Day 46, July 3rd 2008, beginning and ending in Fort Collins, Colorado

When we got up in the morning, Lori offered to make us some breakfast. She prepared us her Southwestern Special. I know I talk about food a lot, but damn was this good, and it wasn't the stomachs talking since we hadn't biked that much the day prior. The dish was a heavenly medley of scrambled eggs, onions, peppers, cilantro (fresh from her garden), black beans, potatoes, and maybe some garlic if I remember correctly… a hell of a way to start the day.

I forgot to mention in yesterday's blog that Lori and Sarah collectively had 4 dogs at the house. Two of them with theirs… Pumba (Chow wolf mix), and Cody (Yorky), they were dog sitting Mimi (Pug), and Matt's dog Thai Pan (Border Collie). They also had three cats, Sox, the most social, dog-like cat, and two others whose names escape me. Everyone coexisted in a big happy family.

As we planned, we went for a hike with two of Sarah's and Lori's friends from work, Sue and Ahsley which we met at Sue's house. They each brought their own dogs, Jackson (big boy… not sure of the breed) and Candy (Greyhound) respectfully. Mimi was deemed not fit enough for the event, so she stayed home.

When we left for the Poudre Canyon, the weather looked miserable. It was a good 25 minute ride up to the hiking spot, and just as we stepped out of the car, it cleared up and was another beautiful day from there on in. The hike was a fairly tame one, and enjoyable. The dogs expended the most energy and had the most fun. They hit every little creek and stream possible, and I had to actually rescue Cody at one point. It was pretty humorous.

Once we were done, decided by how exhausted the dogs were, we headed back to Fort fun to get some food downtown. We ate at a place called Coppersmith's. I played the role of garbage disposal, as I have assumed many times on and before the trip. I hate wasting stuff, and love food so it works out. My food, and those whose I finished was a nice treat after the hike.

Fort Collins is well known for their micro breweries, and after our late lunch we started our brewery tour at the most acclaimed in the area, New Belgium. We met a few people there, and ended up staying until 6:00, when all of the other places stopped serving, so our tour would end at one. Turns out I like fruity, girly beers, who knew. It was a good time and it looks like we'll have to make it back to Fort Collins to finish up (Meghan).

From the brewery we headed back to Sue's to pick up the pooches who were waiting so patiently to go home. When we returned back to Sarah's place she had called a few friends and decided we'd go to trivia night at a bar. We headed to trivia night via bicycle in case anyone was a bit tipsy at the end of the night, better to be on bicycle than behind the wheel. Fort Collins, much like Boulder basically begs you to ride your bike. There are tons of bike paths, even ones that go underground under streets and stuff. It is really pretty cool, and may only require gas to go to $8.00/gallon before other towns begin adopting the idea.

Trivia night was a blasty, but my pride was hurting a bit because I did not contribute one answer that no one else knew. Apparently burning bags of poop and the human response (you won't get it parents) is not a popular trivia topic in Colorado. Go figure. When it was all over, we came in second, and the team was rewarded a $25 certificate, which would be used next week, when we were 400 miles away. Bummer, but yeah team.

A.J., the guy posing the trivia questions announced to the bar that he was having a 4^th of July party the following day. Afterwards, he came and sat with us and was intrigued by the tour and insisted we show up. We didn't have much planned, so we figured we would.

We then headed to a bar called Lucky Joe's. It is one of those bars that has peanuts in barrels and you can throw them on the floor when you're done (or in people's drinks if you are sly enough). Sarah had two friends there who are twins and comprise a two man band, who were celebrating their birthday by playing at LJ's as I like to call it. That sentence was way too long. By the time we got there, they were playing a bunch of cover songs, which are always hits towards the end of the night at a bar. They also had a guest performance from Slash from Guns ‘n Roses which was nice.

We left when the bar closed, as we had no other option. We safely headed back on the bike paths, although some more crooked than others (ehhemmm… Sarah). When we got back, everyone seemed to quickly fall asleep again. It must be something in the air. I tried to write a blog, but was so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open.

Oh well, the next day (although really that day) was the 4^th of July. Hooray fireworks!

Life was good.