We all slept quite well at Dr. Mike's house, but Michelle was still under the weather. Our planned ride for today was to Mesa Verde State Park. We looked more closely at the route and realized how steep the climb was into the park. Even on a good day, this would have been a tough ride. The obvious choice was to take the day off. Durango is the biggest city we'll be in for awhile, so it's a great place to have a day off anyway. 

We ate breakfast and did a load of laundry at Dr. Mike's before getting ready to head off. We didn't want to take advantage of his hospitality and decided to get a motel for our second night in Durango. However, after a little convincing, Mike persuaded us to stay for another night. He assured us that it was no problem and not a burden on him and his family.

When our laundry was done, it was time for lunch. We met up with our buddy, Mark, from the Netherlands. He got ahead of us, but unfortunately, has been having problems with his knee (he's had surgery on it in the past). So he's in Durango too for at least one more day. We met up at Doughworks, a small breakfast/lunch cafe. We topped lunch off with some ice cream from Dairy Queen. We also stopped at a bike shop next door and Emily and Michelle both found new cycling shorts for less than $50! 

Then we took the free trolley to the downtown area. We walked by the river on the Animas River Trail, wandered on Main Avenue, looked in a few shops, and finally did some grocery shopping. We took the free trolley back to Doughworks where we had locked up our bikes. We biked back to Mike's house and were welcomed with the aroma of home-cooked food. What a treat!