Colorado Cousins
Since meeting my American husband Richard, I have learned a great deal about family bonds. Being an only child, with no living blood relatives other than my own children, large family gatherings were an unusual experience for me. The first time I attended one of Richard's family reunions, over four generations and 60+ attendees traveled from various states for two days of family fellowship at Thanksgiving.
You might appreciate how awestruck and humbled I felt to witness this tribute to the family network, and how wonderful it felt to be adopted into that family.
I therefore looked forward to our return to Coaldale at the beginning of July, not just to be able to revisit Richard’s cousin, Mark, and his wife, Jill, but also to spend some more time with Mark’s brother Lee, and his wife Carolyn who were due to arrive on the 10th of the month.
You may remember us staying with Lee and Carolyn in Dripping Springs, Texas when we first arrived in the US in January, and receiving excellent instruction in how to become RVers during our three month stay with them.
Lee and Carolyn held their 50th wedding anniversary celebration in June, but we had other commitments. Mark and Jill could not attend either, so they decided to throw a little party in honour of that remarkable achievement and invite those relatives living in the Colorado and Kansas area who were also unable to travel to Texas for the June celebration.
Since leaving a month earlier, my arm muscles were pretty much back to their normal spongy state.(You can read the story behind that here.) Because of the unusually abundant rainfall, mosquitoes were in vampire mode this particular summer, and so I found myself hiding inside more often than being able to help further in the garden. Moreover, I took an allergic reaction to something (probably mosquitoes!) and was laid low for a few days. So I was glad that the vegetables were blooming
and I could concentrate on housework, food preparation, and helping Jill with her felting business.
Richard was much more productive. He helped put the finishing touches to the hot tub area, and it was a concerted male cousin effort to put up the railings around the back decking. The grounds were tidied and the final sod laid the day before the arrival of some 30 friends and relatives who had not seen Mark and Jill’s new house since building had started the previous year.
It is absolutely amazing how much work has been done by Mark and Jill since they first moved here four years ago. Here is the original site of the hot tub,
the condition once the tub and decking were completed before Richard began the final touches at the end of May,
and the finished product!
Several invitees stayed for more than just the Sunday celebration, and it was wonderful to partake of that family fellowship I had encountered at previous family reunions once more. And seeing Lee and Carolyn so happy made all that hard work preparing for the re-celebration of their day definitely worth it.
The week afterwards it was time to relax and we managed to fit in a few day trips.
Whilst the boys went on a Zip line tour, http://www.royalgorgeziplinetours.com swinging and racing each other above canyons in the Canon City hinterland like modern day Tarzans, the girls had a much more ladylike cream tea. ( http://thecanoncityqueenanne.com/_index.php ) A unique American experience, because the few cream teas I have experience of in the UK are rather different. But, surrounded by the quaint décor, wearing a hat provided by the tearoom, indulging in otherwise forbidden cream confectionary, drinking Belgian chocolate flavour tea (one of a choice of about 30 teas) turned the conversation to all things feminine, and made it a most enjoyable girlie treat!
Gender differences were not a consideration the following day when we visited the Cripple Creek and Victor Gold Mining Company’s working open cast mine. We all had to wear hard hats and fluorescent yellow gilets as we were bussed around the premises, and we were pretty much speechless as we drove down into the excavated 7 mile wide volcano peak.
The 30 foot high terraced rock walls in hues of green and purple, were blasted from below and the ensuing ore laden broken rock identified and loaded onto gigantic dump trucks. This is then processed via crushing facilities into ¾ inch diameter rocks, which are once more separated.
High ore content goes to a processing Mill, low ore content is tipped onto a leaching facility, where a dilute solution of sodium cyanide is circulated through the ore, and the gold and silver content is leached out of the rock into a lined bowl below. You can see the leaching hills in the background of above picture.
We were particularly interested to learn of the land reclamation, reuse, recycling, re-vegetation and pollution control procedures employed by the company, and there is no doubt that the mine has helped the area surrounding Victor with a conservation program that ensures the history of the area is safeguarded for future generations to enjoy. Cripple Creek might be the larger of the two historic mining towns now, but in its heyday Victor literally had its streets paved with gold! With a population of 18,000, and gold a plenty, mine owners did not bother with low grade ore and so it was used to gravel the streets!
However the highlight of the tour for me was being able to see one of those humongous trucks (with a hauling capacity of 250 tons of rock) up close and personal.
In fact up close and personal is a good way of describing the whole month. I have had some quality time getting to know my adopted cousins better.
You might appreciate how awestruck and humbled I felt to witness this tribute to the family network, and how wonderful it felt to be adopted into that family.
I therefore looked forward to our return to Coaldale at the beginning of July, not just to be able to revisit Richard’s cousin, Mark, and his wife, Jill, but also to spend some more time with Mark’s brother Lee, and his wife Carolyn who were due to arrive on the 10th of the month.
 |
| from left - Jill, Mark Carolyn, Lee, Richard and me |
Lee and Carolyn held their 50th wedding anniversary celebration in June, but we had other commitments. Mark and Jill could not attend either, so they decided to throw a little party in honour of that remarkable achievement and invite those relatives living in the Colorado and Kansas area who were also unable to travel to Texas for the June celebration.
Since leaving a month earlier, my arm muscles were pretty much back to their normal spongy state.(You can read the story behind that here.) Because of the unusually abundant rainfall, mosquitoes were in vampire mode this particular summer, and so I found myself hiding inside more often than being able to help further in the garden. Moreover, I took an allergic reaction to something (probably mosquitoes!) and was laid low for a few days. So I was glad that the vegetables were blooming
 |
| When we left in June |
 |
| mid July |
and I could concentrate on housework, food preparation, and helping Jill with her felting business.
Richard was much more productive. He helped put the finishing touches to the hot tub area, and it was a concerted male cousin effort to put up the railings around the back decking. The grounds were tidied and the final sod laid the day before the arrival of some 30 friends and relatives who had not seen Mark and Jill’s new house since building had started the previous year.
It is absolutely amazing how much work has been done by Mark and Jill since they first moved here four years ago. Here is the original site of the hot tub,
Several invitees stayed for more than just the Sunday celebration, and it was wonderful to partake of that family fellowship I had encountered at previous family reunions once more. And seeing Lee and Carolyn so happy made all that hard work preparing for the re-celebration of their day definitely worth it.
The week afterwards it was time to relax and we managed to fit in a few day trips.
Whilst the boys went on a Zip line tour, http://www.royalgorgeziplinetours.com swinging and racing each other above canyons in the Canon City hinterland like modern day Tarzans, the girls had a much more ladylike cream tea. ( http://thecanoncityqueenanne.com/_index.php ) A unique American experience, because the few cream teas I have experience of in the UK are rather different. But, surrounded by the quaint décor, wearing a hat provided by the tearoom, indulging in otherwise forbidden cream confectionary, drinking Belgian chocolate flavour tea (one of a choice of about 30 teas) turned the conversation to all things feminine, and made it a most enjoyable girlie treat!
Gender differences were not a consideration the following day when we visited the Cripple Creek and Victor Gold Mining Company’s working open cast mine. We all had to wear hard hats and fluorescent yellow gilets as we were bussed around the premises, and we were pretty much speechless as we drove down into the excavated 7 mile wide volcano peak.
High ore content goes to a processing Mill, low ore content is tipped onto a leaching facility, where a dilute solution of sodium cyanide is circulated through the ore, and the gold and silver content is leached out of the rock into a lined bowl below. You can see the leaching hills in the background of above picture.
We were particularly interested to learn of the land reclamation, reuse, recycling, re-vegetation and pollution control procedures employed by the company, and there is no doubt that the mine has helped the area surrounding Victor with a conservation program that ensures the history of the area is safeguarded for future generations to enjoy. Cripple Creek might be the larger of the two historic mining towns now, but in its heyday Victor literally had its streets paved with gold! With a population of 18,000, and gold a plenty, mine owners did not bother with low grade ore and so it was used to gravel the streets!
However the highlight of the tour for me was being able to see one of those humongous trucks (with a hauling capacity of 250 tons of rock) up close and personal.
In fact up close and personal is a good way of describing the whole month. I have had some quality time getting to know my adopted cousins better.
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