Fruita/Gypsum, CO - Apr. 29 - May 4, 2005

Fruita, CO - April 29 - May 1, 2005

Where and why Fruita, you may ask. And a good question it would be. Fruita is located a couple of miles west of Grand Junction at the foot of the Colorado National Monument mesa, and near the confluence of the Colorado and Gunnison Rivers. We wanted to spend a few days here because many years ago when we passed through Grand Junction we thought it was lovely, and it still is. It is a warm spot in Colorado that allows for the cultivation of pit fruit and vines. Like many other areas, vineyards are taking over acreage that was previously occupied by other crops. The area has recently become a retirement mecca, so there are several new housing developments, hobby ranches and golf courses in the area.

It is also an outdoor adventure wonderland. The Fat Tire Festival, sponsored by the Belgium Brewery of the same name, was held the weekend we were in Fruita. The festival is a weeklong event, but the weekend's 18-hour mountain bike endurance race and following celebration seems to be the primary attraction. The race started at midnight and ended at 6:00 PM on Saturday, April 30. We will freely admit that Fat Tire Beer is one of our favorites, but we can't imagine riding a bike 18 hours to earn a taste - especially at night on mountain bike trails.

However, in the spirit of camaraderie, we also went bicycling on Saturday - on a paved path - for two hours. We would have biked longer but our butts hurt. It is all too apparent that we will not earn even a thimble of Fat Tire Beer - we will have to purchase it like normal people. That said, we enjoyed our biking experience on a path paralleling the Colorado River as it runs through Grand Junction, and did a geocache along the way.

Prior to the bike trip we took a scenic drive through Colorado National Monument. Since the drive edges along a high mesa with major drop offs, it proved to be another frightening experience for Susan.

On Sunday we visited several of the wineries in the Grand Valley. In our opinion, some were really quite good - and some not so good.

Gypsum, CO - May 2 - 4, 2005

On Monday we moved on to Gypsum, Colorado, about 20 minutes east of Glenwood Springs. We selected this location for two reasons, 1) Susan wanted to bike the Glenwood Canyon bike path, and 2) we wanted to be closer to the high passes so we could make a run to the east side of the mountains in case another threatening weather system came through. As an added bonus, the River Dance RV property is along a section of the Eagle River that is very conducive to fly-fishing.

After purchasing a State of Colorado annual fishing license, Bill hit the river. Since he had not done any fly-fishing since we were in Yellowstone last June, he was very pleased to have caught two good size trout, a rainbow and a brown. On the other hand, he was not too thrilled about catching a very ugly (but large) carp.

As feared, a storm front is due to arrive this evening so we are upgrading our ore (Gypsum to Gold) and moving on to Golden on the east side of Vail and Loveland Passes.