Easter Weekend Adventure

There's no other way to describe this past weekend, it was an adventure. Friday morning I would have been astounded had you told me that I'd be in Moab Sunday evening. Friday, over email, Amy and I were commiserating on the super-nasty weather descending upon the Denver/Boulder area that was going to force us to be on our trainers Saturday. She needed to do a very long ride with lots of intensity and I needed a long ride with sprints and intervals mixed in. Riding the trainer this time of year, especially after being on it all winter, is almost impossible. Somehow the trainer feels really different than it did in January. There's a time and place for trainers and this aint it.

The Eta Gamma chapter of Theta Tau celebrated its 10-year anniversary Friday evening. My friend (and former co-worker), Joe, flew in from New York for the weekend so it was fun to catch up with him and see many of the fraternity brothers that I used to hang out with in college.

Amy and I took off for the promised land of Fruitopia (Fruita, Colorado) 6 am on Saturday morning. Getting out of Denver was a bit scary. The rain turned to snow and it had accumulated in Golden. So it was slow going until a little before Frisco. We stopped for bagels at Frisco. There it was snowing happily, the big pretty flakes were lightly falling and there was no accumulation. It was looking better. I think it's here that we saw the sun for the first time.The sun was shining so brightly in No Name, we had to dig out our well-packed sunglasses before continuing on. I'm only wearing a jacket out of habit.

After getting directions from the Over the Edge bike shop in Fruita, we headed out on this really beautiful road. It was an out-and-back, twisty-turny scenic route. It made it easy for us to get our workouts in, sometimes riding together and sometimes doing our own thing. Near the end of the road is a very significant climb, nearly 4,000 feet in elevation gain. It was fun going up and the view was worth the effort.
After the ride we hit the local mexican joint and then checked into the motel. At $20/each for lodging, that was the least expensive part of the weekend. The most was fuel...that is, food. It's amazing how many calories were consumed over the two days.

We awoke to rain Sunday morning. Apparently, it rains in paradise. It seemed logical to let the rain go away while eating a massive Easter breakfast buffet/brunch at the local pub. Everyone else eating there were mountain bikers. I was looking forward to riding the Colorado National Monument and having Amy experience it. But it wasn't going to be much fun with all of the rain. The views are breathtaking and it needs to be ridden on a sunny day. We weighed the options and decided it would be worth trying to get out of the weather by going to Moab, a short hour-and-a-half drive away.
The rain subsided significantly. We got all ready to go out at the bike shop and the rain started coming down in buckets. We stood around trying to figure out what to do.
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????The answer was to pack up the bikes, drive to Arches National Monument a few miles out of town and ride. It promised to be wet and miserable.

Five minutes out there, the rain stopped completely. The clouds parted not much later. The rain kept most of the tourists away. So we ended up with smooth, dry roads, amazing riding and amazing scenery!!!

My head hit the pillow on my bed at 2 am this morning. I can't believe how much the weekend energized me; as tired as I should be, I'm still on the adrenaline high from the weekend. I'm so happy to have gotten away (thank you, Amy!!!), escaped the awful weather here and spent some quality time in God's country.

Sorry to have missed the Easter festivities at home with everyone. I was thinking about you and will try to see everyone soon!