Summer has slowly slipped away and fall is starting to show its colors up on the mountains so it is time to wind up our duties as camp hosts in Colorado and start the winter migration following the buckshot dodging geese on a southerly path to our winter home.
Before we left the area we had a number of things we wanted to do and things to see in this place called Fruita, Colorado before we even thought of packing up.
Linda had wanted to go hiking in the nearby canyons with one of the rangers for some time and finally got an opportunity near the middle of September. So she and Ranger Hillary with friend Daniel headed out to find a canyon noted for its sandstone arches.
It turned out to be a bit of a misadventure as they never did find the arches and seemed to veer a bit off the designated path. But all was not lost as they had an excellent hike and discovered areas and things that were a complete surprise.
Along the way they encountered a rather unexpected sight in the form of homes – complete with garages built into the sides of the sandstone cliffs. You can even see the satellite dishes attached to the rock! Kinda like modern day Hobbits! (or in some cases Trolls).
It turned out to be quite the lengthy hike with many overlooks and viewpoints along the way.
Around each corner they discovered new and interesting rock formations – it seems like there are lots of those out here!
As for me, I wanted to finish a project that I had started when we arrived here. With all our volunteer assignments we try to leave a little bit of us behind – in this case a Cottonwood log engraved with representations of the activities available in and around this park. As you can see it has concerts, biking, hiking, rafting and lots of lizards.
It’s on display at the entrance to the visitor center. So if you are ever at Fruita, Colorado and stop at the State Park there be sure to visit my log.
As always there is mountain biking involved whenever possible and I finally got to ride in the area of Fruita and its multitude of trails. This one is a connector trail which led to Kesslers Run which in turn led to Western Zippity and ended up on Mo-Jo. Not sure who comes up with the names for these trails but they do get inventive.
Here is a small uphill section of a trail called Chutes and Ladders, I did actually make it up this one a number of times. I had to one way or another as it led me to one of my favorite downhill runs called PBR (Pumps, Bumps and Rollers). Three miles of outrageously fun downhill with a few nasty surprises along the way. I did wear all my pads for this one.
We were entertained one evening by one of the campers who decided to serenade us (as well as the whole campground) with the haunting sounds of an extremely well played set of bagpipes. He would march back and forth one of the berms within the park playing as he went – playing continuously until the sun dipped below the western mountains. You could have heard a pin drop in the campground – even all the kids and dogs had stopped to listen to this guy.
I had mentioned in past blogs that the Grand Junction area is host to many events and festivals, and for most of the summer it was a weekly event to have a festival somewhere in the valley. Many of which we attended. One of the events to help close out the season was held in the old downtown area in conjunction with the weekly farmers/open market. It was called “Men in Heels Race” and held to help raise money for organizations concerned with domestic violence. If you can imagine 37 teams of 5-6 men all wearing heels (duck taped to their feet) and some dressed up in boas, skirts, tutus, wigs, superhero outfits, and even a little mini football team (yes, in heels!) racing around a course for the best time. All set to background music of “He looks like a lady” blaring out of sound system speakers.
It was absolutely hilarious! There were policemen, firemen, business owners, construction workers, local TV celebrities and even a couple of heel and dress wearing auto techs all trying to run full out and make it around the corners without crashing. A couple did need medical attention by the time it was done. All for a very good cause!
The last festival we attended during the season was the 100th Annual Fruita Fall Festival. Just like many of the other festivals this one had all the vendors, carnival rides, small car show (and tractors!), bands, the nasty (and expensive) “fair food” and my favorite the 1st Annual Outhouse Race.
Imagine, if you will, an outhouse on wheels with one “Potty Pilot” riding inside and four “Potty Pushers” pulling and pushing down a parallel course before getting “pooped”.
What we do for entertainment!
The Wisdom of “Oreo”
Oreo - our 14 year old Tom Cat, has lived and traveled with us for quite a few years. He likes being part of the Blog and will over time provide a few purr-fect bits of wisdom and cats eye view observations for all the blog readers out there as well as a few off-paw comments about the antics of his pride members and life on the road.
Since my pride and I started full-time rving over eight years ago, we have run into some rather interesting, unique, and/or odd things along the way. Some, my pride actively sought out, (why – I don’t know) others were just there. Some are considered pieces of “art” - others are intended to represent the local human or animal culture - or way of life or business. Then there are those where the reasoning just isn’t sound (even for a dog!) and are just plain “odd”. All are intended to catch your eye and your interest.
As we were making our East – West migration one year we ran across the the Warrior Rabbit of the Nebraska Sandhills! Really – I’m not sure what is more disgusting, stuffing a cute little bunny and sticking antlers on it or taking a picture of it. I had to bite my male pride member on the big toe for this one – he deserved it. This would be like stuffing me and putting Buffalo horns on my poor body, putting me on a shelf in a public place and calling me a “Bufitty”. That’s a picture that won’t leave me for a while!
What's really sad is that there are humans (and I do mean only humans) that really do believe this.
This next oddity we found at a place called “Hole in the Wall” Utah. Just a bit south of Moab. Have I ever said people are weird? At least the guy who built this thing has “Balls”. (No I could not let that opportunity pass.) Multi-colored bowling balls that is – lots of them. And an awful lot of spare time.
The reason for this one really puzzled me as there wasn’t a bowling alley for many, many miles and Saguaro cactus aren’t native to Utah. It took a while but the old Kitty common sense kicked in and I decided that the owner must have been an old professional bowler from Tucson, Arizona who missed home.
I could go on about this place for a while because they really had lots of weird people stuff. My pride member said they make and display this strange stuff because they want to attract more people who like strange stuff and are willing to pay for it. Those people really need a mouse to play with! I caught one for my pride member to distract him from these types of places one time and I even brought it up to his bed to play with – I think he liked it a lot because it was still alive and jumping around and he and his mate (my female pride member) had a great time hopping around and chasing it with a shoe, whacking at it until they finally did enough damage to toss it outside. I’m going to have get them another one soon – they need to work on their mousing skills a bit - and it’s really good entertainment for me!
OREO
With all that, it was time for us to hit the road once again and explore and experience more of this wonderful area. We are moving on to the national parks of Utah and the wonderful playground/adult sandbox called Moab. Then down to St. George and beyond.
We leave you with one of the sunsets as seen from the base of the Colorado National Monument, Colorado.
Home is where we park it!
Lee & Linda
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