Colorado, Day 2.

7/17/19:

(Above: ME in Colorado Springs, CO.)

Vacation Status: I’m probably tending to quite a number of interesting activities while on vacation, so grammar may be substituted for content. Will still aspire to keep it all understandable.

Summary: Today I started off by sleeping in about 45 minutes. I would have slept in a tad more, but body did not wish to, and the sun was actually shining through the blinds of my bedroom. I got up, did some brief callisthenic exercises, showered, and waited for the hostess of my AirBnB to wake up, so I could meet her and ask her a few questions about the area.

The ensuing walk took me down the nearby Cottonwood Creek Trail and then along some very neatly manicured roads. I then stopped by the house on they way back by toward the Sprouts Farmers Market*. This was followed by my picking up a Diet Coke at the gas station just beside where I’m staying (first Diet Coke this journey… 70 cents for a big ole refreshing cup) and my commencing to drink that beverage as I walked.

I ended up overshot Sprouts by a quarter mile due to poor reception on my phone, but this ended up bringing me over a bridge where, in the distance, I could see the word ‘Sushi’. Rong Cheng was the restaurant’s name, and as soon as I saw the reviews that it was a small place (too small for some), I decided to go and see if I could beat the lunch crowd. I did (more in commentary).

Next, I went to Sprouts, collected a bit of groceries – flour, yeast, a little bit of cornmeal**, parmesan reggiano, provolone, good looking pizza sauce, a head of romaine lettuce, an onion, two beefsteak tomatoes, a stick of butter, a bottle of good olive oil, and a little bit of sugar**.

Returned to apartment after that, refreshed self with shower, had some relaxing bread-making time (still ongoing), and am presently working on container log (still container log, because this is a vacation from working on it!).

Commentary: The nature walk I took at the beginning of this morning was a bit toasty, but I accounted for that with a hat, a thermos full of water, and the promise of a big ole Diet Coke in the near future. But this first portion of commentary isn’t about that. It is about the wildlife I found on my walk. The environment was arid, but there was still plenty of diversity (as shown via the wildflowers below).

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More interesting, though, were the anomalies and the inclusion of flora that I’ve seen near Jacobhouse back in Florida. Anomalies included the presence of ant swarms. I don’t know what they were doing, but sometimes I found ‘balls’ of ants just sitting on the ground. Why? I cannot say. And there were also other ants that seemed like Florida fire ants but were about ten times the size (they had to be, because instead of shifting sand to form anthills, these ones had to lift rock fragments which I suppose were also ten times the size of sand particles). It should also be noted that my brother was right. There are a plentitude of rabbits in this area. I saw two on my walk.  As for the similarities to Floridian life, I will reference plants. There were stands of lambsquarter, thistles very resemblant to winter’s poppy, standard cattails, and most surprisingly, a strong presence of hackberry trees.

The second portion of my commentary will be dedicated to Rong Cheng – the Chinese/Japanese restaurant I just happened to stop by because I saw it from the distance after having taken a ‘wrong’ turn (not so wrong, now that I think about it). On entering, I was greeted by a kindly chinese woman who proceeded to beckon me to sit right at the sushi bar.

I looked at the menu she handed me for a few minutes, biding my time (because I can), and then finally decided that everything looked too equally delectable. So, I commenced to ask the lady what her favorite salad was. She said the seaweed or the Kani; I chose the second because I had no idea what it was. This was followed by her asking what I wanted for a main course, and I told her I wanted the chef’s choice of 3-basic rolls. She seemed pleased by both of these answers and commenced to gather the order together.

Soon, I was eating a delicious salad of shredded crab, salmon roe, and scallions (dressed in a tangy white mayonaise-esque-but-better sauce). It was very cold and quite refreshing after my lengthy walk. The sushi that followed, however, was even better. Interestingly enough, the Chef chose two of my favorite rolls without even knowing they were my favorite: the yellow-tail/scallion roll and the spicy salmon roll. The third roll was a spicy tuna roll that complimented both ‘chopped fish’ textures with a ‘ground fish’ texture. Out of all of them, the yellow-tail/scallion roll was my absolute favorite – a fact appreciated by the sushi chef who made that roll because it was his favorite.

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All in all, I’m enjoying this second day in Colorado about ∞% more than the first, and I’ve yet to still make some Master Blend burgers at his place with the home made bread that is about to come out of the oven… right… now.

Final Note: More ‘nothing’ tomorrow. It’s interesting how nothing is filled with so much activity, and yet, that activity is all the more rewarding because I don’t feel like I have to do it.

*Not to be confused with Harbison Farmer’s Market; Sprouts is a store based around whole/nongmo foods versus Harbison’s which is simply good fresh produce. Not to say Sprouts did not have what I needed. It did, but it was slightly more expensive than necessary.

**An actual little bit. One of the nice things about Sprouts is they have a bulk section where you can get as much or as little of something as you want. I.e. I did not need a whole 3 lb. bag of sugar, so I instead got a quarter pound.