Miles: 20 Steps: 38,766 Vertical gain: 892 ft. Liquid consumed: 124 oz. Wildlife: roadkill deer smelling horrid, rabbit, squirrels, deer almost hit by car, cattle, horses Faith in Humanity: Roby has hooked me up with a place to stay and she’s super cool. Thanks so much Roby, you’re amazing!!!! Today was definitely the most challenging day on the road so far. Started out not bad, pretty much the same as it’s been. But then the shoulders just disappeared nd the traffic picked up considerably. It’s a bit crazy to me that people don’t even slow down for me. I mean the rare car does slow down, and a lot move over a bit, but it’s just surprising. Guardrailed sections had about a 6 inch shoulder or so which was pretty dangerous. I’d opt to walk on the other side of the rails but one place was really steep and that too was a bit dangerous. Better then being right IN the road though. Ahh, the world of long paved busy road walks. All part of what I signed up for I guess. Made me think: would a lot more people walk or ride their bikes if it was safer? Probably. Haha, not that revolutionary of a thought. Eventually I reached a stoplight and the road turned into a bigger highway and even though traffic increased quite a bit at least now there were large shoulders so the danger level dropped considerably. Phew! After 15 miles or so I finally got off the road and onto a bike path by the Animas River! I was so excited. It’s almost as if I forgot what silence was like, the contrast was so great on the bike path compared to the road. I immediately took a long break by the river. Durango is beautiful. Bigger than I thought. I love it! So there was a bbq joint right on the bike path. At first I thought: I really should skip it, should save the money. But it looked so inviting, and smelled so good. I couldn’t resist! The pork sandwich I got was absolutely incredible! Really glad I stopped. Next I called David who I’ll be staying with in a couple days outside of Mesa Verde National Park. He was very nice and offered some good advice about my route the next couple of days. So nice to have a place lined up to stay! And finally, I arrived at Roby’s home! I never met Roby before but El Presidente was friends with her so he set it up. Roby has a nice house right near downtown Durango with two very friendly dogs: Beau and Kia! We all got long really well and had such a good time getting to know each other. We just talked and talked, ordered Chinese delivery and talked some more. Thank you so much fir the hospitality, Roby!!!