October 25, 2020 Fort Collins, Colorado

 13 degrees and snowing. 

Colorful trees and snow. The streets were not plowed this am. 

A cabin and a yellow tree in Library park. 

Our little house is now rented while we go on the road.  It is a 100 year old house that John has had it for 35 years. He remolded the whole thing. We live in the 2 bedroom apartment over the garage  that John built in the back. It is huge compared the bus. 

We put on our ski clothes and went out for a walk. This covering is at the new water park. I took the lower photo a couple days ago when I rode my bike  by. 

This water park with  snow. Yesterday when it was in the high 30's and there were a dozen people playing on the play wave. John by a bench demonstrating how deep the snow is. 

There is enough green still in the leaves for John's rainforest camo coat to almost still hide him. 

The snow was very picturesque in the trees. Fall leaves and a snowy bridge.

They finally plowed this road one way. there is about a foot of snow on the sidewalks. It looks slick to me. I love snow, except I hate driving in it and shoveling it. John is on the upper deck of Ginger and Baker's. He says we should not be wimpy and support local restaurant's. 

I love the statue of this dancing woman. She looks even better with the snow. John with a the snow on top of the mail box. 

A convenient  passerby took our photos. Three women went by on down hill ski clothes and skis. They don't work as well on the flat, they were just kind of shuffling along. 

Something you don't do much living in a motorhome, shoveling. I hate shoveling snow. We cleaned those steps about 8 times today. It just kept snowing all day. This is the first snow real snowstorm we have been in Fort Collins for in the last 10 years. Some leaves, our kayaks covered with snow and snow on the railing. 

October 20-24, 2020 Fort Collins, Colorado

 70's, sunny and smoky.

I am making a new desert piece to correct some of the problems I see in the first one. It will be a bit different. Hopefully better. I went out biking this morning. It was sunny and low 60's. The smoke is not bad so far today. A view of the Poudre river from the bike path. Some of the trees are dropping their yellow leaves, but there are still plenty left. The river is very low. 

Smoky sunsets.

There is a new very big fire also to the west of us. The Troublesome fire. It is growing at alarming rates. Yesterday it was very dark out. Automatic light sensor lights were on. We could see blue sky to the north, south and east, but now where we are. The second desert plate in the kiln for it's first firing. It has a Joshua tree in it.

We had a cold front come though. This was all the precip we got. Won't help much with the fires. A bigger storm is coming this weekend. It may help, but the winds today and tomorrow will just fan the flames ahead of the storm. Fall leaves in the yard and street. 

Fall leaves in Library park a half block from our house. Fall colors in Gustov Swansen city park.

 A shelter at the new water park along the river. The upper wave at the waterpark under the railroad bridge. 

A frozen great blue heron. It was only 35 degrees. Tree roots near a diversion dam.

 The second desert after it's first firing. It devitrified, which make the surface kind of a gacky matte finish instead of shiny. Will have to fix that before I can continue with it. They were moving some water downstream so the river was up for the first time in months. It was 37 degrees when we left the house. John at the put in.

Me in my boat. The fall colors were lovely. It was gray and smoky, so the colors did not show up as nice as they are. 

The river level gauges said river was at 400 cfs. The new water park had lots of boaters on the play wave. 

John exiting the new water park. John upstream from a pedestrian/bike bridge. 

Me going over the diversion dam. 

October 14-17, 2020 Fort Collins, Colorado

 We had the worse smoke day yet.

The smoke was so bad this am that it was in the hazardous zone. See the black spot on the map? That is Fort Collins air quality. The sun was red and it was dark and cold. People were driving with their headlights on.

Looking down our street. The visibility was horrible. I was wearing a particle mask and my eyes burned. The wind shifted a bit and we could see the northwest  edge of the smoke plume. 

The wind shifted a bit and we could see the north edge of the smoke plume. The motor home is at Houska's getting a part installed. We waited 4 months for the part to come in. The bus is 18 years old and they had to make the part. We can now pack up and leave. 

Here is the south east side of the smoke plume where we the bus is in storage. The plume is so big that this is all that will fit in the photo. The southwest view of the smoke plume as we head toward I-25 in Johnsons Corner. 

The Cameron Fire from I-25. Cool sun rays coming through the smoke on the east side of the highway. 

\

The Cameron Fire from I-25.The smoke plume from the Cameron fire in Fort Collins. 

The trial gardens at CSU. I went to see them the last day before the hard freeze. Smoke at sunset.

Friday the fires raged. Fortunately the wind blew most of the smoke south today.  Sunset was lovely, a few real clouds with the smoke. My brother called me and said he could see the flames from the Cameron fire from his house in Longmont last night. The fire is 10-15 miles west of Fort Collins and coming closer. They say the fire won't make it to the city. There is a six mile long lake , many high rocky ridges between the fire and us. Hope they are right, but there are many small communities in it's path. The sunset Friday with some actual clouds and smoke. 

 

There are now 5 fires burning just west of us. There is a new one called the East Troublesome fire which is growing very fast. There are 60-70 mph winds driving the fires. My new lamp came on a slow boat from China and  came just in time to leave it here when we leave. It is a little big to store on the 

bus. 

The bus is a back at the repair shop. The radiator blew out when John going to drive it to the house so we could pack up and leave. Boo. But at least it did it where we could get it repaired. We were going to go west and the next place west is Grand Junction, nothing in between. And the radiator went out on the last bus and we spent a couple weeks parked in front of a repair bay outside of St Louis waiting for it to be rebuilt. Can't drive it with no radiator. So at least we are at our house instead of camped with the bus. We will leave when it is fixed. John and Mandy came over for dinner. Mandy made these two wonderful salads and brought champagne. 

Happy hour before dinner. John smoked a pork roast and a brisket.