September 30, 2016 Grand Junction, Colorado

We are staying at our second Harvest Host site here in the Grand Junction Area. The Meadery of the Rockies. For those of you who don’t know  mead is made from honey. It is really good.  Sunny and about 75 today, perfect.

John with our purchase of meade. At Harvest host sites you get to park for free, just have to buy something at the site. So John is holding our rent. We are parked kind of by the vineyard and pumpkin patch.

 

A few bee items from the gift shop.

Vineyards. Rusty’s dream sculpture on the corner in Palisade.

We just happened to find a brewery as we were checking out downtown historic Palisade.  Another vineyard shot. Lovely views.

I found my costume for the fruit cake festival . The theme is vikings this year.  An acorn from the oak tree in front of the meadery, almost as big as my hand, grapes in the vineyard and a backlit sunflower near the pumpkin patch.

Sunset light on the vineyard. I love the Book Cliffs in the background. Sunset on Grand Mesa.

The next morning we got a tour of the meadery. Very interesting. This is their bottling line and some fermenting tanks behind it. We then left Colorado for Utah. Through Fruita to Green River Utah.

We had lunch at the historic Ray’s tavern in Green River.

September 24-29, 2016 Maroon Bells to Grand Junction , Colorado

It went from snowing, cloudy and cold to warm and sunny. It is still too cold at night, lower, lower 30’s and frost.

On Friday this was the only sun we saw all day, cool cloud, snow on Pyramid and golden aspens. I was riding my bike back from checking the campgrounds and this convertible stops in the middle of the road and waves. It was Cathy Frasier! Her old car died so she bought this new one!  She was out driving around and stopped to say hellow. Nice ride.

I finished the aspen leaf basket. The center is a golden aspen leaf set in resin. There are tiger eye beads and the edge is yellow and purple coils entwined with an aspen twig. It came out real cute. I then made the top of a basket with a glass pendant I made set in resin. It came out nice. But the bottom I made did not go well with it. It started out too big, so I brought it in smaller, then it was too small, so I brought it back out. It was much too small for the lid.

So I made a new top for the bottom. Topped it with a glass bead and put a tiger eye in the center of the bottom. Stay tuned for the new larger bottom for the glass pendant top I am working on. We are now parked in front of Martha and Jimjim’s house in Carbondale. We are plugged in , charging up, and resupplying.

Martha, Jimjim and John. We went out to dinner to celebrate Martha and John’s birthday.  I saw this sculpture at the Colorado Rocky Mountain college on my bikeride around Carbondale.

View from the Rio Grande bike trail in Carbondale. Jimjim heading off to work.

The clouds were really low on the Book Cliffs when we arrived at Palisade, Co. We are staying at a Harvest Host winery, which means we park for free, just have to buy something. Very good wine. Grand River Vineyards.

John bought two bottles of wine. This cute frog prince is in historic downtown Grand Junction.

John at the Rock Slide Brewery in historic downtown Grand Junction. Our parking spot at the winery.

Grande River Vineyards.

September 23, 2016 Maroon Bells, Colorado

We woke up to SNOW! White death, it is time for us to head south. We committed to work the rest of this week, which will be our last shift on Monday evening.  We are heading out on Tues for warmer climes. It only got up into the 50’s today and they said down to 32, but it is already there at 8 pm. Brr. The snow was not predicted till tonight, so it was a surprise. I do enjoy snow when I don’t have to go anywhere, it is very pretty.

The snow did not stick to the streets, but to about everything else. The bus in the snow. Martha stopped to visit. Martha, Mandy, John and John.

She is retiring next  week. Here is an article from the paper. Snow in the golden aspens.

Some snow scenes the BBQ we left our last night, aspen leaves in the snowy firs, and our penguin mascot in the snow. Snow on our picnic table.

More snow scenes.

After work we went up to the Bells to see the snow. Snow on Sievers mountain, the only sun we saw today was a slice at the very end of the day.

The Bells with snow, snow in the conifers between yellow aspen.

More snow on conifers and aspens. The view heading back to camp with the last day sunshine.

September 22, 2016 Maroon Bells, Colorado

We went for a hike up Conundrum Creek to view the aspens. Low 70’s, partly sunny, partly rainy.

Colors  in Conundrum. John, Mandy and John at lunch.

John, Mandy, Suep and John in the aspen trees. Yellow leaf road.

John Moran  claiming  Moran Moraine. View down Conundrum valley.

Me dancing in the golden aspen. John and John doing their dude dance.

Fall colors on the trail.

Fields of color.

Looking up Conundrum valley. Home sweet home.

We went off to work before dinner and stopped at Maroon Bells  to check out the colors.

John, John and Mandy at a scrumptious dinner made by Mandy. A garter snake warming in the sun. A cricket in Mandy’s hand.

Blue gentian, hare bell, seed head, another blue gentian. Layered aspens, aspen with beaver kill, seed heads, yellow flowers.

More beaver knawing, golden leaves in a stream, white berries, sumac colors, seed head, deer tracks.