I pressed on over the Colorado border, into mountain time and finally found myself in Idalia after 101 miles. Surprisingly, there happened to be a small motel in town (Idalia is a tiny, "no redlight" town). So I got myself a room because I didn't want to camp knowing that the next day would likely be one of the hardest so far. I walked to the other side of town to the only restaurant, Route 36 Grille & Pub, for some dinner, and was blown away when the sweet bartender woman went to the general manager/owner in the back and told him about my trip and they comp'd my entire meal. I had a chicken wing appetizer, a fillet mingion steaks dinner, and cheese cake dessert. It was delicious. I promptly went back to the motel and passed out.

I woke the next morning, and prepared for a long day. Went to the motel's morning cafe and ate a hearty breakfast. Once all packed up and stretched I hit the road again. I had heard from my friend in Denver who served in Niger with me, Kelly McNicholas, that she had already purchased a ticket for me to go to a bluegrass music festival, and that I needed to be there ASAP. So, I decided to make what was going to be a two day distance and try to make it in one. I sat on my bike for over eight hours that day and by nightfall had made it 131.5 miles, Crushing my previous personal best, I doubt I'll ever top this one. I was exhausted! My whole body was hurting and there was a storm brewing just ahead of where I was, 10-20 miles outside Denver. Not only that, but the highway I was traveling on merged with the interstate for a stretch when entering the city and I didn't want to take that risk, especially at night. So, feeling like I deserved a little help after such a long day, I let my friend from college, Adeev Getzel, come pick me up and bring me to his house. And that's where "home" has been for me in Denver since.

The next day, Kelly McNick, Kelly Pohl (another teammate of mine in Niger) and their friend Christa Long, met me downtown and we headed out for the bluegrass festival. I had little to no idea what they had planned or where we were going, but it was quickly explained to me that the festival was in Telluride, CO which was easily an 8-10 hour drive across the state, through some amazingly gigantic and beautiful Rocky Mountain passes. I couldn't stop "Ooooo-ing and Ahhhh-ing" the whole way. This state possesses some of the most indescribable beauty that I've ever laid eyes on. And Telluride was no exception. A tiny, but very nice city nestled in a valley and surrounded by tall mountains and a big waterfall, we had to take a gondola ride up and over one peak to even enter the town. Coming over the top of that peak was one of the most awe inspiring moments I've had in the U.S. Telluride looked like a little model town far below us (think of the movie Bettlejuice). With the influx of festival goers the town was bustling and there was a joyful spirit in the air. Everyone was simply enjoying the perfect scenery and the good music being played, along with plenty of good food and cold beer. It rained for about 3 hours and was pretty cold, but in the afternoon the sun broke the clouds and turned it into a gorgeous day. So we danced, and played games the whole day, ending with a good pub dinner in town. We made it to Ouray, CO that night where we had reserved a hotel room.

The next day, Father's day and the Summer Solstice, we awoke to an even more beautiful city and surroundings. I couldn't get over how amazing and unreal it all looked. After breakfast we walked around the town, the girls did a little shopping, and then we went on a hike up to a gorgeous waterfall. We actually hiked all the way above the falls to a ledge with a great view. Going up wasn't too bad, but backtracking down the steep slope with many loose rocks turned out to be rather dangerous. Christa made me laugh so hard when she gave herself a lesson on gravity and momentum. Coming down the ledge to the slope, her satchel bag was bothering her so she tried to lower it and drop it to the slope below her. I tried to say, "That's not going to work." But all I could do was watch. When the bag hit the ground, it started to roll down a little bit slowly, then turned into a tumble. Before a handful of seconds went by it was full on out of control down the mountain spitting its contents out along the way. Christa took it really well, and joined me in the laugh. There wasn't much she could do. Slowly we skidded and slipped our way down the slope trying not to hit each other with tumbling rocks. Christa eventually recovered her bag and most of its contents. We only had a couple of scary falling rock incidents. One basketball sized rock I stepped on fell and got going so fast by the time it landed below it had so much momentum it spun and jumped out away from the slope so far and fast that I was truly worried for the people far below seeing the waterfall. The other rock Christa started, and we were close enough to the hikers that I was able to holler out, "Heads Up!" Luckily, everyone made it off the mountain safely, and Christa only lost her AAA card and Walmart Card.

Feeling exercised and accomplished after our hike, we walked to Ouray's natural hot springs spa where we soaked in 100+ hot spring waters for three hours. It was awesome. They had built this spa house on top of the springs and in the basement where the changing rooms, etc. were they had the entrance to the Vapor Cave. Which was literally a rock cave in the mountain where 108 degree water sprung from turned the cave into the best sauna/steam room I've ever been in. They had built a rough pool to catch the water and some cement slabs for laying on, but all the walls, ceiling and floor were natural cave. An excellent, and very hot, place to melt away and relax. Then when you got too hot inside the cave, you could go outside the house to their hot springs fed patio swimming pool. This was only 102 degrees and the outside air felt incredible after being in the hot waters. Around five o'clock that beautiful Sunday afternoon we packed up the car and headed out on the long drive back to Denver. But we decided to take a different route back in order to stop at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. The Gunnison river is a fast moving water source that has cut through the Earth over time creating an absolutely breath-taking canyon that's comparable in vastness and beauty to the Grand Canyon. It has lots of colors and much more vegetation in and on it, almost making it more beautiful than the Grand some people say (I've never seen the Grand Canyon). So, from the spectacular views in the park we got back on the road and finally made it into Denver around 2 in the morning on Monday.

This week has been full of awesome experiences. I've traveled the city by bus, train, and my bike. I've been able to speak to three Rotary clubs about my trip, and hopefully schedule some more next week. We celebrated Christa's birthday on Tuesday. I rode through the worst thunder storm on this entire trip yesterday on my 20+ miles ride through Denver. The streets were completely flooded up to the wheel wells of the cars and I got stuck in a nasty hail downpour for about three city blocks before I could find shelter. When I got back on the sidewalk all along the sides and in parking lots it looked like it had snowed a foot or two with the accumulation of hail like snowbanks. Eventually, I was able to make it back to Adeev's, safe and sound and wet. Today Kelly Pohl is having a big bbq and beach volleyball party so that will be fun. Denver is definitely an awesome, and beautiful city, and I'm going to have some really nice training rides through some beautiful areas before tacking the Rocky Mountain National Park after the 4th of July. So, until next time, thanks for keeping up with me, and contact me anytime for anything.