GRAND JUNCTION

THURSDAY, 2nd JUNE.

Feeling pretty chilled out this morning after breakfast, we decided to spend another day in Grand Junction and visit Cross Orchards Historic Farm, an outdoor division of the Museum of Western Colorado which tells the story of how one family helped transform the arid lands of the Grand Valley into one of the most productive fruit orchards in Colorado.  A walk through the farm gives a first hand look at an earlier era of history, where the cook prepared meals on the wood burning stove in the bunkhouse and farm workers used hand tools for woodworking and blacksmithing.  Although the farm narrowly escaped demolition a few years ago and is now reduced to about 4 acres, there is still quite a lot of interesting machinery and farm implements on display and we spent some time wandering around, chatting to Anamae, a volunteer guide.  As we were making our way back to the car, we noticed through the window of a large building a model railway, so tried the door which opened, to the surprise of Garry, a semi retired model railway enthusiast, who, once he'd ascertained that we were friendly, very graciously showed us the railway which he and his fellow enthusiasts are in the process of building.  What a highlight!

We went on to nearby Palisades then, home to wineries and orchards and found a lovely green and shady park where we ate our lunch before returning to Grand Junction.  Our motel is quite near the regional airport and we'd noticed a couple of planes exhibited at the entrance, so wandered over for a closer look to find that they are part of the Aviators Memorial Park.  The airport also boasts lovely lawns and gardens at the entrance as well as in the car park...very impressive and probably the most attractive airport we've seen, albeit a small one.

This is Mike's new car!!