To Telluride

Whew – this weekend has been a whirlwind.  Things have finally calmed down just a little bit as we have arrived at our final destination for this week – Telluride!  Zack is taking place in a camp here in Telluride this week and I am along for the ride.  Last year Zack took part in the Telluride Academy weeklong program.  This is a program that is similar to a shortened version of outward bound.  The kids are challenged to grow and enhance their outdoor skills and experience. 

Tomorrow morning at 9:00AM I will drop him off at the Telluride High School/Middle School.  He will spend the rest of the day working with his group doing fun and adventurous things!  Unfortunately for me after I drop him off I will be back in the hotel room working – yuck!

Our trip to Telluride was a lot of fun.  We left the house yesterday afternoon around 4:00PM and headed to our condo in Silverthorne.  Prior to that I spent several hours swearing and coursing at my bike rack!  I moved my bike rack from my 2001 Honda Civic to my 1998 Ford Explorer.  All I can say is – I curse you Yakima Bike Mounts!   Somewhat teasing by that statement but there was a point on Friday evening that I wanted to kill the designer of the Yakima ‘Universal Mount”. 

Unfortunately the electricity is still off in my condo!  I will have some harsh words for Xcel energy tomorrow!!  We ended up spending the evening in my brother’s house in Silverthorne.  Before that we meet up with my college roommate – Allen Greenberg for dinner.  Allen is in town for work conference in Breckinridge.  After the conference he is taking the following week and riding in Bicycle Tour Colorado.  (We rode the BTC together back in 2008.)  We will meet up with Allen again after our week in Telluride.

This morning we got up and did some work cleaning up our electricity-free condo.  We got on the road from Silverthorne around 10:40AM and we took our time crossing Colorado.  We stopped each time we crossed the continential divide and I got a picture of Zack at the divide point.  On top of that we took a detour and went to the only National Park in Colorado we have never been to – The Black Canyon of the Gunnison.  It was an absolutely amazing experience as the canyon is so deep and so amazingly beautiful.  I look forward to going back there and spending a lot more time there exploring and photographing.

After we stopped at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison we pretty much made a bee-line towards Telluride.  Every time I drive to Telluride I get a pit in the bottom of my stomach.  It brings back lots of memories from 2008 when I rode Bicycle Tour Colorado and I road my bike the whole way into Telluride from Montrose.  That was QUITE a ride and each time I drive that route by car I re-live that bicycle ride.  Even now – three years after the event I still think of that as one of the toughest days of riding I have ever had.

This evening Zack and I spent walking around Telluride and riding the system of Gondola’s that are unique to the town.  We got some great views from the top of the first gondola and I identified a bunch of waterfalls I want to try and hike to during the next several evenings.  We did dinner at the local brewpub around the corner from our hotel and then came back to the hotel to relax for the evening.

Despite having to work all week, I am sure we will have a great week here in Telluride.  I hope everyone else has a great week too!

Thanks and peace to all! ~J.

FYSRD!

FYSRD!!

The Internet connection is not good from Telluride so I have been unable to add the pictures I wanted to this blog post.  With any luck I can do that tomorrow!