.:: DonnieNix.net ::.

The plan is still there to go to Fruita. With gas prices dropping, it looks more and more promising. I’m kind of reluctant to go through the whole planning thing with this trip, because that will surely jinx it. I might just lay a few things out and then do a last-minute type of trip. Those usually seem to turn out best.

I think if we go, we’re going to rent bikes one of those days, maybe a Specialized Stumpjumper Expert or a Santa Cruz Nomad. Those are two high-end dream bikes and it’d be cool to ride a nice world-class full suspension bike on those trails.

I think we could still take the Hyundai, and we should, in case we run into any crappy weather on I-70 across the Divide and near Vail where the road passes above 10,000 feet. The chances of snow increase significantly each day out there, and the middle of October is usually when it starts.

I still say we could do this trip for under $500 each. That’s going to have to be the budget. The dates are still Oct 12 – 17. I know a lot of boring old people will say that’s a lot of driving just for 3-4 days, but it is totally worth it to me, so why should I care if other people think it’s a waste? It’s not a waste to me. I’ve been gyped out of 3 vacations this year. I’ve earned this.

If this works, then next summer, I’m doing Crested Butte/Durango. Oh hell yeah.

Okay, here’s a little thing I’ve been toying with for a while.

I get some pretty substantial referral bonuses around the first of October. I’m taking some of that and buying a new Santa Cruz Heckler frame with a nice Fox fork. That’s my little bonus to myself for a year of hard work and sacrifice.

The 2nd or 3rd weekend of October, I am going to take 4 days off work, wrap that around a weekend and road-trip to Fruita, Colorado, for a half-week of trail riding and fun and games.

I’m going to drag Casey along with me because he probably won’t get many opportunities to do stuff like this after he gets married.

If we can wrap the weekend of Oct 14-15, then we could drive to Moab on Sunday and take in the final day of the 24 Hour Granny Gear race that is held on that weekend. Cynthia is racing in that beast and I’d like to see her out there because she’s so cool.

I’m thinking, take the Tucson (4WD would be handy), load it up, get the XPort bike rack, leave Wednesday night after work and drive non-stop to Fruita.

• Arrive Thursday night and sleep off the travel stress
• Ride all day long Friday
• Ride all day long Saturday
• Sunday, drive over to Moab, ride a few trails and catch the finish of the 24 hour race.
• Sunday night, drive to Longmont, spend the night there.
• Ride Hall Ranch on Monday, then come home.

Two full days in Fruita, 1 full day in Moab, and we’d get to ride Hall Ranch. That sounds like a wicked plan.

Gas cost

Total miles: 3200

Gas price:  $2.90

Tank size:  17 gals

MPG:  24

That gives us a range of about 400 miles per tank. That means 8 tanks of gas, 136 gallons. At ~ $2.90 per gallon, the total gas cost would be about $400. Hotels would be about $50-$60 per night because we’d stay at the cheapest place possible, so 4 nights at, say, $60 per, equals $240.

Taking our food from here and eating on the cheap means the whole trip would cost about $800. Divide that by 2 and it is totally do-able.

The only problem is that now that I have it written down, something will happen to kill the plan. In February, I had a plan laid out for a weekend-plus to go to NC to see relatives and do some riding. That weekend, they had a horrible ice- and snow-storm so we had to cancel. In June, I had plans to go to Cleveland and see a baseball game with my DTFC buddies. That got shit-canned. In July, I had the Mother-Of-All-Vacations planned out to the smallest detail, and we all know what happened there.

I still don’t know what Melanie will say. She might want to go. If she does, that’s fine. If not, I might just pack her off to see her relatives in Louisiana. She’d enjoy that more.

We’ll see how it goes.