Jon Liu

Sent from my iPhone

For the past 2 weeks i’ve been riding my bike exclusively to work every day.  I sold my motorcycle shortly after moving to Denver, and I rode my Mountain Bike to work and back every day since then.  It’s about 2.5 miles each way and it takes me about 15 min to cruise to work.

It been fantastic to get to work and not have to park or worry about gas.  I feel great after riding each day, and I know i’m saving a ton of money and lessening my impact on the environment.  Everything about riding was great except for my bike.

A mountain bike is not great for riding on flat paved roads.  I found myself pushing the bike harder and harder, but not getting anywhere on it.  I knew that if I got a road bike I would be able to ride faster and more efficiently, but I had no idea how big the impact would be.  Yesterday I bought a Trek 1.2 from Campus Cycles after looking online for alot of bikes.

I got this bike because it was the cheapest road bike and the only one they had in my size under $1000.  I figure if I really like it and I get into biking, I can upgrade to a nicer bike.

I found riding a road bike to be absolutely wonderful.  Today was my first ride to and from work and I felt so good after the ride.  I got to work in about 9 min, and I felt like I only used 1/2 the energy to get there.  I just wanted to keep riding.

I might see if there are some longer rides I can do for fun.  Since we’re in the middle of the flat city now, there’s not too much mountain biking around.  I think I’m really going to like riding my bike.

I’ve been meaning to document our trip from CA to CO and show some pictures of things we took along the way.  I’ve just been too busy since we got here to sit down and sort out the pictures and put it all online.  Well, here’s the exhaustive guide on how to drive 1080 miles in 3 days with 2 kids, 2 cats, and 1 dog.

We actually got the truck loaded up pretty quickly on Monday afternoon.  By 7:00 the house was empty and the truck was completely full.  Good thing we didn’t have more stuff.  Evan was my co-pilot in the truck with the dog between us, and he was the official photographer.  Michelle drove the car with Emma and the cats.

Our first major stop was in Las Vegas.  We had to get gas ($4.89 a gallon for diesel!) and we made a quick detour to Evan’s favorite attraction, the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

We made it to St. George, Utah without much fuss, and found our way to the VERY nice La Quinta Inn.  I would highly recommend this hotel to anyone wanting to stay in St. George.  It was pet friendly, very clean and nice, and the people were super helpful.  The kids spent the first 30 min jumping from bed to bed and they had a great pool that we swam in that evening before all crashing early.

The next day we drove from St. George to Grand Junction, CO.  The trip was extremely long but we also passed some very beautiful areas along the way.

Of course, we had to stop at the Colorado Border and take our picture in front of the sign.  There was another family there from Orange County, so we took turns taking pictures with the sign.

The hotel in Grand Junction was fine, and we had pizza for dinner at a very nice little local pizza shop.  The next day was even more exciting as we entered the Rocky Mountains and followed the winding river next to the road.  We had to stop at a beautiful park along the way and watch rafters go by and just enjoy how beautiful Colorado is.

We finally made it to Denver at about 3:00 in the afternoon on Thursday.  Michelle’s cousin and her significant other came to help us unload the truck, along with another friend.  We had the entire truck unloaded by 7:00 that evening, and we were pretty much unpacked by the end of the weekend.  Most of our stuff just went into the garage or storage though, as we are moving again in Oct into our new home in Stapleton.

That was the big trip.  All in all, I think it went very smoothly.  It was a long 3 days, but it’s totally worth it being here in Denver now enjoying all the great things the city has to offer.  We’ve already been to the Denver Zoo, Aquarium, Children’s Museum, Coors field, and tons of parks, not to mention all the great food we’ve had so far.  We’re definitely loving Denver!

Friday was our first 4th of July celebration in Denver.  It was fun and exciting to be somewhere new, but we didn’t really know where to go for fun and activities.

We spent the morning at the Denver Zoo and we saw the brand new baby zebra.  Of course, I forgot to take my camera again, but one of these trips to the zoo I will remember.  We also saw the Polar Bear, and we’re very excited about coming back when there’s snow and ice because the zookeeper said she is much more active and fun to watch in the snow.

We read about a big fireworks show and party about 20 min away in Arvada, so we went to check that out in the afternoon.  It turned out to be very big and awesome, with thousands of people there.  They had bounce houses, games, and activities for the kids, and food and music for everyone else. 

We actually got to take our shoes off and walk around in the grass barefoot. 

It was warm, but not too bad.  The fireworks show was great, it was the first time for Emma, and both kids really enjoyed it. 

There’s a full gallery of pictures in the photo gallery.