10 Things I Learned in Colorado

I try to learn something new every day. Sometimes if I am lucky I learn two things, or even three. That’s why I am titling this blog about my recent 9 day trip to Colorado ‘Ten Things I Learned…’. Yup I got some bonus knowledge, besides ten sounds better than nine.

NUMBER ONE: They have bike lanes in Colorado.

At first I didn’t know what to make of it. All this extra space to the right of the white line – what was it and what should I do with it. In Idaho we would probably drive our cars in it and harass anyone that gets in our way. In Colorado they reserve it for bikes – wtf?

NUMBER TWO: They clean the crap out of bike lanes in Colorado.

In the rare event that there is a bike lane in Idaho it is promptly filled with broken glass, roofing nails, or at least goat heads. It all stays there until some dude on a bike carries it all away imbedded in his tires. In Colorado they either don’t have that stuff or they clean it up.

NUMBER THREE: They haven’t invented ‘flipping the bird’ yet in Colorado.

That is the only explanation. I didn’t get flipped off or otherwise harassed the entire time I rode my bike in Colorado. Weird.

NUMBER FOUR: They have the ‘BEER LOOP’ in Fort Collins.

Actually I don’t know what it is called. But if you ride past two breweries in a 35 mile ride I call it the beer loop. It is my new favorite ride. When I go back I am going to stop at each brewery and try to free samples during my ride.

NUMBER FIVE: They have the ‘DAMN LOOP’ in Fort Collins.

Yes I know you spell dam d-a-m, but DAMN is funnier. Besides when you climb from about 5000 feet to 6000 feet in a few miles it is more damn than dam.

NUMBER SIX: Elevation Sucks.

It might just be me, but climbing from 5 to 6 thousand feet seems to suck a lot more that climbing from 2 to 3 thousand feet.

NUMBER SEVEN: You can add an hour to any given ride and get away with it when you are away from home by telling your wife you got lost.

Yup, when a guy says that he got lost when riding in a new place spouses think it is funny – completely cancelling any negative effects of additional riding time.