Back to normal

After our projects, we took all day Sunday to just lay around and take it easy.  It was a nice quiet day.  We decided on Monday we needed to go do something.  We wanted to go back up on Grand Mesa while we were here, so we did.  We made a big loop around by going first to Grand Junction for a quick errand and lunch, then up and over Grand Mesa on a different road than we had taken before.  Grand Mesa is the largest mesa in the world.  It is about 500 square miles and rises 5000' above the surrounding area.  It is topped by hard volcanic basalt rock which resists erosion.  The mesa was formed not by rising up, but by it's surrounding areas eroded away largely by the Colorado and Gunnison rivers.  We had camped up on the top a couple years ago and loved it.  The top which is mostly flat, has over 300 lakes and reservoirs. 

We use TripAdvisor a lot to help find restaurants, and it usually works very well.  We have had a jones up for a couple different kinds of food while we've been out here in the west, one is Chinese, and the other is sushi.  We have been trying quite a few different Chinese places with no luck at all.  One of our favorites in Pagosa Springs was closed while we there as they were moving their location, so no go there.  And the one that TripAdvisor recommended here in Montrose very frankly stunk!  So that quest continues.  Now anyone with any common sense would say there is no way you are going to get good, fresh sushi out here, wait until you get closer to a coast, but trusty TripAdvisor had as its second best restaurant in Grand Junction, a sushi place.  Lots of good reviews, fly their fish in fresh each day, etc and so on.  We walked around a bit in Grand Junction, it's a very nice downtown area.

Downtown

 As you can see they've done a great job with the downtown to make it user friendly, wide sidewalks, lots of shops and restaurants, interactive water features, and limited parking on the main drag.  This little guy below was having a blast running in this fountain that was constantly changing how it sprayed.

Having a ball in the fountain!

There was another water feature that got an unsuspecting me!  There was water babbling amidst the rocks, but when I went up a little closer to take a picture of this gargoyle, it sprayed ME!

Spraying monster

 So back to the sushi restaurant.  We decided to give it a try, and well to say we were disappointed is an understatement!  It was okay at best, fairly expensive, chintzy portions  of fish on maybe the worst rice we had ever had, and as you know in sushi, it's all about the rice.  Lesson learned!

Off we went to drive up the north side of Grand Mesa.  We would go from about 4800' in Grand Junction to a little over 10,000' up on the mesa.  As we climbed we passed an elk farm.  We've seen many of these farms out here, but never had we seen this many bulls all together.  Sorry about the photo, but there was a double layer of fencing that Jan just couldn't get out of the picture.

Big boys hangout

When we started our climb the temperature was 94 degrees, when we got to the top it was 66!  Nice.  Beautiful views off the mesa.

There's been a little humidity around with the monsoon season, so it's not as clear as it usually is.  The loop was about 180 miles.  It was a great day.  We found one of those 300 lakes to have coffee beside.  Not bad, huh?

Coffee break

Two other wonderful things we have been enjoying is Olathe corn and Palisades peaches.  Olathe is about 20 miles north of us, and they grow the BEST sweet corn you can imagine, acres and acres of it, and those of you who know me understand my personal corn rating is very discerning to say the least!  And the Palisades area which is very near Grand Junction has these fantastic peaches.  Jan just froze a ton, and has been making us delightful goodies to include cobbler and pound cake!  We buy the peaches and the corn off the back of pickup trucks from folks that have personally picked them only hours before.  Really, really, good stuff!