Visiting With Susie

Over the last few days, we've been having a nice visit from our friend,
Susie.  She stopped while driving through the area since she has old
ties to Grand Junction and we've gotten to do a number of fun things
with her.  Earlier this evening, she and Lynn attended a function at the
Western Colorado Center For The Arts and then we all stopped by
The Hot Tomato Cafe in nearby Fruita.  We had wanted to come here
for dinner for some time, and having Susie in town was a great excuse!
Susie's headed out of town tomorrow and has big travel plans for the
next couple of months.  We hope to see her when she gets back!

Fruita Fat Tire Festival

Sometimes, even though you've lived in an area for a while, there
are things you've never done, even though they are right near your
home.  One of those things is the Fruita Fat Tire Festival.  Fruita
is one of the largest meccas of mountain biking in the nation, if
not the world.  I used to mountain bike quite a bit in the Chicago
area and would like to start again, so it was quite interesting to
check out the booths of the different manufacturers.  We visited
during the middle of the day, so there weren't many riders about,
but it was fun to stroll the festival grounds regardless.  We also
took time to visit the new Chow Down Pet Supplies on Aspen Street
as well as Turn The Page used book store.  It was a beautiful day
to be out.

Grand Valley Beer Festival

Today, we used the tickets I won from the television to attend the
Grand Valley Beer Festival,  being held at the University Center,
at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction.

Because it's only five blocks from our house, we were able to walk 

(and as a result, not have to worry about having had a few too many to 

drink).  Lynn nor I aren't very big drinkers, but when we do drink beer, 

we like to try local brews as well as beers from small breweries.  The 

Beer Festival was perfect for this as most, if not all of the 22 breweries 

I counted were from Colorado.  Each person received a small glass that

would be filled at each table you visited and you could try as many of 

the brands as you liked.  You could then vote on your favorite.  I only 

found a couple (I won't mention them) that I really didn't like at all.  

Lynn and I both agreed that the "Red Monkey's Butt" from local Suds 

Brothers Brewery in Fruita was our favorite.  We had a really good time, 

and definitely had our fill.  The venue was fun as well.  I hope it's a 

successful yearly event.

Fruita Farmers Market

Yesterday, we made the short drive to Fruita, Colorado to visit their
weekly Farmers Market. Although there wasn't a lot of produce because
it's still early in the growing season, it was a lot less crowded than our
more local Market in Grand Junction and is held on the weekend instead
of Thursday evening. The people were really friendly, some good music
was being played by Huey Plumleigh and everything had a good, laid back
feel. We didn't end up buying anything, but Lynn had a good time looking
at the products that two different alpaca farms were offering, and it was
fun to see two of the alpacas here at the market. After we left the market,
we strolled on the main street of Fruita and ended up at Aspen Street Coffee.
My goal at the beginning of the summer was to try more local coffee houses
and I really liked this place. Good coffee, roasted by Colorado Legacy
Coffee, friendly helpful baristas and really clean. Lots of neat historic photos
of Fruita on the wall as well. I'm pretty sure we'll go back some day. We
capped off the morning by stopping at the new Fruita Library for some
DVDs. One doesn't always have to go a long way to check out new things.
Sometimes, they can be in your own neighborhood!

It's Pretty Full

We only live about a mile north of the Colorado River, which is the
seventh longest river in the United States. Usually, even though
it carries quite a bit of water at this point in its route, it's fairly
docile. Not so, these days, as spring runoff from this winter's
record snows in the Rocky Mountains is causing it to fill to its
banks and even sometimes over it. Last week, part of Interstate 70
had to be closed west of Fruita as the river was placing the highway
in danger. We took this photo in Glenwood Canyon on our way to
Denver last week. A few miles earlier, we saw some rafters making
their way down the river in an area that looked much like this.
There's a bicycle/walking path that runs through the canyon.
If you look closely on the left hand side of the photo, you can see
that it is very much under water. Not a good day to be ambling
down the river's edge. Even though we're having all of this water
now, the experts say that it won't have much effect of a nearly
20 year drought the Colorado River Basin is having. And believe
it or not, most of this water won't ever make it to the Pacific
Ocean (Gulf of California) in Mexico. It will go to the thirsty cities
of Los Angeles, Phoenix and Las Vegas. It's fun to watch while it
lasts though.

Riverfront Concert Series

We just got back from a fun concert at the James M. Robb Colorado
River State Park in Fruita featuring Carrie Rodriguez, who is a singer
and fiddle player. The Colorado Riverfront Foundation hosts several
of these free concerts each summer. Proceeds from the sale of food
and drinks go to the Riverfront Foundation for building new sections
of the Riverfront Trail. The venue has a great backdrop of the Colorado
National Monument and there aren't any permanent seats so everyone
brings their lawn chairs or blankets. We met up with our friends Jim
and Judey and we enjoyed hanging out.


The skies threatened to open up and rain all over us the entire
time we were there, but it made for some really pretty sunset
clouds. At around 10pm we felt the first drops and that was our
signal to head out. We had fun and will probably go to a few more
of these concerts next summer.