6/17

Well there were a few technical difficulties with the blog, all settled now. So this will be a longer post.

We are still in Colorado. We have been busy and seeing this beautiful scenery. Sure lovely, however even though it's my home state, born and raised, not the Colorado of yesteryear

Glad to be an AZ resident.

We the have been blessed to be staying here at the Nass farm. Hooked up and have our own little piece of farm paradise. Georgia is in heaven with her dog family, mom and dad and three siblings. Never a dull moment around here. We wake to the rooster, serenaded by the turkey and charmed by the baby goat.

We had a great visit to the Royal Gorge in Canyon City. The first really warm nice day we had had. We rode the Gondola across the Gorge, for some a bit unnerving. Just beautiful.

We wound ourselves back through the park walking down step inclines to make it to the bridge about 1/2 a mile south. You can walk the bridge only now. It is a suspension bridge so you can feel the sway. Dave preferred the center where there was less movement. My new knee and no rod leg did well. We did take the offer for a ride back up the last little hill to the visitor center. They have rebuilt the park after a fire about 10 years ago and it is very nice. But who thinks three BR stall is enough when they drop off bus loads of tourists! Kristina, Mike Alex and Isaiah joined us. Fun doing the family outing. Of course we had to stop at the rock shop. And we toured the Vintage Camper museum and campground.

We also drive skyline road, built by the Army core of engineers in the early 1900's. it is a 7 mile one way road over a hog back mountain.

A few rainy afternoons demanded that we craft. Kristina and I have been crafting buddies since the day we met. Nice to have that normal back in both of our lives. We have been junk journal junkies. So peaceful as we create without rules.

Dave has taken on the garden spot by our camper, he has weeded it all by hand getting all the deep roots. Hopefully today we will get a load of mulch to be able to spread

Then the tomatoes and peppers are going in the big trough they already have fruit on them.

We have been blessed with several pots of flowers from a neighbor who picks up non saleable items from a local giant. Dave and Kristina have nursed them back to beautiful flowers

We drove up through woodland Park and took the highway to Deckers..the trees and fields are very green from all the rain. We drove through Camp Elim, where my brother and I went to camp for many years. It looks smaller than my kid brain remembered They are adding a big new building and have added lots of fun outside activities. So many fond memories there. Large rock out cropping's all over.

The drive was beautiful. Both the north and south Platte rivers were running well with all the run off. It's shallow and a fly fisherman's dream. It was a nice day and there were taking advantage of it. Every little parking space along the narrow mountain road had a truck or car parked in it! They had their waders on and were fishing like crazy. We took the back way into Sedalia, narrow dirt road, but well maintained. We came across a semi who had jack knifed his trailer trying to make it up narrow mountain road

Luckily enough room to pass on the steep shoulder. The drive was very nice.

We had dinner with Lances step brother and his wife. The whole family was there. What a great evening. The food was wonderful and the company better. Steph's family is always so welcoming to me and now Dave. Truly a treasure.

I had lunch with several friends from the Black Forest Arts Guild. So nice to see you all and catch up. I don't miss tagging all my stuff or the late nights canning and baking, but I do miss my friends. We had a great time at Pies and Grinders in the forest.

Yesterday we took the Cog Railway to Pikes Peak. When we booked it it was the best day of the week. Didn't happen to be. It was a crazy Colorado weather day. We were blessed with Good weather headed up. It's an hour and ten minutes rude up over 7000 feet.

It is the highest Gog in the United States. Being a Big allows it to take in the 28% grade required to get up the peak. Normal train max is 8% and freight trains is 2%.

We saw a deer a few Varmints and the Ravens. We rode through several layers of clouds. We were not able to see back into the Springs due to the thick clouds. We did see out to the back side with a bit of sun break. There were still 6-15 foot snow drifts up there. I'm pretty sure we saw sleet! Dave had on a sweat shirt and a jacket with the hood up. Proud of him he did well.

Fun fact, this is where the song America the beautiful was written first as a poem and later put to music. As we ascended past tree line it became a huge boulder yard of rocks. The Colorado pink granite is soft and water sleeps in, when it freezes it splits the rock.

The ride down was not as fun as it started to rain and fogged up the windows.

Unbeknownst to us about 15 miles from us in Woodland Park a tornado was happening at the same time. Thankfully it only took out a large patch of trees in it's path. We saw beautiful waterfalls and the creeks most of the way. We saw parts of Barr trail (the hiking path) that people hike to the summit. Even saw a crazy couple along the edge of the railway , I know I could have high fived him!

It's been typical spring in the Rockies, an hourly check of the weather for the next storm, where the hail is and deciding where to park the car for the least damage. Yesterday there were reports if baseball size hail near us. We thankfully have had only had pea size hail. Even that can come so fast it strips all be blooms from the flowers, the garden and leaves from trees.

I attended a beautiful service Fri a friend who is like a sister to me. Our entire lives they were family and we celebrated all holidays and life's together. Glenda will be missed by her family and friends. I'm blessed to have been the 4th sister to this bonus family. It was a beautiful day to celebrate such a loving caring lady. Love you forever Glenda.

Blessed to share the evening with family and have them welcome Dave with open arms. Truly a beautiful evening spent outside telling stories and enjoying each other. 💗

Fathers day home made Beignets at the camper. Fun to cook out side.

Dinner out at the Black bear Diner with the Nass group.

And Fathers day bratwurst!

We have had several nice afternoons just enjoying the weather, prior to rain... haha and acting like we are on vacation.

Hoping to be better about updates. We are headed to Memphis soon to celebrate Dave's mom's 94th birthday.

Yes Memphis in June...this princess might melt. If only it was that easy!

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