Goodbye Telluride

This is what I woke up to on Saturday. Not only an excellent view for sunsets, but moonsets as well! 

I went for a short walk around the village before my 8:15 shuttle. My flight wasn't until noon, but the shuttle take 2 hours with picking everyone up. And since I've returned from NZ, I have a very hard time maintaining my previously level of activity. There I walked on average 12k a day, not including running/exercise/hiking. Here in the U.S. I'm having a tough time keeping up! 

Gorgeous morning to explore some of the surrounding neighborhoods. 

And back to the resort to get on the shuttle! 

I got to MTJ at 10am for my noon flight. I took this opportunity to walk 5k around the airport. Fyi a lap around the airport carpark is 800 meters :).  Before starting my laps, I walked over to a gas station s block away or so. Being America, there was no footpath to get back and I ended up walking thru massive mud. My next 6 laps around the carpark included an elaborate combination of grass and now in an effort to clean my boots.... 

I was happy and set to breeze into the gate at 11:20. Except TSA pre was closed. I understand when small airports don't have it, but this one made it look like the would have it and then closed!  The most ridiculous thing was that hey gave us a card so we didn't have to take off our shoes if we we TSA pre. However we still had to take out our laptops and liquids. I fail to understand how the card can only be used to fulfill half the normal TSA pre benefits.... #firstworldproblems. (However, in most other countries flying domestically is so easy you don't need to pay extra to be "pre")

Despite my long queue, my plane to Phoenix was delayed so I went to the horsefly saloon, mainly because I found it nice that such a tiny airport had local craft beer past security.  However, I didn't actually get my 7.5% abv beer until about 5 minutes before I needed to be in my seat on the plane. Fun to chug!  MTJ leaves a little bitter taste from the TSA situation, but the good beer past security aat a reasonable price makes up for it. :)