A Nerd Slumber Party

I already typed a thing about Telluride because I couldn't remember if I had already talked about it and didn't feel like checking and then I accidentally deleted it, so watch the videos if you want to know about Telluride.

In sum: The boys hiked a mountain while I got a full body massage, Free blues concert, pizza, Mike and Jesse in the Parade, Fireman's barbecue, napping.

Well so then, we're on our way to see the fireworks and run into some Texans on a covered porch (it was drizzling). They seemed to know where the fireworks would be, so we asked them where a good place to watch them would be. 'Well right here!' they said and invited us right up.

Oh man oh man. They offered some wine and some fresh picked peach cobbler on vanilla ice cream. The nicest family. We have one little video up of them. All the southerners we've been running into have been so nice.

The fireworks. Amazing. They had some that went off as big as the mountains they were set against. We really enjoyed them with our new friends.

Alright so then we set off for Montrose.

I stopped in a coffee shop halfway between there and Telluride. A guy heard me on the phone saying I didn't know where the heck I was and seemed mildly offended. (I think I was in Ridgeway?). The coffee shop was real neat. There are lots of quirky mountain town coffee shops in Colorado, I recommend checking some of them out. The people in them tend to be the adventurous traveling sort.

Well apparently Montrose is frowned upon from up in the mountain towns because... They have a Walmart and a J.C. Pennys!!!! I'm ashamed; I really am. You try to find something you need in a small town. It doesn't exist. People order what they need through the store, which doesn't work when you're only there for a day. So, I was excited.

By the way, the spell checker thing on this doesn't know what Walmart is and keeps underlining it in red trying to turn it into Waldemar, Wallchart, Wilmar, or Walkman.

Montrose was great, mostly because of our hosts. They own llamas and go llama packing/camping in nearby open areas. We didn't get to meet the llamas because they were on the next mountain across the way at a farm.

Our hosts have traveled all over. They hitchhiked across America. They've taken years off and traveled through India and Africa and all manner of interesting places.

We had a great time. They fed us lentil and chicken soup and delicious salad and homemade bread and peach preserves. They had lots of interesting stories and pictures from their travels.

We had their entire upstairs, each one of us got something comfortable to sleep on, which is very unusual. So, we had nice long hot showers and good food and our hosts left us for the night because they get up early to work around their house. They're currently putting in an irrigation system. The whole house is designed and a good bit of it built by them. My favorite part was the outdoor patio that led up into a tower.

By the way if you ever plan on building your very own desert home, don't put gigantic windows in the thing like some of our host's neighbors. You're heating and cooling bill will be through the roof. Work with the environment people!

Well they left and Mike Pacella got out some light reading, a quantum chemistry textbook. According to him it is highly philosophical, especially the first few chapters. Which led to all of us sitting on the pull out sofa in a style reminiscent of a slumber party talking about quantum physics and chemistry and anthropology and science and what have you.

Alright here cuts off the story cause I got to run, the boys are calling me, so you don't get to hear about today...

We went to Monarch Pass and stood on the continental divide. The end.

Shelly