The sweet spot.....

6:45 am - Sunday - May 24th - Grand Junction, CO - 48° F, 36% humidity, wind 9 mph out of the north (no wind apparent at our location)......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 71° F.  Before I get into Saturday's shenanigans I had to share this with you.  We watch, on occasion, an HGTV show called 'Flea Market Flip', and on the episode we were watching Saturday morning one of the contestants was wearing the identical Hawaiian shirt I have had for years.....what are the odds?

Saturday was like being reborn.  For 2.5 months we have not been able to do the things which make our lives more meaningful.  Things like sit outdoors sipping great craft brews, and eating even more amazing appetizers.  Things like browsing up and down the aisles of a thrift store, or visiting the local Cabela's to see what is on sale.  Things like checking out local antique stores, and all of the vintage treasures they contain.  Things like just walking up and down an 'old town' area of a given town to enjoy the local ambiance. Saturday contained all of those things.

First of all, on our drive north from Ridgway State Park Friday the alarm on our carbon monoxide alarm began to beep.  This either means it is detecting a build up of carbon monoxide, or it has given up the ghost.  In this case it had given up the ghost, and that is not surprising....these things have a life expectancy anywhere from 3-4 years to over 10....in this case ours was almost 12 years old......

The defunct surface mount 'Safe-T-Alert' 

carbon monoxide detector

.....this unit cost me about $60 12 years ago, but I certainly got my money's worth out of it.  We have never had a propane detector, so this time around I decided to buy a dual purpose one for both carbon monoxide and propane.  This model set us back $130.....ouch!  Of course, you cannot place a value on your life, and this little baby will give us plenty of peace of mind......

The new flush mount 'Safe-T-Alert carbon 

monoxide/propane detector

......I could have gotten this on Amazon for under $100, but with their erratic shipping, and things taking 7-10 days to arrive it is not practical to order from them when we are moving every few days.  We did order a number of things when we were in Page, AZ to be delivered to a friend's home in northwestern Colorado where we will be arriving this Monday, and all but two things we ordered have arrived, and they will arrive there by this Wednesday, so it's good.  We found a local RV parts place here in Grand Junction who carried these detectors.

From there we headed just a few blocks over to the local Goodwill to do some 'junking'.....we have not been 'junking' in almost 3 months, so there was a lot of pent up demand on our part....I found 3 new t-shirts without which I could not live, and TLE found a few like items....

One of my t-shirt finds.....we have good friends who used to live in Fruita so I bought it...what can I say?

.....from there it was a short hop, skip and a jump to Cabela's......the last time we darkened the door of a Cabela's was back in September of 2018 in Portland, ME.  Sometimes they have really good sales, and Saturday was no exception.....I scored a $110 pair of Keen's water sandals for $67, and TLE a new pair of 'Red Headed' hiking sandals for $39.....like I said, there is a lot of pent up demand.

I have wanted a pair of these Keen's for years, but 

just wasn't willing to pull the trigger on $110

....we were about 2 blocks from 'home' when TLE suggested we find a parking spot and check out 'Rockslide Brewing'.....on our walk over we spied this cool buffalo sculpture in from the the local Wells Fargo Bank....it's just across the street from 'Rockslide'.....

....the place was packed, so we put in our names, and walked down the street to just enjoy seeing people out enjoying themselves on a Saturday afternoon....

....we stumbled upon an outdoor concert at the Mesa Theater, and stopped for a while to enjoy the music.....

.....it was so amazing to see people just living their lives in a sort of post COVID-19 world.....very few masks being worn, and very little evidence of what they had just been through for the last 2.5 months....

.....we found this cool antique shot (A Robin's Nest) and went inside to look for a 'new' butter dish......ours was broken a few months ago, and we have not had a chance to find a new one.....

....we looked high and low for a suitable butter dish, and finally, in their downstairs area I found the perfect one......

......exactly like our old one.....just about the time we were paying for the butter dish I got a text from Rockslide that our table was ready, so we hurried back two blocks and were seated quickly.....

....words cannot convey the feelings we had as we sat down to a flight of brews, and some appetizers (Mesa Verde Egg Rolls, and Seared Ahi Tuna)......it was so good to feel normal again, and to be sitting with other like minded folks enjoying the ambiance, the balmy air, and hearing the sounds from another street band carried on the breeze to our ears.  We sat there for almost two hours...it was as if the past 2.5 months had not even happened.

Grand Junction has been the most pleasant surprise.  We've never been here before, but our decision to stay for three days at their Elks Lodge was almost prescient.  We are less than two blocks from the 'Old Town' district, and just a block from 'Rockslide Brewing'.  By the time we got home it was almost 4 pm, and man oh man, were there ever big smiles of satisfaction upon our faces!  We are, at last, back in our sweet spot!

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