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!

Bittersweet Good-byes!

 I say 'Bittersweet' because even though we are very excited about starting work and seeing new places in Cheyenne, we are so sad to be leaving our wonderful friends in Strasburg. Noel, who makes yummy pizzas at the KOA, wanted to take us to dinner. Her choice was Mt. Fuji, a Japanese hibachi restaurant in Aurora. Do you think she ate all that rice? No, she took most of it home! Noel is dear to our hearts and we will miss her. We held back tears, (mostly unsuccessfully) when we hugged and said good-bye to Toni, Leah and Tom, Lucky, Audrey, Jennah, Jean and Karen, Kathleen and Mary. So many unforgettable people!

 More amazing friends, Tracie and Geoff with Keith. Tracie made us, as a parting gift,  a lovely bed cover, red and black, with ladybugs, a favorite collectible of mine. Tracie is a school bus driver and works part-time at the KOA. Geoff is an electrician. What a great couple. Wish we could take them with us!

 No one ever worked for better folks than Jeff and Tracy! Yes, they have the same names as the couple in the above photo, just spelled differently. Here they are with their daughter. We love them, and will highly recommend the Denver East/Strasburg KOA to anyone, to camp or to work. Five stars to Jeff and Tracy!

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 We're pulling out of the campground, just going across the street to a truck and auto repair shop to have our tires checked. I always pray before we set out, that God will be with all 16 of our wheels, 6 on the trailer, 6 on BigTruk, and 4 on the Focus. Oh, yes, the two wheels we have our hands on, too!

Our prayer was literally answered immediately! When the man at Hank's checked the truck he discovered that an inner dually was flat! The valve stem needed replacing. We wouldn't have known that or been able to fix it had we tried to put air in the tires ourselves. All the tires were low after sitting for 8 months. He did a great job fixing the problem and in the process he bragged on BigTruk and said we'd better never move up to a newer truck because we had the very best already. Good to know!

 We took back roads north, thanks to Tracie who had drawn us a map with all the turns and road names. We were able to completely avoid the freeways till we got to I-80 at Cheyenne. I liked the look of the sky here. I think it's near Greeley Colorado. Rain's a-brewing!

We were greeted with "Welcome Home" by our new employers at the Cheyenne KOA. They made us feel very happy to be there. Here we had another answered prayer. The weather had been good till just outside Cheyenne, then it began to pour what looked like sleet. That lasted for about 4 miles. I said, "Please let it stop so we can get set up without getting soaked," About 1/2 mile from the KOA the skies closed up and we did indeed have great weather for getting completely set up in our new spot (for the next 6 months), Space 11. We are on the outer edge of the park, with the tallest tree, and our front door opens to an empty prairie field where we will be able to have a clear view of the sunrises every day. What could be better? We will be taking lots of trips to the local and not so local attractions, giving me fodder for blogging!