DAY 17

ROUTE:Grand Junction,CO to Montrose,CO	DISTANCE:68 miles	WINDS:Slightly head, but light
WEATHER:Beeootiful! (Do I sound like a broken record?)	TERRAIN:Consistently uphill	CLIMBING:About 1500 ft.

Tuesday, June 22. Today was our first full day of riding in Colorado, and the thing that struck me most was how much GREEN I was suddenly seeing. After the desert browns in Nevada and Utah, it's a pleasant change. I also crested a hill and was rewarded with my first glimpse of the Rockies. They are breathtaking...but I'm embarrassed to admit that my first thought was, "They really DO look like the Coors commercials!" :) Today's ride was great. We left the hotel at 7:45am, and headed east. (Okay, I realize that many of you are aware that I am directionally challenged, but the road said EAST.) I was one of six folks who opted NOT to take the alternate bike trail that Sue had marked...honestly, the only reason is because it had quite a few turns and I needed to just put my head down a go today. The folks that did take it said it was really nice. I rode much of today with David, Jim, and Michael. We weren't always right together, but we always had each other in sight. There were a couple of unusual happenings today...1)at a road construction area, we asked if we could ride on the new blacktop instead of the side of the road to which traffic was being diverted. The sign guy (probably not very high up in the hierarchy of road builders) said sure, so we hopped over and rode for a couple of miles on the most pristine blacktop ever. It was like riding on ice! Suddenly, this man darted out from the side and started waving his arms wildly. Seems he was the superintendent of the project and didn't appreciate us riding on his new tar. We apologized and carried our bikes over the median to the other side, not having the heart to tell the guy that he'd probably be chasing another 25 bikers off his road before the morning was out! We heard later that the sign guy got chewed out for letting us cross over, and the little superintendent man sputtered at a couple of other groups, too. 2) At one point during the morning, we suddenly encountered dozens and dozens of plastic mustard packets on the shoulder, and had to play tiptoe to get through them. Apparently, another group of riders decided to see how many they could run over, and there were a few yellow stained legs afterwards. Steve took great care of the Chicken today, strapping him securely on his helmet with dust tape (called 100mph tape if you're from Aynor...that's a new one I got from a colleague at school!) The Chicken was awarded to Michael tonight at route rap...not ab partner Michael, a different one! We've also started giving people nicknames....Big Dog (John), Sargeant (Sue), Hot Dog (Jeff)...I don't have one so far, but there's a long way to do on this ride. Lots of the riders are really interesting folks...David is a radiologist in Syracuse,NY...Dennis and Joyce are jewelry makers from near Boston,MA....Michael D is trying to avoid working for a living (just teasing), and has a self-promotional website that we rag him about...Bill is retired, but is doing this ride to raise money for the American Cancer Society, and thus far has raised over $42,000!...John (Big Dog) works on a tug boat in Valdez, Alaska...Joe is a middle school teacher and football/basketball coach in Texas....Jim just finished getting his degree in Bible studies and will be doing church work after the ride....the mix of people is quite eclectic, but everyone gets along great and we have tons of fun. I'll try to introduce the others in another entry. Anyway, to finish the day...David, Michael, and I (somehow we lost Jim)stopped for lunch in Delta,CO, at a great little bagel shop/deli. Delta is a cool little town. It has an old main street with lots of small restaurants and even an old-fashioned soda shop. It's a really artsy town...many of the buildings' walls are painted with neat murals, and there are various pieces of local artwork (iron, sculpture, etc) on the street corners. After lunch, we headed out for the last 22 miles to Montrose, and found Jim about 10 miles out with a flat tire. After stopping to help him, we got into the hotel about 1:15ish. It was nice to get in early...I even got to watch Oprah's interview with Bill Clinton! :) I realized something today....the reason that this whole trip is so absolutely incredible is because I'm not just seeing America, I am immersed in it....I'm PART of the landscape, not just looking at it from the window of a car. It's hard to explain, but it's the coolest! Tomorrow we head to Gunnison, and then on to tackle Monarch Pass on Thursday. Thanks for checking in....I'm checking out to bed!

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