ARTICLE 3: DAYS 8-10

 

The 10-Day Grand Junction Challenge: Discovering What Life in the Grand Valley is Really Like 

For the first seven days of the 10-Day Grand Junction Challenge, Megan experienced mountain towns, national parks, off-road adventures, scenic drives and the incredible variety of places within reach of the Grand Valley. But there was one question we hadn’t fully answered: What would Grand Junction feel like when the adventures stopped and everyday life took over?

During the final three days, I wanted Megan to experience something just as important as the scenery: ordinary mornings, workdays, conversations with locals and the small moments that make a place feel like home. Because visiting Grand Junction, Colorado, and deciding whether you could actually build a life here are two very different things. And as Megan prepared to head home, it was time to consider the biggest question of the entire challenge: Could Grand Junction become a place she would want to call home?

Day 8 – Tuesday: An ordinary Tuesday

The extended holiday weekend was over. It was time to go back to work. No national parks. No mountain passes. No RZRs. No two-state adventures.

Just Tuesday.

And that was exactly what I wanted Megan to experience.

Megan and I got up and out fairly early and headed to my office in downtown Grand Junction. I wanted her to experience something we hadn’t really done yet during the challenge: what it felt like to park, walk through downtown and actually go to work.

We both had plenty to get done, but I had also arranged a few meet-and-greets with some of my colleagues. One was born and raised in Grand Junction. Another had grown up in Ouray before eventually making her way to the Grand Valley. Different backgrounds. Different paths. Same place they had ultimately chosen to build their lives.

After a productive morning and more firsthand insight into what living in the Grand Valley is actually like, we ran a few errands.

Nothing particularly exciting.

We headed home for lunch, and then spent the afternoon working from home.

No agenda. No sightseeing. No big reveal.

Just a normal Tuesday.

That evening, we had a quiet dinner at home. No restaurant. No activity planned. No place we needed to be. And maybe because there was nowhere else planned for us to go, we ended up staying up late talking about the journey so far.

Eight days in, Megan had experienced an incredible amount of Grand Junction and the surrounding area. We talked about the places she’d seen, the people she’d met, the things that had surprised her and, perhaps most importantly, how her perception of the Grand Valley was changing as the days went by.

I had purposely built this day into the challenge because I didn’t want Megan to spend ten days falling in love with Grand Junction only because I kept taking her to the best places.

This day was designed so Megan could experience something we hadn’t really given her yet: the mundane. 

What would Grand Junction feel like when it was just Tuesday? 

Especially after a holiday weekend. We’ve all experienced that dreaded re-entry, day-after feeling when the fun is over, the calendar fills back up, and it’s time to get back to work.

Would the magic disappear? Would the reality of everyday life feel like a letdown after everything we’d experienced? Or would she discover that maybe a place doesn’t have to be extraordinary every day to be a pretty damn good place to live? 

Megan’s Take:  I like to think of day eight as my own personal recollection convention. This was the first day I was no longer exploring and digesting life in Grand Junction, but rather recapping everything I had experienced and how it was starting to give me my own developing perspective. It was a very relaxed day which allowed me to sit down, look at any notes I’d taken, and revisit feelings and ideas I’d put on the back burner. It was extremely beneficial to be able to share all of my insight with Paul, ask questions I had, and more. It was both an overwhelming but astounding realization to sit there and recap everything I’d experienced in just eight days, knowing the ordinary and extraordinary could coexist in everyday life in Grand Junction. 

Day 9 – Wednesday:  More Than a Vacation

As we got closer to the end of the challenge, Megan and I started talking about what she still needed to experience before she could make up her mind. The answer wasn’t another adventure. She needed more life. More time simply being in Grand Junction. More conversations with people who actually lived here. More glimpses of what her life might look like if she weren’t here as a visitor.

We started the morning with a long walk along the Riverfront Trail, beginning at Dos Rios. It was a beautiful way to start the day, but Megan was just as intrigued by the workout equipment scattered along the trail as she was by the views. People were out walking, running and exercising, with the Colorado National Monument rising in the distance beyond the Colorado River.

It wasn’t an attraction we had come to see. It was just part of a normal morning.

For lunch, I arranged for Megan, Michelle and me to meet a colleague at Las Marias, a Mexican restaurant near my office. This person grew up in Grand Junction, went to college here, got married and started a family here. In other words, she wasn’t someone telling Megan what Grand Junction was like from the outside. She was someone who had actually built a life here. The conversation gave Megan another valuable perspective on the community.

After lunch, we walked along Main Street through the middle of the workday. Downtown was busy enough to feel alive, but not so busy that it felt overwhelming. People were having lunch, running errands, heading back to work and going about their day.

Again, nothing spectacular was happening.

And that was becoming spectacularly important to this challenge.

That evening, there wasn’t another big outing or carefully planned experience. We spent our time talking, collaborating and getting everything ready for Megan’s flight home the following day.

The adventure was almost over.

But by this point, I was less interested in whether Megan had enjoyed Grand Junction.

I wanted to know whether she could imagine living here.

Megan’s Take: Like the day before, day nine was one of processing yet still grasping everyday life in GJ. The most important part about this day was that it was my last full day in Grand Junction and it was time to start asking myself some of the big questions that would ultimately determine whether or not I felt I could build a life here…

Day 10 – Thursday: The Final Question

The challenge was coming to an end. Megan was flying home later that afternoon, so we were intentionally playing the day by ear, while giving her plenty of time to pack, get organized and prepare for the trip home.

Then we received an unexpected invitation to lunch at Basecamp Provisions in Fruita from one of my coworkers, whom Megan had met a few days earlier. The two of them had hit it off immediately, and apparently one conversation wasn’t enough. So we squeezed in one last meeting over lunch.

And honestly, that felt like the perfect way to spend our final few hours. No itinerary. No big adventure. No box to check. Just lunch with someone she had met during her time here and a conversation that happened naturally.

Then it was time.

We drove Megan to the airport and said our goodbyes. There were hugs, thank-yous and that strange feeling you get when something you’ve been looking forward to for a long time is suddenly over.

Ten days had gone by remarkably fast.

From the first time we spoke about the Grand Junction Challenge, the goal was to give Megan something very different from a typical vacation. I didn’t want her to simply see the best of Grand Junction. I wanted her to experience enough of the community: the spectacular, the ordinary, the people, the work, the weather, the food, the conversations and even the downtime, so she could begin to answer a much bigger question:

Could I actually build a life here?

I also knew I had something to learn.

Megan agreed to do this without knowing exactly what she was getting herself into. More importantly, she agreed to keep it raw and real. She wasn’t here to tell me what I wanted to hear, and I wasn’t interested in giving her a carefully scripted version of Grand Junction.

That made her questions and observations invaluable.

Over ten days, she asked things I probably wouldn’t have thought to ask. She noticed things I had stopped noticing. She challenged some of my assumptions. And she gave me a much better understanding of what someone experiences when they are considering leaving the place they know and building a new life somewhere completely different.

That may ultimately be the most valuable thing I took away from the challenge.

My wife and I moved to Grand Junction after doing several years of research. We knew what we were looking for. We knew why we wanted to be here.

But Megan reminded me what it feels like to not know. And that is something I never want to forget when I’m helping someone else make this same decision.

Because relocating isn’t really about finding a house. It’s about figuring out whether you can see yourself building a life in a new place.

Megan came to Grand Junction with a challenge for me:

“You keep telling me Grand Junction is the hidden gem of America. Prove it.”

I don’t know if I proved it.

That’s for Megan to decide.

But I do know that after ten days, she had something much more valuable than a vacation. She had experienced Grand Junction.

And now she gets to decide what she thinks.

A Special Thank You to Megan

Megan, thank you for saying yes, for being willing to experience the Grand Valley on its own terms, and for sharing your perspective so honestly. I hope the experience gave you as much to think about as it gave Michelle and me to appreciate all over again about the place we call home.

Whether you’re simply curious about Grand Junction or seriously considering a move here, I hope Megan’s experience gives you a useful starting point. And if you’d like to dig deeper, I’ve created this website to help you understand what living here is really like, so you make a more informed decision about whether the Grand Valley might be right for you. 

Thank you for following the 10-Day Grand Junction Challenge!

As always, I am here to help.

Paul Aspelin, REALTOR®
Relocation Specialist since 2001

Consider one of these articles to continue your exploration of the greatest hidden gem in America.

Our Living in Grand Junction Experiment

What We Learned After Living in Grand Junction for Three Months

Why Retire in Grand Junction

Why People are Moving to Grand Junction

All blog posts – you can search for any topic that interests you or read the posts in your favorite category first.

 

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Series: 10-Day Grand Junction Challenge

View the all of the posts and videos on the 10-Day Grand Junction Challenge page.

PAUL ASPELIN
Your Grand Junction Relocation and Listing Expert
REALTOR®, GRI, SRES®, CNE

Call or Text (612) 306-9558 (locally based)
Connect with Paul on LinkedIn or send Paul an email

MEGAN JIRELE
Independent Journalist & Writer
Digital Storytelling & Content Creation
Connect with Megan on LinkedIn

 

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