Yay – I am back in Colorado. I am staying in a small NW Colorado town called Craig. When planning my route, I saw this town, and decided I needed to stay here. My brothers name is Craig, so it tickled me to find a town with his name. Even more coincidentally, I passed a town in California called Bradley. S0 now I have 2/3 siblings accounted for. I have no idea if there is a town called Nicky in the USA – I will need to google that.
OK – googled. There is no Nicky, but there is a Nicolet (her full name) in Canada, and a Nicolet Forest in Wisconsin. Maybe one day…..
Anyway – back to this morning. I found a wonderful-looking ride not far from Provo, which I had planned to start the day with, before heading eastwards. I set off at the usual time, but at the entry to the canyon, there was a sign saying the road was closed in 7 miles. I have ignored “Road Closed” signs in the past, and have regretted it, so I decided to turn back.
Because Provo is wedged between some mountains and Lake Utah, there are not too many routes directly east – so I had to do a big loop, retarace my steps, and waste an hour before I was where I needed to be heading. Ho hum. Still, Provo is a wonderfully clean and well kept town (you feel there are Mormon missionaries hiding behind every tree, just waiting to rush in and pick up any litter, or tidy any mess anywhere).
Anyway, the surrounds of Provo are really pretty. Lakes, rising hills, snowy mountain views and good riding roads. I really enjoyed the 2nd hour of my days ride. I stopped in Heber for breakfast, and found a lovely bagel shop which made pretty good bagels and breakfasts.
From Heber, I struck east along Route 40, which runs all the way to Colorado, where I found myself around 12:30. I was very happy to be back in the best state in the union. Shortly after crossing the state line, I stopped in Dinosaur to fill up. Yes, Dinosaur. A small spot, but they had a good sense of self awareness. I stopped at the visitors center which is on the corner of Stegosaurus Freeway and Brontosaurus Boulevard. I popped in to check on the state of my next road, and was told all is good, bar a bit of roadwork.
My next road took me into the Dinosaur National Monument. The turn onto my target road is only 1.5 miles from Dinosaur, and runs 32 miles to a cul-de-sac. About a mile along the road, I hit some roadworks, and was stopped for about 10 minutes with a chatty woman who was handling the Stop/Go sign. Once through, the road started climbing up to some pretty pastures and lovely views of various canyons and mountains.
I didn’t see any dinosaurs – in fact, there was not much to see except the lovely views. Except, that I saw a biblical-sized plague of crickets. I drove through bloody miles of the Mormon Crickets – known because they up and ate the first crops that some mormons planted in Utah. They are, in fact, not even a cricket – how galling is that. They are from the Katydid family, and are brown, squat and ugly. They also have few natural predators (except their own kind, apparently – and seagulls).
Apparently strong winds diverted a flock of seagulls to Utah, and they ate the plague of crickets back in Olde Times, and so today, the state bird of Utah is actually the California Seagull – no irony intended.
Anyway, I crunched through millions of the crickets, enjoyed the sights and ride, took some pictures, and then return from whence I had came, and rejoined Route 40 to take the 87 miles onward to Craig.
My motel is way on the edge of town, and there seem to be no walkable eateries. I am ready to eat after my longest day of riding, so gonna hit “Post” on this entry, and head to the bustling metropolis of Craig. I will add some pictures later – the internets are slow here, and I don’t have the patience right now to watch my days photos upload and sync.
This is my last night on the road, and am very ready for getting home – though I have some wonderful scenery and riding for tomorrow to look forward to before I get there.
TTFN