Cañon City is home to the Royal Gorge Bridge (and amusement park) as well as the Royal Gorge Route Railroad. Both are open today at reduced capacity, but neither appeals to us. As we drive out of the city we can’t help but feel sorry for the numerous business owners and the people they normally employ. They will miss most of the tourist season which they depend upon for the bulk of their yearly income.
Cañon City is about an hour’s drive southwest of Colorado Springs. After breakfast I pack some waters in a cooler and William and I drive out of the city on Colorado Highway 115. The high desert scenery and mountains to the west are a beautiful backdrop. At Penrose we pick up Colorado Highway 50 and drive west to Cañon City. The Arkansas River flows through the area and Cañon City has built a pleasant walking and biking trail along the river. We easily find a parking spot in the lot, grab some water and begin our stroll. Based upon the online reviews during a normal year the trail and adjacent picnic areas would be well populated on a sunny Sunday. Today we meet people only occasionally. There’s also one group of energetic rafters bouncing their way down the Arkansas River. They seem to be having a blast. After our walk we opt to check out the historic downtown rather than just returning to Colorado Springs. All of the shops are closed but we do find three restaurants which are open with limited seating. Cañon City Brews and Bikes has a large beer garden - perfect! We are greeted by a masked server and seated at a socially-distanced table in the garden. We sit back and enjoy the eclectically decorated garden as we sip our beverages and nibble on an appetizer of cheese curds. It is the first time we have eaten in a restaurant since March 12th. It feels really nice.
Cañon City is home to the Royal Gorge Bridge (and amusement park) as well as the Royal Gorge Route Railroad. Both are open today at reduced capacity, but neither appeals to us. As we drive out of the city we can’t help but feel sorry for the numerous business owners and the people they normally employ. They will miss most of the tourist season which they depend upon for the bulk of their yearly income.
0 Comments
James is a professional chef and food purchaser so you can imagine that whenever we meet we have fun making meals together. This is a good thing since these days the restaurants are closed except for carry-outs. On our first day James takes us to Shamorck Foodservice, a restaurant supply warehouse which is also open to the public. We purchase such staples as a half-gallon of heavy cream, 5 lbs of finely shredded cheese and a three pound bag of frozen peas. Normal-sized packages of other products are also added to our cart. A trip to Walmart and the local butcher helps us round out the household items and groceries we need to get us started for our three week stay. Our Airbnb has a great four-burner gas grill in the backyard and we use it five or six nights a week. We fire it up for steaks, boneless chicken thighs, sausages, ribs, bone-in chicken, hamburgers and other assorted meats and vegetables. Nothing like throwing slabs of meat on a hot grate to bring family togetherness! For several months William has wanted to make spaghetti sauce starting from fresh tomatoes. This a perfect opportunity. On our second Monday in town James is working as William and I make our way to Save a Lot, which is fondly known in the area as the Mexican grocery store. We pick out 21 pounds of Roma tomatoes, then make our way to the meat counter. Most of the signs are in Spanish and they have interesting cuts in the case, including tripe and tongue. I feel like I’m back in Central or South America as the clerk hands me my ground beef packaged in a pink plastic bag. Ah, fond memories. Tuesday after breakfast William and James get started. I volunteer to be the photographer and dishwasher. They blanch the tomatoes, peel them, pull the bulk of the seeds and start them pots cooking on the stove. Once the tomatoes have cooked down sufficiently James uses a stick blender to smooth the them into a thick sauce which reminds me of thick tomato purée. Meanwhile William has prepared meatballs and Italian sausage. He seasons the sauce, adds the meat and tops the pots with water. Over the next three hours the sauce simmers, thickening and cooking the meat. We manage to do a small amount of exercise, getting out of our chairs to stir every 15 minutes. The evening dinner is penne pasta with the sauce and meatballs, Caesar salad, garlic bread, peas and green beans. Mmmm. The extra sauce is put into vacuum-sealed bags and frozen for future meals.
We decide to have a cookout with friends so we are back to Shamrock Foodservice. James says he can always freeze any excess and use it later. He buys a box of chicken dark quarters. Omg... it’s 40 pounds of thighs and legs! We put 10 quarters into large ziploc bags and store them in the refrigerator for the upcoming cookout. James breaks down the remaining 22 quarters into 44 pieces and puts them into 11 vacuum-seal bags. A great value of restaurant-quality meat at less than $0.70 per pound! Garden of the Gods is a public park and National Natural Landmark in Colorado Springs, less than four miles from our Airbnb. Late Thursday morning we drive over to enjoy the park. Although we have visited four or five times before, the giant red and white limestone rocks continue to impress us. We make one complete loop through the park in the car and then repeat it taking our time to stop at several spots to appreciate the views and take photographs. It’s a little windy in some spots and very beautiful!
It’s the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend and time to do some exploring. After a late breakfast on a sunny morning in Colorado Springs William points the car toward Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, about an hour ride. We drive through Manitou Springs toward Woodland Park along Colorado Highway 24. As the elevation increases 2,400 feet (730 meter) the skies darken and the temperature drops. I’m glad that I packed a sweatshirt and some spring jackets for us. The scenery is incredible as we drive up to the National Monument. We are already aware that the visitor center is closed due to Covid-19, but we are able to see some parts of the park from the road including the Hornbeck Homestead.
After taking some photographs at the National Monument we take Teller County Road 1 into Cripple Creek, increasing up to 9,500 feet in elevation. Cripple Creek is a former mining town, now a tourist destination, and one of a handful of cities in Colorado where gambling is allowed. Unfortunately today it is a ghost-town. The casino’s, restaurants, hotels and stores are all closed due to the covid-19 Stay-at-Home orders. As we drive back toward Colorado Springs the mountains are beautiful, but an icy rain develops. The temperature outside the car registers at 34F (1C). I can see why people who live in this area have generators and put in a months worth of food before winter! As we make our way down toward Manitou Springs and into Colorado Springs (elevation 6,000 feet/ 1,830 meters) the sun reappears and the temperature returns to an acceptable 75F (24C). While we are sheltering in Arizona William has the idea that as long as we probably will not be able to travel internationally for at least a year, and even then we won’t know if we will want to go through whatever is required to do so, we might as well start a quail farm. At first I teased him that we could be like Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert in the 1930’s movie The Egg and I. But I start to get more than a little worried when a I find him searching for low-cost farms/ranches in various States and watching YouTube videos about ranching quail. William and our son James started discussing quail ranching over the telephone a couple of weeks before we arrive in Colorado Springs. Now that we are here James announces that he has found a guy raising quail on the outskirts of the city and that he has arranged for a visit. There is no way that I’m staying home. God only knows what the two of them might do, they could come back and tell me they bought the farm! It turns our that the quail guy has built an addition onto his garage in the suburbs for growing the quail. He is quite the character and the backyard and garage are strewn with various projects at differing stages of completion. He shows us the birds and explains his approach. We talk with him for perhaps 30 minutes, buy 3 dozen quail eggs and thank him for his time. Saturday morning’s breakfast is a quail-egg scramble. It takes two and one-half to three quail eggs to equal a large chicken egg. James makes the whole three dozen, carefully cracking the small eggs. The scramble is very good, with a higher yolk ratio than with chicken eggs.
William and I are taking a break from the heat of Arizona and for three weeks are renting an Airbnb in Colorado Springs near our son James. On Sunday night we pack, make sandwiches and prep snacks for the trip. Monday the alarm goes off at 5 am. We dress, make coffee and tea, pack the car, hug Mom and we are on the road at 5:45. The road takes us north-east through the Tonto National Forest until we meet up with I40. We are driving past Petrified Forest National Park and the Painted Desert at 9 am, but alas, the park is closed due to Covid-19. At about that same point we see signs for Historic Route 66. It winds back-and-forth intersecting with I40 many times until just east of Santa Fe, New Mexico where we take I25 north. One of our stops is the Route 66 Travel Center. The adjacent casino is closed - drat! They have some take-out food, but our packed sandwiches look much better. We buy gas and pull over for a small picnic. On our drive we see a lot of desert and go through at least five Indian Reservations. The scenery changes more to trees and mountains on I25 as we approach Pueblo, Colorado. From there it is less than an hour into Colorado Springs. We arrive at our Airbnb 12 1/2 hours after leaving Mesa. The 900 Sq. Ft. Airbnb home was built in 1904 and was last remodeled in 2018. It’s very cute and reasonably comfortable. James picks up pizza and appears at our doorstep 30 minutes after we arrive. We eat and chat for a while, but all of us are tired (he starts work at 6 am), so we make it an early night.
While we are in Arizona we celebrate a few family events. Mother’s Day brings gifts and phone calls to my Mom. My sons call to wish us both well. The flowers are beautiful and we’re lucky that Mom shares the chocolates, bundtini’s and home-made treats that arrive. Oy - my waistline! May 7th we become great auntie and uncle again with the birth of our nephew Michael’s son. The parents choose to use my father’s middle and first name for the baby, Karl Emmett, but think they will call him Emmett. My brother Dan, Michael and Emmett pose for a three-generation photo. May 15th we celebrate Mom’s 87th birthday. Early in the day Mom and I enjoy sitting in her new patio furniture, a gift from the family. My cousin Randy and his wife Sally join us her dinner celebration. We have a nice meal and of course, a cake.
Since arriving in Arizona I have joined my mom on her walks along a desert nature trail. The trail runs along the Electric Company easement behind her house for four city blocks and has been developed over the past 40+ years by volunteers in her community. With her community pool closed, this is Mom’s primary form of exercise usually with a walk in the morning and a shorter walk in the evening. People who live along the trail add their own personal touches. For Easter one family decorates the cacti behind their house for the holiday. Another anonymous person leaves painted rocks in unique places for hikers to take home with them. There’s usually four our five every week. I don’t pick one up (I don’t really think that William and I want to travel around the US and the world with any more weight), but each time I see one it brings a smile to my face. They are usually picked up within a day. Along the trail we see various species of cacti, including Saguaro, Barrel, Cholla, and Prickly Pear. Over the course of six weeks many bloom, and the flowers are beautiful. In addition to flora, the trail provides some desert fauna. Jackrabbits are abundant but we also see a few prairie dogs, Gila monsters, and squirrels. Quail make their homes under the bushes and cacti and it is fun to see them with their heads bobbing. A highlight each day is watching the peach-faced lovebirds that congregate on bushes near a Saguaro. I’m happy that we don’t see any snakes!
The shelter in place order has closed most businesses and recreational activities, and with temperatures reaching the 100’s we spend most of our time in the house. We’re excited when we need to do grocery shopping or pick something up at the hardware store. Starting to go stir-crazy, William and I decide to take a car ride along the Apache Trail Loop up to Roosevelt Lake. We quickly learn that the road on part of the loop is washed out, so we break the loop into two sections. On a Monday we take the southern and eastern part of the loop out through Globe and Highway 188 up to Roosevelt Lake then drive west on a Highway 88 as far as we can before turning around and repeating the roads in reverse. The route takes us 5+ hours and provides great views of the Superstition Mountains, the lake and the Salt River. All the State and Federal parks are closed to visitors, but the scenery is beautiful and we enjoy the day. A couple of weeks later on a Saturday we take the western and northern section of the Loop up through Tortilla Flats. We drive east on University Boulevard to Apache Junction where we turn north-east onto Arizona Highway 88. We stop near Lost Dutchman State Park to take photos of the Superstition Mountains. The road twists and turns it’s way up to Canyon Lake where many Arizonans are frolicking in the waters and enjoying themselves despite the Shelter-at-Home order. William slowly drives 1-2 miles, carefully avoiding the people who have parked along the road and are carrying their portable watercraft, picnic baskets and chairs to the lakefront. Once past the lake we follow the windy road past Tortilla Flats enjoying the desert scenery. A few miles outside of Tortilla Flats we find a flat area at approximately 2,700 feet in elevation overlooking the canyons and hills. William pulls off and we stop to enjoy the sandwiches and sodas we have packed. Then it’s time to head back toward Mesa.
The 60 mile round-trip drive takes us 3 hours with the windy roads and our various stops for photos and lunch, nice outing! |
AuthorHi. I'm Anne. I wander around the world with William. Enjoy Some of our Favorite Links below
Archives
March 2023
Categories
All
|