Arches to Loma, CO

I woke up at about 5:30 AM, took a look around at the desert sky and saw this rising in the east. It's not the moon, it's Mars. Venus was above and to the right (please correct me if I'm wrong). This shot was taken at 4X zoom with our Canon A560.

The moon was setting behind the cliff in the west.


Here we are getting our quick pre-breakfast ready (oatmeal).
The above picture shows Lena doing her Bernie Madoff impersonation, which she has spent many hours perfecting. Bernie Madoff:

Remarkable, isn't it? Here's Lena's impression of Bernie Madoff brushing his teeth in the desert:


These shots to give you a feel for our location -- there's snow on the mountains in the distance:


Each day we discover a few hitchhikers -- that is, caterpillars who have cocooned themselves onto our belongings and various body parts.


Since this was a Saturday, we knew we might have trouble finding a site at the next campground, so we got on the road by about 6:30. We encountered a few roadblocks.

Many of the telephone poles have perches above the wires so that the large birds won't land between the wires and electrocute themselves. Here's one in use:

I made coyote noises to make him fly off and give me this picture. This bird is a _____________ (someone tell me in the comments, please. I'm too lazy to look it up myself.).

Our actual breakfast was at Starvin' Arvin's near Fruita, Colorado -- french toast, egg, and toast.

Right after breakfast, at about 9 AM, we went to the Colorado welcome center, and asked about camping. There was a campground about 15 miles away. We called, and were told that they had one site left, so we boogied on up there, and grabbed it.

This place was luxury for us. 9:30 AM, after only a few hours of driving, and we already had a campsite, and it had showers and a laundromat! This was like a vacation.

The water heater for the showers was broken (to be fixed in an hour or so), but I took a cold shower anyway because I am so macho.

We unhurriedly set up the tent on some lush grass, and then took off for a bike ride. The roads were great, and there was very little traffic.

We stopped and asked a farmer where the nearest town was, and he directed us to Fruita, about 15 miles away.

Here's the only hill we encountered; we were able to avoid it on the way back by changing the route slightly.


This was a great ride, except for one thing: flats. We got not one or two, but a total of eight flats. Four on the way to town, one on the way back, and three more that didn't manifest themselves until we took the bikes off the rack the next day. A note for you carbon dioxide cartridge elitists -- if I'd had a CO2 inflator with only a few cartridges, I'd have been seeing the sights of Colorado on foot.

Here I am fixing flat #1:

Flat #5:

Why so may flats? Here's why:

All of the flats were caused by these, which are called "goathead thorns." I had thought they were pieces of wire when I felt them inside the tire -- that's how strong they are.

Anyway, in Fruita we had a great a chicken/cranberry/pear/walnut/blue cheese salad with a side of pizza at the Hot Tomato Cafe. You can see my tire at my seat where I worked flats #3 and #4.

On the way back we passed a Mennonite softball game.

Yes, the women are playing in full dresses and bonnets and army boots. It was hot with a bright sun. You should see them run around the bases. I have to say that this is one goofy-assed religion.

When we got back to the campsite, it was time for some luxurious showers, with hot water. Four quarters for four minutes.

Now it was time for some stocking up, so we asked Gunilla about grocery stores, and selected a Safeway in Grand Junction. She took us there via a strange backroads route, but it may have been the best way. Before we started shopping, we wanted to update the blog and check email, so we asked for the location of a nearby coffee shop.

This was the point where Gunilla really lost it. The first place was "Coffeetime" and she took us on a roundabout route to someone's house. OK, we figured, perhaps that was the owner of a coffee shop, and the registered address, or something, so we next chose a Starbucks. Another convoluted route, and when Gunilla said "Arriving at Starbucks, on left" we were looking at a vacant ditch, with no buildings nearby.

We handled the situation well, and said "Gunilla, go to your room." Don't feel bad for her; she lives in Gunilla's Malibu Dream House. Here it is:

So we gave up on wi-fi, and went into Safeway. We were going to get some chicken pieces and firewood, and go back to the campsite and cook dinner, but then Lena had a better idea: Buy some cooked barbecued chicken. This was perfect, and we had a tasty chicken and coleslaw dinner back at the site with no smoke in our eyes, and plenty of leftover chicken for tomorrow's lunch.

Lena got the laundry started after dinner, and we decided to drive into Fruita for our wifi fix. The two coffee shops were closed, but the Hot Tomato had wifi, and although it was a loud yuppie type environment, we got our work done, and I posted a few new days of blog.

When we returned, there was quite a party going on at the mega-accumulator's site across the street (here's a picture the day after)

but we put in our earplugs, and went right to sleep.

Stay tuned for the mourning dove convention and sandals in the snow!