Hello Telluride - we have arrived - and it is our rest days!!!!!!!

Mandy reports: Thursday 3rd and Friday the 4th September. Well what a couple to terrific days. We are having sooooooooooooooooooooo much fun it is not funny. So let’s get back to the days. Thursday was an early start for some (me and Angela in particular…… 0550 holy moley that is early for me.) Anyway back to the story, we had to be at the Durango to Silverton train station at 0745hrs. There we said goodbye to our wonderful hosts and Roger and boarded the train to our next stop Telluride. Our train ride was about 3.5 hrs and we so some amazing sites on the way – truly breathtaking in the pass. But disappointment again – NO BEARS. I swear there aren’t any bears in this country!!!! Apparently everywhere we go bears have been in the town the day before, but we see no evidence of this in our travels. Anyway we leave evidence of our visit to Durango and Ignacio in the Southern Utes Times and possibly the neighbourhood newspaper in Durango. After getting off the train we were met by the delightful members of the Telluride Rotary club Marilyn, Fred, Al, and Joe in Silverton. We had lunch at the Handlebar Restaurant Saloon. Very decent food and local brew beer was had by most in attendance. We then took the rough road through the Ophir pass into Telluride – spotting a couple new native animals on the way.
Our first night in Telluride was jam packed. First we went to the Sheridan Opera House where the Telluride 2009 Outstanding Citizen of the Year Awards was awarded to Marilyn Branch. We celebrated her as the successful recipient. We then moved onto give our Presentation to the Telluride Rotary club, where we learnt a few NEW facts about in our presentation and were asked a few questions at the end of our presentation which was good. We then moved onto the Museum where we were able to look and sit in a Tesla (electric sport car) and an ancient Puebloan rug (1200 years old). Then onto dinner at a Mexican Restaurant Emilio’s (or something similar) where the margaritas flowed and very nice Mexican food was had. I (we) had a great night, with great people – in particular having lots of conversation (in particular give some media advice) and deals with our new Aussie friend Matt (from Strath). Oh happy birthday mum – I am glad I remembered and got the time right to sent a text.
SO where am I up to – the girls had a sleep in on Friday – NICE. We didn’t get up until close to 0930hrs. Then we lazed around in our PJs until about 1030hrs (we like to make the most of our rest days). After coffee with Marilyn at Cowboy Bills we had sent out feelers for how we could go about getting into the Telluride Daily Planet newspaper and set about our strategy for getting into the paper. Strategy was achieved and Sunday we should see the effort of our hard work pay off and be on the front page again!!!!! Emma and I got to do some grocery shopping and visit Jerry (who were now know was assistant director/ director on the movie Grease and more recently X-Men and Ray - but more importantly is president of the Telluride Rotary club) in the Information Centre of the Telluride Film Festival and then to the farmers market. Lunch we had with Marilyn at La Marmotte (again fabulous food – strongly recommend this place.) We ate great food and listen to Marilyn talk about her history as a wedding planner in Telluride and listened to the acoustic guitar player and singer at the restaurant. After lunch vocation visit for me (sorry Angela and Emma who had to tag along) we visited the Marshall’s Office in Telluride and spent some time and spoke with the Sgt on duty (thanks Dan). After this we went out separate ways for an hour of so before reforming as a complete group for the Opening Night Feed for the 36th Telluride Film Festival (a HUGE thanks to Marilyn and Jerry for organizing this for us.) Some of us made their marks on the celebs such as (Sandra Karradine and Leonard Maltin). We then had dinner with Penny and Bill (who are hosting Michael on our rest days). Plans are set in place for another busy day seeking out fun and celebs tomorrow (thanks again Marilyn) –stay tuned there could be some big names to come…….. Cheers Mandy