Fort Collins, CO area

From the Grand Tetons we traveled down and over through Wyoming to Fort Collins, CO. This was a long 8 hour drive through some desolate and ugly high desert. I mean there is nothing there, no water to speak of, no trees, no interesting colored rock formations, interesting towns … nothing. If you ever get a chance to drive through eastern and southern Wyoming, pass.

Once we got to Fort Collins though everything changed. This is a really nice mid sized town. The population is about 120k. It has many miles of dedicated bike paths along rivers, old train right of ways, etc. and quite a few parks. It has a major college, University of Colorado, which means it also has a good selection of restaurants, theatre’s, music, etc. It is also right up next to the Front range, foothills of the Rocky Mountains, so a reservoir for fishing and waterskiing is 15 minutes from the town center. Rocky Mountain National Park is about 1 hour away and Steamboat about 2 hours. To top it all off while it does have four seasons, over 70% of the time (more than the bay area) it is sunny. This is because it lies in the rain shadow of the Rockies. One day while we were there it snowed, and just like they said, the next day it was sunny and the snow melted away.

This is Tracy’s favorite place so far and while I didn’t like it any better than Anacortes or Coeur D’Alene, I liked it very much. There is even a little high tech here: HP and LSI logic have facilities nearby. This is looking a lot like our favorite place to settle down. I even applied for a Sales Finance position at HP, but didn’t get a call.

In total we spent a full week in the Fort Collins area. A great agent spent a couple days showing us around and looking at real estate. We went up to Rocky Mountain National Park one day. We biked along the Poudre River one day. (If you automatically pronounce it French you are a dude. Its Poodr, as in, “Howdy Poodr, whatcha doin? Ya ever get that persnickitde horse of yourn to settle down?”). We also went to the movies, dinner, worked out at a local Gym, took care of some shopping and other chores and other general city type stuff.

By the time we left, I felt I had gotten a pretty good feel for Fort Collins and I liked it. I tell you, I was really hoping I would get that call from HP.