Today was bittersweet. On the one hand I left Utah and don’t know when I’ll be back. On the other hand, I’m very excited to start seeing some new, for me at least, country.

There’s only one road between Green River and Grand Junction, I-70. So we were on the freeway all day again. That’s just the nature of roads in many parts of the west. It was a very pretty ride, with the Bookcliffs on the north side and the LaSalle mountains in the distance to the south. I-70 is rolling through this area with most grades being between 2 and 4%. This made riding pretty straightforward and gave me a lot of time to check out the countryside.

Our first SAG stop was at a place called Thompson Springs. It’s basically a ghost town except for the gas station at the freeway off ramp. It seems a bit strange that a place like this holds a special place for me.

Look Litespeed Pony, it's the bookcliffs north of Thompson Springs!
 

In the summer of 1984 I went hunting in the mountains north of here. I had never been to the bookcliffs before and expected a very desert type environment. It turned out to be one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. Of course you have to climb from the desert floor to the top of the bookcliffs but once there it was lush and green with many small valleys with almost park like grass. It was in these mountains that I decided I would go back to school and get a degree. It took a few months to get started but it all worked out and now I’ve been at Boeing for 20 years.

Enough nostalgia, I’m on a bike ride! After the first SAG stop, at 25 miles, the ride just kept going. The big difference for me was that I entered country with which I’m not familiar. Actually, the country looked the same but I hadn’t seen it before. Along about 50 miles in I saw a small herd of what I believe are Pronghorn Antelope. They were a couple hundred yards off the road so I’m not sure but I did take a picture.

Look hard!

At mile 70 we came to the Utah/Colorado border. This makes the 4^th state for the tour! Then it was on for another 26 miles to Grand Junction.


I'm on the right, with the multicolored arms!
 

All in all it was a most enjoyable day. It started out in the upper 50’s and got into the upper 80’s by the end of the day. With the breeze I created by just riding along this was pretty nice. I did have to use plenty of sunscreen with the sun beating down at this temperature. The only bug in my, and most of the other riders, bonnet was the flat tires. I had three and many folks had that many as well. The problem is the little wires in radial tires. You pick them up and they cause a slow flat. From what I’m told this is quite common along freeway’s with all truck traffic and tire treads that get thrown off them. I guess I’ll have to live with it. About the only other way to handle them is to quit riding and that’s not going to happen!

Tomorrow will be another fairly short day. We’re riding to Montrose, which is about 65 miles from here. We’re starting to climb into the mountains again and I’m looking forward to the alpine views.