Mushroom Hunting in Colorado!

We were supposed to be camping this weekend...........we're not!!  But more on that later............

Glenn decided this morning we were going to go mushroom hunting in the burn area from the Hayman fire which was 10 years ago!!  We had no idea if it was the right time here in Colorado, but it's certainly the right time in Iowa where we used to hunt them!

It's been years since we've tasted morel mushrooms!!  Glenn said he used to pick them by the bushel back in Iowa and sell them for $1.00 a pound!!  Want to know what they go for now???  $25.00 to $30.00 a pound!!

I can hardly remember how we even cooked them - I think we coated them in an egg/milk mixture (or maybe I'm thinking of french toast???  Maybe it's just egg.......) and then dip them in either corn meal or flour and fry them!!  They were delicious!!

So we set out this morning with 2 bags - Glenn was super optimistic - I was just kind of along for the ride!

We stopped in Florissant to grab coffee to go and then headed to the area where the fire was!!  It's still kind of strange to see all those standing burned trees, but actually there were more on the ground than standing!  It was pretty tough walking - lots of branches and downed trees and uneven ground!  We walked and we looked but found no mushrooms!

It was amazing though how many aspens were blooming (small ones) and  how much grass, flowers and plants were on the forest grounds.  Nice to know nature is replenishing itself!

After about 1 1/2 hours of traipsing through the area, my leg was telling me it was time to get back to the car and rest.  We ended up going to another area but I stayed in the car while Glenn looked a little bit - still no mushrooms - which means something else will have to be cooked for dinner!

Glenn and I both came to the conclusion that we might be too early, we might be too late, the elevation might be too high, the deer and the elk could have eaten all of them or maybe they just don't grow in the mountains.................whatever the reason, we sure didn't find any!

Now why didn't we get to camp?  Well, you remember a while back that the transmission went out of the truck - Glenn finally had time to get it out and take it to a person who was going to rebuild it!  (a referral from a friend!)  In the meantime, we had decided to go camping the weekend before Memorial Day Weekend to miss all the people who camp that weekend - a great idea if it would have worked!!

The transmission was delivered but an "o" ring had broke off on the way down so the guy had to run to Colorado Springs and get another one and put it on, so Glenn didn't get it put back in that night.

The next day it was put in - Glenn stayed late at work to finish up and then took the truck for a test drive - but he only made it out on the road and to the stop sign before the truck stopped and wouldn't budge - he called a friend to tow it back to the office...........

After calling the guy, Glenn did a couple of diagnostic tests on the truck and figured out no fluid was running through which meant it was the transfer case on the transmission - so guess what - Glenn had to pull the transmission back out of the truck!  The guy is supposed to come down tomorrow (Monday) to fix it and then Glenn will once again have to put it back in - a time consuming task!!

So now our camping trip has been bumped to this next weekend, Memorial Day Weekend - but I'm not holding my breath or anything...................