May 13, 2015. California, here we come!

CAMPGROUND: James Robb State Park. One of the best state parks we have ever camped in. Paved sites, electricity, and water.  Nearby toilet and bigger shower room farther away. Really nice ramadas over picnic tables. Grill. 4 stars.  Great TV and cellular reception. Would have rated it 5 stars, but a bit spendy at $34/night

LOCATION:  Fruita, a suburb of Grand Junction in far western Colorado.

WEATHER:  Perfect!  High about 70.  Sunny

We rarely eat breakfast in a restaurant but we wanted to try a place in Ouray that had sponsored Ouray's Fork Fest before we left town.  (Plus we had a coupon!). The chef trained in New Orleans, so the menu was New Orleans-style.  I had a decadent omelette with crawfish, shrimp and andouille sausage.

We are starting some new adventures.  We are hoping to house-sit/pet-sit in locations around the country where we would like to spend some extended time.  We especially want to do this in the summer when campgrounds tend to fill up.  So, we have been applying for assignments in Colorado and the Pacific Northwest for the next few months.   We are using TrustedHousesitters.com which connects homeowners and house-sitters.  It seems very good.  It is a British company, so there are a lot of European assignments listed, too.  We hope to do it internationally next year.  We have been selected for an assignment in Northern California later in May, and are on a short-list for one in Portland.

So, we are heading about 1000 miles to California.  We drove about 100 miles northwest today to the Grand Junction area.  We plan to stay here 2 nights, enjoying the area and shopping, etc for the trip.

We got settled in the campground, snagging the next-to-the-last site. We are in a valley that looks up to the Colorado National Monument.  It is part of the geological Colorado Plateau, along with Arches National Park, Zion, Bryce, Canyonlands, and Capitol Reef.  

We took a 23-mile drive through the park.  I shut my eyes during portions of scary turns and drop-offs.

The highway was built over this Serpent Trail, aptly named.

We stopped at Rockslide Brew Pub in downtown Grand Junction, then headed back to the campground.

It was a perfect day for camping.  It is nice that the days are getting longer.  George made a campfire and I used it to cook dinner...

DINNER:  Chili.  I spiced it up with a hatch pepper and a can of peppers in chipotle sauce.  I used some leftover grilled hamburger and Anasazi beans, too.  Great!