Monticello - Bluff, Utah - I've never been so ill prepared or so determined to tour

June 3, 2019

Monticello - Bluff, Utah

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RWGPS says 48 miles.1,174 climbing. 3,740 descending. Let's see Jacinto's Strava numbers. Those seem low. Strava said 1,500 of climbing.

I had another restful night's sleep. I was snoring before 9 PM. I am surprised I didn't take a nap when we got in yesterday afternoon. Making it to 9 PM was an accomplishment.

I woke up before the alarm and did a few stretches. My body is fatigued, but I can go up and down the stairs to the room is easier this morning than last night!

I took most of my stuff down to the bike early. I asked if we could eat breakfast, but it is a firm 7 AM. Oren and I piddled around and talked to a nice couple from Manhattan, KS. Breakfast was tasty, but only about half of what I would have eaten. I supplemented with leftover Subway salad. Leftover salad is not that tasty . . .

BTW, yesterday I fueled the ride with Vitamin Cottage's Energy Squares. They are in the bulk food area and come in little cubes. I think Safeway sells something similar. I did very well eating those along the road. Those and a couple of Perpetuum tablets was all I had. No flavored drinks. I didn't drink as much water as I expected thanks to the low temperatures. I carried two extra bottles into Monticello. Better than too much than too little.

OK - Oren didn't say exactly what time he wanted to get on the road, but it's almost 8 AM. It might be a downhill day, but the wind will still be a factor.

My legs were okay with going up and down the stairs to the room. They weren't so sure about bicycling. It's a very good thing today did not have significant climbing. My legs protested for the first half hour before they decided to get in the game.

We had 2-3 more significant descents and climbs. Each one was 2-300 feet. I grumbled to myself about wasting all of that elevation going down to the creek, only to have to climb back out. The scenery to start was piñon and ponderosa pine and red rocks.

looking at the map, there is no flat today, just downhill. But after ~10 miles, we seemed to top out on a mesa and the scenery turned to wide open spaces with dry grass. I thought with all of the rain recently, it would be all green grass.

We stopped in Blanding at the 7-11. Just because we could and it's a short day. Another 10 miles past Blanding is White Mesa, which is a wide spot in the road, but it did have a convenience store. We kept going. It had been mostly downhill and we didn't need a break yet. The wind had picked up some, or we would have had a really fast run into Bluff.

Oren was out ahead, I told him don't worry about me, I'm going to take a few photos. I watched the miles tick by. I should be seeing some sign of town, but I saw nothing. The road curved down into a beautiful red rock area. Here's the town! It's much warmer here. Bluff is almost 3,000 feet lower than Monticello. Current temperature at 1 PM is 83 degrees. That's quite friendly for southern Utah, but still far more than I'm used to this spring in Colorado. I've been wearing tights all of 2019 so far.

We are at a cabin with Cottonwood RV Park. The cabin is right up on the main road. The office is down the street and down a longish gravel driveway. Unfortunately, their very nice wi-fi doesn't reach the cabins. I haven't been to the cabin yet, but wanted to get this up while everything was fresh in my mind.

Today was a much nicer riding day. Of course, downhill is always enjoyable. Our downhill was tempered by the wind. I think what made my day was the lack of traffic. I don't know where it all went, but it's not on 191 from Monticello. There wasn't even any semi traffic. The road was excellent, almost new pavement that had a generous shoulder almost the entire distance. The rumble strip still made me grumble. But mostly the shoulder was so wide that it was an annoyance instead of an issue.

This was a nice day. The scenery was varied. I got to look around because there wasn't too much traffic. The weather was perfect temperatures. The wind was not as bad as it could have been.

I believe we are going to the Cottonwood Steakhouse for dinner. It is not owned by Nancy, but has the same name. She specifically said they have excellent pies, all made from scratch, nothing from a can.

I can see Jacinto on Strava - he has just passed White Mesa. Yesterday he swore he had a tailwind coming into Monticello. We definitely did not have a tailwind . . . Let's see what he has to say today. Not tailwind, I don't think.

I don't know about these guys. They are hard to please. Our first night's lodging in Moab was satisfyingly grungy. $113. for the night. Last night we had the nice B&B. They both complained about being at such an upscale place. Tonight? We are on the other end - they are complaining about this being an Old Station kind of place. When we did the Sierra Cascades trip with Jim and Genny, Jim said he had been to Old Station and no way were they staying there one night, much less a layover day. They kept moving. Rightly so - Old Station was a very long layover . . .

We are at the Cottonwood RV Park. They have two 'cabins', that are actually a duplex configuration located up on the highway right across from the Cottonwood Steakhouse. They are quite rustic. Jacinto says this is the smallest TV he has ever seen. It looks like a computer monitor. The remote doesn't work, even when we put in our own batteries. Jacinto has to get up to change the channel. Old school.

We were going to go for lunch/snack, but the guys walked down and looked at the menu for the Bistro. It looked expensive. We decided to have snacks and eat dinner at the steakhouse so we could get their wi-fi code and hopefully use it for the computer in our room.

Dinner was good. I was hungry. In my mind I ordered a cheaper item on the menu (chicken), so I could splurge the $$ on the homemade pie. The chicken was great. The cherry pie was pretty good. I had half and shared half with Jacinto. He had ordered only ice cream.

We discussed tomorrow. We broke a long riding day into two shorter days out of concern for the wind. Tomorrow is only to Mexican Hat. We have time to go see Gooseneck Park (8 miles and 600 feet of climbing), provided the wind is friendly. The turn for Gooseneck is almost at Mexican Hat, so we can make that decision at the time.

We talked about going to breakfast. The Bistro is the only place open in the morning. Oren and I decided to eat breakfast in the room and then go for breakfast in Mexican Hat. That way we can beat the heat and the wind. Jacinto thinks we are crazy and he's going to stay here until later.

I'm much happier now I have internet. There's nothing like a little mindless internet surfing before bedtime.

We got to keep our bandana napkins from the Steakhouse as a souvenir. I was going to use mine to clean the chain. Jacinto was horrified. Instead he gave me a mostly clean rag he has been carrying.

I found a mean looking goathead on the floor in our cabin. I sure don't want to run through a patch of those on the road!