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Wednesday, July 23, 2008, Sunshine Campground, Colorado
We slept in till 9:00, nice. The sun was out and drying the tent. Today we drove off to Telluride to see the famous resort for the day. Beautiful place, bikes everywhere, 15 mph speed limit in town. First we stopped at a grocery store for food, expensive, but the grapes were not, only $1.29 a pound, and firm, fresh, and delicious, so we bought about six pounds and some bananas. There was free parking next to the river, so we parked and walked along the river trail to the gondolas, free also, that took you high above the city, up to the top of the mountain. A fun ride, fast too; the kids loved it, so did I. Mountain bikes are allowed on the gondolas, and some people bike down the ski runs. Sounds like fun. At the top, we went to a nature museum where a ranger taught us about trees and wildlife. From there we boarded another gondola to Mountain Village where John, Sarah, and I did trampoline bungee jumping. Fun. After many double back flips at that altitude, I was pooped. Again, all free. After all had had enough, we took the two gondolas back down to Telluride and walked around the city. One of the clothing stores used to be the bank that Butch Cassidy robbed $10,000 from at gunpoint in the 1800s. Across the street was the original vault that housed the money. We took pictures in front of it, of course. By then it had begun to rain, so we went to the library, everyone’s favorite place. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my journal with me, so I read the blog and tried to respond to the messages, but no luck. I’m going to have to ask someone who knows, so he can show me. After a couple of hours, we decided to leave. It was still raining, but the public bus came by shortly, and we all boarded. Again, no charge. The driver of had dreadlocks and was playing jazz music. Kinda soothing. He dropped us off at our van and we rode back to the campground. Telluride turned out to be such a nice place to visit with so many interesting things to see and do for free. Unfortunately, it never stopped raining, but at just the right time there was a lull in the rain which allowed us to start a fire in the dampness by carefully constructing a fine stick pyramid and setting it on fire. It’s hard enough to start a fire when it’s damp, but at high elevations, there is less oxygen and it always seems harder. I’m going to buy some lighter fluid. Finally we got the fire going and managed to cook and eat in the rain, hot dogs and potatoes. The stuff we had inside the tent got wet because the tarp didn’t fully cover it, so lots of clothes and two sleeping bags got wet. After everyone had eaten and gone to bed, I stayed up trying to dry my much needed sweatshirt by dangling it over the fire for 45 minutes; it worked and I got an upper body workout. I’m not sure when I finally went to bed, but it was late.