Week 13: Colorado

Hi Friends,

If you’ve been keeping up with our journey thus far, you saw that instead of heading to Montana after South Dakota, we decided to head further south to Colorado. Our main reason for this is wildfire smoke. Unfortunately, the smoke did eventually end up following us down to the front range of Colorado, but more on that in a little bit. When we were going through the Dakotas, we were fast traveling, driving over 1500 miles in a week. This week, we definitely wanted to slow things down and visit with some friends we have in the area.

Our first stop was with Vinny and Jessica, with their adorable daughter Lucy. We were welcomed by their friends at a backyard barbecue, Brazilian style. We were thankful they let us crash the event. It was a small gathering, and everyone was super sweet and fun to talk to. One thing we learned while we were there is what a Brazilian barbecue looks like. At a Brazilian barbecue, as each food item comes off the grill, it’s cut into pieces on a cutting board.

Then, the host goes around to each guest so they can pick off a piece to eat. This goes on repeat with each item that comes off. It’s an easy way to manage how much you eat at a barbecue, you get to try a little bit of everything, plus it felt more like you’re actively participating, versus sitting by. It was a lot of fun, and I personally would love to adopt this style of barbecue in the future.

We spent a few days with Vinny and Jessica, working during the day and then catching up and spending time with them at night. They’re so much fun to be around and we’re really glad we got to meet up with them, in a spur of the moment fashion. While we were in Fort Collins area, we made an appointment for the vet for Pepper Jack as his eyes have been having issues for a few weeks, with a lot of eye discharge throughout the day.

We suspected it was just allergies, but we wanted to get it checked out just in case. Luckily, they did a full check up on him and it’s exactly what we suspected. He has a clean bill of health, except for the allergies. They gave us some medicine and so far, it’s been working out well. It seems like he’s less bothered by his symptoms.

After we left the Fort Collins area, we headed to Denver to visit with one of Travis’s friends from college. It was awesome getting to meet Amanda and her partner Taylor. They took us to the Santa Fe Art Walk, which was full of vendors and musicians, before we came back and played games for a bit. We spent some time the next day catching up and going to brunch before we made our way out. It was so fun getting to see them and meet Amanda in person, since Travis had always mentioned to me how awesome she is and how well we would get along.

As much fun as we had in Denver, this is where we really started to notice the smoke coming in again. It’s dry enough in Colorado, but I noticed with the addition of the smoke, it’s like you’re always thirsty and can’t quite quench that. Additionally, as we made our way to Boulder and then eventually to more remote areas, it was a little disappointing to see that the beautiful scenery was hidden under smoke and haze. We tried to not let this bother us, but were mindful everyday to check what the air quality was. That would decide whether we hung out in an area, or if we moved on. When you’re sleeping in the van, we almost always have the windows cracked – so it’s more or less sleeping outside. Not having any reprieve from the smokiness gets a little tough.

he loves throwing his head back when we drive to get neck pets.
We tried to not let this get us down and still tried to enjoy as much as we could. We went to an open area dog park where Pepper Jack met a ton of new friends, and even went in the water by himself, which is a big feat for him. He’s not typically a fan. Travis also attended a group ride that was led by Taylor Phinney, a retired pro cyclist and former Olympian. The ride would conclude at an art gallery, full of paintings that he created. I met up with Travis and the 50 or so people that came to the art gallery afterward, and it was honestly such an awesome environment.

Everyone was super friendly and loved seeing Pepper Jack. We drank some Kombucha, had some light snacks, and walked around the gallery. We walked up to Taylor and introduced ourselves, asking him about his paintings and how he got into art. He described the process behind the painting we were near, and mentioned how it was nice to create these pieces originally. He said it was nice just to create something and put it out in the world, without consistently being watched and judged for your performance.

We made our way to Nederland, a beautiful town up in the mountains. It was nice and cool up there (our favorite weather!) and had stunning views. The drive up was beautiful and the town had a ton of cute shops and restaurants to explore. We spent the night up there before heading to Rocky Mountain National Park. We have both been there separately, but it was nice to get to go there together. The drive was beautiful, despite having quite a bit of smoke and haze. We saw some elk and other wildlife, and took in the beautiful mountain vistas. As we were exiting the park to go towards Grand Lake, we noticed a lot of trees were dead & burned from a wildfire that happened in October of 2020. It was a little sad and sobering to see the aftermath.

The wildfires out west have been something that we’ve been talking about almost every day. Between the impact of the smoke on our health, the bad air quality, not being able to see the sites around us clearly, and seeing the destruction of what’s left behind, it’s definitely been on our minds. We only have one world and we really need to do what we can to protect it. Unfortunately, it seems the last 5 years have been getting continually worse with the smoke and wildfires, and it’s just a reality for life out here during the summers.

Overall, we had a really great week in Colorado and are looking forward what’s the come.

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