Monday morning starts relaxed. I have a quick breakfast with my friend Ana and then we drive both to downtown Telluride. She goes to her office and I go to a coffee place. While the coffee is nice, they don’t have electricity outlets or WiFi, so I go for a brief walk through town and then go to Ana’s office. She told me I could also sit and work there. It’s a very chill place and her coworkers are also travelers and adventurous people, so we have enough to talk about. I take it easy and write down my stories of the past weekend, because I didn’t came to writing so much with all the fun and driving. I love to keep a travel blog, it’s just sometimes a bit challenging to find time to do it while traveling. Selecting the pictures usually takes most time. It’s nice to have plenty of time for it in the office here this morning. I also do some e-mail work, so that it won’t stack up too much.
I actually enjoy working a bit at the office and reading up on some webdevelopment articles. It makes me thankful that I have a profession that I enjoy so much. The day flies by and just after 4pm we go outside. There is a concert in one of the back alleys in town. Several bands play and we hang out with some of Ana’s friends. They’re really warm and friendly people and it’s very nice to get to know them. The concert ends around 8pm and Ana heads home, because she’s tired of the workday. Her friends invite me to join them for drinks and we end up at a rooftop bar. We have a fun time with a lot of laughter and stay there till the rooftop bar closes. I say goodbye to the new friends and head home. Back at the house I realize that completely forgot to take pictures, that happens sometimes when you’re in the moment and having a fun time.
Tuesday morning is July 4th, the American national holiday. On this day we celebrate that America became a nation, independent from England. Ana and I start the day with some chores around the house and then go to downtown where there is a parade. There are many special cars, some motor cycles and dressed up people on horses. It’s very busy in town as a lot of people from the area have come out here to celebrate the day. After the parade there is some live music again, but it’s very hot in the sun and so after a while we go home to relax. In the evening there is another exciting event planned, the fireworks. I’ve seen a lot of fireworks in America so far, but this show is very different. Because we’re surrounded by the mountains, the sounds echo and the fireworks are a lot louder. We’ve found a great viewing point on a high road just out of town. It’s an amazing view to see the fireworks high above the little town and with the mountains in the background. Someone said it would be the biggest firework show in the country, but after about half an hour the fireworks stop abruptly. We see some fire trucks in the valley and the show is over. I’m not sure what happened, but apparently something went wrong. It feels like an anticlimax, because the show was super impressive til this point. One of Ana’s friends says it very well: “It was great as long as it lasted,” and isn’t that true for a lot of things in life.
The plus side is that we’re home not too late, because tomorrow morning I have to get up early. I have a ride booked on a steam train, which departs from a town about two hours away. I think it’s good to have something exciting lined up, because I’ll be sad to leave this place, but I’ve been wanting to ride with this steam train through the mountains for a long time, so that’s something to look forward to.
