April 20, Grand Junction
Another really nice day in this town. The weather has been perfect, though a bit on the warm side for someone afflicted by a permanent fur coat. But Geri and Don always take every precaution to ensure that I don’t get overheated, wherever we are. We started out with a visit to a park a few miles away from the RV Park, where the grass was excellent and spacious. I reveled in it, doing a few rolls, then charging up to a unsuspecting gentleman seated on a bench reading. I demanded to be petted briefly, which he was happy to do, then went running off into a very exuberant Crazy Dog routine, which I’m sure everyone appreciated. Gotta say, I had a good time.

When we got back to the rig, Geri was ready to go, so we all got into the truck and headed out. We went into downtown Grand Junction, found a parking spot, and did a walking tour of Main Street. Don had told me that Grand Junction had adopted a policy encouraging public displays of sculpture on the streets of the town, and local sculptors had responded well. There were eight to twelve pieces of sculpture on every block of Main Street! Don took pictures of many of them, which I’m sure he’ll post on the blog. During our tour of downtown, they found a delicatessen that looked good to them, so they ordered a sandwich to split between them. As they sat at their table on the sidewalk, they seemed to be totally oblivious to the First Law of Dog Ownership: The Dog Eats First! I looked on, incredulously, as they happily munched away on their eats. Not a bite was left! As I reflected on this monstrous breach of basic precepts, I had to come to a realization of fact: they’re getting old and forgetful. They just are oblivious to what they are doing. To their (small) credit, they had packed my lunch in the truck, and gave it to me as soon as we got back to it. I was still wounded.
Leaving downtown, we headed east on old Highway 6, which Don says was once the longest highway in the country. I don’t know why he knows things like this, or why anybody cares. We wound up in a town called Palisades, which is in a wine producing district. We visited a couple of wine tasting rooms, and Don added to his stash of regional wines. We started back toward Grand Junction through fields of fruit orchards, all of which were just starting to bloom, which produced a beautiful landscape. There were a lot of interesting homes along the way, some in the last stages of dissolving into the dirt, some novel and imaginative, and some just plain crazy.

We wound up back in Grand Junction, at a place called Walton Island, where you can walk alongside the Colorado River at a point just before it joins with the Gunnison River. It was a nice walk, with lots of good smells and fine views. The river was running very fast and strong, and Don remarked that it did his heart good to see all of that water running down into Lake Powell. We had to do a stop at the local WalMart to replenish some our supplies, and then headed back to the rig. Geri and Don had some leftovers for dinner, and I got a few meager scraps to clean up. Nothing to write a blog about.

We’re on our way again in the morning, heading south to a place called Montrose. We enjoyed Grand Junction, and hope we like Montrose as much. I’ll be reporting on it tomorrow!