Car issues

Here in the West, our best car friend is a 2006 Mazda named Mort.  He is friendly, adventurous, and despite being 97(000), has a very youthful spirit.  Unfortunately, last week, some hooligans in Fort Collins decided to vandalize Mort.

Fortunately, there is a great body shop in Fort Collins, and so he's all better.  See?

Just kidding.  That's our humongous rental car for the period while Mort is in the shop.  Its fuel tank probably has a better chance than Lake Champlain of being named the sixth Great Lake.  It also extends my commute time, because people in front of me think it's a police car and slow down.  Anyway, we'll keep you posted on our buddy Mort, and enjoy playing "fake cop" in the meantime.  

Winter Hiking Warm-up

Here in Laramie, things are looking rather white as of late.  This is probably something to beware of, since it's not even Halloween yet, but at the moment we're just excited by how pretty it's made everything!

To celebrate the blanket of new snow, Charlotte and I headed to the Pole Mountain section of Medicine Bow National Forest (elev. 8680') for a little winter hike!  

Here, 10 minutes from our apartment, you can see that we were treated to some amazing scenery, and lots of tranquility!

Anyway, while we enjoy some nice powder and sunshine, we're keeping all of you back East in our thoughts as Hurricane Sandy nears.  Good luck with the coming weather, and have a great week!

It's beginning!

Well, it's back in the 60s and 70s in our home bases, but not far away at all, there are signs of the season that follows fall.  Here are two photos showing some Rockies.  The first shows them in the distance near the WY/CO state border...

...and the second shows them from a bike path on my school campus (that's them lurking there behind the buildings and foothills).

As you can see, there's a long way to go before they're again the fully snow-capped Rockies you often hear about, but the process has begun!  We'll keep you posted!

A discovery

While sitting out back in Fort Collins, I was happy to make a surprising observation...

We have amazing sunsets here in Colorado sometimes!!!

This was definitely the best one so far.  Hope something unexpectedly nice happened in your day, too!

The flakes keep flying

We don't expect to post every time there's a snowfall in Laramie or Fort Collins, but since this is the first Wyoming snow we've seen since late May, it seemed noteworthy.

Anyway, here's what you missed, depending on whether you like to be inside our outside during snowstorms!

Visitors!

This week, Charlotte and I were very excited to have our first visitors here in the West-my Mom Mom and Pop Pop!  We were happy to spend two days exploring together, and kicked things off by checking out Charlotte's turf at the University of Wyoming.

Then we headed off to Vedauwoo at 8,600' to take a little stroll...

...and work on mountain goat impressions.

Following all this activity, we headed to downtown Laramie, which has, among other things, very large salads!

On the second day, we headed south to Fort Collins to explore my neck of the woods.  We all managed to keep out of the planters while strolling around "Old Town"...

...but this critter (a "painto horse," according to Pop Pop...haha) proved too much to resist.  

We concluded our tour by visiting my turf at Colorado State University, and it was a nice ending to a great visit.

Anyway, we know who our first visitors were...will you be next?

A first in Fort Collins

For those of you who aren't here with us in Fort Collins this weekend (which unfortunately is all of you), we thought you might like to see the surprise we woke up to this morning!  It's been a nice and cozy way to start our weekend.  

We hope you're having a great (and maybe slightly warmer) weekend wherever you read this!

A fall from 7,200' can be painful...

...or it can be pretty!  Charlotte and I were sitting inside our apartment the other day (that's where we live in Wyoming, if you ever need to find us), when we looked out our window...

and realized that, by golly, fall has arrived!  Not only are we doing "fall-y" activities when we get the chance (and shivering in the mornings), but it even looks like fall outside!

Unlike most places in Wyoming (and Laramie), which have no trees, we are lucky to live in the "Tree District," which does.  Better yet, they change color in the fall!  

Best of all, some of the trees in our neighborhood are nice and big, so there are lots of leaves to look at!

Happy fall from Laramie!  It's doesn't quite compare to the Northeast, but it's definitely not too shabby.