Lucky 13......

7:48 am - Tuesday - May 26th - Meeker, CO - 39° F, 64% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the northeast......clear, blue, coolish skies this morning with a forecast high today of 71° F.  The view this morning......↴

Town Park in Meeker, CO.....50 amp service, and a view!

We've been covering a lot of 'new to us' highways since Durango, but the first 60 miles Monday were on familiar territory....I-70 eastbound out of Grand Junction.  Our first destination of the day was the Walmart Supercenter in Rifle, CO where we acquired a few needed items before leaving I-70 for SR-13 north to Meeker, CO, our destination for the day.  The Walmart parking lot was a little tight, but we managed to negotiate our ingress and egress without harm to small children, or animals.........

 The Colorado River on the left

 The Colorado River on the right

.....for much of our drive to Rifle, CO we traced the winding course of the Colorado River.....

......as we edged north out of Rifle on SR-13 the traffic lightened considerably, and the views continued to amaze.  About half way to Meeker on SR-13 we hit a 6 mile stretch of road construction with the roadbed consisting of very uneven gravel for that entire stretch.  Fortunately it was Memorial Day, and there were no road crews to impose a promised 30 minute wait in certain sections....whew!

By 1 pm we were puling into the lovely town of Meeker, CO where we will spend at least 4 days glamping in the parking lot of their lovely Town Park where there are three electrical pedestals offering 20, 30 and 50 amp service.  There is a lovely dump station about 50' behind us, as well as a potable water spigot.  On arrival we found all three RV sites available so we dropped the trailer, and pulled the Newell in frontward facing the White River.  This is one of the nicer city parks in which we have stayed.....

 The White River in Rio Blanco County

.....Meeker, CO is located in Rio Blanco County where there have been ZERO deaths from the Wuhan Flu, and just ONE diagnosed case in the past 3 months.  Needless to say, no masks are being worn here at all.  People shake hands here, and happily give and receive hugs.....about as normal as you can get.   As I have oft quipped.....there is nothing better than rural America, especially now in these times and circumstances.

The main reason for our choice of Meeker, CO to spend some time is that we have good friends (John and Lisa) who live here, and they have graciously allowed us to ship a few items to their home.  When we visited their home for dinner Monday evening we picked up enough stuff to pack the back of the VW......

.....that big box on the bottom is our NEW Norcold refer, which will replace our 38 year old Norcold.  As you will recall our existing Norcold refer bit the dust while we were staying in Page, AZ.  This new one has a small freezer compartment to compliment the larger fridge compartment unlike the old one which either had to be a fridge, or a freezer...nothing in between.

We spent about 3 hours catching up with John and Lisa, and were treated to an amazing dinner.....Creamy Tuscan Chicken......prepared by their daughter, Cathleen......good friends, and good food....it doesn't get much better.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Monumental......

7:10 am - Monday - May 25th - Grand Junction, CO - 49° F, 33% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the north......no evidence of any wind at our location.....clear, blue, chilly skies today with a forecast high of 76° F.

Prior to arriving in Grand Junction we had never heard of 'Colorado National Monument'....it was not even on our so called 'bucket list', but after visiting it yesterday we were blown away.  Ironically, this park was established May 24, 1911....exactly 109 years to the day Sunday....is that serendipitous, or what?

Before we began our drive to the park entrance I drove the VW across the street to a local DIY car wash, and washed a month of dirt, and grime from her silver body.  Once that was done, we were in the car and heading just 6 miles northwest of our location to the eastern entrance.  There was actually a live person on duty in the kiosk who examined our Golden Age Pass from a distance, then gave us our entry slip, as he should, free of charge.  You can also enter this park near Fruita, CO (the main park entrance) to make the 26 mile drive along Rimrock Drive.  As is often the case, pictures taken on a phone camera do not really do justice to what your eyes are viewing, but I think I did a pretty good job of getting the best shots I could......you be the judge......

 A hanging canyon

 Some of the vista points take a bit of hiking to reach

 Fruita Canyon...Fruita, CO in the distance

.....we were reminded at several of the vista points that the entire 26 mile Rim Rock Drive was built entirely by hand......pick axes and shovels with the occasional assistance of dynamite.  Additionally 9 men lost their lives during construction.  The 26 mile drive took us about 2.5 hours as we hopped from one vista point to another, and we did not stop at every single one.

Our plan beginning the day was to have a late lunch at a place in Fruita called Hot Tomato Cafe (our friend Marnie used to work there back in the day, and raves about their pizza), but it turned out they are closed on Sunday's.....bummer!  While I drove the 16 miles on I-70 back to Grand Junction TLE was busy on her iPhone looking up another micro brewery.  She found Colorado Monumental Beer Works located just 3 miles from the Elks Lodge, and right on our way home.  We arrived there around 1 pm, ordered a flight of their brews, and then ordered some food from the food truck in the parking lot (Monumental does not serve food).....

......by the time I returned to our table the flight of brews had arrived......

.....and within a few minutes our two Pimento Pepper Jack Grilled Cheese sandwiches had arrived.......

.....once again we are in our happy spot.  We sat enjoying our brews and food in their alfresco dining area (they offered no indoor seating, which was fine with us) until after 2 pm before heading for home.

There was, actually, a live sporting event on TV Sunday afternoon.....a match play golf competition featuring Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.  Tiger and Peyton formed one team, while Phil and Tom the other.  The match began at 1 pm Mountain Time (4 pm Eastern Time), but I had set the DVR to record it so I would not miss anything.  TLE and I sat watching the show until after 6 pm.  Ultimately, Tiger and Peyton won the match 1 up.

We roll our wheels once again in a couple of hours ever northward trying to stay in that sweet climate spot.....temps in the 60's and 70's....it will get back in to the 80's and 90's here in Grand Junction beginning Tuesday, so our timing is right on the money.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!

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!

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!