This day ended with a most delicious home cooked meal, laughter, and a place as good as home to sleep.
But the start, let’s begin there. We woke up early and were at Colorado National Monument as the Visitor’s Center was opening. We didn’t have a set hike in mind, but knew we wanted something that would take about five hours and were up for a bit of a challenge. We communicated that with the ranger and she offered us nothing. She mumbled about a few possibilities, but wasn’t doing a great job selling them. We pointed out a few that looked like potential ones in the map, but she replied that she had never hiked them. We left with no direction as to what we should do, so we decided to figure it out ourselves using the two maps that were provided to us.
Our plan was to follow the road south through the park and doing all the little hikes hoping they’d amount to something decent. The first two stops were fine, pretty scenery, but not at all challenging. The hikes were more like lookout strolls and not what we were looking for. After those two we realized that we needed one longer one, but it was nearly 10:00 and too late to begin something lengthy. So we left the monument.
I was pretty frustrated. Not so much because of the hikes, but because of the two maps we were given. A quick story first. My family did many cross country road trips when I was a child and I have this most vivid memory of one trip. My dad was driving, my mom was the navigator. This was long before Google maps, so they relied on AAA paper maps of each state. Me Mom was telling my dad to go one direction according to the map, but my dad insisting the map was wrong and he was supposed to go the opposite way. I recall several moments of tenseness as they both insisted their way was correct and my dad repeating that the map was wrong. Well, I could totally relate to my dad today. The maps were wrong.
The two maps we were given upon entering the monument didn’t line up with each other. On top of that, neither aligned with the actual road or the hikes. As the navigator, I was beyond frustrated. The girls got to hear the same bad words I’m sure I heard when I was their age that accurately described the maps I was attempting to read. It wasn’t one of my proudest moments.
Since we bailed on the monument early, we spent some time poking around Grand Junction, buying a few souvenirs and browsing the shops. Then we made the hour drive to Montrose and the real fun began.
We were finally reunited with the Berrys, lifelong family friends of mine. We met at a brewery and caught up on life. After two quick stops at the City Market and the Russell Stover factory outlet, we went to their most lovely home. We were immediately made to feel right at home and spent the rest of the afternoon talking and enjoying one another’s company. We went for an evening walk on some of the most beautiful property imaginable and dined on our first home cooked meal in over a month. We are so fortunate to call the Berrys friend and to be welcomed into their little slice of serenity for a couple of days.
