Grand Junction

 Grand Junction worked out well. I'm all restocked and the plan for CO all worked out. I'm well fed, all groomed and well rested too. I'm staying here one more day than I planned though. Yesterday I was struggling, I couldn't get anything done. All I could was lay around and vegetate. It was as if CFS was coming back. But I bounced back today and I'm ready to hit the trails again.

GJ is a good sized city. It seems a lot bigger than the population of 60,000 suggests, with not one, but two Walmart superstores. Downtown looks just like Lodi or Davis. In fact, not only those two cities have similar looking downtown, they have about the same population as well. But GJ seems a lot bigger. Maybe it only seems bigger because GJ is all by itself while Davis or Lodi is close to much bigger Sacramento.

So I spent today finishing up restocking at WIalmart and spent time meandering through Main Street in downtown. I was going to Grand Mesa and then I realized that it is on the way to Montrose; I only need to take Route 65 instead of US50. (Yes, it's same US-50 from Sacramento right next to my house). So I'll do Grand Mesa tomorrow instead, and then Rim Drive of Black Canyon. 

Fresh produce cost more than twice here. A bag of a few tiny discolored romaine costs $3. No whole heads of red/green leaf lettuce. a bulb of garlic $1. But roasted chicken is cheaper at $4. It's not a good place to be a vegetarian.

It's been smogy here. They are blaming it on California fire, but I suspect it's usually smoggy. It's been smoggy in the Canyonlands too and they are usually smoggy no matter what. The valley is surrounded by mountains with winds blowing in from all directions and depositing pollutants there. GJ is not that far from the Canyonlands valley and it is in the arm extending from the valley into the Rockies.