RIFLE

FRIDAY, 3rd JUNE.

As we left the motel this morning, we spotted a family of gophers playing on and near the road...funny little things, pests I believe but cute, with little regard for the traffic.
After leaving Grand Junction, we drove south east for a while then turned east north east and followed scenic byway 133 through half a dozen lovely little towns, farms, orchards, wineries, rivers, waterfalls, mountains....very, very scenic, with a lunch stop at a state park beside a river and a stop in the quaint little town of Redstone where we did a stroll through.  Our intended overnighter was to be in Glenwood Springs, famous for its hot springs, but it was so crowded and busy we hightailed it out of town and continued on to the town of Rifle.  Here we booked into a motel for the night and chatted to Rich, a plumber and husband of Cory, the manageress whom we met later as she was out when we arrived.   Lovely people, couldn't do enough for us and they told us about a couple of local attractions that sound worth looking into tomorrow.   We went into the town for a bite to eat and afterwards wandered around town, coming across a theatre where live music was being played and as it was free, we invited ourselves in.  Three classical guitarists and a drummer, fairly close to our vintage, were on stage entertaining the locals, and us, and they were sooooo good we bought their CD afterwards.  A lady vocalist joined them for a few tunes, she too was excellent...a thoroughly enjoyable evening.