way, on the company staff shuttle that takes us to work hourly from 4am till the last driver is back in the valley. Which will soon mean it runs 24hrs. It's a good walk for expanding our lungs especially comming home - up hill. Apparently when we all decend back toward sea level we will all feel like athletes having adapted to 15% (I think I heard) less oxygen 'concentration' in the mountains.