Grand Junction Colorado - Saturday 8th - Sunday 9th May 2010

Left Dead Horse Point this morning for an easy drive up the road heading for Rocky Mountains National Park. Called in at the Welcome Center in Fruita to find out that the park won’t be open till the end of May due to late snow so we will have to slow up a bit more as we don’t want to end up in the snow all the time and we would rather stay out of the cold if possible.

We had a nice weekend in Island Acres State Park near Grand Junction Colorado. On Saturday we went to the Gem, Jewellery and Mineral Expo where we spent quite a bit of time and money. Got some good rocks to play with when we get home including some Ethiopian opal which is cheap as chips compared to Australian opal and we were told that most of the sales of it are going to Australian buyers who then pass it off as Australian Opal. So watch out as it looks just like the Australian stuff. We found the same problem with the jade when we were in New Zealand. They can’t get jade off the Maori anymore so they buy it in from Canada and sell it off as genuine NZ jade.

On Sunday (for my mother’s day treat) we went into the Art and Jazz Festival where we checked out the markets, looked in the trendy shops and also a great antique place. We watched the bands and had a dance although most of the songs you couldn’t dance to. Have you ever heard a jazz version of Route 66? Different.  We also had lunch in a retro burger diner decorated with all the old 50’s furniture and stacks of memorabilia around the walls. Very authentic. The waitress gave me a long stemmed red rose for mother’s day which was nice. Missed all the family a little bit but all is okay.

Went for a late walk around the park and met a nice local couple called Bob and Nancy. Bob is working on his credentials so he can go back to Australia with us.

More observations

Only in American can you:

Sit on an exercise bike in the back of your RV with no shirt on and peddle your heart out (why not just go for a walk or bike ride?)

Campaign to set up a border patrol for the state of Arizona so the terrorists can’t get in.(John McCain ambition)


Drive along the road in a 4 wheel drive car towing a 5th wheeler towing another smaller 4 wheel drive car?

Try this in Australia and see what happens