On a cold and windy election day, Cortez had a couple of visitors.
Both bundled up from head to toe, Leo Dever and his dog, Sassy Max, stopped in at Kokopelli Bike and Board on their way through Cortez.
Dever said he has been biking around the continental United States for 13 years.
His dog, Sassy Max, a Shi Tzu terrier mix joined nine years ago as a puppy.
She perches on the back of the bike amidst supplies and Leo and Max’s informational sign.
Leo and Max ride to raise funds for homeless animals and have a 4,191-strong following on their Facebook page, “Leo and Max Across America.”
Dever began biking across America at age 50.
“It was something I always wanted to do,” Dever said. “I just thought one day, before I get too old, I said, ‘OK, I’m in good shape, I’m going to see if I can really do it.”
He successfully biked one year straight, then two. He began his 13th year biking in October.
Sometimes the two stay in a hotel and sometimes they camp out at night.
When asked how many bikes he has been through in the last 13 years, he said he had lost count, but quite a few.
Now that Leo and Max have been to most everywhere in the U.S., they are seeking places they’ve never seen before, like Cortez.
Dever said he had been through Colorado before, but never through the Four Corners area.
“We have been on every coast, and mainly now we are going back and getting places we have never been,” Dever said. “If you go back to redo things, you will find places you have never been.”
In addition to raising funds for animals, Dever hopes people can enjoy their travels through the Internet.
“It is interesting, we get to see a lot of things too but people that never get to see all this stuff can see it through our website and enjoy it,” Dever said.
After speaking with The Journal on Tuesday, Leo and Max headed west down Main Street in hopes of reaching northern Arizona.