Another Food Truck Wednesday with Molly

I met Molly at the farmer's market and loaded chocolate milk and cantaloupe in my backpack.   After we dropped by her house to unload our cargo we were off to the food trucks.

Yummy lobster mac-n-cheese, salmon, blackberry lemonade and fruit/shortcake dessert with real whipped cream!

Happy, happy!

Back at the house reminiscing about the mac-n-cheese...

Sporting Sfatto brightness threads.  Thanks Richie!!!

Birthday Paddle/Ride/Run

I had a pretty awesome birthday, starting with a paddle at Stone Mountain in the morning.

 Shey went for a trail run, while Jansen and I paddled.

 We pulled the boat up and went for a hike.

 After we got back home, I jumped on the road bike and rode to the shop where Everett was working and we rode home together, then Jansen took Everett and me on a local trail run.  Pretty great day, ending with a cold beer!

Concerts and Water

KI was pretty stoked to see Everclear live.  The opening bands were Lit, Gin Blossoms and Sugar Ray. 

We picked up Everett at the shop and headed over to Chastain.



Kari Lindner

Lit was AWESOME!  They put on a great show and the lead singer was right on.  Gin Blossoms sounded like they were straight off a CD, perfect!  Sugar Ray,  isn't my thing, but the guys in the band were awesome!  Then it was time for Everclear.  I always have them on my ipod and just love their music.  Well, Art was terrible.  His voice was so strained and I am not sure if he couldn't remember the music or just knew he couldn't hit the notes, but either way, it was a huge letdown.  But, the good news is that A. Jay from Lit and Robin from Gin Blossoms came out and sang most of the songs with Everclear and they rocked it!  Our neighbor is a roadie and we saw him setting up the equipment between bands.  Hi ANDY!

Even though our road trip was a blast, we are really happy to be back home.  We been loading up the boat in the mornings and exploring the local water.

Checking out the wetlands area at the International Horse Park.

Beautiful skies.

Beaver dam in the wetlands preserve.

Heading Home

It's been forever since we hit a pool, so we found a campground right off the highway on the way home and went for an awesome swim.



Then chilled out in the hammocks, before crashing for the night.  The little campground store even had ice cream!  Perfect!

We will make it back in time unpack and go to the Everclear concert.

Good times, fun trip with the guys and I can't wait until the next one!

Grand Mesa to Carbondale

I rolled out of bed a little earlier than the guys and went for a spin on the county roads, which led to some pretty cool snowmobile paths.  Nice ride.  Then I came back and we packed up and all went for a spin together.  County road to jeep track to single track.  

Great views!

We didn't have a map so I was watching my gps.  I told Jansen the main road was right in front of us.......and it was....down a long rocky embankment.  (see it down there?)

Sweet singletrack.

Nice and cool.  About 55 degrees.  This trail ran across a section they where they were clearing trees.  We had to cross about 40 downed trees, then moved on to a clear trail again.

After our morning ride, we said "good-bye" to the Grand Mesa and drove a lovely road through passes and gorges on to Carbondale.  I texted Michelle, but she was riding Crested Butte (and it was hailing there) but she directed us to the Aloha Bike Shop and they gave us excellent directions to the local trails.  But, first, burgers!!!  Jansen got  a Elk Burger here.

The Mushroom Rock trail system on the north side of town was really cool.  Great climb, flat at the top, then super technical rocky stuff on both ends of the loop.

Yum!  Steep and Rocky!

Look at that blue sky!  Great view of the town from above.

My every-trusty Blue!

After we finished that trail I hopped on the bike path along the river, while the boys investigated the park in town.

I was hoping to ride the Prince Creek trails, too, but we all kind-of wanted to find a pool somewhere and get in some swim time.  So, after camping in the woods for the majority of the week, we were off in search of a real campground with a pool!  Bye Carbondale....hope to see you again soon!

Grand Mesa National Forest

After riding slickrock, we headed back up hwy 128 and stopped along the way to play in the Colorado River.

In just a couple hours of driving we went from this landscape.....

...... to this!  52 degrees at 10,000+ feet in the Grand Mesa National Forest.

 Everett hiked in his flip-flops. 

 The cooler temps were fun and there were many lakes hidden in the mountains.  There were trails everywhere and we saw a couple marmots as we hiked.

 It was wet from a steady drizzle, so I hit the forest service roads on my bike and they were really nice  gravel.  I went looking for moose until the sun went down, but did not see any.

 Jansen carries his man-box-of-awesomeness to the campsite.

 We found a nice little place to sleep at the edge of a marshy clearing.  Something big woke me in the middle of the night.  It was breathing heavy and sounded like a large deer from it's footsteps.  I was too snuggly in my bag to look out.

On to Moab

We made it to Moab, UT early enough to hit Poison Spider for a pint glass, then we rode the Moab Brand trails until the sun went down.

I didn't remember there being so much rock to ride on these trails.

Tired and happy we drove up hwy 128 and found a place to camp in a paid campsite by the river.  We were swarmed by mayflies.  They were in our ears, nose and going crazy all around our headlamps.  We put up our tents in record time....no hammocks tonight!  While laying in bed I heard the guys snickering at the crazy buzzing going on all around us.  In the morning the mayflies were gone except for a coating of the deceased on the ground.  Here is the view from our campsite.

We were up early and moving out to slickrock to ride before it got hot.  I decided to hike with Everett while Jansen rode, since riding rock is fun, but gets old quickly.  The sky was blue, but with enough clouds to keep us from roasting.

Jansen was finished with the loop very quickly and spun around for a while longer to give us some more time to hike.

Some of the views were nice.

Farmer's tan just will not go away....ever!

We found a park right down the road and cooled off in the creek.  Refilled our water jugs and hung out for a while before hitting the road to climb to some trails in the Grand Mesa National Forest.

I know Moab is supposed to be the mountain biking capital of Utah, but it isn't my favorite place.  The town is grungy each time I have been  and there are so many other great places to ride in Utah.  The National Parks in Utah are amazing and you usually find a really cool town right outside of the park.  Zion is one of my favorite places to hike, but northern Utah is fun, too.

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Fruita and a Bit of Bad Luck.

We left Donnie and Amber's on Thursday morning in search of more trail.  We decided to head west and eventually hit Moab, so Everett could replace his Poison Spider pint glass.

Amber and Donnie's house at CB South.  What a view!

First we stopped at Hartmans Rock outside of Gunnison.  Fun trail and goofy guys make for a really great morning!

Ooooh, double oreo!

We stopped at a visitor center in Fruita and they had a lot of great info on the local trails, so we drove out to 18 Road first.  It doesn't look like there could possibly be decent trails out here, but man was it super fun!

Rock like TX.

I told the guys that I used to carry around horny toads when I was a kid.  Everett said, "So they don't bite?"   "Nope" I say.  Everett leans over to touch one on the back and it puffs up and hisses at him.  Scared the crap out of all three of us.  Hmm, they must have mutated.........

Lot's of short steep climbs.

Great views

Then we were done and the sun was setting, so we found a place to camp.

But, first we set out some bait for the critter who was possibly hitching a ride with us.  We woke up one morning to find a bite taken out a bagel...through the bag, and the peanut butter jar gnawed on.  So, the plan was to set out a snack, then I would wake up in the middle of the night and shine my headlamp on the critter, then catch it with my bare hands.  Awesome plan!

Slept great.  Didn't catch the critter.  Packed up camp.  Took a picture.  Went to start the car and...............the battery was dead.  Great.  In the middle of nowhere. 

Kari Lindner

Shey had just signed us up for AAA this summer and I had my card.  The battery had a slight charge, so I disconnected the cables to save that. 

The boys were calm and I was not, so I sent them to a hill with some cardboard we had picked up in a dumpster for just this occasion.

I found a high spot where I had phone signal and I called AAA.  Then I visited the natives while we waited to see if they could find us.

One hour later a guy pulled up in a green truck.  I couldn't believe he made it!  He was super nice and we were on our way quickly.  On to Grand Junction to get a new battery and eat some lunch.  We skipped the other Fruita ride we had planned and headed straight on to Moab.

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