Mount Sopris

The Carbondale homestead beckons.

So, I say goodbye to the McBrides, and roll out of Palisade on the last leg of my journey home.

The route is quite simple. I can probably do it without the nav system engaged, just listening to spirited ’70s rock and enjoying the scenery and fresh Colorado mountain air.

East on I-70 for 72 miles, take a right, blow through Glenwood Springs, and 10 minutes later, when you see Mount Sopris towering in the distance, you’ve arrived at the Lesser/Murr homestead.

There are several interesting sights to see along the way. A few miles after leaving Palisade, I ride past past De Beque, population 500, perhaps best known for becoming the first incorporated town in Mesa County to approve the retail sale of recreational marijuana. In De Beque, you can stop at Kush Gardens and be helped by some of the best budtenders (yes, that’s what they’re called) in Colorado.

091715_1a_pottax_600x400 — Budtender Delplena Silas helps a customer smell the aroma of cannabis buds at De Beque’s Kush Gardens. Business is booming.

Truth be told, Sarah is a fan. We’ve done some retail at Kush Gardens. She has a lot of back and neck pain; it’s what kept her from joining me in South Dakota’s Black Hills on this trip. It turns out that a drop of sublingual marijuana under the tongue occasionally helps her sleep at night.

Those of you reading this blog with your chardonnay or vodka tonic in hand should immediately re-consider your judging of her choice. Medical marijuana is now legal in at least 29 states and the District of Columbia; recreational use is legal in eight states, including Colorado.

While the national discourse clearly favors legalizing marijuana, federal law still considers cannabis a dangerous illegal drug with no acceptable medicinal value. Federal law still treats marijuana like every other controlled substance, including cocaine and heroin. There is a clear conflict between federal and state laws when it comes to marijuana use.

Someday, we’ll look back on this time in America and wonder what took us so damn long to legalize what has been criminalized for eons. Remember how well Prohibition worked?

Pot in Colorado is such a thing that the state’s leading newspaper, the Denver Post, has its own marijuana critic, Jake Browne. He works alongside the newspaper’s wine critic, theater critic and movie critic. Jake’s paid to smoke marijuana – and then write about the high.

Marijuana has truly gone mainstream.

research-supports-marijuana-benefits-fb — OK folks, put down your glass of chardonnay and let’s talk about it.

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From DeBeque, I roll northeast past the town of Parachute, which is about halfway between Palisade and Glenwood Springs. Next up: the towns of Rifle, Silt, and New Castle. I love Colorado place names.

If I continued another 150 miles east on the interstate, I’d be in Denver, Colorado’s biggest city.

But really, what would be the point of that? I’m heading home, and my exit from I-70 is in Glenwood Springs, directly ahead of me.

Glenwood Springs is the county seat of Garfield County, where we’ll soon go for fun DMV activities like registering our cars and acquiring Colorado driver’s licenses. Glenwood Springs is also home to Doc Holliday Harley Davidson, named after the Wild West gunfighter, pal of Wyatt Earp, and participant in the Gunfight at the O.K.Corral.

In the 1957 movie about the famous 30-second shootout, Holliday, who was grazed by a bullet, is played by Kirk Douglas.

gunfight-at-the-corral-doing-the-walk1 — That’s Kirk Douglas on the far left, as Doc Holliday, on his way to the shootout at the O.K. Corral. Holliday is buried at a cemetery in Glenwood Springs, about 10 miles from Carbondale.

Best line from Doc Holliday, referring to his ability with guns: “I do handle them pretty well. The only trouble is, those best able to testify to my aim aren’t around for comment.”

Doc Holliday was also a gambler and dentist, receiving his DDS from the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery – now part of the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Surgery. He died here in Glenwood Springs in 1887 at the age of 36, not in a gunfight, but of tuberculosis. You can visit his resting place at the Pioneer Cemetery in Glenwood Springs.

cdf1b674a700d74c2599d40fe066a4a0 — Doc Holliday’s final resting place, in Glenwood Springs.

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Minutes later, under beautiful blue Rocky Mountain skies, my 19-day, 4,100-mile adventure comes to an end, as I arrive in Carbondale.

Harley, too. That’s Mt. Sopris in the background.

I enjoyed having you along for the ride.

It took nearly 35,000 words to describe the journey in this blog.

But I can sum it up in two words: I’m home.

Our new address is 150 Sopris Mesa Drive. Hope you’ll come visit.

The house, which we’re calling our Cozy Carbondale Cottage, should be complete in May 2018.

Home at last!

Vroom, vroom.

To be continued … next year.

They’re pouring the concrete foundation walls today. The new Murr/Lesser home is really happening.

Woo-hoo! Only nine months (ish) and we’ll be moving in.

***

Day Nineteen Summary: Retail cannabis at Kush Gardens, the sure aim of Doc Holliday, home at last!

Click here to see today’s complete route from Palisade to Carbondale.

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Today in Bucket List History:

Bucket List Goal: “Throw a Big Party That No One Will Ever Forget.”

Goal Achieved: On August 15, 1969, the Woodstock Music & Art Fair opens in New York State on Max Yasgur’s 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills. The festival, billed as “Three Days of Peace and Music,” attracts an audience of more than 400,000. Opening act on August 15, at 5:07 pm: Richie Havens, singing Freedom. Closing act, on Monday, August 18 at 9 am: Jimi Hendrix, the Purple Haze guy. Far out, man!

richie_havens_small — Richie Havens opens the Woodstock Music Festival on August 15, 1969.

What’s on your bucket list?

Washed my Harley before leaving Torrey this morning. Here, it sits cleanly and proudly near the entrance to Capitol Reef National Park, on Utah Highway 24.

The day begins by riding east, into the rising sun, on Utah Highway 24.

From Torrey, it’s just a few miles to the west entrance to Capitol Reef National Park. Entrance may not be the right word.

Because State Highway 24 is the main east-west road through the park, there’s no toll to ride through much of Capitol Reef – unless you’re traveling on Scenic Drive south of the Fruita Campground. I’m just passing through.

red-sands-hotel-imageLinkroad-in-captiol-reef1 — Immediately after leaving Torrey, the red rocks of Capitol Reef National Park dominate the view.

Capitol Reef National Park was established in 1971. It has 241,904 acres of colorful canyons, ridges, cliffs, towers, arches, buttes and monoliths. The area is named for a line of white domes and cliffs of Navajo Sandstone, each of which looks a bit like the U.S. Capitol building. The local word “reef” refers to any rocky barrier to travel.

Soon, I roll through Fruita, the best-known settlement in Capitol Reef. Fruita was named for its productive fruit orchards.

The town had been long abandoned in 1955, when the National Park Service purchased Fruita to be included in Capitol Reef National Park. Today, few buildings remain, except for a restored one-room schoolhouse.

The orchards are still here, now under the ownership of the National Park Service, and have about 3,100 trees – including cherry, apricot, peach, pear, apple, plum, mulberry, almond and walnut. The trees were originally planted in the 1880s when Mormons settled the area. Visitors to the park are welcome to stroll in any unlocked orchard and consume ripe fruit. The orchards have an honor system; you pick fruit in season, then settle up at self-pay stations.

Capitol-Reef-Orchard-barn-Fruita_DP_680 — The Fruita orchard and barn in Capitol Reef National Park.

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Past Fruita, I continue on UT-24 for another 38 miles, following the Fremont River as it winds from Torrey toward Hanksville, which calls itself “An Oasis in the Desert.”

In 1985, the town was named after Ebenezer Hanks, leader of a group of Mormon pioneers who established a small settlement here. It may be best known as a supply post for Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch, who would hide out at Robbers Roost in the desert southeast of town.

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There are few choices to be made in Hanksville: What to have for breakfast. Which bib overalls to wear for the day. And whether to turn south on Highway 95 toward Hite, a ghost town at the north end of Lake Powell along the Colorado River – or turn left and continue north on Highway 24.

lake_powell_utah — In Hanksville, you can turn south toward beautiful Lake Powell. Or, you can turn left and head toward Colorado. My choice: left.

I turn left and continue on Highway 24, with barely a curve in the road, until after 45 minutes, it meets up with I-70. Then, I jump on the Interstate for what seems like an eternity — 123 miles.

Soon, I roll past the Green River, as well as its namesake city, Green River. The Green River is a tributary of the Colorado River.

At a convenience store in Green River, having a mid-day snack. In Utah, this is considered health food.

The next turnoff of any consequence is Crescent Junction, where most people turn right on US Highway 191 for the short drive to Moab, Arches National Park, and Canyonlands National Park.

Today, my destination is Colorado, not Utah. So I continue east, eventually seeing the “Welcome to Colorful Colorado” signs.

super-bike-states-012 — Crossing into Colorful Colorado. Almost home!

It’s feeling like home.

Colorado has a reputation for being a state of active and athletic people, reportedly with the lowest obesity rate in the nation. People here are both healthy and happy: Colorado was one of the first states to legalize both the medicinal (2000) and recreational (2014) use of marijuana.

I roll past by Fruita, home of the Western Colorado Dinosaur Museum, then past Grand Junction. Ten miles east of Grand Junction, I take the turnoff for Palisade – which grows the best peaches humanly possible.

Palisade is also Colorado’s wine nivrana, with both vineyards and wineries. The small town has more than two dozen wineries.

The Grand Valley’s microclimate of sunny days, dry air and cool nights work together to produce plump grapes for the area wineries.

Palisade, today’s destination, was named for its nearby cliffs. Yes, but why stop in Palisade?

First, did I mention peaches and wineries? Second, my friends Kathryn and Eldon McBride live here, in the middle of a peach orchard, in an 1800s-era farmhouse a short walk away from the Colorado River.

palisadepeaches — Palisade peaches. Yum!

It’s a great place to call it a day before the final push tomorrow, when I’ll roll on to our new home in Carbondale.

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Day Eighteen Summary: Fruit orchards in Utah and Colorado, a hideout for Butch Cassidy, and a warm welcome home to Colorado.

Click here to see today’s complete route from Torrey to Palisade.

Home at last. Almost.

Vroom, vroom.

With the McBrides in Palisade, Colorado.

***

Today in Bucket List History:

Bucket List Goal: “Take a Deeply Principled Stand, No Matter the Consequences.”

Goal Achieved: On August 14, 1846, philosopher Henry David Thoreau is jailed for tax resistance, the result of an act of civil disobedience. Thoreau spends one night in jail for not paying his poll tax. For Thoreau, it is an act of protest against slavery. His philosophy of civil disobedience later influences the political thoughts and actions of notable figures including Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Thoreau is best known for his book Walden, a reflection on simple living in natural surroundings.

live-the-life-you-have-imagined-henry-david-thoreau-quote-poster — A man ahead of his time.

What’s on your bucket list?

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And, as a postscript, here’s an update on Scott and Dave’s ride home to Southern California: both arrived home in Orange County this afternoon. Of the six of us who were riding the Black Hills in South Dakota together recently (Dave, Gail, Scott, Jackie and Randy), that makes me the only one still on the road.

On their way home, Dave (hot dog) and Scott (cookie) stop for nourishment near Barstow, California. That’s considered health food in Barstow. Have you been to Barstow?

20170814_143029 — Scott arrives home safely in La Habra.

Dave at home in Fullerton. Didn’t take him long to begin catching up on the news. He drinks a much better brand of beer when on the road! (photo by Dave)

Riding With Gary

All Vroom, All the Time.

Home at Last!

Peaches are Not the Pits