Fort Collins, CO

 Days 14, 15, 16: June 6-8; Fort Collins, CO

We visit with friends, eat well, and tour; Boyd Lake SP, Loveland

Sunday, June 6

You know when you are careful to try to do everything the best way you can? And bad stuff still happens?

Arriving at our destination close to the intended time, thanks to gaining an hour when we went to Mountain Time, we were feted at the Mason-Heiliger manse. We now can say that we survived our first blowout on the freeway and, personally, if we never have another, that would be ok.

We’d never seen April (friend since 1973 on 3rd floor Ketchum at Mount Union) and Frank’s (April’s husband) home in Fort Collins since they moved there. It was lovely, filled with art and items lovingly collected over a lifetime. April and Frank are great hosts and were nice enough to include my buddy Paula Montgomery, a friend for a couple of decades (and then some), who I got to know through her company that manufactured rubber stamps...and we took it from there. (Thank goodness for Facebook!) We enjoyed a picnic dinner together, and enjoyed re-connecting. Thank you, Paula and April and Frank!

Monday, June 7

April was nice enough to chauffeur me around Fort Collins to, where else?, yarn shops and a bead store. I now plan on stitching together a half tila bracelet...and got a big ball of Noro yarn that will show up in my Lizard Ridge (knitted) blanket...unless it becomes a knitted sweater jacket—stay tuned!  Got to meet up with Paula again and she graciously showed us around her beautiful home—it’s perfectly “her”! We had the most delicious short ribs in balsamic sauce at the Mason Heiliger home...oh..they just melted in your mouth. SO GOOD.

It’s not every day you see chickens at a yarn shop. This one welcomes one to My Sister Knits.

The knitters reading this will recognize this yarn as Malabrigo. This was taken at The Loopy Ewe—I’ve been their customer for a LONG time (since they were in Kansas City!) and when I told them I was on a pilgrimage to see their physical space, and that my dog Fleur was one of their Loopy Pet winners to have a custom color way named after her, the owner knew right away who Fleur was! Talk about a small world! I felt so special!

My allium in Leroy were just about to bloom when we left town. It was so good to see these in full bloom—I missed mine but aren’t these gorgeous?! This was taken at My Sister Knits.

Tuesday, June 8

After a day of eating and exploring yarn shops, we ate some more and got the “Red Cadillac Private Tour” of the foothills in the area, ending up at the historic Mishawaka for lunch. Right on the Poudre River (pronounced “Pooder”). Still lots of stark mountain ridges in 2021 covered with burned-out trees from 2013 and 2014 fires. Sobering to realize, even as the hillsides are relatively green from the spring rains, that fire could RAGE in these canyons and spread like...well, wildfire.

The thing that really impressed me was April and Frank telling us, after driving for a half hour through the mountains, stories about “that one time when we were biking this route”....PEOPLE! These were steep (STEEP) mountain roads, some with limited berms, and these folks are in their 60s and 70s. April texted me on Wednesday, as we were on the road (when I had that one precious bar of signal) that she and Frank just did a 35 mile loop. Gadzooks. I’m in awe of their cycling prowess. Really. 

We won’t win any selfie competitions! L-R: Frank, April, Dan, Jean

Nature patterns: still love lichen colors!

💜

April MASON owns this town!

We ended the day with a beautiful sunset behind the Rocky Mountains with April and Frank sharing our Blackstone griddle stirfry with Korean BBQ sauce over plain white rice out of the InstantPot. With leftovers too!

April, Frank, Dan, the sunset and our neighbor’s camper

I’m willing to bet that this never gets old! The Rockies are spectacular. Good night.

These days were a WONDERFUL break from our usual travel itinerary! We leave in the morning for Spearfish, SD and a trip to Devil’s Tower and, the next day, to Wall Drug....on my personal travel bucket list!