Garden Mystery

Anyone have a guess at what this mysterious fruit is?  When it first sprouted near my compost, and began to climb the chicken wire that protected my zucchini plants from Helen and Mrs. Hall, I was pleased to welcome what I thought was a cucumber plant.  But, as the vine matured a single roundish and striped fruit began to grow, and I questioned my leaf identification skills.  Could this be a volunteer watermelon instead of a cucumber?  

As Jamie and I were loafing in the garden after work yesterday, I noticed that the vine was mostly dead, and the fruit, which was now even larger and rounder than before, wasn't going to get any larger, so it was time to figure out what kind of fruit it was.  Jamie noticed that it was slightly hairy on the outside, which made us think it was a cucumber, but it looked just like a baby watermelon, or maybe a hybrid squash.  It must be a watermelon. 

Then he cut it open and instead of the pink watermelon we expected it was orange.  Aha!  A cantaloupe.  Of course.  Strange looking cantaloupe though.  Hmm...

This is the expression Jamie made when he took a big bite of what he though was a rather odd looking cantaloupe.  Oops, not cantaloupe!

After a few bites, we agreed that it was a very bland cucumber.  Probably a cucumber that should have been picked much earlier.  No more will I doubt my cucumber leaf identification, which was my first identification.  But why was the cucumber round, striped like a watermelon, and orange on the inside like a cantaloupe?  It's a garden mystery.