The Grand Junction in Our Lives

Days 3 & 4, Southern ID to Western CO

It’s a long stretch of highway between Rupert, ID and Tremonton, UT . . . there’s really nothing in between except for a couple rest stops and Snowville, UT.  That town is aptly named because in the winter this piece of I-84 is constant blowing snow, poor visibility, and treacherous roads.  We remember it well from our Christmas 1985 moving trek from CO to WA.  But today, it is a beautiful summer day and the sky is blue; a nice change from the smoke haze we have been driving in for the last couple days.  At Tremonton, the highway joins up with I-15 and we continue south into the northern reaches of the greater Salt Lake valley.

Some 80,000 LDS pioneers escaped religious persecution by making the trek across the country and eventually settled in the valley.  Brigham Young declared “this is the place” and what a beautiful place it is!  The valley is part of the Great Basin, nestled between the majestic Wasatch mountain range to the east and the Oquirrh range on the west.  Today, the valley is filled with agriculture and several bustling cities . . . Brigham City, Salt Lake City, Provo and numerous suburban communities. 

Beautiful Brigham City

It's a sign!

At Spanish Forks we veer east on US-6, and immediately climb to the top of Soldier’s Summit.  Cresting the summit we decline into coal country, a major mining activity of these hills outside Price, UT.

Soldier's Summit

Price Canyon

The road is then straight and wide open across the desert, part of the San Rafael Swell geologically, bordered by the majestic Book Cliffs to the east.  This is dinosaur country and there are numerous digs in the distant hillsides.  Green River, UT is known for its melons, especially watermelons and through the years we have enjoyed our share.

Going from Price to Green River

US-6 joins I-70 at Green River and we turn east toward Colorado.  This area is very familiar to Bob as he lived in Moab back in the 1970’s when he was a young mining engineer.  He worked in the uranium mines long before Moab was known for mountain biking, and provided support to many small uranium mines within a day’s drive of Moab.  Continuing east for several miles we enter Colorful Colorado.  Home!

Welcome!

Immediately we begin the descent into the Grand Valley, with its majestic view of Mt. Garfield, Grand Mesa, and Colorado National Monument behind us. 

Colorado National Monument

The town is Grand Junction, and I moved there in 1972 with two small children and my former husband (John) who was a new city police officer.  Sadly, we divorced a few years later but by then GJ was home.  I remained in the area and returned to school at Mesa College, now Colorado Mesa University.  Upon graduation in 1978 I worked in banking and later financial administration for the uranium industry.  The “kids” and I lived in a little house on Zuni Drive.  Today, it seems even smaller but driving by my heart just filled with memories of their young childhoods. 

Our home on Zuni Dr.

Bob had moved to GJ in 1978 to work for a uranium subsidiary (URADCO) of Pennsylvania Power & Light.  This was the height of the nuclear power industry in the US; it was a major career break for Bob when he was tasked with starting up the office and heading up the operations for PP&L.  Our paths crossed in early 1979 when I was hired by URADCO.  The heyday of the nuclear industry in the US ended abruptly with the accident at Three Mile Island in 1979, and eventually PP&L closed the office.

After the collapse of uranium exploration, Bob and I both moved to the burgeoning oil shale industry.  I worked for Occidental and Bob for Tenneco; both companies were partners on the Cathedral Bluffs oil shale project on the Piceance basin in Western CO.  This project gave Bob one of his biggest mining challenges and accomplishments with the design and construction of two deep mining shafts and the development of underground mining plans on a huge scale not previously seen in the US.  Both of us made professional connections and personal friends who will last a lifetime. 

What began as a professional working relationship became a friendship, and by March 1981 we were married.  What!  Yes, it was a fast courtship but nearly 35 years later we are still friends and happy, together.  In retrospect, Grand Junction truly was the “grand junction” in our lives. 

The Big Day!

 The Grand Valley was formed by the Colorado River, which flows out of the Rocky Mountains and across the plateau on into UT and eventually down to CA.  The river is widely used for irrigation and as a result the valley floor is peppered with orchards, most notably peaches.  Colorado Palisade peaches are the best in the west and since I’ve lived lots of other places I’d venture to say they are the best anywhere.  Delicious!

When Bob and I married, we moved into his 5-acre home on what is called Orchard Mesa.  Bob’s land was mostly pasture where we boarded horses, and also undeveloped land.  The house was a beautiful custom built home, cedar siding, with a view of the entire valley, Mt. Garfield, Grand Mesa and the Uncompahgre plateau.  We set about making it home for all of us with personalizing rooms for Amy & Shane, redecorating the master, partially finishing the basement, and laying a concrete pad to use as a basketball court.  Naturally, we all put our names in the concrete pad, declaring, “this is home.” Bob planted about ½ acre in garden, which was soon overly abundant, and I spent a lot of time freezing vegetables, making pickles, and canning fruit from the orchards near us.  Life was good!

Mining is a cyclic industry and the oil shale boom began its dramatic downturn and in the summer of 1984.  I was “down-sized” and a year later Bob had his termination date and we began planning the next move.  We immediately put our home up for sale, as we knew we would be leaving Grand Junction.  The local economy collapsed quickly and when we left at Christmas 1985 to begin our long moving trek to WA we left our home on the market and hoped for the best.  We were grateful Bob had a new job in the nuclear industry and we were committed to keeping our relatively new family together and strong, and exploring the Pacific NW.

It wasn’t easy.  It took about 3 years before we had an offer for our Grand Junction home.  It wasn’t a great offer from our perspective but it was a fair market offer from the buyer’s perspective, and we had to accept it.  We moved on but emotionally a piece of our hearts remained in GJ and in that home, our first home together as a family.

Throughout the years Amy & Shane would drive by the house whenever they traveled to CO to visit their father and they would tell us about the changes and improvements to the property.  Things like “there’s a new fence” or the “house has been painted” or “the trees have really grown.”  One year the update was “the pasture is now a vineyard.”  We were so surprised by this because Bob had always wanted to plant grapes and my exact words were “Western CO is not Italy or Southern CA.”  Little did I know . . . the rich soils that produced peach orchards could also support grapes and a fledgling wine industry began in the Grand Valley of western Colorado.

Since we had watched the WA wine industry grow, it was interesting to us that our “old home in GJ” was now growing grapes.  In 2013 we made a trip to CO to see family and early one morning we drove by our “old home” and found that it was flying a flag “Desert Sun Vineyards.”  Amazing!

While continuing on our trip we looked up a Facebook page for the winery.  Under the “about us” tabs we discovered that the same people who had purchased the home in 1987 still owned it and they obviously loved the property, making it into everything Bob had ever visualized for it.  We initiated contact with the owners and were invited to visit the next time we were in town. www.facebook.com/pages/Desert-Sun-Vineyards/

So on this 2015 trip we did . . . nearly thirty years after leaving Grand Junction we visited our “old home.”  What a pleasure!  We were warmly greeted by Doug and Kathy, and given a personal tour of the winery, tasted the grapes which were ready to pick, drank wine, saw all the upgrades to the irrigation system, oohed and awed over all the beautiful landscaping, and explored the beautifully remodeled (and yet, kind of familiar) home.  After 32 years our names were still inscribed in the concrete pad! 

Bob & Amy, 9/1/1983

Le Anna & Shane Watkins

We sat on the comfortable covered patio, enjoyed delicious peach crisp and enjoyed getting to know one another.  Our takeaway?  We wished we could be neighbors.  As beautiful as the property/home have become the “new” owners are even lovelier.

Water fountain

Grapes

View of Mt. Garfield

Pond and leaning Cottonwoods

Tree planted by Bob in 1980

Vineyards

A little insight . . . thirty-five+ years ago we were at the right place, at the right time, at the Grand Junction in our lives.  We’ve moved on, had lots of adventures, a few trials and tribulations, laughter, and tears.  But today we enjoyed coming home.