Senior Trip: Road Trip Through Colorado – Day 8
Wow, day 8. It has been a whole week on the road, with six of us, and we are surviving without any major problems. Of course, there are arguments every now and then, but we expected that. Overall I am extremely impressed with how well the trip has gone so far. It has been a lot of fun. That being said, we decided to cut the trip a day short. Instead of staying in Fort Collins for two days and driving back to Iowa on Thursday, we are leaving on Wednesday. This decision was reached because we got to Fort Collins a day early, and most of the group was ready to be done. Not because we weren't having fun, it's just that 8 days makes for quite a long trip.
Dylan wanted to hang out with his friends for a while before we left, so he went and did that while the rest of us went to "Fort Fun" to play a round of mini golf. Cool part about that was, it was just our luck that it was "$2.00 Tuesday" so instead of paying $6.50 for a round, we only had to pay two. It was the collective goal of the group to beat T. A close game ensued, but T pulled away at the end to beat David. Andrew third, then me and Robbie. Finishing mini golf, we went tubing down the Cache La Pudre River. We already had the tubes and wanted to get some more use out of them. By the time we were down with that it was time to go to the Pearson's, where we were staying, and take a shower.
Noah Pearson is the friend of Dylan's who originally came with us on Day 2 to hike Mount Elbert. We stayed at his house, but him and his dad were away at orientation in Montana. Instead we got to meet Mrs. Pearson and Seth, Noah's younger brother by 2 years. Mrs. Pearson (Rebbecca) was incredibly friendly. She welcomed us all, and exclaimed how happy she was to have visitors. She cooked us ravioli with pesto and marinara sauces, served with a home garden grown salad. She even ate with us and got to know each of us and our future plans.
Following dinner with Rebbecca and Seth, we all rode bikes with Seth to Walrus Ice Cream Shop. As a single small business with their own homemade ice cream recipes, it was very good! Much better than any Dairy Queen soft serve, and I would say even better than Coldstone (and certainly cheaper!).
By this time it was dark and we were ready for bed, to prepare for the long drive the following day.
**Interesting note: while at the Pearson's we checked out Fort Collin's Newspaper, "The Coloradoan". There was an article about Money Magazine's top ten cities for 2010. Fort Collins was #6, and Ames was #9.