The Adventures of T&A

Well, we decided to hike this morning.  The hike we did with Jack and Ellen earlier, Stag Gulch, but we’re going to the top of the mountain.  We tried to hike to the summit in the winter , but I guess the altitude was getting to me then.  We were going to try it again, to summit Bellyache Mountain.  It’s about a 2 1/2 mile hike with a 1,500 ft elevation gain.  The trail went straight up!  The first alpine meadow we came to is full of flowers ready to bloom in another day or so.  Big, bright yellow daisies.  We’ll have to bring Gautam and Donna up here when they come in next week.  The trail continues up and up and up, thru the aspens and firs.  We came upon another opening in the trees at a switchback where the yellow daisies were already blooming.  The whole hillside was covered.  In the distance we can see the Holy Cross Wilderness area.  We continued on the trail going up, came to a few more alpine meadows and then to a large bald at the summit, where we could see the snow capped Gore Mountain Range.  the day has been gray all day and the wind started blowing while we were at the summit.  We were sure the rain was not far behind.  We ran down the mountain in a fraction of the time it took us to ascend.  We got back to the house before it really started raining.  

We worked on the computers a bit more.  While I was updating my Daily Diary, we noticed something odd.   The censored word filter of our blog site censored out the name of someone we met in Capitol Reef, Dick.  Apparently, the computer didn’t like him and it never even met the guy! Andrew was able to adjust it.

Got in the hot tub again tonight to soothe our tired legs. 

We took the bikes out again today, but made a few stops before we started riding.  The liquor store in Edwards was having a huge “Locals Appreciation” sale, everything 20% off or more.  We knew we were having company soon, so we went in to stock up.  

Our next stop was lunch.  Beaver Creek, just up the road, was having a Brews, Blues and BBQ festival.  The microbrew sampling cost too much for us to check out ($35.00 each), but we did sample several of the BBQ places.  We found one with “Bama-Style BBQ”, named Moe’s.  Since I lived in Birmingham for 10 years, I had to check this out.  It seems one guy is from Huntsville and the other is from Tuscaloosa, but they live in Vail and have 2 stores here.  They just opened one in Alabama, Orange Beach near Gulf Shores.  I wondered how they got away with the name “Moe’s”, since there’s that Tex-Mex place out there using the same name.  We’ll have to look them up next time we’re in Vail.

We finally got to our bike ride.  the first few minutes in the saddle were painful.  We rode from Minturn to Vail.  We got about 5 miles in, all up canyon, up hill, when we came to a “Trail Closed” sign and gate.  The trip back down canyon was much faster.  

Now, to check on the hot tub again… ahhh, just right.

We got out today after Andrew fiddled with the chemicals a while longer.  We took the bikes out for a ride from Edwards to Avon and back, about nine miles.  Not much on a road bike, but we were reminded of how long we’ve been out of the bike saddle.  

Andrew tinkered with the hot tub chemicals some more… I finally got him to call the guy who sold us the chemicals and  test kit to find out what was going wrong.  Maybe we can actually get in the hot tub soon!

The Grouse on the Green, the local restaurant and pub, opened for the season today.  We went up to have a beer and watch the sunset.  We saw Virgene and Larry there with the family and said “Hi”.

We just stayed around the house and relaxed.  Andrew tinkered more with the chemicals in the hot tub, it’s still not right.  Not much else happened.   

We did go to the Minturn Country Club for dinner.  They let you cook your own dinner and have a couple of grills set up for customers to use.  For their $2.99 specials, they had a choice of steak, two types of marinated chicken, skewered shrimp, mahi mahi, and mussels (which were gone when we got there).  We asked a waiter about the place.  They do this $2.99 special every now and then, not on a regular basis, but it’s really popular.  They usually have a better grand of steaks on their regular menu, Kobe and such, the salad bar is included and their prices are usually much higher.  But they always have the cook-it-yourself thing going on.  Dinner was pretty good and the place was packed.

We stayed around the house and took care of a lot of “honey-dos”.  Andrew learned all about the chemicals in the hot tub.   We drained it, cleaned it, filled it and adjusted the chemicals.  We took care of lots of small home chores, some for us and some for Jack and Ellen.  A small price to pay for letting us stay here.  We appreciate their generosity.  

We met the neighbor from across the street.  Jay worked on these home when they were first built and lives with his wife as caretakers in the house directly across from Virgene and Larry.  He said his wife Claudia is really into cycling and we may go riding with them sometime.  They had done a long road trip a while ago and we were comparing camper stories.  

We took a morning hike near the house and headed into town for errands.  We had several lists- one of things to GET, one of things to DO, and a list of groceries (it’s going to be nice to have a freezer).  Dealing with list one took a good portions of the day, list two has yet to happen and list three expanded considerably while we were in the grocery store.    

One of our stops was to get chemicals to test and treat the hot tub.  Andrew wants to start checking the chemicals himself.  Nearby, we stopped for lunch at Ti Amo, a place that was recommended.  The food was much better than Tavolaccio, prices more reasonable and we didn’t have to deal with a snooty waiter.  While we were waiting for our lunch, I was working on a Sudoku (number puzzle) and the guy at the next table began talking with us.  He’s the owner of the Minturn Country Club, a restaurant without a golf course.  It was his add that had the Sudoku puzzle in it.  He told us a bit about his place.  they were having a $2.99 special this Thursday; $2.99 entrees, $2.99 salad bar, $2.99 appetizers.  We’ll have to check out this place on Thursday!

We got our errands done and “researched a few liquor stores and came back to the house exhausted.  

Jack and Ellen left early this morning to catch their flight out of Grand Junction back to Atlanta.  Andrew and I just puttered around the house and cleaned up some of our truck “kitchen”.  Ample soap and water hasn’t been available to us all the time on the road.  It started raining here this afternoon, a slow, all-day drizzle.  It was very different form the dry desert we’ve been in for months.  

All four of us are heading out for a hike today.  On our way out, we saw the neighbors, Virgene and Larry Rasmussen, out walking.  Jack and Ellen invited them over for drinks later tonight.  We hiked in the White River National Forest, not far from the house.  This is a hike Andrew and I had done in the winter in snowshoes back in February.  It was the Stag Gulch trial in the Squaw Creek drainage, maybe 15 minutes from the house.   It’s a beautiful hike thru aspens, opening out onto alpine meadows, then leading back into aspens.  We only hiked about a quarter of a mile, straight up.  We didn’t want to hurt Ellen’s back with too much hiking.  

We had lunch in Vail and went shopping (at a gear store, of course!) and got ready for our evening with the neighbors.  They are one of the few families that live here full time (many are part-time residents) and they’ve been very helpful keeping an eye on the Koransky house here.  Andrew and I were glad we could get to know them better.  They came over with their daughter Morgan and son Stewart.  

We settled up with the owner of the campground this morning.  She was really nice and understanding.  She’s from Florida, the Tallahassee area, and it took her a while to adjust to the dry heat of the desert.  She told me that she and her husband are B.A.S.E. jumpers.  B.A.S.E. jumpers parachute off fixed objects.  B.A.S.E. stands for Bridges, Antennae, Span and Earth.  They usually jump off the cliffs here right at dawn to avoid the heat.  

Andrew and I got our truck loaded and headed out, taking a beautiful drive up hwy 128 following the Colorado River thru the canyon.  We went thru Grand Junction and had to stop at REI to warranty a few things.  We love REI!!  Andrew’s roof top box was purchased in 1998 and it had acquired a couple of cracks on this trip.  REI (and Thule) had no problem replacing it with a new box!  They said Thule had a lifetime warranty and they had a new one on the truck in about 15 minutes.  The propane tank we had problems with, they had to order, but replaced without question.  No problem, we can do without it for a little while longer.  We both bought pants with zip-off legs that we weren’t pleased with, they returned those also without a problem.  

We were also checking out the size and “feel” of Grand Junction for a possible landing site after our trip.  We really liked the fact that it had a microbrewery, but we didn’t get a chance to sample it’s wares.  We might have to look into real estate around here.  

Our route to Edwards, Colorado took us thru the beautiful Glenwood Canyon and we saw lots of people rafting and kayaking on the river.  The river was really high with snowmelt.  We noticed several rafters had wetsuits on, so the water must have been really cold.  Brrr….

We met Jack and Ellen at their house in Edwards.  The hills are green, its perhaps 70 degrees and just beautiful.  They agreed that Arches and Canyonlands deserved another visit, but maybe in February or March.  

We went out to dinner at an Italian place, Tavolaccio, in Edwards.  The food was good, but we had the worst waiter!  He had a thick accent which made it hard to understand him and, when we asked him to repeat something, he stepped further from the table to repeat it.  I asked to add shrimp to an entree (something they offered on another entree), he said he’s not sure the chef would do that (they did).  He filled two water glasses at the table and left a third empty.  We had to ask repeatedly for bread.  Dinner was ok, but he was most annoying!

Well, it finally cooled off a bit last night well after dark.   We’re near the river and the humidity of the river may have held heat longer than we’ve had at other sites.  We’ve decided to deal with the campsite anther night, and the fact that there are 30 kids in a school group near the cabins had no bearing in our decision.  

We went out to Dead Horse State Park and Canyonlands National Park– Islands in the Sky District.  We tried to get an earlier start, but even by 8am it was getting hot.  Dead Horse State Park is on top of a mesa with a narrow land bridge.  Cowboys would heard wild horses across the land bridge and block the opening with brush and tumbleweeds.  They would choose the horses they wanted and then (the stories differ here) they would either leave the unwanted horses on the mesa top or the horses couldn’t find their way off the mesa, where they would die of thirst or jump to their death trying to get to the river thousands of feet below.  We didn’t see any horse when we were there, dead or alive.  The views were great.

We moved on into Canyonlands- Islands in the Sky District.  Canyonlands is divided into three districts; The Islands in the Sky, the Needles and the Maze.  The Needles and the Maze are harder to get to and many areas require four wheel drive vehicles.  The Islands in the Sky is more driver friendly, with mostly paved roads and overlooks.  We made our way to Grand View Point at the far end of the park.  It had to be well over 90 degrees by 11 am.  We then headed back towards Moab for lunch.  

We had some really good salads at Eddie McStiff’s in Moab.  Andrew and I had “researched” their beers our first night in town and they were acceptable.   

Jack and Ellen dropped us off at our campsite to rest and shower before dinner.  Andrew and I went to a hardware store to get a bolt to fit our bike rack to replace the paper clip currently holding things together.  I feel better about not loosing my bike on the road now.  I think it was a that low hanging tree we hit while camping outside of Zion National Park that may have damaged the bolt and with all of the vibration of the dirt roads, it finally gave way.

We went to the office and discussed moving to a cabin for the remaining few days we planned to be here.  Meanwhile, Jack and Ellen called Andrew; they have had enough of the desert.  They’re ready to drive 4 hours to their house in Edwards, Colorado.  We were getting tired of the heat too, and it wasn’t even SUMMER yet.  We talked to the camp office about what their cancellation policy was.  The owner will be in tomorrow morning and we can settle up with her with only a small cancellation fee.