Cold and Rainy

Colorado has been great.  Friday we journeyed to Boulder and Estes Park on our day off.  In Boulder, we went to Pearl Street Mall which I thought was fabulous.  If only our legs weren't so tired, we could have walked around more than just a couple hours.  After our exploration of Boulder, we journeyed up to Estes Park.  Can you say wow?  The drive up there was beautiful and the little mountain town was awesome.  It was better than Boulder in many ways.  We got to Estes Park later than we should have, so we ended up having to leave earlier than we would have liked.  All in all, it was a very enjoyable day off the bike.

The Bean Cyclery, Fort Collins, CO

Saturday we did a group ride with a local Cat 2 and 3 men's team here.  They did a quick loop over Rist Canyon and back around to Horsetooth Reservoir.  Shannon and I dropped back before Rist Canyon so as to keep to our "easy 3 hour" training ride.  The guys were nice and we're looking forward to riding with them this weekend.  My parents, Shannon, Peter, and I went into downtown Fort Collins late in the afternoon and walked around.  For dinner, we went to Boujo's Pizza which was Coloradoan Pizza.  What exactly is Coloradoan pizza?  Well, it has crust approximately 8x as thick as the pizza itself and you are supposed to eat the crust the honey.  It was pretty good and doughy.  

Garden of the Gods

Sunday after church, Peter, Shannon, and I went out to ride with my dad.  My dad was going to do intervals with Shannon and I.  The sky looked like a bit of rain, which really wouldn't be a big deal since it had rained on us every day anyways.  The rain turned into hail.  Instead of the usual 5-10 minute hail storm, this one lasted over an hour.  After about twenty minutes, we pulled over and my mom came to get us.  The roads were covered with an inch of hail, just like it would with snow.  It took quite awhile to warm back up after being drenched with rain and the icy substance.  We were good though and all three of us finished our rides on the trainers later ;-)

Shannon hates snakes- even when stuffed.

After my dad figured out why my speed on my SRM wouldn't work (one of the prongs on the headunit was broken), Shannon and I took a day trip to Colorado Springs to the SRM Service Center to get it fixed.  They were very nice there and offered to finish it by the next day.  Since we were already down there, we rode around the area to Garden of the Gods and a surrounding mountain town.  We had dropped poor Peter off west of Denver so that he could journey the 110-miles back through Estes Park and back to Fort Collins, but unfortunately, his directions weren't quite right and he ended up not being able to find the road he needed to continue his journey.  We ended up going and picking him up after he did a 7-mile climb over and over again for 5-hours.   

Yesterday Shannon and I went on a nice ride up to Horsetooth Reservoir and the towns around there.  It was hard to go as easy as our legs needed.  I broke my chain going up the last climb before home so I walked to the top, descended the climb into town and Shannon pushed me a good ways until I got to a parking lot to wait for my dad to come pick me up.  Hehe.  Once we got back, Peter, Shannon, and I hurried downtown to New Belgium Brewery in hopes of catching the last tour, but we were too late and there was no room left.  We  went with Brenna to Bean Cycle which was a neat coffee shop, juice bar, and volunteer-run bookshop.  No one else liked my orange-apple-carrot-ginger juice :-(  

Despite the cold and the rain (both good preparations for Europe), Fort Collins has been great.  It's nice getting to spend time with my family, and I'm looking forward to these last four days when they won't be at work!  Today, we have a busy day- trying the brewery tour once again, getting my hair cut, and venturing to Wednesday Night Worlds.  More later!  

Estes Park

Miss Shannon taking photos