Telluride

6/7/09 ~ After a long nights sleep under the pavilion, we woke up to near freezing temperatures. It was so cold that I had no intention of getting out of my sleeping bag. That was quickly changed as Bobby got the team up and going. Breakfast consisted of Donuts at the local Sinclair and than we were off. The ride was beautiful and the scenery for the first time reminded us of beautiful Lancaster. There were green fields with rich, freshly tilled soil. Than we descended into disappointment valley and sure was it disappointing. The road was terrible and it stretched out across this desolate valley for miles. We chugged along and soon climbed back up onto the high plains where we saw for the first time, the Rockies in all their splendor. They were both beautiful and intimidating as we knew we had to navigate our way over those monolithic structures.

We breaked in a small town called Norwood and ate at a local grocery store. Three of us enjoyed a nice nap right in the parking lot. We had rode 75 miles by 12:00 that day and the hardest part of the day was over, so we relaxed. 

After Lunch, we rode down an incredible hill into a canyon and rode along the San Miguel river up to Placerville. There, we met an awesome couple named Mark and Kathy who quickly opened their home to us. We were also only 17 miles from the ski town of Telluride and because we weren't going to ride that way, Kathy offered to take us up there for the evening. We rode to Telluride and were in complete awe of the quaint town completely nestled in the grande San  Miguel mountains. We rode the ski life half way up the mountain for free and enjoyed looking at the mountains. 

After a quick supper at the local grocery store, we proceeded to hitchhike down the road to Placerville. We were picked up by a nice woman named Amy who was a custom artist. She does incredible work for wealthy people who live in Telluride. She took us to her house and showed us some of her work before dropping us off at Mark and Kathys. 

That night, we enjoyed the warm hot tub and showers. We also met up with four of bobby's friends from Penn State who were driving across the country. They happened to be in the same area and Mark and Kathy were fine with all of us pitching tents in their yard. We all enjoyed hot dogs around the fire and than we crashed into the tent. It had been a really full day.