Our best man, Gary Vandersleen, delivered a wonderfully hysterical speech regarding the trials & tribulations of sharing a house with us (our embarrassing pet names for each other, disagreements about us leaving on time or being late, etc.). Nancy, one of my sisters, spoke to us about what it means to be married, and offered some great advice, and my brother Gerry wrapped up by thoroughly embarrassing me with stories of my “over-imbibing”, fire-crackers, and cow-flops.
We wound-down the celebration the next morning with a brunch for guests who were staying over that weekend.
April 29th - We flew from Philadelphia Airport to Grand Junction, CO. Slight mix-up at rental car counter (the SUV I reserved was too small for our 2 large bags and 2 bike cases), but the guy at Thrifty helped us out and we scored a Mitsubishi Montero luxury SUV for minimal upgrade fee. Shoehorned everything in and off we went.
April 29th - May 1st - Fruita, CO – We stayed at a nice B&B (we were the only couple staying there and had a very nice suite.
Rides:
April 30th - Perimeter Trail to Joe's Ridge (some doubletrack leading to rolling singletrack, some trails running along a ridge)
May 1st - Horse-thief Bench & Mary's Loop (some exposure, doubletrack & singletrack, some technical sections)
Moore Fun (very technical climbing & descending, singletrack)
Took a drive though Colorado National Monument (did a short hike too). Michele and I strapped the empty bike cases to the roof of "the love boat" and secured the bikes inside with my home-made fork-mount bike holders.
May 1-5th - Moab, UT - Stayed at a great B&B in Moab (the Dreamkeeper Inn). We hiked in Arches NP- Primitive Loop & Delicate Arch Trails.
Rides:
May 2nd - Klondike Bluffs (a very nice ride that ended with views of Arches, saw dinosaur tracks on the slickrock section)
May 3rd – the Practice Loop and Slickrock Trail (the jewel of MTBing in Moab – smooth rolling rock formations with the surface texture of sandpaper – read: don’t fall). We happened to meet someone who posts to the same MTBing forum that we do while riding the Slickrock Trail.
May 5th - Bartlett Wash (ride were you please in a slickrock basin… awesome!).
May 5-6th - Torrey, UT – Drove through Capitol Reef NP (saw the petroglyphs). Checked into a small hotel and managed to squeak in a ride before dusk. We weren’t 100% sure where the trailhead was, but a waitress at the nearby Diablo Café was an avid MTBer and gave us directions. We ate there that night after the ride (sweaty and bleeding) – yummy Tex-Mex!
Rides:
May 5th – Velvet Ridge (doubletrack with sandy sections leading to a cliff overlooking the valley, then leading to a technical descent to the far end of the trail, and a road ride back to the car. Great fun on the descent!)
May 6-8th - Bryce Canyon, UT. Stayed at Ruby’s “Resort” (the animal heads
decorating the lobby walls should have been our first warning – cheesy good
fun, though). On May 8th we did some light hiking in Bryce Canyon.
Rides:
May 7th - Thunder Mountain Trail in Red Canyon (starting on a paved bike path, transfer onto a gravel road then into swoopy singletrack with lots of exposure and switchbacks, ending in a ripping descent back to the car…my Spidey-sense was tingling towards the end of that ride.
May 8-12th - Springdale (Zion), UT – We stayed at great
"mini-apartment" type hotel (Desert Pearl Inn – individual suites,
vaulted ceilings, balcony, sofa, fridge, microwave, etc.). We did some hikes in
Zion - Angel's Landing (climbing to the top of a tall rock “landing”), the
Narrows (hiking through a river canyon – soggy boots, but very fun), and the
Watchman Trail (overlooking the canyon). I packed the bikes back into their
cases in preparation for the next leg of our journey.
Rides:
May 9th - Gooseberry Mesa (everything – slickrock, sand, drop-offs, technical)
May11th - Hurricane to JEM Trail (swoopy singletrack with some drop-offs – sweet!).
May 12-14th Las Vegas, NV - Stayed at the Belagio (very elegant), took a tour
of the Hoover Dam – ummmm it’s BIG! Las Vegas is, well, VEGAS! 24/7
action! Played the slots, took in a Wayne Newton show (finger snappin’ fun),
did the buffet (mmmm...Alaskan King Crab legs & plate-fulls of shrimp!!!),
and toured the strip.
We flew out of Las Vegas on the 14th. Here we encountered our only major snafu of the honeymoon - the Thrifty drop-off is NOT at the airport... not even close! We drive around and around the airport before finding the drop-off and getting shuttled to the airport. Michele wins the "airline lottery" and is informed her bag will have to be searched. The "it's all new to me" ticket person is baffled by our large bike cases, insisting that we be charged extra when our tickets say “Bikes Fly Free”. We ended up missing our flight and took one 2 hours later, which got delayed an extra hour in Phoenix. Landed in Philly at 11:30pm... ugh.
We took the next day off due to sheer exhaustion and are still unpacking. On our trip, we went through 14 rolls of film. Michele and I suffered many bruises & scrapes (which drew some curious stares at the pools and hot-tubs), but nothing too serious. I have a nifty 5” scar on my back as a souvenir, two “compromised” elbows, and I wore about half the tread off my rear MTB tire. Michele added some new scratches to her new bike and accrued a patchwork of colorful bruises on her legs. Despite their best efforts, the baggage gorillas at America West (Worst?) Airlines did not destroy our bicycles or lose our luggage.
All in all, a fantastic wedding and wonderful honeymoon. The scenery was amazing in Fruita and all the way to Zion. The drive through Utah was great. Scenic views across “the beehive state”. The weather was fantastic – we had 14 days of sunshine and maybe one of those days was cloudy. The biking & hiking was superb. We only wish we had some singletrack trails like that in New Jersey (even though we both suck at doing switchbacks on the bike).
I think we’re both sad that it’s over, but it was worth all the effort.
