Ft Collins adventure

Kelly joined me on an excellent adventure to Ft Collins today. The truck was finally going to run properly again!

We had a noon-time appointment over and out of the Mountains- Ft collins may have taken us a good three hours to reach from Shadowcliff. On trail ridge were the usual traffic-stopping elk and the scared-to-death, low-altitude driver.

We were forced to call in and postpone the appointment another hour. After Estes Park things got a bit flatter and a by Loveland- they were much warmer.

the cloud cover moved in as we walked through town and back towards the mechanics. In town we visited a few shops and a nice little cafe- Got ourselves lost shortcutting through campus in an attempt at a recommended music shop.

It was all fun- the University manages a great flower-garden on city property- the marigolds boasted heads as large as my camera. The mechanics replaced melted spark plug wires for free- four of the six were melted through or badly warped and had not been firing. Mike gave me the depressing report from a look-over they did of the poor truck;

the exhaust system is failing- no converter and the whole thing is in dire need of attention, before I further risk letting it fall off. The Air filter was dead many thousands of miles ago and two of the tires have gone bad. There is some nasty rust somewhere in the engine- its causing some misfiring. The steering column's tumbler has fallen out and they might be able to fix it for a few hundred bucks... I could go on.



Dorothy- the trucks appropriate Kansas name, by Jan, - started up with great power. After so many hundreds of miles on it's heavy two cylinders, it drove like a new car with six!

We hopped over to the recycling center and took car of Shadowcliff's glass and paperboard (There are no capable recycling centers any closer to Grand Lake for these materials)



The drive back was a pleasant one. We rolled through Thompson Canyon and up into Estes-land; Kelly showed me the hotel which inspired "The Shining." It was beautiful and sure doesn't look like it could be very creepy without many feet of snow and a dark sky. I wish I could share more photos of the trip- they are all on the dead hard drive as well.

Storms began to brew as we climbed past Longs Peak and up into the Alpine. The very noticeable lack of evening traffic was came as a wonderful surprise. We took curves at our own pace and never once slowed for a line of elk-crazed park visitors..

the sky grew darker and more colourful for the storms and setting sun- we made a quick, cold jaunt out towards "Marmot Point," a short walk and viewing area high on Trail Ridge- It over looks dramatic Forest Canyon and has a formal name, Im sure!

Above us it was dark and grey, but the southeastern horizon appeared to boil with tangerine-storms. Who knew if they would hit us?? Shadowcliff was still an exciting drive of more than an hour..

As the road straitened out- East of the Visitors center- and we began the slow decent- it was our part of the sky which boiled. The show began and we passed the visitors center for the Rainbow Curve hairpin. lightning began to shoot a bit closer- disturbingly so. Several bolts struck the ridges to our south and west as the nastiest clouds tumbled over us. One old SUV took advantage of our curve until a small car joined us as the pinks and reds grew stronger. A roll cloud formed and dissipated and I we jumped out for photos. I think that she may have been as overly-excited about the phenomenon as I was. A massive, seemingly unstructured cloud shot from the valley on the other side of whatever small range was in front of us.- It traveled strait upwards at some amazing speed and morphed into a thin arch of cloud before our eyes- as if it outlined some invisible bubble that sped towards some lower pressure. Oh, it was incredible!

Seconds passed after the bubble had risen into the boiling ceiling and the same cloud formed at the base of our own valley! Lightening continued, but it was far too awesome to hide in the car. the racing cloud grew dense and more grand and impressive as it sped from the valley floor to the ridge above us. "Here it is" Kelly screamed in the wind as the cold thing overcame us. She spread her arms out like she intended to catch it.

It hit as an intense wall soft coolness. It rushed past us- maybe at twenty or thirty miles and hour or maybe more. For the seconds that we were in the forced cloud- immersed in that very personal part of the storm- we were closer to the Mountains than I have every experienced.

The remaining decent was not too wet at all- only a little rain and none of the hail or sleet which I expected. The cold storm may have come from a much warmer place.