Today was a reasonable travel day. The first leg was smooth, landing in Denver on time. I headed for the gate for my commuter flight to Grand Junction, only to find that my flight was going to be late by an unspecified amount of time. Hurry up and wait... Oh well, it gave me time to find some ice cream in the airport. The flight was an hour late, not too bad.
I got off the plane and headed directly for the rental car counter. By the time my car arrangements were complete, my bike and my duffle bag were circling the baggage conveyor belt. I guess that's a positive point of flying on a little plane into a little airport. I picked up my bags, and I was off. Almost there!
I headed west on Interstate 70. It's amazing - it almost seems that you can tell where the state line is. I noticed this on my Rocky Mountain tour as I crossed from Idaho to Montana. This time the line was from Colorado to Utah. Even though Grand Junction is in the dry southwest corner of Colorado, I still noticed a difference in the terrain as I crossed the state line. I stopped at the first rest area after I entered Utah to pick up a state highway map and to put on some cooler clothes. Shorts were definitely in order!
I arrived in Moab and quickly found the Hotel Off Center. All of the rooms are on the second floor of a building that doesn't have an elevator, so I had to haul my bike case up the stairs. Not a problem - I learned that it's pretty easy to roll it up the stairs! I checked in and settled into my room.
My first task was to reassemble my bike. This is the third time I've traveled with my Pocket Rocket, and I'm getting better at the packing/unpacking thing. The bike went together pretty quickly. I changed into bike clothes, and went out for a quick spin to make sure that everything was OK. I had some trouble getting the front derailleur to behave itself, so I headed off to one of Moab's many bike shops to get some help. No one blinked an eye when I walked into a shop that sold only mountain bikes and asked them to help me with a road bike. It took the mechanic a bit of fiddling to convince the derailleur to behave - which made me feel better about my inability to correct the problem - and I left there with a perfectly tuned bike.
There was still daylight left, and I was already dressed to ride, so I decided to wander around a bit on my bike to get the lay of the land. A short ride was just what I needed after a long travel day to make me feel normal again. Back to the hotel for a quick shower to wash off all of the travel grit, then it was time to find some dinner. My last task for the day after a satisfying dinner at the Slick Rock Cafe and ice cream treat (yes, it was a two ice cream day!) was to stop at the grocery store to stock up on snacks for tomorrow.Looking back... I have no idea what caused the problem since the bike was working perfectly when I packed it. I'll probably never know, but that level of problem only happened on this one trip. Sometimes the adjustment will be a little off, but nothing like the problem on this trip. Guess I was lucky that the one time that I had a problem where I needed help to fix it that I was in a town that knew bicycles!
It was a good day, and I know tomorrow will be better since I plan to spend the entire day on my bike!
