Aint life Grand… At the Junction!

After waking up with little sleep from the trailer-buffeting winds and limping to town on our flat tire we unceremoniously took our leave from Moab. The drive was short to Grand Junction, only about 115 miles or so. It was a pretty drive however, watching the newly snowcapped LaSal mountains fade into the distance and seeing the larger Colorado Mesas rise up in front of us.

 

We were running characteristically late and were hungry upon our arrival. During our search for cheap eats we spotted….wait for it…..AN ACTUAL VERIZON CORPORATE STORE!!! Now this may not mean much to you, but to me it was like stumbling across $500 dollars. Allow me to explain. In San Fran I took advantage of the free iPhone swap at the Apple Store but waited to turn in my old phone til I got some info off of it. Since we have no mailing address I couldnt get the return box mailed to me…meaning I had to return the phone at a verizon store. I soon learned after spending an hour at a string of verizon stores across southwest that most verizon stores are licensed retailers and the wont take my phone. My 45 day window to return it was closing fast. In short, I gave that puppy back and got my $450 credit on my account just in the nick of time.
Later TrayTray had to take a poo so we had to find a dump station, and then we ventured out past the airport to an area that was recommended for free camping. I was less than thrilled as it was an off road vehicle staging area, had bullet riddled junk cars, and was very muddy. Change of plans. We dropped by the BLM office to ask for cmping suggestions and were directed to the North Fruita Trails area about 12 miles away. It was getting dark and snowing pretty hard so we high tailed it on over to Fruita, or as Cate calls it froo-ee-ta (they have a full size dino statue eating a full sized grinch on the town roundabout and dino tracks on the sidewalks). imageAfter getting slightly lost, and much darker, we found the area but took the wrong road. We ended up in deeper, and deeper mud. It was unanimously decided to leave good enough alone and just stop. So, we stopped and hoped #1: that we could turn around in the morning, and #2: that the mud would freeze up so that we could free ourselves and find the actual campground in the morning. We woke up to see a wonderful view, good frozen ground, a nice wide turnaround, and… a dead truck battery.

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Just the morning before it was a flat trailer tire. Dang! In 15 degree weather, before coffee, i extracted the trailer battery and used it to start the car. Catastrophe avoided. In short order we found the campground. The camp host had left for the season so we parked in his swank spot. Two picnic tables and a concrete pad. Oh the simple joys in life! imageWe ran into Grand Junction to hit a goodwill and buy some jumper cables and an emergency tire inflator. I had learned my lesson. We returned to the trailer to find a note from the BLM ranger on the ground telling us to move from the camp host site. I left it on the ground so as to claim innocence. Karma’s a bitch, aaand I woke up with a dead battery again. Luckily I used my brand new jumper cables without having to remove the truck battery! Come to find out the window switch was the problem. The next morning the truck had a flat tire, but luckily I had my new tire inflater. After getting back from the store with a plug kit, we found the Ranger note taped to the door.image I guess he meant it this time so we moved. The following day, our mail drop had finally arrived and we were free to move on towards Telluride.

PS- Did you know Ravens use silverware in Utah?image

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