A Trip to Fort Collins

 After church on Sunday Mr. Keith expressed a desire to go to Fort Collins, Colorado, a 45 mile drive from Cheyenne by the freeway. Of course, we never take a direct route on our sight-seeing trips, (how boring!) so to avoid the freeway, I-25, we took Hwy 85 and also got a quick look at Greeley and Loveland, both attractive towns, as well as driving through a few tiny farming communities. We saw lots of crops in fields, and we were happy to see that they all looked healthy. No drought here! We finally made it to Fort Collins, a beautiful university and tourist city. Both times we've been there the town was packed with cars and people on the streets. Finding a parking place is a challenge! We did, though, and on our walk to our chosen restaurant we saw this startling piano sitting in a courtyard. I was tempted to give it a try, but there were too many people around. Pretty, isn't it?

 I couldn't get a really good photo of the main street itself. The sidewalks are lined with huge flower pots and many benches and flower beds, not to mention crowds of people. These big pots in the photo are actually in the middle of the street, between the two lanes on each side. Fort Collins reminds me a little of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, only much bigger. At the beginning of our trip I posted on Facebook that we were going to Fort Collins for lunch. Our former employer at the Strasburg KOA responded that her favorite restaurant was the HoHut Mongolian BBQ right on the main street, so we decided to find it and go there. Yum, yum, was it ever good! Thanks, Tracy!

 There were street musicians here and there on the main drag, but these were the ones we decided to sit down to listen to. They were so good! In this photo they are playing some jazz. The saxophonist reminded me of my son playing the sax in the jazz band in school.

 The saxophonist, for the next number, changed to a clarinet, and they played an Irish Jig. Wow! I was impressed. It also reminded me of my days of playing the clarinet, though I couldn't hold a candle to this fellow! He must practice all the time.

On the way home we still avoided I-25 by going north of Fort Collins on back roads (there were lots of ritzy ditzy houses out there!) till we found a place to cross over the freeway and back over to Hwy 85. This shot is about halfway between Greeley and Cheyenne. I was intrigued by the old bridge out there without a road on either side. There are actually two bridges there. (Click to enlarge.) The sandstone bluff adds even more interest to the view. We were thinking it must have been the old road from many years ago. We made a decision to go back to Fort Collins soon, straight there on the freeway, and then spend several hours exploring just the town. It will be worth it! Maybe we'll even eat at the HoHut Mongolian BBQ again!