Day 16: A Sepia Day in "The Colorful State"

After more than two weeks of travel, it's funny how a 40 mile cycling day can seem like a simple ride through the neighborhood to a friend's house.

Opening our eyelids at separate times, the gang formerly known as Mystery Inc. had many different plans for the morning. Kirsten and Mike woke up at 7:30 am to roll into Arches National Park to capture some final pictures of the Delicate Arch. Sanford and Zane broke into the kitchen at an undisclosed time to read the New York Times and sip coffee before work, discussing whatever the two of them talk about. Claire jumped out of bed with her newfound energy to paint her nails a very awkward teal color. And, most importantly, Shane and Jason cuddled in bed until 11:30, when Momma' Claire rolled in to tell them that they had overslept the 11:00 AM checkout time.

By 12:30 our confused and discombobulated bunch had reassembled and arranged Jason’s Muscle Milk, Sanford’s Twilight books, and all of our bikes, suitcases, and sleeping bags into the car. With just enough room to pack in some of our limbs, our car departed Moab in pursuit of the point on I-70 where Jason and Zane ended their ride on Sunday.

As hard as we can try, there is no way to beautify today to make it sound interesting. We biked an up and down 40 miles, with the last 10 along the hardly impressive Colorado River. Jason and Zane both popped their tires and needed to be picked up by Claire. Perhaps the most exciting part of the day came at the City Market when Claire rode in the children’s shopping cart and Jason mistakenly purchased toilet paper instead of paper towels.

Arriving in Grand Junction, CO around 5, we set up camp at our spacious housing at Mesa State University (a big thank you to Chuck Thomas and Stuart Kuhn for getting us two huge dorm rooms with more than enough beds) and scavenged through the van to find a cheap dinner. The Carnies in Moab had conned us out of hundreds, and for some reason, it was nice to just sit back and crack open some free canned food.

Tomorrow, with luck, will be some interesting riding as we take our first few pedals into the infamous Rocky Mountains. With 87 miles and 3000 ft uphill on the agenda, we are all hunkering down for a good nights rest before our 7:30am departure. Toodles.

*Jason insists that we start Trivia on the blog, so the 2010 FACE AIDS Ride Against Aids' first trivia question is: Name this man