I love Colorado! And so does Stanley! I'm into the beautiful scenery, fresh air, night sky and awesome people and Stanley's into the fact that everyone has a dog for him to play with, he rarely needs a leash and the fact that everywhere we go there are rivers and lakes with clean, cold mountain run-off.

Since I wrote from Island Acre State Park last week, I've couchsurfed a few times with great people who have all showed me one hell of a time.

In Rifle, I stayed with Carrie and Drew and had a great time watching the VP debate at a local bar with a bunch of their friends. That's where I learned that I'm no longer voting for "change." Evidently, McCain and Palin are for change and Obama and Biden are for "significant change" which I have decided to vote for. One funny story came from Drew who carpools to work with a woman named Christie. On the same day that I was to arrive at Drew and Carrie's, Christie was telling Drew about the wild site she saw the evening before... A "crazy" guy riding his bike down the interstate (there were about 10 total miles where I had to do so) trailering a big white dog. Imagine Drew's surprise when he got home to find the "crazy" guy and white dog hanging out with his fiancee on the back porch!

One footnote from that story is that Stanley and I were coming from tasting wine at a local Colorado winery which reminded my of a little known fact that I learned on this trip... There is at least one vineyard and winery in all 50 states. Did anyone besides Lauren and Ike know that?

In Rifle, I had the entire back wheel of my bike rebuilt by Andy, the very knowledgable owner of C3 Bike Shop. Stan and I hung out there for a few hours and he promised that his work would be the end of my wheel problems. So far he's been right and it's made the climbs into the rockies 10 times easier.

Since I got a late start, I didn't get very far that day, but Drew and Carrie had introduced me to one of their friends, Carmen, that let me stay at her house in New Castle. Carmen works with Carrie at Coal Ranch High School - home of the Fighting Doritos. Carrie and Drew came over after work and we all went in Glenwood Springs, a cool mountain town with hot springs. We might have had too good a time though as I woke up with one hell of a hangover. It could have been the altitude or the amazing homemade concoction of vodka and fresh peaches that Carrie brought out with us. This was one of the best cocktails I've ever tasted!

In any event, this was no morning to be hungover as I had to beat a huge storm while riding over 40 miles up to Eagle to meet my next couchsurfing host. The storm was supposed to dump 6-12" of the white stuff in the higher elevations, while raining hard for days straight at the lower elevations that I was at. Those lower elevations we between 5400 in New Castle and 6600 in Eagle.

A portion of the day's ride was through the majestic Glenwood Canyon where they have built a bike path through the canyon along the Colorado River. Everywhere you looked, was perfect and I used a valuable tip that someone at a rest stop in Nevada had given me. This gentleman had been riding his motorcycle many years ago when he noticed someone waving franticly at him. He stopped to see what was wrong, and the frantic person just pointed behind him at an amazing end to end rainbow. From that day on, the gentleman at the Nevada rest stop always checked out the views behind him, as well as what lied ahead and I was glad that I ran into him because I've seen some preety great scenery by stopping once in awhile to see the view behind me.

Most of the day was a steady light rain and I realized that it was the first time I'd seen rain since my trip began over 6 weeks prior. It didn't dampen our spirits though as Stanley spent the day jumping in and out of the river and I took in the scenery, enjoyed the fresh air and pretended like I had some idea of what Robert Hunter was talking about when he spoke of the "cool Colorado rain."

When we finally got to Eagle, I met up with Heather and her boyfriend Dorian at the Restaurant they work at and she hooked me up with a burrito and a beer before sending me off to her place for a hot shower and some relaxation. Heather was another great host and she and Dorian took me on a cool hike through the aspens full of vibrant fall colors and up to Lake Creek. We were high above Edwards, CO looking at the newly snowcapped mountain peaks and listening to the water rushing through the creek. It made me remember my great hikes with Lauren and Rob in which we discussed the fact that the beautiful hikes in CT were always marred by the highway noise or view of some commercial building.

Colorado was feeling so much like home that, when Stanley asked me if we could stay and live there, I happily obliged. I'm not sure if that means that Colorado will be my home forever (which would mean an abrubt ending to the gasoloine free adventure) or just a stop for the winter which would mean that I would pick back up the biking on my way back to CT. No matter what, I will be continuing to fight the good fight and do things that help put an end to global warming and help reduce our unnecessary uses of our finite natural resources. I will not be bringing my car out here and will mostly use my feet, bike (until winter sets in) or public transportation. I will also be looking into what I can do to help the progress of viable alternative energy sources.

Amazingly enough, I have inspired myself to do more for the environment, and research things further, as much as I had hoped to inspire others. One example of that last part is the fact that I blindly love natural gas, a clean burning, renewable energy source. While in Western Colorado, I saw the process of mining natural gas in action. Between the hundreds of tractor trailers and the burden of construction among other things, the natural gas might be more harmful to the environment that it's counterparts. This I don't know yet, but is something I'll be researching as soon as I'm settled which will be soon as I found an awesome house in Eagle-Vail, which I'll be moving into this weekend.

I would like to thank everyone that followed along and kept me going along the way, even when the going got tough. People that I knew before, like Sprotzer who made efforts to reduce his carbon footprint, or people I met along the way like Mike Woods, the PG & E employee that helped me out in Ione, CA and called weeks later to check in and see how Stanley and I were doing. It feels good to read the e-mais and know that this trip has inspired people to think and act differently!

The adventure will not end and I won't stop blogging (that word still hasn't gotten old), although I'll have to change the name to Todd and Stanley's Environmentally Friendly Adventure.