Fort Collins or Bust!

We made it to Fort Collins, CO! After many hiccups in the road, we're finally at the next location on our road map, visiting friends and family and spending time around civilization!

To update those of you who were waiting on the edge of your seats to figure out what would happen with our transmission problem, we seemed to be trapped in a vortex of Murphy's Law where everything that could go wrong, did! We were prepared to leave Monte Vista by Saturday afternoon/evening as we hoped that we could pick up the transmission early Saturday morning and the mechanic would have it in by Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, the transmission got sent to Denver instead of Colorado Springs, which meant that we would be looking at staying in Monte Vista until Tuesday or Wednesday. That just wouldn't do!

To make a long story short, the mechanic was nice enough to lend us his loaner-minivan (shown in pics) for a small fee, so we high-tailed it out of that po-dunk town and will pick up our Birdie this weekend on the way down to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.

On our way up to Fort Collins, we picked up our best friend, Jesse, our travel buddy for the next six weeks.

Now we're finally in Fort Collins, where we've visited with friends and family and taken bike tours and brewery tours around Tyler's old haunts. Our good friend, Trevor, does the artwork for all of the Fort Collins Brewery labels, so we've been enjoying plenty of the local beer. We also got to hit up Ty's old place of work, Walrus Ice Cream and had to have some Big City Burrito for Cinqo de Mayo. We've played a bit of kickball, ultimate frisbee, and done some great runs! All three travelers are determined to use this vacation time to get in great shape! Thank you to Trevor, Joyce and Brian for some great food and great hospitality and Thanks to Aunt Jen and Ben and Mason for great company, food, and hospitality.

The two highlights of our Fort Collins stay:
* Listening to a childhood friend of Tyler's play live at a local bar about summer nights growing up with Tyler and Trevor on nearby Elizabeth Street. It was very moving and Hills almost cried. Aspen sang along! (Yes, we brought our daughter into the bar).
* Another drive-in! This time a double feature with "Forbidden Kingdom" and "21." Ty rated them both a 7 out of 10, and Hills could have lived without seeing "Forbidden Kingdom," but highly recommended "21."

Of course we've been enjoying the local grub, and tonight we'll be feasting on buffalo burgers and sampling some more local beers!

If you need to get ahold of us, call Hills at 510-332-1402 or Jesse's phone.

For Tomorrow: Cinnamon rolls at Silver Grill! We're all SOOO excited - these are not your typical cinnamon rolls!

We can't upload any pics on our blog, so check out pics at www.picasaweb.google.com/hwgatteau!