Homewood Suites Fort Collins

... nicely after the AC was on for a little. The hotel was the built for the archaeologists excavating the ancient Mayan city Chichen so it is very near to the site and tastefully littered with artifacts. We couldn't see anything when we first got to the hotel because the sun had set.

So, the next morning I was up early checking out the surroundings, and OH MY GOD, I have never stayed at a more beautful place. After breakfast, we ...

We had first visited Rocky Moutain National Park in September of 2008. We were so taken with the parks beauty that when we found ourselves unexpectedly 'in the neighborhood' again we had to make a return visit. We've been waiting for a day with the promise of some sunshine at the higher elevations and took a chance that ...

... drive day for us, we pulled into St Vrain State Park. The anticipated cold front arrived here on Thursday and it got down right chilly on Friday night. The highs have been in the 20's and we got about 3 inches of snow. The good news is that it is much colder in South Dakota and Nebraska so we made the right choice to come to Colorado ...

... to get out of the cab and in to my nice, airconditioned hotel room. Oops.. they couldnt actually turn on the air until my official check in time of 11:00, but they felt sorry for me and let me go lay down. A couple hours of sleep, some Pepto, and I'm good as new, and I venture out to Pratunam market. Now, this area is not for amateur shoppers...this is as hard core, pushing, shoving, bargaining as it gets. Pratunam Wholesale ...

... that most of the pine that we were looking at would be gone in the next few years due to the Mountain Beetle. The Aspen would then take the place of the pines. It would be many years later that you would see pine begin to grow here once again. Part of the reason why the beetles have become such a problem is because they have prevented forest fires too extensively. Forest fires are very healthy for ensuring the diversity of parks. The 1989 fires in ...

So after the difficulty of the previous day, we decided that we needed some recovery time. And what better way to do that than by visiting some micro-breweries. We took tours of 2 in Fort Collins. One was called O'Dell's and the other was New Belgium. O'Dell's was the first one we went to and I'm glad it was the first because it was a lot smaller than New Belgium. The tour was ...

Yes, we finally made it. We planed on doing a lot of hard-core driving. So, Ram was always happy to finally reach our destination.

The funniest thing happened though.... We ended up getting a room for the night only because the great Rocky Mountain National Park was closed for construction!?!?!?!?! huh?!?!?!?! ha ha ha....

... conversations in the past ten years had left off. "Now that you're here (Colorado) you can stay and find yourself a nice girl and get married." "I COULD do that. I doubt I will though." "I don't think you're ever going to get married." "You may be right." "Oh honestly! What about my great-grand babies?" "I don't even have a job yet. Even if that's what I wanted, who's going to have children with a homeless and unemployed 30 year old?" "You're hopeless that's for sure ...

... or Anglo features. There is no intellectual resistance or critical debate in the face of western concepts. I cannot help but wonder what my responsibility in the face of this realization is. What do I say the next time I travel when a young person asks me about my personal beliefs regarding religion, women's rights, abortion (arranged marriages and the dowry system) or social justice and equal protection under the law. Do I preach my personal ...

... Monarch 1" 3/24/07 Snowed really hard all the way from Morrison up through Summit County after lot of rain on the front Range last night and today. Floyd Hill had 4-6" of pretty heavy snow and a pretty decent traffic jam. Weather cleared up a bit on the way to Salida and looks like tomorrow could be a pretty nice day with some fresh at Monarch.