The Kindness of Strangers: Part 2 - Ivar and Vicki

I'm sitting here in a little motel room in Eureka, Kansas with my cousin Matt (who is the perfect combination of both of his parents), relaxing and writing in the blog. What a nice change from sleeping on a picnic table under a pavilion in the city park! We parted ways with our riding partners, Jessica and Joel. They are super cool, so we're hoping we can meet up with them again some time in the future. Anyway, this is a little bit of a continuation on the kindness of strangers:

Goodness, talk about blessings. Bethany and I had just spent the night in the guest house of a multimillionaire (read below!), and we weren't sure what to do for the Fourth of July. It's not usually a big holiday for me, but Bethany is a fan of the fireworks, so we wanted to find a place that had them. We had been biking for about 15 miles when we came to a crossroads, both literally and figuratively. We could go left and continue to follow our route, possibly ending up in a town with no fireworks, or we could go right, 3 miles off route, into Telluride. If we chose Telluride, there was definitely the possibility that there would be no available camping, and the hotels way too expensive. But we chose Telluride anyway. Tom Cruise did, so it couldn't be all that bad (but he's craaaazzzzzyyyyy with a capital K). We biked 3 miles down the road, and it was absolutely gorgeous. Towering in front and to each side were giant mountains covered in green trees. Telluride is kinda like a "no outlet" type of place, so there is only one way in and out. At the very back was a tiny sliver of white, which we were later able to determine was a waterfall. Everything about the place, from the surroundings to the Victorian-style homes were just drop-dead gorgeous. I was soooo happy we had made the decision to go to Telluride! Until I went to the Visitor's Center. At the Visitor's Center, a very sweet young man told me that all of the space on the campground were taken (of course, it was July 4th in Telluride. What were we expecting?), and the hotels were starting at $159 per night. What? Nope. And it wasn't like we could just throw up a tent anywhere....its a very small town, and they're very strict about unapproved camping. I was soooo mad we had made the decision to go to Telluride:(

I talked it over with Bethany, and as much as we hated to, we had to turn around leave. We would continue on our route, and hope that there would be fireworks in one of the really small towns. We were pretty angry that we just wasted 6 miles. Just as we were turning our bikes around, a white van slowed down, and the person in the passenger side rolled down the window and we heard "Is everything ok?". There was a couple (possibly 50's?) that had stopped to make sure we were alright. I guess we looked pretty upset:). I just gave them a brief overview of the situation, and they proceeded to confer with each other for a few seconds. Before I knew it, the driver was getting out of the van. He told us to follow him because "we might have a place for you".


Huh? Come again? We just met you 10 seconds ago.

Slightly confused, we followed him for less than a block, and he opened up the garage door behind a beautiful little house. He told us we could park our bikes there. At this point, Bethany and I are thinking he will let us camp out in the yard. If we're lucky. But no, we are taken inside the impeccable little house, shown the shower where we can clean up, and given a brief tour of the basement, where we can spend the night.


Again, HUH? WE JUST MET YOU 10 SECONDS AGO!!!!


Then he left, saying that they would be back around 7:30 if we wanted to go watch the fireworks with them. We didn't even get his name!!! Bethany and I stood, dumbfounded, for at least a good minute before either one of us said anything. When we did finally speak, it didn't make sense anyway. I couldn't believe that someone would just give us a place to stay without, you know, a background check or something. But as we came to learn over the course of the day; this is Telluride, and nothing normal happens here.

After we brought our stuff in and cleaned up a little bit, we decided to walk the town. I'm not kidding when I say that Telluride has a magical feel. It is impossible not to smile when you're walking down the street. Little shops, people everywhere, bicycles all over the place....there was nothing about this place that I didn't like.

We happened to stumble across a pie eating contest. Score! After very little convincing, Bethany and I were signed up. Shocking, I know. For $10 it was all-you-can-eat food and drink, as well as the pie. For hungry cyclists, $10 was a total steal. When we sat down at the table for the pie eating, we noticed that we were surrounded by kids 10 and under. Hmmmm. I guess the honorable thing to do would be to allow one of the kids win. So we did. (But I took second....beat that kiddies!)


After all the pie eating and the arm wrestling, there was a lot of socializing with what turned out to be some of the elite in Telluride. One guy owned a night club down the street. When he found out that we were doing our ride for the American Cancer Society, he pulled a big wad of cash out of his pocket, peeled off a $100 bill and handed it to us, then went back to the conversation. He didn't even blink. That was fantastically cool, and he trusted us!


We eventually got back in time to go to the fireworks with the family that let us use the house. We introduced ourselves in the car on the way to the city park. Their names were Ivar and Vicki, and they were the coolest people. It was amazing just getting the chance to talk and hang out with them for a few hours. They had made big fat brownies with chocolate icing (mmmm!), and Bethany and I had about 7 between the 2 of us. After the fireworks (there was a downpour just before they were supposed to start, and we thought they would be cancelled. All that for nothing!), Ivar and Vicki left us alone in the house, just making sure that we knew not to lock the doors when we left the next morning. Alone. In the house. By ourselves. I still can't believe how trusting they were:).


One big thing about this trip I have learned: We all watch too much of the news. It has made us all cynical and untrusting. Every single person we have met on this trip has been helpful, kind, and generous. We're amazed at the everyday kindnesses that people extend to complete strangers. I guess we just look incredibly non-threatening with our little helmets and half-finger gloves:)