Alex was invited to compete in the Western States Invitational cross country meet in Grand Junction this weekend. We decided to parlay this event into a camping trip, and booked a site in Colorado National Monument for the weekend.
Alex did great in the race. He took 10th place in the JV group, and while he wasn’t thrilled with his personal time, he finished way ahead of the majority of the 150+ boys crowd.
Lara, Evan and I grabbed dinner at a food truck in an interesting park, and then headed back to our camp in the Colorado National Monument for the night. We picked Alex up in the morning He was reluctant to leave his team, but we convinced him that it was the right thing to do.
We grabbed some sandwiches for a picnic lunch, and headed towards the monument for a brief hike. After lunch, we drove the length of the monument road, stopping several times for quick photo opps. We were limited in hiking opportunities, since dogs can’t leave the paved paths in the monument, but it was still very cool.
When we got back to our camp, we saw that the tent had been blown over by a windstorm that actually bent one of the primary structural members of the tent. Fortunately, we were able to stand everything up again, although I think our tent is going to require some replacement parts before we take it out for any future adventures.
We woke up to view the sunrise in the morning, which was really beautiful. The overnight rain fed morning clouds and fog. If only I had my tripod to capture the moment. At least we managed to get a few snaps of the scenery before packing up for the long drive home to get Alex back int time for his flag football game Sunday afternoon.
Martens
6 Oct 2024Way to go Alex! You should be proud of yourself finishing in the top ten and ahead of 140 other runners!! The National Monument looks like another very scenic place. Always fun to see great scenery and smiling faces.
Love from Minnesota!