We have had a full day. This morning we had a college visit at CU, the University of Colorado at Boulder. Wow, what a beautiful campus. Its not like the beautiful campuses we have back home in Oxford, Baton Rouge, etc. This has the back drop of the Rocky Monutains. Boulder has about 100k people and probaly 75-80% are somehow assoicated with the school. The enrollment is about 25k undergraduate and 5k graduate. The student that led our group is a rising junior from Delaware. He knew more about the skiing and rock climbing than about the school sports. He said, isnt Colorado in the Big 12? Nice guy though and he did a good job.
Boulder is also a cross between California, a small college town and a mountain ski village. Lots of high end stores and shops and eateries, plus all the low cost college type places. We found a hole in the wall sandwich shop called Snarf's that was really good. They did have a sign on the wall that said "Voted best sandwich" but you never know for sure who is doing the voting. But it was good.
We pulled out of Boulder after lunch and made the short drive (45-50 miles) north to Ft. Collins, the home of Colorado State University. Ft. Collins is much more spread out. Greely is just to the east but the town runs north and south a good bit on Hwy 287. They have everything found in most larger towns. Car place, stores, shops, Applebees, Chilis, Canes, etc., etc. Tonight we found a wonderful part of town north of the campus along 287. the Old Town is all shops, restaurants, breweries, galleries, salons, etc. Everyone is walking or biking around. They have more bicycles out here than anywhere I have ever been.
This afternoon, Crockett and I rode west up to the Horsetooth Reservoir. (See the gallery.) Folks were out tubing and kayaking, backpacking and rock climbing. This place has so, so much to do. And, absolutely beautiful. We continued southwest for a while and then found a rode west of the Devils's Backbone that took us down to Loveland (Hwy 34). We made our way back to 287 and north to dinner.
Tomorrow morning, Crockett visits CSU. Afterwards, we will go back down to Loveland and into the Rocky Mountian National Park to camp a night.
If you havent been west since my postings last year, you need to get up off the couch and jump in your car (or take a plane) and get on out here. The highs are around 83 (not the 99 you are in!) and no humidity.
I hope to have news tomorrow but if I have a weak signal in the mountains, I will try and post Wednesday when we get to Moab.
