Today, I went to Telluride, Colorado. The drive from Glenwood Springs to Telluride was amazing. I saw every type of topography you can imagine. The western part of Colorado has mesas and desert areas. Grand Junction alone had mesas and desert, mountains and valleys. I saw sand, and I saw fertile vineyards. As I traveled south and back into the Rockies, the landscape drew me in. I was so captivated by what I saw that I totally forgot about the book I was listening to and had to turn it off because I wasn’t following it. The closer I got to Telluride, the more narrow and deep the valleys got. I stopped at more than a dozen lookout spots because I just had to soak it in.

When I finally reached Telluride, it wasn’t hard to see the town from the song. Although the song takes place in winter and not summer, I still saw the sleepy little town with all of the local shops and bars. There was nothing in Telluride that wasn’t local. There were no chain stores or restaurants. Everything at least looked locally owned. As I walked the town, I found art galleries and studios mixed in with restaurants and shops. Many of the buildings in town were historical. I found a little bar that looked like it could have been from the song and went inside, and I could imagine the man there. The town sat with the beautiful mountains surrounding it, forming walls that protected it from the rest of the world.

When I left Telluride to head south to Mancos, Colorado, near Mesa Verde, the landscape was even more incredible than any I had seen so far. At one point, I passed the exact vision I have in my mind of my dream. A beautiful lake surrounded by mountains and trees with small cabins spread out around it. It was as if someone had reached inside my mind and pulled out my thoughts and placed in right there in the Rockies. As I completed today’s journey, I came to Mancos, a very different small town with a heart of its own.

So, I went to Telluride, and I loved it. I even think it was like an adventure movie, romantic movie and mystery all rolled up into one. The adventure came from wanting to visit the town since I first heard the song twenty years ago, and now I have. The romantic part came from wanting to come back someday with someone I love and who loves me to share the beautiful landscape and quaint little town I experienced today. The mystery is, will there ever be someone who loves me or lets me love them? “I never will forget the moment she arrived in Telluride.”