Time in Canon City

Since sometime in the late 1960s, we have had family living in Canon City.  That is when John's parents bought a funeral home there.  Each time we return to Colorado in the summer, part of our time is spent there.

This year we started with lunch at the Village Inn with our brother-in-law John and  brother Tim.

One evening we saw a great sunset from our campground.


 

One day we went on the River Walk along the Arkansas River as it cuts through the city.

We saw a couple of deer.

The family gathered at brother-in-law John's home on Sunday for a pot luck lunch.  These 2 fellows are nephew Mark's sons Cody and Alex (I think).

Nephew Mark and great-nephew Jarid.

Niece Megan and her son Devin and his wife Jasmine and their son Bentley.

John talking to nephew Mike.

Tim and his grandson Bentley as John looks on.

From left nephew Andy, brother-in-law John and friend Nancy, niece Kim, brother Tim and John.

We had a good day catching up with many members of our family.  Hopefully, we will see more family before the end of our visit in Colorado.

Phantom Canyon--Beautiful but awful

The shortest route from Canon City to Victor is driving up Phantom Canyon. Perhaps that is why the railroad carved out it's route through the canyon in 1894. It is not, however, the fastest route. The trip was just under 20 miles, creeping along the gravel road with lots of washboard sections. We climbed 4,000 feet in that 20 miles and it took us over 2 hours. The scenery made the trip worth it, but we said, "Never again."

My mother grew up in Victor and nearby Goldfield, graduating from high school there in 1932. I have been to Victor a number of times over the years. I think this is only the second time we have gone through Phantom Canyon. Victor and Goldfield are in what is called the Cripple Creek Mining District. Gold isn't found on level, soft ground unless it has traveled there by stream from higher altitudes. My grandfather was a gold miner in Victor.

The canyon walls are steep and rocky.

Since it is May, the trees have leafed out and the ground cover is green.  I was sitting in the back seat of the truck and caught a few pictures of the sideview mirror as well as the scenery.

This one-way tunnel shows the hard rock the mountain is made of. The tunnel isn't long but if we had met another vehicle, someone would have had to back up.  Even on the open road, there often was not space to pass another car or truck.

This is the way Colorado mountain sides should look, in my opinion.  Thankfully, there are many better roads to view them from.

This was probably our best mountain excursion for the summer. Soon we will return to lower altitudes and warmer temperatures--at least until we fly to England.

Visiting With Family

Sunday, on our last day in Canon City, after attending worship at Christ Church, we had lunch with many members of our family.  We gathered at John Abbott's house for burgers.  Other family members brought salads and condiments.  We took pictures of many of those who came. 

 John and Andy

Mark

Tim and Todd

Jarid and Tim

Devin, Jarid, Gabe and Andy

John Abbott and Kim.

There were others there, too, but both of us became so involved in talking to people we stopped taking pictures. Sorry, Mike, Megan, Vicki, Jordan and any other folks we missed getting photos of.

On Our Way South

We have headed south into New Mexico. On the way we drove over two mountain passes, Monarch and Raton. After having our truck repaired at the Chevy dealer in Gunnison, we drove over 11,312 ft Monarch pass. We are grateful for our diesel truck which handles the grade just fine. Here is the summit of the pass.

The scenery is wonderful.

Last year we when we left Colorado we drove the Million Dollar Highway from Ouray to Durango. We were nearly 2 weeks earlier this year an on a different pass and this is about the only fall color we saw.

Compare that to what we saw last year.

Near the top of Monarch we saw some mining activity. Some internet searching showing they are mining for gray limestone, used as flux in the iron ore smelting in Pueblo at what used to be called CF&I.

We spent some time in Canon City after our drive over Monarch, visiting John's sister who is in a nursing home there. Then we drove to Raton, New Mexico, where we are spending a few days at the NRA Whittington Center campground. Our trip took us over Raton Pass, only 7834 ft high. On this pass we saw some interesting warning signs:

Across the country we've seen a lot of crossing warnings about deer, tractors and horses and even Amish horse and buggies. But bear and elk crossing signs are unusual.

On our last day in Canon City the focus was on the funeral of our sister-in-law Diane. Because she had lived in the community almost all her life and was active in school and civic affairs, the family arranged to hold the service in the largest church in the area. John was the officiant. After the service and entombment in Mountain Vale Cemetery, once owned by his and Tim's father, we drove to our trailer in Pueblo West and headed to Cherry Creek State Park near Denver.

There were some interesting and really attractive cloud formations during our time in Pueblo West.

While at Cherry Creek, we celebrated our daughter-in-law Liz's 50th birthday. We took dinner to their house. She had a special birthday wine glass and there were 5 candles on the cake we brought.

We also saw a beautiful sunset while at Cherry Creek.

The park also has a few mule deer.

At the end of the week we headed north, hopefully headed to our major destinations of Glacier and Grand Teton National Parks.

Family Time

We have been in Canon City for nearly a week, waiting for the funeral of our sister-in-law Diane. John will officiate at that service tomorrow. In the mean time, we have a lot of quality family time.

We have been with John's brother Tim as he grieves his wife's death and John and he went to breakfast one morning. We have visited with our nieces and nephews who are grandchildren. One of John's sisters also lives here and we have had quality time with Kendal and John.

Tim and Diane have 11 grandchildren. Nine of them have been here. Add in one granddaughter-in-law and there have been 10 teenagers waiting with us. Friday it was time to find something interesting for all of them to do. Canon City is on the edge of the Royal Gorge, also known as the Grand Canyon of the Arkansas River. Here is a link to a Wikipedia article about the bridge.

We went to the Gorge with the whole crew. Here is just part of our group, waiting to enter the visitor center.

We walked out to the bridge, then crossed the gorge. Below is a view down to the Arkansas River.

The gorge complex included a big swing that the rider takes out over the gorge, a gondola that goes across and a zip line. John and I and our niece Megan took the zip line and several others rode the gondola. We were all able to do this at no cost because one nephew works there and has a nice boss who gave us all complementary entrance.

Here is a picture of John coming to the end of the zip line and me starting my ride starting. The view from up there was wonderful and the ride wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be. It was a first for all of us.

After our outing to the Royal Gorge, we all visited the funeral home to view Diane's body. (Both John and Tim and their father were funeral directors.)  Then the local Evangelical Free Church provided a dinner for all of us. There was lots of good food and good conversation.

When families are spread out all over the country, funerals and weddings are where people come back together for mutual support and love. It has been a full week of that here.

Now There are Six

John's parents had four children over 14 years. In 1968 John's brother Tim was the last of the four to wed, marrying Diane Marie Hutton. Since then the four brothers and sisters and spouses have been through a lot of fun, companionship, support, sadness and stress. The sadness returned Friday night when Diane died, less than a year after sister Cindy's husband John died.

Tim and Diane were the best of friends and constant companions during their 48 years of marriage. Now we are waiting to find out the funeral service details.

Tim called us Saturday morning about the death and yesterday we moved from Creede to Canon City to be with him. John will be conducting the funeral. We will be here at least until Saturday.