August 22, 2016

Yesterday marked the first time I arrived at an RV park after the office had closed. There was a packet with my check-in information waiting for me, so it turned out to be a quicker, simpler process than checking in with a human being – like self-checkout at the grocery store. I had driven from Park City to Steamboat Springs via US Rte 40. Starvation Reservoir is a stunning sedimentary vista - sandstone abounds! As I approached Colorado, I saw a sign for the Dinosaur National Monument Visitor Center, so I turned left. The next sign said I had to drive another seven miles. My brain balked at first then reset: it didn't matter what time I arrived in Steamboat. Other than the cross-country drive with my father, my times of departure and arrival have rarely been material given the comparatively shorter distances I have been driving. Dinosaur NM has two visitor centers, but only the Quarry one has fossils. I didn't know this when I turned left.

While the geology of the drive thus far had been outstanding, it got unbelievably better as I approached the Green River and the Dinosaur NM Visitors’ Center. Pink, yellow, grey and purple sand created hills above the sprawling river valley. I parked BOB, walked the dogs, and had lunch. I powered the generator so the dogs could have AC and I went inside the Visitors’ Center. A three minute shuttle ride took me and others to the quarry where the dinosaur fossils are still in the wall in which they were discovered. It's a veritable logjam of big bones. The driver who took us up gave me some cantaloupe her neighbor grew: amazingly, it tasted like cantaloupe tasted when I was a kid! I gave her a Wet One wipe. I walked back to the Visitors' Center and she stopped the shuttle to ask me if I wanted a ride. "No, thank you," I said. I was busy photographing rocks: it's my new job!

​Today, I uploaded my resume to "The Top Five" executive recruiting companies, used Adobe Element's free trial software for photo corrections, then I took the free shuttle to town. The shuttle drove me a mile and made me get out to wait for another shuttle which would continue my eastward journey. Once in town, I went into an apparel boutique and a jewelry shop – old occupational habits are hard to break. Then I went to a ski-and-bike shop I'd found online when searching for Trek vendors. They had a Trek 7.3 FX which is one of the models I was considering – and, it is chartreuse! I took it for a test drive and it felt small by comparison to the other bikes I've owned, but it was comfortable. One of the guys thought the fit looked good and mentioned that the frame geometry and sizing have changed since I last bought a bike in 1998 (a Klein road bike that was 55cm (~21.5") and this bike is only 17.5"). While I was at the store, I decided that I did not want to transport a bike inside BOB’s cabin, nor did I want to buy a hitch mount because it would interfere with my rear slide-out and storage access. So, I measured the bike, and I said I'd be back in the morning if I could get in the rear storage compartment.