In my editor's note I wrote about my son Chris' bicycle adventure, pedaling and camping from Washington to Maine. When I wrote that piece in September, Chris and Eli were a little more than halfway across the country.

In October, my husband Michael and I met them in Bar Harbor, Maine, as they finished their 4,000-mile journey with a plunge in the Atlantic Ocean. (We showed our solidarity by holding a congratulatory banner, not by following them into the icy water.) Over a celebration lobster dinner, Chris and Eli regaled us with endless stories, from breakfast and dominoes with the American Legion to cougar scares and hailstorms to the people that all but adopted them along the way. As I wrote in the editor's note, the overriding theme of the trip was the kindness, openness and generosity shown to these two young men by a host of people, spanning the gamut of socioeconomic, spiritual and political persuasions.

May we in Crested Butte follow that example both in the way we welcome our guests and in the respect we show to each other throughout this new year!