Day Six: Fort Collins, CO
Today was a rest day. One day without long haul driving where we allowed ourselves to take a break for a second. That worked out sort of well, but I’ve been kind of stressed out because a job that I was made to believe I was a top contender for has stopped returning my emails. After three interviews, they had said they would let me know by last Friday whether or not I got the job. It’s been crickets from them ever since, despite my outreach. Oh well, I guess it wasn’t meant to be. Even though I was bummed about this job and my current unemployment status, that didn’t stop us from going on a super cool hike this morning.
We did a short hike at a popular local spot, Horsetooth Reservoir. We started the hike around 8 AM, and let me tell you what, it was downright chilly outside. This may sounds crazy, but there is no humidity out here…it’s insane. It was in the 50s this morning when we woke up. It was in the mid 60s by the time we started hiking, but with a breeze, it was chilly. Back at home, you leave your house at 7 AM and it’s already 70 degrees with 95% humidity and no matter what you do you instantly start sweating. Not here y’all. It’s wild. It’s windy. It’s not humid somehow??? The altitude change was definitely noticeable, as we got winded much more easily and felt more sluggish than usual. The sun also felt more oppressive. Obviously anywhere you go being in the sun is going to feel hotter than in the shade, but the sun felt hotter here. We’re not sure if that was all in our head’s or if the altitude actually makes the sun feel hotter or not, but either way that is our official weather report for Fort Collins today.
Also, the deer here are different? They look more like something you’d see at the zoo rather than the nice, white tailed deer back at home. We also saw a snake. If anyone remembers the little song you’re supposed to use to figure out whether or not a snake is poisonous, please leave it it the comments.
After hiking this morning we got some lunch at this restaurant called Next Door. Ian got a Peruvian chicken bowl (which was delicious) and I got a Thai shrimp bowl (also delicious). I also almost forgot to mention the pimento cheese hush puppies. Yes, we got those too. After lunch, we walked around downtown and stopped in a few shops so Ian could hunt for stickers. We then had room for dessert. Get ready for this… cookie ice cream sandwiches from a place called Mary’s Mountain Cookies. We should have taken photos of the food we ate today, but hindsight is 20/20 (sorry, y’all, you’ll just have to use your imaginations). The ice cream was delicious. The cookies were delicious (we bought extras for the road). Everything was messy. This was like the race against the clock of eating a melting ice cream cone but not as well contained because it’s between two open cookie halves. Did Ian make fun of me for being messy? Yes. But did I spill anything on my shirt? No :)
We walked around a bit more, making sure to go past the one restaurant I had eaten at back in 2015 on a service trip through HCC. We made a quick stop for a flight at another local brewery called Odell Brewing Company, which had a nice outdoor seating area and pretty decent beer. After that, we picked up some sandwiched to go from a shop that we had thought about getting lunch from earlier then headed back to the Air B&B because we were exhausted. Moving across the country is tiring, you guys.
We had an easy night at the Air B&B, where I caught up on this blog and Ian watched many videos overanalyzing the new Spiderman movie trailer. Baring any unforeseen circumstances, tomorrow we will officially arrive in Salt Lake City!
