Fort Collins

Ahh... Fort Collins.

I feel as though I should write a few paragraphs about this quaint little college town and describe the events and shows as Fort Collins celebrates it's birth... Then I could send it in to NPR and maybe I would hang out with Ira Glass.

I'm feeling a bit banged up from last night's activities, so I won't put you or me through that.

The reason I stopped here in FC is that Nathan Haynes, who was in Peace Corps Mali at the same time I was, uses this town as a home base of sorts. Both he and his fiance, Katie, have places they keep near to their work and school (respectively) and then meet in the middle when they have time off. Nate heads up to Grand Lake as he is working for the Forrest Service and Katie heads to some other town as she is finishing up her graduate work.

In addition to me taking up space in their house, Nate's friends from growing up, Camile and Brian were in town after spending a week at a Dude Ranch. We were a full house... so we spent the day yesterday out and and about. We decided to go tubing down the river and then grill by the water. We came up with a list of things we needed to get for the day (tubes, beverages, food, charcoal, etc.) and then split up into two groups. Katie and Camille headed to the local farmers market and Nate, Brian and I headed out for tubes, charcoal and beer. We definitely got all the items we were responsible for, but we got a bit sidetracked at Odells Brewery. They have a tasting menu, and we didn't want to waste the opportunity to sample the fine brews. THEN it seemed like a natural progession to head over to the New Belgium Brewery and see how that beer stacked up against Odells. Flash forward to the end of our Brewery tours, Katie and Camille were definitely ready to go when we finally got back to the house. Whoops.

Tubing was great fun... As if on cue, we got in the water and it started raining. As the wind picked up and the thunder crackled over the mountains, we considered turning back, but out of sheer laziness and comfort, we pressed on. We shivered our way through the first half until the sun finally broke out of the clouds and warmed us up. If anyone's time was as fun, it was Brian. He got stuck with the "slow tube" and spent the majority of the time on his own. I'm not sure if it was because of the cold or if we were hungry, but we never stopped long enough to let him catch up. Apologies Brian. Once we drifted down to the little park, we grilled up some chicken and ribs and enjoyed ourselves. There were two little dogs that can best be described as rats that entertained us for a while, then we headed back into town.

In the evening we rocked out at a local bar named the Trailhead. We saw every type of individual Fort Collins has to offer... Agro-hippies, party girls and some guy named Bigfoot. It was a good time. Brian had an unfortunate run-in with a guy in the restroom who chose not to aim properly... but he survived. We almost went to a Bruce Hornsby concert, but it was rained out... so close.

This morning, we all headed in our own directions: Nate to Nebraska, Brian and Camille to Kansas City, Katie is going to hang out in FC for a bit, and I'm headed back down to Denver today to see Chris Davis and Missy Fiebelkorn.