June 6, 2007

SD and I decided to go out of town to celebrate our one year of dating. We headed out to Fruita late Wedesday night with plans to camp. However, after a long day at work, close to five hours of driving in the dark, we decided that rather than looking for a site and trying to set up camp in the dark we would just crash in a hotel in town. In the morning, we met up with Piglet, found a site and headed for the Kokopelli trail. We started on Rustlers Loop. It wasn't too hot yet, we were the only ones riding the trail and it was a lot of fun. That is until I heard Piglet shout "oh no!" from behind me.

I stop and turn around to her off her bike with her seat pointing straight up to the sky! Her seat post was busted and we couldn't fix it on the trail so the poor girl had to finish the loop with no seat! (Pictures coming soon!) We headed back to town to get it fixed and grab lunch and headed back out to ride Horsetheif Bench.

We took Mary's Loop to the Horsethief Bench Trail. It was an awesome ride. We were pretty much the only ones back there, blasting around in the desert with the lizards and the heat and the majestic Colorado River running below us. It's a nice cruiser trail with a few technical spots. I sometimes have to remind myself not to get frustrated when the other people I am with can bomb up and down pretty hairy stuff on their nice fancy bikes and I can't always do the same on my less fancy one. I love my bike Trek, but I sometimes feel it's holding me back a little. It was a lot of fun just the same. Fun but very hot.

Friday we rode around the campsite, Joe's Ridge and Kessler's Trail, then we packed up camp and rode Mary's Loop. This loop was a lot of fun also, with the dried river beds and everything. But again it was very hot. I don't think the heat has ever bothered me as much as it did on that ride, therefore, I don't think I have ever whined so much on a ride. I felt kinda bad for them putting up with me. Piglet headed home afterwards and SD and I headed to Grand Junction, stopping in Fruita for lunch again.

We stayed at a cute B&B called The Gallery and our hosts Karen and Damian were wonderful. We had great breakfasts in the morning and Damian gave us a tour of his pottery studio. We cleaned up and headed out to see our friend Plesko off on another one of his crazy adventures. Only this time he might have reached a peak in the craziness scale. He set out on a mountain bike race that covered close to 400 miles! INSANE! Mrs. Plesko was also of course there to see him off. Read more about his adventure at slipangles.blogspot.com. We wished him luck and watched him ride away.

We decided to check out the downtown scene for dinner and found a delicious italian restaraunt there. SD and I were exhuasted so just went back to our room for the night. In the morning, we packed up a day pack and head to Catfish Canoe and rented a Duckie (inflatable kayak). The owner, Henry, was a nice fellow and the setup was awesome. We rented the boat, he drove us to our put-in in Palisade and picked us up at our put-out, in Grand Junction. The Colorado River was flowing high enough that we pretty much just floated the entire 16 miles. There was one Class III, probably, at the confluence of the Colorado and Gunnison rivers that we hit which was exciting, but besides that it was a very peaceful, relaxing day of floating and eating cherries and looking out for Blue Herons.

I gave SD his gift that night. I put together photographs of some of the adventures we have been on together in the last year, framed them for him to hang on his yet-to -be-painted bedroom wall. The next morning he gave me a beautiful set of hand crafted glasses made by Damian, our host at the Gallery, to remind me of our wonderful weekend together.

Before heading home on Sunday we took a partial tour of the wineries in Palisade. This was an awesome experience. Most of the let you try as many different wines as you'd like-for nothing! We got a delicious cherry wine and yummy, mild mead from the meadery. We also stopped at a few of the quaint fruit stands, though not much was available yet.

We had a wonderful time, and although I missed A very much while we were gone and I always have her to look forward to coming home to, there's still a bittersweetness about the end of a fabulous weekend, time passing, and having to get back to reality...