Day 22: "The Dude abides...It's good knowin' he's out there"

Telluride--> Cimarron (~75 mi)

Telluride has a fond place in our hearts for many reasons--a luxurious hotel at the base of a gondola, a pile of coffee shops, a Patagonia store, tremendous mountains--but for me it starts with a cowboy we met at a gas station right before town. His name is Mark and you can feel free to picture him as the cowboy from The Big Lebowski, only with a gentler face. He started chatting with us and he struck me as a wise person: he appended the belief that people can change the world for the better after the standard lament that the world isn't as it should be. When I said "have a good day" at the end of our conversation, he said, without hesitation, "I'm in the process." Refreshing stuff when you're used to overhearing some of the standard diner conversations that we hear.

Mark got in contact with us later that day through the hotel. It's clear to us now that he runs the town: essentially, he lined up three straight free meals for us at the best places to eat in Telluride. Today started with the last meal (hard to say if it was the best--tough competition) at Maggie's, a great coffee shop. If you go there, be sure to get the breakfast burrito. We owe Mark for making our stay at Telluride great and sending us off with a great breakfast in our bellies. When I spoke with him on the phone, he said that he always tried to help people that were doing good things--I told him that he had given us a great model that we would try to follow.

The biking day is not nearly as compelling of a story: second flat tire for Melina (by way of a needle puncturing the tire), half off a burger place in Ridgwood, and some planning for the rest of Colorado. The wheels on the bike go round and round.

Thankful for good people,
Nate