Day 37: That's it, I'm moving to Fairplay

July 12, 2022 in Fairplay, Colorado

Waking up in 30-degree weather in the trippy town of Guffey was ROUGH. I wanted to stay in my sleeping bag forever! Sure stress of being the last one up eventually got me out of bed and rolling, though.

I had a bit of a rough ride today, and ending up taking the van for most of it due to having a significant bit of trouble adjusting to the altitude. I figured it was worth it for me to spend more time adjusting so I could have more fun riding with Dad!

We did have an awesome lunch stop though! We essentially took over a small diner, and I had a delicious blueberry pancake and egg combo meal.

The drive into Fairplay was excellent––the mountains and lakes were beyond stunning, and our host had made a bunch of snacks and treats for us when we got there!

Just from meeting the people there, exploring the town, seeing the trails and roads, and gazing at the beautiful scenery, I knew that someday I want to live somewhere like Fairplay. It has such an awesome culture of living in the moment and getting outside, and I think it would be really awesome to live somewhere with such jaw-dropping sights.

Dad arrived around 2, and I truly think I've never been so happy to see anyone in my whole life!

We decided to spend the afternoon exploring the town together, and started off by checking into our Air BNB and dropping off all our stuff. Our Air BNB was really cool–– it was a tiny house! It was about twice the size of the houses I'd worked on in Harrisburg, Illinois, but it still had a loft bed for me. I knew right away that I would have an awesome sleep.

From there, we went to a coffee and ice cream store, where I got a cappuccino and we split a biscotti, then went into a few local outdoor stores. Dad also got an awesome picture of a local hotel sign!

After that, we went to a Gold Rush town set up exactly how it was in the 1880s! It had 42 buildings you could go into, from drug stores, to a replica mine, to homes, to a bank, and it was simply, fantastic. I've always loved that kind of thing, and it was incredibly well done.

My favorite parts were the covered wagons, reading the newspaper reports from mine accidents, the soda fountain in the store, and the original safe in the bank. It definitely lived up to my expectations from going to Plymouth and Sturbridge in Massachusetts.

Dad was also able to come to a host dinner, where we had delicious potatoes and some sort of roast. We had a host presentation, which was awesome because I had really wanted Dad to see our host presentation video, which is set to "All These Things That I Have Done" by the Killers, which is one of our favorite songs.

All of my teammates were thrilled to have him there, but no one more than me.

We went straight to bed as soon as we got back, and I was so so excited for the next few days of riding with him!