Colorado Trip 2015

It's been two years since we last visited Colorado, and I've missed it. This year we planned a 5-day trip (June 4-9) spending 2 days in Royal Gorge, where we have never visited, and 2-1/2 days in Denver with family. 

June 4:  Arrived in Denver late Thursday night, 6/4.  Drove our rental car to Renee's where we stayed overnight.  

June 5: The next morning we left for Royal Gorge, about 2.5 hours southwest of Denver.   We arrived in Canon City around noon.  We have an overnight motel reservation, so we checked in, then went to visit the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park

Views from the Gondola, taken one way over the Gorge

Views of the gondolas taken from the highest point in the park, on the other side of the bridge:

Views of the Visitor Center from the other side of the Bridge:

A swing ride and a photographer

We walked across the bridge to get back to the visitor center on the other side, 

about a 1/4 mile walk

Flags of all 50 states were displayed along the length of the bridge

After we left the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park, we drove back toward Canon City and made a detour on Skyline Drive, which had been recommended to us by the motel desk clerk.  It was a narrow (one-way) winding road along a high ridge, with incredible views to either side!

Bob, with Canon City behind and below. 

Sue on the other side, with mountains in the background.

Skyline Drive, straight ahead!

View ahead of us

View behind us

Back in Canon City, we had an early dinner at the Royal Gorge Brewing Co, where we enjoyed good food and drinks, then dessert at the Cup and Cone, just a block away!

By that time we were ready to crash, from a combination of lack of sleep from the night before and the altitude (we were at 9,000+ feet!), so we returned to the motel and turned in early. More excitement tomorrow!

June 6: today we'll ride on the Royal Gorge Railroad.  We reserved tickets in the Club Car, so we can sit and enjoy breakfast, while riding along the Arkansas River, through Royal Gorge Canyon. 

Boarding the train, employees took our photo

Club car view

Beautiful views as the train chugged through the gorge

Royal Gorge Bridge ahead

Under the Royal Gorge Bridge

The gondolas seen from below

Bob on the train

Selfie

There are still prospectors here in this old gold mining area, hoping to find a new vein! 

Here is a prospector we saw from the train, panning for gold along the Arkansas River, as the train chugged past!

After the train returned to Cañon City, it was time to start our drive back to Denver; we had dinner plans with Renee and some long lost cousins at 7:00PM. But we decided we had time to take the scenic way back, so off we went on the Gold Belt Byway.  We tried to go by way of Phantom Canyon Road, but after just a few miles, we found it was washed out due to recent heavy rains, so we turned around and went a bit further north to pick up the High Park Road (CO highway 67).

Big Sky!

Route 50 through Canon City toward Highway 67

Scenic valley views

Looking down at the town of Cripple Creek

Going through the town of Cripple Creek, a mixture of modern and old west!

with burros wondering the streets

Past Cripple Creek, we were in some high mountain terrain, 

with breathtaking views around every bend in the road

Then on to highways and Denver and Chinese Food with long-lost cousins!

June 7:  Spent the day with Ellen, Baschen and Keston.  We played on a playground, bought sandwiches at a great sandwich place and took them to a park for a picnic.  Then we "jumped water" with Baschen.  By mid-afternoon, we returned to Ellen's house, and helped prepare for a homemade dinner with cousins Merv & Myrna.  Jon cooked some delicious food, and there was great wine and desserts.   

June 8:  Spent the day with Renee, Baschen and Keston.  We visited Jack at the cemetary, as well as Aunt Shirley and Marvin.  The kids were great most of the day.  In the evening we had supper at Renee's that we helped prepare, again with cousins Merv & Myrna.  

Early morning bunny in Renee's yard!

We miss you, Jack!

 Baschen & Keston at Jack's grave

Baschen & Keston at Great Grandma Shirley's grave

Baschen and Keston at Marvin's grave

At 8PM we left Renee's for the airport, returned the rental car and caught the first leg of our flight home.  We arrived at Logan airport at 5AM, where we had to go through security again (Bad, jetBlue!) and arrived without incident in Buffalo around 8AM.  Breakfast on the way home, then picked up our sweet Kirby at the vet, and on to home, arriving 11:30-ish.  

All is well and it was a short but great trip!  Already looking forward to next time!

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Veggie Garden 2015

Photo Journal tracing the progress of my first veggie garden in years and years ... from seeds to harvest ... to frost!

APRIL 

April 15-30:   Planted seeds in early April, just after Easter. They sprouted quickly, some within 4-5 days! 

All seedlings 4/15/15

Lettuce 4/15/15

4/30/15

Lettuce (left) and cucumbers (right) 4/30/15

MAY

May 2:  Hardening the plants off, by bringing them outside for part of the day.  Lettuce looked like it was wilting, so I cut baby lettuce for a salad.

May 7:  Leaving onions, radishes, lettuce on back porch at night.

May 8:  85 degrees today, going down to 58.  Leaving onions, radishes and lettuce outside tonight.  All other seedlings on the back porch.

All seedlings outside during the day!

Cucumbers, Tomatoes

Tomatoes, grown from seed

I've decided to make my veggie garden along side of the old garage.  I'm going to have to dig up all the sod, which is a difficult task, but it will get done.  This is the spot I've chosen:

 Slow going and hard work.  After day 1 of digging!

May 15:  Three days later: the digging is done, weed guard installed and tomatoes planted... 25 in a row!  Oops that first one is offline, will be "fixing" it!

May 18: First tomato plant "straightened" and pinwheels inserted to keep the critters away! 

 I painted and repurposed this step ladder for my herbs

May 23:  We had a heavy freeze overnight, and temps got down to 25 degrees!!!

(The sugar water in the hummingbird feeders was frozen solid).   All my tomato plants were covered, but some frost penetrated through those little holes in the top, and many top leaves were "burned".  Most plants survived, only had to totally replace 3 of them!  Whew!

May 28:  I put the rest of the veggies in the ground after Memorial Day!  (I've learned my lesson, this is not the climate I moved from!)

JUNE

June 18:  Same photo as just above, 3 weeks later....

Zucchini and yellow squash flowering:

"Extra" tomatoes were planted in pots 

Some herbs in pots on the back stairs

Lettuce and some herbs on my Plant Ladder

June 30:  June was a very rainy month!  So far it's been beneficial for the garden. Hope we don't get "too much"! Tomatoes & Cucumbers have grown tremendously. Something (probably 4-footed)  is eating the broccoli; the watermelon and eggplant aren't doing well, they're spindley and off-color  :(

JULY 

July 5:

The start of sweet peppers. Most plants are doing well, though some are sporting leaves that look bug-bitten!

First tomato flower!

Garden is growing well.  The cucumber vines are getting long and I keep winding them up and around the cages.  Have many baby cukes coming on!

July 11:   FIRST CUCUMBERS!  They were buried near the ground, under the leaves and I never even saw them until they were big enough to pick!!

July 12:  I've put up a support line across the entire row of tomatoes, about a foot off the ground.

July 17:  With a few more cucumbers ready, I've decided to give canning a shot.  These two jars of pickles are the result of my very first ever attempt at canning.  It wasn't as hard as I thought, and they look like they ought to look.  Now I only hope they taste as good!

One week later (July 23):  By the way, the pickles taste great.  Mouth puckeringly, eye squintingly sour!  The only adjustment I'll make with the next batch is to put a little less vinegar, so they aren't QUITE so sour :)

July 23:   Baby Cantaloupe:

July 25:  The tomatoes are growing so tall, thick and bushy, but not seeing many baby green tomatoes.  When I posted this shot on Facebook, my friend Louie (expert gardener) suggested pruning them; he said I could remove 2/3 of the leaves, so the plant will put it's effort into the fruit and the flowers. 

July 26:  So that's just what I did.  This morning I pruned heavily (hopefully not TOO heavily, and found dozens of baby green tomatoes under all the extraneous leaves.  Let the sun shine in!

I was a busy girl today.  This morning I also made more pickles from nearly a dozen cucumbers I picked yesterday!  Ended up with 5 new jars...2 half-sour (below) and 3 regular dill!

 

AUGUST

August 1:  Feeling sad...! Something bad is happening to my cucumbers!  The leaves are turning yellow, one after another. I read something online about adding magnesium to the soil, in the form of epsom salts (2 tablespoons to one gallon of water), so I did that. But it didn't seem to help.  After a few days of more yellow leaves,  I bought an organic spray for mildew, mites or other stuff that it could be.  I cut a lot of yellow leaves off, and sprayed the rest.  The baby cukes seem to be in arrested development too.  Feeling sad....

August 2:  Found, to my great surprise, an extra large zucchini this morning!  Made zucchini muffins with it.  It yielded 3 cups of shredded zucchini for 30 muffins!

August 3:  In the meantime, my single cantaloupe plant is doing great, looks healthy with lots of flowers, and at least 3 baby cantaloupe starting!  I hope the growing season is long enough for them to ripen!

The largest of the little cantaloupes

The middle-sized little cantaloupe.  

The smallest...

August 6:  The cucumbers are looking worse and worse. I still get an occasional small cucumber from one or other of the vines, but not what I anticipated from the way they started out.

So I got some seeds from Burpee: 2 different bushy-type cucumbers. According to an internet article I read, there is still time in the season for a new sowing to grow and produce. So I planted 5 of each kind in containers.  I'll save the rest for next year.

Everything else is looking good.  The peppers are starting to produce.  I keep picking green ones, but will try to leave a few on the vine so they can turn whatever color they're supposed to: yellow and orange, I think...

The zucchini are looking healthy and starting to produce:

August 13:  Look how much the cantaloupes have grown in a week!  I made a makeshift sling from a knee-high stocking to support the largest one's weight, but it's still on the ground.  I don't want any rot on the bottom, so found a small plastic basket to put underneath it (upside down)

August 15:  The tomatoes are starting to ripen!

August 18:  One of many Harvests!

August 23:  Cantaloupes even bigger! One, at least, is starting to look close to being ripe!

August 26: Another harvest!

SEPTEMBER
September  6:  Picked my first-ever homegrown cantaloupe!  It meets at least three criteria of being ready (it came easily off the vine with a gentle tug, achieving a golden color and smells heavenly sweet!  But it is still hard.  So we put it in a brown paper bag for two days and...

September 8:  Viola! It's ready!

September  14:  Second Cantaloupe ready to eat! Not quite as good as the first, but still way better than store bought!

September 22:  Third Cantaloupe picked and used as size comparison for a giant mushroom growing out back.  We ate the cantaloupe a few days later (9/26). 

September 26:  The bounty continues to ripen as fast as I can pick it!

OCTOBER

October 2:  Nights are getting colder, down in the 40's.  Last night it got down to 34!  Feels too early to be so dangerously close to a frost.  The tomatoes that are still ripening are cracking now, either from too much water, or too much coolness.   The hungry woodchucks and/or chipmunks have been feasting on them too - I find partially eaten tomatoes on the ground every day.  Well, there are still plenty on the vines, so I don't begrudge the critters!  

Lots of little zucchini coming on too...not sure if they will get much bigger in this cool, cool weather.

The cucumbers I planted in early August will never even flower before the frost gets them!  I should have known it was too late.  But nothing lost in the attempt.  

Only lonely cantaloupe hangs on to the vine, which has pretty much lost all it's leaves. I doubt it will ripen before the frost gets it either. 

There are lots of green bell peppers on the plants.  I wanted to let them ripen to their designated color (orange, I think), but not sure that will happen before a frost either.

October 10:  I've been doing some fall cleanup the last few days.  It's not warm enough anymore for tomatoes to ripen normally, so I've been picking semi-ripe ones to finish ripening on the windowsill. 

I'm glad I left a few bell peppers to ripen to the designated color (yellow/orange). Picked my first one today, and it's a beauty.  There are 4 more ripening on the plants, hopefully they will finish before frost.  I've picked my last zucchini too, I think! 

October 11:  Picked over 2 dozen green peppers and another 2 dozen unripe tomatoes.  They are predicting frost at the end of the week and there's no way the peppers will turn. The tomatoes are also getting mushy before they ripen, so they should have a better chance on the windowsill.

October 12:  Diced and froze all the green peppers, and made some stewed tomatoes with the ripening tomatoes.  

I also pulled up all the pepper plants from the garden, leaving 2 almost ripe orange peppers. Will they make it?   

Goodbye to my 2015 garden.  

On to dreaming about next spring!

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