That misses the point that the only reason we were there--the only reason the places got our money--was because we were on a bicycle tour. And had the bike camp not been there, we very well may have stayed in a different town. The town fathers who are not fully behind the Twin Bridges bike camp look at it from a "who spends more" perspective instead of a "who spends" perspective. Dillion, about 30 miles away, has a lot more to see and do that Twin Bridges. The bike camp brings people to town that would otherwise pass through without much thought. Whether 10 cyclists or 1000 cyclists spend money in a town in any given year, it's still money that would not have been spent taken in but for people cycling. Interestingly, we did not end up in Twin Bridges because we were following AC's Trans Am route. We entered town from an entirely different direction and left in an entirely different direction.

And as for being cheap, I will leave that to others. During our 9 day trip, we got rooms three nights. One was planned and two were unexpected. We ate dinner out four nights. We ate breakfast out every morning except one. For lunch, we either bought food to take with us or ate at restaurants. We even got a room before flying home after the trip. Again, this was all money that was spent solely because we were on a bike tour. I am pretty sure the merchants, especially the waitresses that got at least 20% tips, are happy we patronized their businesses.