when it seemed like everything was coming apart at the seams it pulled itself back together in an unexpectedly delightful new form. The night before had been perhaps our most stressful of the trip so far, half way to Denver from the Dunes Sam got a call from his girlfriend who had been at the hospital with a fever of 104F and what later she later suspected was swine flu. She was too sick to have us stay and with 4 o’clock looming in a new city we weren’t sure what to do. Dylan had a badly hurting foot from hiking the dunes and we were all rather dejected thinking his running race was over before it began.

We pulled into the local Lone Pine public library for precious internet. It was a long shot with so little notice but we thought we’d give airbnb a go before we settled for the hostel. We found the perfect one with a veggie garden as one of the photos, then after applying we just drove in that direction, hoping for an affirmative. On the highway we got it, relief. we didn’t know how lucky we were, on admittance to their sweet little home, we were greeted with such warmth by Ali and Reuben that it brought grins to our travel weary bones. They provided Dylan with an icepack and by morning even that niggle had retreated to a safe stiffness.

That morning the light shone softly, illuminating little vignettes: a happily playing baby with hair glowing red, a cuddly Australian Shepherd X that demanded attention 24/7 and got it from us, a grey cat silhouetted against the window, a smartly dressed in shades of blue and yellow.

We realised we were amongst kindred spirits as we chatted about social and environmental sustainability and Train Running (eyes lit up all round on that one). Reuben’s work as a social worker/urban farmer lead to his passionate involvement in using school land in Denver as urban farms for education and an outlet for disadvantaged students. Ali taught primary students via correspondence and they both had a fulltime job keeping sweet little Wendall in check.

We headed off into a gorgeous pre-spring day with directions to the trendy side of town. Drawn like magnets to hipster hangouts we had brunch at Crema where we sat opposite a red headed dude dressed in basketball gear from hed to foot in that ironic way that was all too familiar. However, what would be vaguely annoying back home was comforting as the post Earthship blues began dripping into my subconscious, only to fully reveal themselves days later on top of a mountain.

We wandered into the city, then headed back down Larimer Street to meet our airbnb family sweetly met us to unlock the sustainability centre where Reuben volunteer. While we waited we spied a cute looking outdoor gear shop, it was closed, son we stickybeaked through the window Topo Designs. A face appeared and were ushered in by a pretty, athletic girl. She gave us the low down, made in Colorado with love, we didn’t escape without setting down a pretty penny, Dylan was hiking hipsterfied and I had a limited addition Woolrich/Topo designs bag, that i hugged to me like a kid with a favourite soft toy. It’s hard to find anything not made in China right? And it will last forever right? And shiny things right…