Day 51, 7th October 2011. Santa Fe - Telluride, Colorado

It was another freezing cold morning. I actually slept with all of my clothes inside my sleeping bag with me so that they wouldn't be too cold for me to put on. I managed to get out of my pajamas and fully dressed whist completely inside my sleeping bag. It was really hard and took ages, but it was worth it to not have to expose my body to the cold.

We had another long day of driving ahead of us as we were heading into the Colorado Rocky mountains. We were going to be spending the day there tomorrow for my birthday, so I was really happy that we weren't going to have to do any driving in the van on my birthday. We left at 8am and I fell asleep as soon as we got in the van, we stopped an hour later at a gas station and I was so surprised when I opened my eyes to SNOW. This time yesterday I was wearing shorts and today we were in snow!! Someone made a Snowman on the front of the van, I can't remember who it was, I think it was Sua.

We drove a few more hours then we had a Walmart stop. We stocked up on all the things we wanted over the next few days because we would be staying in a house. Kirsty got some stuff to make me a birthday cake and me and Gary got loads of food because it was my birthday and I wanted to eat whatever I wanted. We were in Walmart for ages so I rang my mum in case I had no cell reception when we went up into the Mountains. Then we just drove and drove for the rest of the day, we saw some really nice scenery though.

Stopped a few times to take photos and then we arrived in Telluride at about 5pm. Telluride is a little tourist town that is 8000ft up in the mountains. It has skiing in the winter, but there is loads of other things to do too. We were staying in a condo for 3 nights, we were so excited. I was especially happy because it meant I didn't have to sleep in a tent on my birthday. The other group were staying in a condo opposite from us. 

The only thing I was annoyed about was there wasn't enough beds for everyone, so we would have to take turns sleeping on the floor. I said that me and Gary should get the good bedroom (that had a bathroom attached and a double bed) for the first night because it was my birthday tomorrow and I should get first pick. Luckily everyone agreed, and we decided that we would change it around every night. This didn't exactly happen and me and Gary got to keep the good bedroom for 3 whole nights... oh well it was my birthday weekend so I don't care if it was a little selfish. (There may have been other reasons, lol, which you will find out over the next few days)

When we got there it took us ages to get all our stuff inside because the entrance was on the 2nd floor so we had to lug all our stuff up the stairs. It was a really nice house with a big living room area and kitchen and beautiful views out of the windows. It totally reminded me of the song 'Landslide' which is one of my favourite songs of all time, and I had that song in my head the whole weekend.

Our bedroom, already messy

Downstairs bedrooms and stairs leading up to the living area and kitchen

Amelia cooking in the kitchen

Fireplace

 

 After we had all settled in some of the other girls made chicken for dinner which was really nice, it was so good to have an oven. We literally did nothing this evening, just laid around on the sofas watching TV with blankets. It was so warm and cosy, such a change from the cold horrible camping last night.

Went to bed at about 11pm and I was very excited for my birthday tomorrow!! :)