Fort Collins: It's beautiful and has all of the great outdoorsy things that Boulder does but and less than half the cost. It has large employers, including Colorado State University. What we don't like is the location relative to other Colorado cities. Denver is too far away. Also, despite being a large city, it lacks the job opportunities that Boulder and Denver offer. Seems like it would be a better place to visit than to live; and that's too bad, because we really like it there!

The homestead.

Yes, that would be a fox, no more than 10 yards off the trail.

Moments later, one of them turned on us. We held our ground, stood tall and threw crap at it...figured if it works for mountain lions it should work on a stupid Canadian Goose. It did and it was yummy. If you fell for that...shame on you. But seriously, it did almost attack us.

The trail in Ft. Collins.

We went to Fort Collins yesterday to see if we might want to move there eventually, it's less than an hour from Wyoming. We wanted to go hiking in the Rocky Mountain National Park but the stupid tourist office was closed...on a Sunday! That must be because tourists only need hiking info M-F 9-5. Anyways...we found a 6.5 mile paved hiking trail that winds through through the city. During the winter cross country skiers use it. When there isn't snow, it's frequented by many dogs, bikers and joggers. We stepped a few feet off the trail to take this pic, Rockies in the background.

The other side of our hole.

Our...hole.

Comments...

Please, anyone, feel free to comment on our blog. We want to know if people are actually reading it. Also, let us know if you have any requests. We know that some people want pics of our pad...they're coming. I don't think comments were allowed earlier (unless you had an account), hopefully I changed that in the settings.

Totally unrelated: We (I-Greg) had to shovel snow to get the car out of the driveway this morning. In my haste to make it to my appointment, I failed to remember the importance of gloves when it is 20F. My fingers got swollen and hurt quite a bit for a few hours, nothing permanent. The car got a little sideways every time we went underneath a bridge (ice), Julie seemed to almost enjoy it. While at the Dr.'s office, I got Julie an interview for a front office position. She had an interview when she came back to pick me up, even though they had never even seen her resume. She will have a followup interview next week, our fingers are crossed. We have no idea what the pay is, the drive is pretty long, but the people are awesome.

Cccccoooolllldddd

It started snowing very early this morning (2-3am?) and we ended up with a total around 1 foot. There was a blizzard that decreased visibility to around 100ft and hundreds of miles of major highway/freeway were closed. People were stranded, big-rigs jack knifed, shelters were established and the national guard was mobilized (seriously). So what did we do tonight, to celebrate our first serious snow while living here? We got in the hot tub, of course! According to weather.com, it was 19F or 4F if you factored in the wind. We made the mistake of not shoveling snow around the tub before entering, this made getting in and out was slightly less than pleasant. However, while in the tub (set to 104f but couldn't keep up with the heat loss when the cover was removed, the temp was 102f by the time we got out) it was surprisingly comfortable. The beanies we had on (they were quickly covered with snow) kept us nice and warm until the breeze knocked snow off of the neighbors roof, stinging any exposed skin. Unfortunately, this happened fairly often. Hopefully we will remember to shovel next time...yes, there will probably be a next time. Also, the lighting was really strange. The falling snow and the clouds reflected so much light that it seemed like dusk even though the sun had set hours earlier. Thankfully we were not murdered, despite Julie's initial concerns. She mistook what sounded like a chainsaw running at 10pm to be the unmistakable sound of a serial killers weapon of choice...turns out it was just some lunatic on a motorcycle...screaming around the snow covered neighborhood.

Zoo?

If only you could hear the snoring.

Glad we don't need to go anywhere.

What we woke up to this morning (3/26)

Our first snow.

One of our local parks.

Our Landlord
In-Training (Taylor)

Our new Landlord
(Alex)

360 view of Boulder, the red roofs are Boulder University

No comment.

Hiking in Boulder

Flat Irons in Boulder

Our second snow/sleet seen in NM.

Ice on the windshield in Albuqu- erque, NM.

Julie driving the beast.

One last time...

We have too much stuff...

Our first stop in CO, on the way to Colorado Springs for the night.

We made it!

I thought I would be the last person in the US to be on facebook...I swore I would never blog...at least I still don't have an Ipod (yet).

We thought this would be the best way to keep everyone informed of our goings on in Colorado without using too many of our precious cell minutes.

The drive was interesting, to say the least. We had a Penske truck with a cargo area that was 26ft long, plus the cab, plus the trailer with my MINI on it. Driving about 1300 miles would have been more enjoyable if we weren't so concerned with keeping the wheels in the lane, staying under 55 mph or having enough power to make it up some of the steeper hills. We passed through several weigh stations on the way through Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado; we learned that we weighed about 10 tons-just a little more than the MINI. We climbed to over 7,ooo ft several times, encountered numerous wildlife, too much roadkill to remember, as well as thunder and sleet.

Since arriving in Longmont, the weather has been around 70 degrees and mostly sunny. Before my mom left, we went to Boulder (we went hiking and walking down Pearl Street in Boulder, eating and people watching, took a factory tour at Celestial Seasonings), drove through downtown Denver (saw the Capitol and Molly Brown's house), we also drove though several towns to give her a better feel for the State. It seems most people think that all of Colorado is ranch land and podunk nothingness. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of that, but there are lots of parks, beautiful homes, and shopping centers that make you think you are in OC. Apparently, the last few years there has been a mass migration from California and Texas to Colorado. The infestation has resulted in tremendous growth. Department stores and restaurants of OC can be found here too. Also, the abundance of land has been able to provide the housing necessary to supply the new residents without raising prices. Colorado is fond of its open space and they reserve plenty of it in the middle of suburbs in addition to the many parks.

We are still getting settled into our basement. It isn't too cavelike. We do have a window, full bath, and easy access to the crawl space for additional storage. At the moment, we have so much stuff down there that when we aren't sleeping we have to put it all on our bed so that we can walk around. Our computer is still in a box, so we haven't done an jobbing yet (no access to our resume's). At least we get to booze in the hot tub in the back yard after a long boring day of unpacking...we're glad it hasn't been too cold lately.

We'll try to update this as much as possible. Hopefully we'll have something newsworthy soon. The landscape is mostly dead right now; although, there are signs that Spring is near. Some grass is turning green, bulbs are sprouting, bushes and trees are budding. We will add pictures soon.

Toodles from CO.