(Not So) Easy Trails; Wabbits! Blue Men and Tutu Prom Dresses?

Up early to get on the road... but first, a stop at a hiking/biking shop to get Suzanne a new bike jersey (fancy black and purple) and myself a new pair of convertible pants. What are convertible pants, you ask? (Watch the smart aleck remarks, Bob...) Well, they convert to hiking shorts by unzipping the legs. (Or, if you really want to be different, you keep the right leg long and just take off the left... yeah, Suzanne would really let me out of The Bus in that arrangement, right?)

Fortunately, it was only a couple of hours on good highways to Fruita, Colorado, where we set up our rustic campsite at a state park right on the Colorado River. I had read that the Grand Junction/Fruita area was very popular among mountain bikers. We got directions from the park rangers, and drove about 6 miles to the Kokopelli Trailhead. We opted for the easy trail to warm up on, and would then move to the intermediate trails. The ranger had recommended riding the loop trail clockwise.  Suzanne is athletic, and normally has a great sense of direction, but she is directionally challenged when determining clockwise vs. counterclockwise; so I was happy to make sure she knew which way we wanted to go. (“Ouch, that hurt...”)

The trail wound along a ridge overlooking the Colorado River, so the scenery was gorgeous. Plus, Suzanne got to try out her spiffy new bike jersey.

Well, after an hour of a tough 40 degree hill climb, switchbacks, slickrock staircase ledges, dry waterslides and a final rocketing downhill finish, we decided that this was another trail system designed for 16-20 year olds.  Obviously, “easy trail” does not mean the same in Colorado as it does in Florida.

Dinner and happy hour awaited, so we headed back to The Bus for Ty’s Famous Chicken Enchiladas. During dinner, we saw rabbits outside, and Suzanne the Instigator decided to tell Gretchen and Rudy about them.

This photo shows our babies looking intently out the window at the rabbits just 50 feet away; what you can’t see is their trembling with anticipation and hunter instincts. When we said, “Let’s go outside”, they started yelping like crazy... “Thanks, Suzanne”.... Fortunately, no rabbits were harmed during this excursion.

After dinner, we went exploring Grand Junction itself. The downtown is very neat - lots of restaurants with sidewalk tables, “Art on the Corner” (every corner!), bakeries, and bike and mountaineering shops.

There was a group of four kids dressed as Blue Men that caught Suzanne’s attention. She asked why they were dressed that way; they replied, “We’re just fooling around, but we’ll take donations”.

These buskers were making very nice music, but Suzanne thought I was looking at the tutu-prom dresses. “Thanks a lot, Sweetheart”.

Walking back to the car, we saw this sign for a local church... What? We're not off the coast of Massachussetts!

It was a fun evening, and what topped it off was stopping at Chick-Fil-A for a cookies and cream milkshake.... YUMMY!