Day 17 - Fruita to Montrose

I was excited about this day because I had company! Natalie and Lonny came to Grand Junction. Lonny joined us for the ride to Montrose, Natalie did laundry and ran errands for us. It was fun to have Lonny with us but really, having Natalie do the laundry was amazing. :)

The day started off with Fiona sampling biscuits and gravy at last.

She said it was ok. I'm not sure she's fully converted though.

Ready to roll!

Started off fairly calm with some nice views of Colorado National Monument but after we left Grand Junction behind, we were riding into a very stiff headwind. We had a nice shoulder along state road 50 which should have given us a chance to ride two abreast and do some chatting but we shifted to single file to minimize wind exposure for much of the way, taking turns being the leader.

Still had some nice views of course but we worked hard for them. This was the worst headwind we'd had on the trip.

We also got some pelting rain that stung a bit when it hit. After our SAG stop, we rode into Delta and stopped at DQ for lunch. The wind seemed a bit better after lunch and we rode through some agricultural lands.

The snow capped mountains were slowly getting closer!

When we finally rolled into Montrose, we were feeling really hot, dry, and wind blown! Our hotel had some fresh baked cookes at the front desk. I asked for water instead. You can see how desperate I was! We actually sat in the lobby and had a few glasses before making our way to our room.

Once we cleaned up, we met up with Lonny and Natalie and took a quick trip out to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

I was the only one of the group who had been there before. Everyone was duly impressed!

While driving along the rode past the visitors center, we actually saw a young bear walk across the road and into the bushes. Pretty cool! First bear sighting in Colorado for the other three as well.

With Lonny and Natalie Jacobson

After a few viewpoints, hunger took over our desire for natural beauty and we headed back into Montrose. We enjoyed some pizza and then took Fiona for her first trip to Cold Stone. She's a fan! :) It has been super fun being able to see familiar things through her eyes. Makes me appreciate what we have here in the USA! Not just ice cream either. ;)