Fun retro cafe fills the belly, museum stretches the mind in Grand Junction, Colo.

Main Street Cafe, Grand Junction, Colo. (Julianne G. Crane)

This is the second RV Short Stop post on a day spent in Downtown Grand Junction, Colorado, while our truck was being worked on at Scotty’s auto shop. The first post focused on the city’s ‘Art on the Corner’.

The retro feel of the Main Street Cafe pulls people into this popular 50’s-themed eatery at the corner of 6th and Main.

 Inside retro Main Street Cafe. (Julianne G. Crane)

Outside red-and-white CocaCola umbrellas shade customers from the summer sun while inside the walls are lined with glossy photographs and posters featuring cultural icons Marilyn Monroe, Elvis and the Three Stooges. Other memorabilia include hula hoops, poodle skirts, one-piece swim suits and 45 records. There are pretty decent $3.50 breakfast specials (i.e. 2 eggs, potatoes and toast).

RVer Jimmy Smith reading about exhibits. (Julianne G. Crane)

A couple blocks away at the corner of Ute Ave. and 5th St. is the Museum of the West, a division of the Museum of Western Colorado … which is “the largest multi-disciplinary museum between Salt Lake City and Denver. Over the past forty years (they) have grown to include three major museum facilities, three active outdoor paleontology sites, an educational center and a respected research library,” according to museum’s website.

Replica of Stagecoach (Julianne G. Crane)

The Museum of the West “offers a thousand years of history that can be experienced. ‘Ride’ in a stagecoach, ‘fly’ a 1958 Cessna from Walker Field or gaze upon an ancient cup and ladle from the Anasazi. Study Ute and Fremont Rock Art, see the real firearms that outlaws used, sit in a one-room schoolhouse and visit the Pastime saloon to experience western Americana at its best.”

It was a cool three hour stroll through a thousand years of history.

Museum of the West (Julianne G. Crane)

Museum of the West
462 Ute Ave.
Grand Junction, Colorado
(970) 242-0971
URL: museumofwesternco.com

Summer Hours
May 1-Sept. 30
Tues-Sat, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Winter Hours
Oct. 1-April 30
Tues-Sat, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Admission
$6.50 for Adults, $5.50 for Seniors, $3.75 for children (3-12)
$20 for Family groups

To read more RV lifestyle articles by Julianne G. Crane, go to RV Wheel Life.com

Photos by Julianne G. Crane

Julianne G. Crane
Julianne G. Cranehttp://www.RVWheelLife.com
Julianne G. Crane writes about the RVing and camping lifestyles for print and online sites. She was been hooked on RVing from her first rig in the mid-1980s. Between 2000-2008, she was a writer for The Spokesman-Review newspaper in Spokane, Wash. One of her popular columns was Wheel Life about RVing in the Pacific Northwest. In 2008, Crane started publishing RV Wheel Life.com. She and her husband, Jimmy Smith, keep a homebase in southern Oregon, while they continue to explore North America in their 21-foot 2021 Escape travel trailer. Over the years they have owned every type of RV except a big class A. “Our needs change and thankfully, there’s an RV out there that fits every lifestyle.”

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