Maybe my comparison between New Belgium Brewery’s Tour de Fat festivities in Fort Collins and Burning Man was a bit of a stretch, but you’ve gotta admit that the spirit of creativity and neighborliness is just as incredible for this gigantic yearly celebration of bicycle culture.

I’ve always dreamed of a day when bicycles rule the city. Thanks to Tour de Fat, my little fantasy can happen every summer.

In  the weeks leading up to our departure from Jerry’s Acres, Mother Nature was sending us signals that it was time to go. Or rather, she was sending her minions to tell us.

When we arrived last spring, we would often see deer and even spotted a few Moose.

Then as summer rolled on and the weekenders rolled in on their ATVs, sightings became far and few between. And then there were none.

But once the weather chased away everyone but the crazy few full-time residents, the Moose of Crystal Lakes made their return.

We welcomed the same cow with her calves who had clearly grown up. The deer started showing up in greater numbers. And the coyotes could be heard more often and much closer. By now they are probably making themselves at home, and surely happy that we have left.

Considering the weather back “home” was 13 degrees with a strong chance of being buried in snow the last time we checked, we are happy to be on the road with it getting warmer every day, and glad to have the moose there to look over the place.

A word to the wise for any snowbirds living in potentially freezing temperatures who may be trying to squeeze every day they can out of their “summer” stay…

If you prepare your rig for departure, leave immediately!

We were feeling pretty good about staying here at Jerry’s Acres this long, considering we left right after last year’s first major dumping of snow in late September.

Then we decided to schedule our departure for this week, and started to get the rig ready over the weekend.

This included cleaning, packing, and yes, putting some water in the tank. Now we’ve had a couple cold days and nights. Freaking cold. Low twenties last time I checked.

After the first night, we had frozen lines and a blown water pump fuse. We plan to winterize the house and leave tomorrow, with hopes that things will thaw out before we reach our first stop.

If we don’t leave now, you may see us on the next season of Ice Road Truckers.

Nope, not a sewer dump, but a snow dump.

We knew we were pushing the envelope by staying here this long.

Last year at this time, we were already in Nevada, working as Satan’s Minion and far from the treacherous winter snowstorms that blanket our little piece of the Rockies.

This year, Fall really hung on, and we were happy to be able to watch the Aspens transition from day-glow fall colors to stripped down versions of their former summer glory.

Our plan was to leave this weekend, but we still have so much to do, and wanted Wyatt to get one more lesson in on Saturday morning. He can use all the help he can get. So we decided to leave on Monday or Tuesday.

But now, the newest weather forecast calls for snow showers and the heaviest snowfall of the season, with no reprieve in sight until Wednesday of next week.

Looks like our ETA for our friends in southern Colorado….Tinytown, Lake City and Pagosa Springs…won’t be until a week from today, when hopefully we can pull our trailer out of the driveway and up into the muddy, steep 6 percent grade that climbs up to our main county road.

For now, we’ll light the fireplace, bundle up and settle in.

The snow’s about to hit the fan.

Some things are just kinda hard to do in a 24′ foot RV.

Like making sushi and spring rolls. Our rig just lacks the elbow room and storage space to make these tasty bite sized delights.

When we had a stick house and lived on the Pacific, we could buy fresh albacore and wild caught salmon right from the boats. So we got into sushi roll making and loved it.

Once we hit the road, we gave up making sushi. There’s just something about eating raw fish in the middle of the country that’s just scary. Plus we just didn’t have room to carry our funky Japanese dinnerware.

When we returned this year, we picked up the bamboo mat once again and started where we left off, minus the sashimi. Instead we’re going for barbecued salmon and krab meat. It’ll do us just fine until we touch the Pacific shores again.

Back to the Beach

The weather’s going well for us this year (fingers crossed). By this time last year, we had been dumped on with 3 feet of snow. This year, all we’ve had is one snow flurry, and no rain (which is pissing Jim off after digging trenches and putting up gutters!).

We’re slowly getting prepped to skeedattle on out of here. Which could happen in as little as a week or not until the end of the month. This time of year, the weather is a roll of the dice. This weekend and next we’ll be busy getting the rig ready for a fast escape.

So far, we’re betting on not leaving until the end of October, then heading out to Washington and working our way to L.A. after seeing some special three legged friends. But it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.

I hope the weather lasts. It’s great seeing the transition to fall, especially after living in one-season California. Watching the aspens change and feeling the subtleties of the season puts you in touch with the power of nature.

We just can’t leave yet. We have far too much to do here, and I really like these sushi rolls!

Come Labor Day weekend, a twinge of envy and a slight yearning for the past whispers in my ear whenever I hear people talk about going to Burning Man.

Back in the day, we used to go. But when Black Rock City’s population exploded from 200 people in ’92 to several thousand by our last year in ’96, we decided to call it done.

Labor Day weekend hasn’t been the same ever since.

Until now.

Giving a New Meaning to “Fat Tire”

Fort Collins is the epicenter of bicycle and beer culture. Fat tires and big beefy beers go together here like hippies in Humboldt.

As the headquarters for super eco-groovy, New Belgium Brewery, no matter where you go you can’t help but soak up the sudsy vibe of laid back college town living.

New Belgium is the creator of awesome microbrew beer and Tour de Fat, a nationwide day-long costume party held in different cities to celebrate bicycles as a way of life.

The Fort Collins Tour on Labor Day weekend is always the biggest one, and this year some 10,000 people came by bike to toast the two wheeled lifestyle.

On Saturday afternoon, we dropped Wyatt off at doggy day care, then met our friends Mike and Marie to pedal on over to the event. Not knowing what to expect, our costumes were thrown together pretty quick and nothing to be proud of (just wait till next year!).

As more freaks started rolling in dressed in full regalia, we knew this was going to be a fun ride.

For over two hours we pedaled with partying revelers throughout town, whooping and hollering and smiling the entire way. I can’t remember the last time I smiled for hours on end, just cracking up at all of the crazy costumes that people thought up.

Everywhere the parade snaked through town, locals were sitting on the curb whooping back at us.

People had set up cocktail bars on their lawns and thew parties while the parade was going on. From frat boys to old folks, nobody could resist the good cheer the circus brought to town.

What a blast to see the entire community come out and applaud the riders. Nobody was a spectator, everyone was a participant.

After the ride, New Belgium threw a free, day-long concert near their headquarters, with local bands, food, crazy bicycle games and an emphasis on the all-important message of how using bicycles for transportation can build community and save the planet.

Being the bicycling advocate that I am, I couldn’t think of a better way to spend part of Labor Day weekend from here on out.

We’re hooked! Just wait till you see our costumes for next year  . . .

The fulltime lifestyle is always a good time until something goes wrong. From spent brakes to getting stuck in the mud, if you’re going to make it on the road you need to be comfortable being self-reliant and making decisions on your own.

RVing lifestyle challenges can bring couples closer together if they learn how to navigate these challenges . . . or they will end up killing each other and calling the road trip done.

We have faced our share of road trip calamities. We’ve always survived, but oftentimes at the cost of out of control emotions, expensive repairs and a sad sense of feeling like we were all alone in the world.

At times like that, even this tough chick will admit it’s lonely being out there without friends or family to call and bail you out.

Up here in the mountains, we have neighbors, but they’re not close enough to see from our property. We get the impression that people live up here for a reason . . . they don’t want to have neighbors. They’re hermits. I guess that might make us hermits too, but really, we aren’t. We just like the scenery.

Stranded on the  Mountain

Last week our trusty Dodge died (which Jim will eventually write about). My worst nightmare came true; we were stuck on our mountain without a vehicle (other than Jim’s motorcycle). Although Jim made a valiant effort to fix the problem the previous week, it returned last weekend, leaving us stranded again.

We had two options; either fork out serious cash for the 80 mile tow to the great diesel mechanic we found in town, or call our newly relocated friends, Lisa and Sean Purcell, who just planted roots here in Fort Collins after fulltiming with their kids for nearly two years. Suspecting that we had an electrical drain on our batteries, we knew that their Ford F350 could jump our Dodge 2500.

After a quick text to Lisa, she and Sean and their kids were on their way without hesitation. Instead of enjoying their new life in town on a beautiful sunny day, they drove the 80 miles to get us started and escorted us back to town to make sure we got there safely.

The Purcells saved us the towing fee, but their help was worth so much more than that. They gave us the emotional therapy we needed to get through a stressful situation. They made us laugh, got our truck started, then saved our day from crumbling into catastrophe. The two of them, their great kids and their dog Sophie turned a lousy morning around into a really nice afternoon with friends.

Thanks guys!

Life on the road is fantastic, and we’ll still keep snowbirding, but this proves there really is a lot to be said about a place you can call home.

It’s been a quiet week up here at Crystal Lakes . . .

Quiet summer is more like it. Usually. Our moutain abode is one hour from anywhere, and other than the times when weekenders come and inhabit their cabins and stupidly leave food out for the bears, there’s not a lot of excitement up here.

Oh wait, there is an occasional moose and rare wildflower sighting. Now that’s excitement!

We go to town once a week for Wyatt’s bad-boy dog schooling and stock up on provisions. The one hour trip to town is an all-day event.

Otherwise summer’s been spent working on projects for our other entrepreneurial endeavors that will bring in millions for us (hey I can always hope!).

And while the rest of the country swelters in blistering August heat, we are wearing sweats in the morning and long sleeves in the afternoon. A touch of fall is in the air and although afternoon temperatures are in the low 70s, there’s a chill in the air every morning. We are at 8,400 feet elevation after all.

It’s amazing to think how quickly summer flies by in the Rockies, but that’s what makes this place so beautiful. Nothing lasts long enough around here for us to take it for granted.

Including my best girlfriend Renee, who moved back to California a few weks ago. I’m so bummed that she left but we’ll see her again when we head to warmer climates in winter.

But, just this week, fellow road tripper friends Lisa and Sean have decided to lay down some roots in Fort Collins for a while, so that’ll be fun.

This is the first summer we’ve had in years that feels peaceful, beautiful and in sync with all that we treasure in this world.

The feeling isn’t so much because we’re staying put and getting into a routine (we are already talking about where we’re going to spend winter). It’s because we feel like we belong here. This is the first place we’ve ever lived where it feels like our hearts are meant to be here.

The Rockies are being very, very good to us and we are grateful. Thank you Jerry.

Taking a break from the road means all sorts of advantages for us.

With a full-sized oven, we can make huge batches of Alton Brown’s Homemade Granola.

Revisiting favorite bric-a-brac brings back good memories.

and we eat really, really well because we have a huge fridge, freezer and pantry to store lots of good eats

All this cooking and lounging around is gonna make us fat.

Good thing there’s lot of manual labor to be done around here!

“Home” … it has a weird sound to it.

After nearly three years on the road, it’s strange settling back in here at Jerry’s Acres knowing that we’ll be here until it’s time to head south again next winter. We were only here a couple months before hitting the road again last season, and having returned I suppose we are officially Snowbirds now, or Snabbers rather.

Though I thought Snowbirds were supposed to travel away from the snow! It was snowing when we left last October, and as I look out the window now it seems we are living in a snow globe, and someone is shaking it really hard. Just a couple weeks ago we were sweating it out down in Texas – running the A/C all day, thinking it was time to head “home” … now we wondering when we might be able to stop wearing multiple layers!

The good news is, I must have done something right with my directions for how to winterize a mountain home.

After doing our best not to fear the worst for the past few months, we returned to a clean house, perfectly intact, where everything came back online without any problems. No broken windows, no burst pipes, no critters trapped inside, no worries. We were even prepared to spend a few nights in the RV, having no idea what to expect upon our return. But considering this crazy weather, I’m certainly glad to be inside, next to the fire.

Bonus: My motorcycle even fired right up after sitting stored over the winter. Before we left, I had added some Stabil to the gas tank and turned off the fuel line, letting it run dry. I disconnected the battery, wrapped the bike in moving blankets and forgot about it. Then, a couple months ago I got to wondering, “Can the water in batteries freeze?” Well, apparently not, at least not this time.

Best of all, we had a welcoming party greet us upon our return. The day after we got back, René spotted a moose walking down the road past our house. The next day, we saw two moose cows and a calf – the same one we saw last year I believe – crossing our property while out for a walk. And earlier today we had a nice little training session with Wyatt learning not to bark at deer right outside the window.

It’s good to be “home” … but don’t worry, we have lots of stories to catch up on from our not so recent adventures. And before we know it the time will come to head back out on the open road in our home sweet home on wheels!