Friday, July 16, 1999

The shops in Telluride are great, and that comes from a guy who grows faint at even the thought of Christmas shopping. The clientele are mainly well to do and environmentally aware, and the store’s inventories reflect this. The town does not allow yard sales. In place of such sales, there’s an area in town where people turn in their surplus items, mostly clothes. It is then placed in categorized bins attached to the side of a building in the main part of town. It is free to anyone who needs it. I found some nice men’s underwear (a little baggy maybe) and now have taken care of the birthday presents for my brother-in-law Bruce and cousin George. (Sorry Steve, there were no wide-brimmed hats.)

We drove to the end of town, which is located in a box canyon, to see Bridal Falls. Four-wheel drives and hikers could go right to the falls. Edith and I viewed it from a little distance. It was very nice. Someone in a hang glider had taken off from the top of the mountain and seemed to sail forever. There was hardly a cloud in the sky.

They have developed another town in the area. It is at 9,500 feet, a thousand feet higher than Teluride. We took the sky-lift-gondola to get there. The gondola has a special rack that holds bikes and half of them had a bike or two hanging off the back. Bike trails go all the way to the top of the mountain. The new town near the top of the mountain is called Mountain Village. It appears to be primarily condos and four or five hotels. There weren’t that many shops and restaurants at present, but a lot of construction was taking place. The airport was visible and not too far away. It looks like the planes take off of the end of a mountain.

I have had an ailment for some time. I had heard of altitude sickness and Rocky Mountain fever. But my symptoms didn’t match. I constantly was hearing a clicking noise. Then I suddenly figured it out. It was my traveling companion and her point-and-click camera. She has been taking a lot of pictures (some may say that many of her subjects are obscure, but not me of course). A wedding was taking place in the open meadow at Mountain Village and, to the casual observer, she could have been the wedding photographer. She also took a picture of Oprah’s house, or did she? But today, she mainly took nature pictures. I had never seen more beautiful flowers than those in this alpine setting, especially the five or six different shades of Columbines.

Speaking of Edith and pictures, I have wanted to take a picture of her for a few days now. When she did her tumbling act at the waterfall, she got a few bruises. Her little toush somewhat resembles the colors found during the four seasons of winter, spring, summer and fall.  I’d say she presently is somewhere between spring and summer. She’s sleeping right now. Let’s see, where is that camera?

Next Day

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