We left Telluride in the cold, in the shadow of the alpine valley, in the damp mountain altitude. We left behind the cozy storefronts and tourist-speckled streets and started the ultimate climb out of the Rocky mountains, spread out before us to admire for the last time before parts unknown, down the long, sloping expanse of western Colorado. I miss it now and I loved it then, passing by the gates in the road they close shut in the winter because it gets that much snow, and the reflection of the chalet next to the bluest lake near the top of Lizard Head Pass. On the other side, we passed through tiny Rico with it's drive-through coffee shop in a shack with free internet. I shot the breeze with my teammates before heading down the road with Drew and Sehee in tow. We ended up at the library in Dolores for lunch and the routine of staying in touch with the world through the series of tubes. I was excited that the Tour de France had started and jumped to finding results, a habit that I wouldn't kick until it wrapped up near the end of the ride.
The Ponderosa Restaurant in town generously fed us dinner. There Jon met a gentleman who lived in town summers named B.J. Mormon who gladly offered his time to be interviewed for the portraits project. Mr. Mormon, who spends his summers in Dolores, is from Lubbock, Texas and was a Frito-Lay long-haul trucker. He was fortunate to find out early that he had prostate cancer and was able to take care of it without much trouble. His story attested to the quality of care he was able to recieve and the importance of checking on your health regularly. I was glad to have sat in on his interview and hear his story defeating cancer.
The First Baptist Church put us up, and like all the churches we stayed in, there's always interesting reading material. In this case, I read Life After God by Douglas Coupland in one discontinuous stretch. The premise drew me in - what it's like for a generation of people like myself to be raised without religion, something I can relate to. I sat. and read. and helped Mark finish off a gallon of chocolate ice cream. and continued reading, without regard to the fact that I would lose sleep in the matter. Needless to say, I had a spiritual moment, but not necessarily a religious moment, in that the author illustrated how we need God in our life, Substance, something to Fill a Void, I fell asleep feeling cathartic.
The most beautiful morning imaginable involved seeing this.
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