Our neighborhood on the Poudre River

 It's great to be back here at Glen Echo in Rustic, CO. After coming out for the summer for the past 7 years these people are like family. The river looks great, although with very little snow over the winter it is running lower than in past years. The reservoir up near Cameron Pass (continental divide) provides enough flow for the local agricultural needs and for river rafting, a big tourism draw. Here's a couple of shots of the river where we are @7200'.

The Cache la Poudre River

Here's a shot of the side-shoot branch that passes around the island,  smaller volume but still pretty. The island is used for tent camping.

Looking back west towards the main river.
The bridge is used for foot traffic over to
the campsites on the island.

I have mentioned in the past just how well things grow out here, so I always plant some flowers in my corner garden and in pots to brighten things up. Here's what I've got going so far.

The pink dianthus on either side winter over and give me some
early growth. I just clean out the weeds and fill in with annuals.

This is a little side garden along the fence line, one
in the ground and the rest in pots.

This is right at the driveway leading into our site, and
makes for pleasant viewing for passersby (with their dogs, lol.)

Here is a collage of some of the pretty flowers around the park. It's a joy to walk the "neighborhood" and admire people's efforts.

Our new next door neighbor put out some bird feeders and we've been seeing various bird species that I've never seen before. Of course, getting shots of them is difficult, but so far we've seen Baltimore Orioles, Eastern Bluebirds, red-headed house finches to name a few. Plus the "hummers" of course. Very cool! There haven't been any bear spotted around, so we'll keep our fingers crossed.

Well, other than doing a small amount of socializing and making some dazzlers, that's about it so far. Thanks for stopping by! 

One guess where we are, yep, Colorado

 It's that time again, time to escape the summertime heat of Florida and hit the high country of Colorado. Love to be here but the trip is pretty long, about 1800+ miles. Also, the logistics of preparing to leave our house tend to be quite a large pain. Oh well, it's worth it.

We head out and catch 75N up through Georgia. Long swaths of the highway had these bright yellow flowers growing thick beside it. I love to see an effort being made to make our pollinators happy.

Our next fun (for me 😁) stop was in Perry, GA at Stripling's General Store. He wanted to fuel-up and I wanted to browse. What a store!! A little bit of everything, yes everything. There must have been 50 different napkin patterns, all perfectly gorgeous, bunches of shirts, kitchenware, decorative household goods plus a full grocery with butcher shop. 

So much to see, and if I was local I'd definitely try their sausage. Here's their mascot out front.

First night spent at Lake Guntersville State Park Lodge in Alabama. It's our usual stop, up near the top of the state and a beautiful property. The views of the lake are wonderful, the rooms great, and they have a buffet-style restaurant onsite.

We did a bit of a tour around the area before dark and stopped down at the lake for a leg-stretcher.

Large parking lot area with a nice long dock
to fish from plus a boat ramp.

Some nice overlook areas along the bluff.

 As usual, I was mesmerized by the lovely mimosa trees in bloom.

Sunset was a pretty affair, and as darkness fell the fireflies came out to play. 

Parting shots of a mural and a cornhole base depicting the AL state parks.

After crossing the Mississippi at Dyersburg, much preferred over Memphis!, we spent the night in Jackson, MO and headed out the next day to make our planned "end run" around the St. Louis/Kansas City area on Sunday morning. The destination for the evening was the Lied Lodge in Nebraska City, NE, another usual stop with restaurant onsite. Beautiful ambiance with stately wooden beams and old world charm.

After dinner, we finished up the last of the delicious blueberry cobbler with homemade whipped cream. It was a parting gift from our wonderful neighbors with whom we had shared a great meal and visit right before we left.

It's nice to have good friends that can cook!

The next bit of scenery is always one I enjoy seeing, the bread belt of the midwest spread out in front of us - vast agricultural plots, large farm equipment, silos and hay stacking up for the lean winter months. 

The next thing you know we are getting our first peek of the Rockies and seeing the end in sight. 

They're wa-ay back there.

Thanks for riding along out with us and we'll have a report of how things are here @Rocky soon.