Angela was going to say - BUT the USB won't work so MANDY says 09/09/09 (cool date)

Welllllllll this isn't exactly how it was meant to happen. Angela has given me her USB with her blog but it isn't opening on my computer for some reason, sooooooo instead I will talk out my day and upload her picture which hopefully she can tell people about tomorrow.

So today again we said goodbye to our hosts - sadly again - thanks to Montrose Rotary club for great hosts and a great time. I personally learnt heaps from my stay and a HUGE thanks to Emily and her son Eric for talking to me last night about American football, American sports, college and American culture - which was really wonderful and I am so thankful for their time in talking to me about such things.

Anyway today we drove onto Gunnison and arrived at midday. We then moved onto our host address for a couple hours to settle in and have lunch. After lunch Michael, Becky (my host) and I made our way up to Emma's host (Gail and Lee). What a fabulous house - where we were able to fish (AGAIN no fish for me, Emma or Michael) but we certainly had some fun while we were out there- perhaps not all of the time was spent fishing.

After fishing we returned home and got ready for a night out up at Gail and Lee address at 1730hrs. The night was fantastic - pot lunch dinner which proved to have great food on offer again - LOTS of salads which was great.

Anyway Angela was with us on our travels to Gunnison she was also with us for Dinner - but in the meantime I believe she went on a 4wd drive where she came across snow (lucky bugger) - which is what the photo is of.

So sorry for the quality of my post - I am sure Angela's would have been heaps better - but I have tried to fill the gap, hopefully it will do.

Michael 7th & 8th Sept. at Montrose

Monday the 7th Sept. started at 9am with a long trip to Gateway a town started by the owner of the Discovery Channel to see an auto museum, the trip took us through Red Rock Canyon, this canyon is spectacular this cliffs on oth sides and a road and river sharing the floor at time the road is high above the river to give a vantage point to look down on the river. the Spanish were the people who came up from Mexico to explore the area. Then mining started in the area and water was very important and so an engineering marvel was created to allow water to be channelled along the sides of the cliff several hundred feet above the floor of the canyon it allowed the water to be quickly delivered to the mine site. Lunch was at Gateway then over to the museum to look at a fantastic display of vintage and classic cars. The return home was via whitewater.

Tuesday 8th Sept.

An early start for Mandy Emma And me as we went fly fishing in the Gunnison River which is at the bottom of a very very deep canyon, the road down was something else, but what a place, fast flowing river, very step sides. We did not have a great success at fly fishing but fish were caught. The presentation to the Montrose Rotary Club was interesting with technical malfunctions made for an interesting times but very well received, after lunch of to see some petrogylphs, with Dick Manhart. The Nth. Ute Indians lived in the area and recorded there Law and information on food and water by chipping designs into the rock, having the designs explained made all the difference to what we were looking at.

Late addition to Saturday Post - Mandy

Wellllllllllllllllllll we were on fire yesterday that is all I can say. During dinner I declared my intentions to go watch the 2300hrs Australian Film Samson & Delilah which was showing up in the Mountain Village - Emma said she would join me and it was a date. As our departure time drew closer Angela decided she would chaperon us up to the Mountain Village. After sorting out what we needed to do as far as tickets (which was wait and see how many festival ticket holders turned up before any purchased tickets could be made) we headed to the bar for a quick couple drinks. Welll the scout sensers where definately ON and who do we find in the bar the Producer, Director and stars of 'Samson & Delilah.' All were really nice people and we able to have a chat, and get a photo with them. AND they gave us free passes to the movie (BONUS - that saved us a couple $$$$$). Anyway Emma and I really enjoyed the movie and returned to the condo at 0130hrs to find Angela asleep on the couch (AGAIN!!!!!!). So after waking her up and having a chat the ligths didn't go off until around 0230hrs.

Close encounters of the celebrity kind!

Emma says: Not my turn to blog but Mandy and I have had a fun afternoon so I thought I'd share. Since arriving in Telluride we have been hot on the trail of the many celebrities in town for the annual film festival. Our venture out last night to the Opening Night Feed in the main street only increased our appetite, especially after my encounter celebrity film critic Leonard Maltin!

Anyway, as it turns out, our 'host' here in Telluride, Marilyn, went to high school with Helen Mirren's husband, Taylor Hackford. As it turns out, Helen Mirren is in town for the festival and was doing a 'conversation' session here in town today. So Mandy and I trundled into town with Marilyn this arvo and hung around the local courthouse where Helen would be speaking. It was a very exclusive affair with only 90 places available and most of these went to patrons of the festival. We were lucky enough to have a contact that couldn't get us into the event but got us close enough to get some photos (see right) and to get an autograph each! Helen Mirren was lovely and very accomodating - and Mandy and I were stoked!


To top it off after our first celebrity encounter, Mandy and I went for coffee with Marilyn further down the main street. Here we ran into Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary fame (the group that sang 'Puff the Magic Dragon'). A quick photo and another autograph later, we let him go, content with a good afternoon's work on the celebrity hunt.

Tonight, the team are enjoying a night in with Ang cooking us a roast chook - yummo! We need all the energy we can get as we've heard that Nicolas Cage is in town so he is our target for tomorrow!

Tomorrow afternoon we leave the bright lights of Telluride bound for Montrose...

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

By Ang

Apart from my host mum making me get up at a ridiculous hour this morning, I have had an amazing day.
Thanks to a fellow Rotarian, our history begins with the Southern Ute Reservation, Long before the arrival of the settlers, the Ute Indians roamed over a vast section of Colorado, Utah and Northern New Mexico. The Ute tribe are the oldest continuous residents of the States. Today they govern themselves and own 500,000 acres of land, these people have shown that they have the strength to survive and have prospered; they have taken the responsibility on and have achieved amazing things, We were very lucky to be invited to share their passion with them. Some of the Ceremonials that they still practise today are the Bear Dance& Sun Dance.
We enjoyed a tour of a State of the Art Facility, with education and health at the top of the list, they also have a Casino with all profits going back into the community.

After our presentation today at Pine River Valley Rotary Club we were able to enjoy a couple of hours spending money shopping in the main street of Durango, (girls will be girls) not all the presents were for family.

My favorite place that we visited today was Strater Hotel, for those people that know me you can understand why!! This wonderful hotel has been in the Baker family for 83 years and Ron Baker has run the hotel for 26 years, this hotel owns the worlds's largest collection of American Victorian Antique's in the world, this hotel has also been catering for the Rotary Club for 80 years amazing Yeh??

After the stimulating conversation Ang needed a drink.

And then off to a Pot luck dinner with the three Durango Rotary clubs & another presentation, they sure have kept us busy whilst we have been here, thanks for all the efforts to the Rotarians in Durango I myself have loved being here......

GSE Team does Mesa Verde

Emma says: After several front page appearances in papers across the Southern Colorado region, the team were a little concerned when we arrived in Durango to the news that we were unlikely to hit the front page here unless we committed a crime. While this course of action was deemed a little too drastic, it seemed we needed to spice things up a bit. It was clear the standard '4 people in a row' group shot was getting old and we needed to jazz up our image. With this in mind we set out for our day of touristing in the spectacular Mesa Verde National Park.

Mesa Verde was home to the Ancient Puebloan people about 1,400 years ago. They originally built their homes on top of the mesa, but at some point during their 700 year stay in the area they built dwellings in caves within the steep walls of the canyons. The park now houses about 4,500 archaeological sites, of which 600 are cliff dwellings.

Our morning was spent exploring the visitor's centre, museum and gift shops. After lunch we were privileged to receive a private tour from Larry Wiese, the superintendent of the National Park. He showed us some of the earliest Puebloan dwellings which were dug into the top of the mesa and gave us a history of the people in the area. He also took us to some vantage points were we could get better views of the more elaborate cliff dwellings, such as Cliff Palace and the Square Tower. Each dwelling represented the home of one or more families, with some constructions similar to the apartment blocks of today.

Our final tour for the day was also our most challenging, with the tour of the Balcony House also known as the "Indiana Jones Experience". Like most of the cliff dwellings, the Balcony House is located in the walls of the canyon, high above the ground. Not surprisingly then, our tour involved climbing a 30 foot ladder to reach the dwelling, but once there, we also had to crawl through a tiny tunnel to manoeuvre our way out. Then there are some death defying steps carved into the rock face to make your way out of the dwelling and back to the top of the mesa.

I found the day at Mesa Verde to be a brilliant day out - very educational, extremely beautiful and mysterious. And I think you'll agree, our group shots are clearly worthy of the Durango Herald's front page! We'll keep ya posted...