Durango

Thomas went to school at Ft. Lewis College in Durango. Among Thomas' self-proclaimed Durango accomplishments, he is the most popular boy in the entire history of the town. Because I hear this proclomation on a near-daily basis, I challenged him to a popularity contest: to say hello to 50 people who he knew and who knew him. I also challenged myself to see how many Tevas I could count.

We stayed with Scott in his A-frame in the woods. You can hear the river from there. I would happily leave Harlem and live in the A-frame for the rest of my life.
Thomas in his element

After a delicious dinner with Scott and Bronson and a restful night's sleep (Where were the sirens? Where was the tinkling of shattering glass?), I woke up ready to barf my guts out. I diagnosed myself with severe Altitude Poisoning and was told to drink a lot of water.

Miraculously, we scored tickets to the hottest event in Durango: the demolition durby! Locals were scalping these things through the chain link fence.

Although this was awesome, I felt like my lungs were pushing up and out through the tops of my eye sockets when I cheered real loud, due to the aforementioned severe Altitude Poisoning.

Theresa, Scott, and Durango's finest at the derby

Following the derby, Thomas and I took a ride on the extracycle to the river to watch little kids in kayaks get overturned in the rapids. I was told that this was a very Durango thing to do.

Bronson, Tara, Thomas, and I headed to the springs in Uray, where I've wanted to visit since hearing the town called "the quaint Swiss village of southwest Colorado." About an hour into the drive up the mountain, I wondered if Tara would be mad if I barfed into the grocery bag that held her canteloupe. Soon after, I became absolutely certain that both my head and my heart were going to simultaneously explode, but by then it was okay because death would be such a sweet escape from aforementioned severe and exacerbated Altitude Poisoning.

We did not make it to Uray. Instead, after barfing in a very lovely mountain lodge, we headed to the very beautiful hot springs closer to seal level.

The next day, Thomas and I went on another extracycle cruise with Dave, Katie, and Scott. Thomas showed me some of his old apartments, and then he went for a swim in the Animas.

It

got
colder!

Thomas, me, Scott, Katie, and Dave at the Animas River

Durango was, indeed, the wilderness wonderland that Thomas has described. The people were nice, the weather was amazing, and the hot springs were toasty. Thomas' final popularity count was only 41, but I still believe that he is the most popular boy in town.