May 27 - Grand Junction CO - Moab UT

4:00 a.m. The alarm jolted me into the reality that the day of reconning has arrived for the start of Venture to Vegas. By the grace of God He has given me yet another opportunity to be used to raise awareness and funds for Huntingtons Disease and see more of the USA by bicycle in the process.

Feeling totally unprepared for the ride due to lack of training is a bit unnerving but it is forcing me to rely not on my strength but on God's.

6:00 a.m. Ron has everything loaded into/onto our Chevy Venture van and we drive about 7 miles to Riverside Park adjacent to the Colorado River and the Riverfront Trail. It's cement paved for the most part with some rough sections which haven't been totally repaired after the damage from last year's flooding.

6:30 a.m. We greet our guest rider Heather Chynoweth, a local Physician's Assistant and friend. Our son Justin arrives driving our Toyota Corolla. Gary and Charlotte arrive via bicycle, raring to go! Ron lead us in a prayer, and off we rode West towards Fruita, a bedroom community to Grand Junction, about 12 miles away. We veered off of the trail onto River Road, with relatively little traffic.

We arrived in two shifts. Charlotte's bicycle cyclometer fell off her bike so she and Gary had ridden back to find it (they did, thank God). We all met at the Visitor's Welcome Center. Under Ron's and Justin's expert loading logistics, all 3 bikes were loaded up on the rear bike rack. Fond farewells and off we drove, I-70 West towards Utah. Passed the famous "Leaving Colorful Colorado" sign.

The "Utah - Life Elevated" sign then greeted us. Got a call from a local Grand Junction TV station wanting an interview. Told them we were already in Utah. They will do an interview when we get back in two weeks.

10:15 a.m. Exit 204 near the ghost town of Cisco. We unload Gary's and Charlotte's bikes and they take off headed for Moab. After a couple of miles we turn right onto Hwy 128, a "scenic by-way." The sign read "Castle Valley - 29, Moab - 43." The cool wind was nice, but it was also a headwind the whole way!

Beautiful panoramic vistas as the highway gradually descended to the Dewey Bridge crossing of the Colorado River. When the original bridge was built in 1916 it was the longest suspension bridge in Utah and the second longest suspension bridge West of the Mississippi River. Only the skeleton of the bridge remains, as the bridge was severely damaged by a fire started by a youngster playing with matches. A new highway bridge had to be built to replace this vital link from Eastern Utah to Western Colorado.

We ate lunch at the BLM Dewey Bridge Recreation Site. A few miles down the road we could see the Fisher Towers, monolithic red sandstone formations. I was anxious to get in some more riding miles, so Charlotte and I began switching off riding and driving. It began to get more hilly and with the headwind I tired pretty quickly. The strong rider that Gary is, he was way out in front of us so we loaded both bikes and drove together for awhile.

We passed the Sorrel River Ranchos. Such impressive redrock formations; saw one that reminded me of the Palisade in Gateway, CO. Passed the Castle Valley Inn turn-off, and then the Red Cliff Adventure Lodge and Castle Creek Vineyard and Winery. All these were new to me since the last time I was in Moab about 18 years ago.

I rode another 5 miles or so to the Big Bend area, to get to my goal of 20 miles riding. Charlotte was done riding fot the day so we loaded up both bikes and drove the last few miles into Moab. Gary had arrived earlier and met us at the Aarchway Inn, on Hwy 191 in the North part of Moab. Lovely facility, highly recommended, being comped through a friend from Bible Study who used to live in Moab.

Got situated in our first floor room. Showers then dinner at Denny's.

Long day. Gary rode 61 miles, Charlotte about 45, and me 20. Adding up all 3 mileages more than covered the driving distance from Grand Junction to Moab.

With love from the road,
Marie (for the 3 of us)