Ft. Collins day 1

Another early start and very full day, started with going through the Badlands. We all enjoyed the scenery, and a little bit of hiking. The Badlands are gorgeous, and we lucked out with perfect weather. Luciana loved it, and we both could have spent the day there, but we had places to go and people to see—a very tight schedule. We got to see some of the animals we were looking hard for. I got so excited when I finally spotted the prairie dogs, that I screamed, which nearly gave M a heart attack, as he was driving at the time.

We lingered at the prairie dog ‘town’ for quite a while (though not long enough!), just watching their cuteness and listening to their adorable little barking sounds. There were several babies with mamas, and they’re all about as cute as it comes. We got to watch them do some digging. We were able to get very close to them, which was awesome!

I’ve been to the Badlands a couple of times as a child (somewhere in my pre-teen and teen years), and I didn’t really enjoy it. I was a heinous child. I don’t know what the hell was wrong with me that I didn’t enjoy it then. L loved it and had a blast.

We saw many bluebirds, and that was really exciting. They are such beautiful birds, but I don’t recall ever seeing one close up before. We spent quite a bit of time looking for rattle snakes, but were disappointed that we didn’t spot any.

L’s excellent eyes spotted some of the prong-horned antelopes, so we stopped and hung out there watching them. There were lots of mamas and babies amongst the group. Their ability to navigate on the steep and crumbling surfaces of the Badlands was astounding.

<--Antelope memorabilia. I tried to talk L into starting her own scat collection, but she didn't go for it. ;D

L and I didn’t fare so well. Both of us managed to, at different times, take a little spill while coming down from climbing. My knee is sore and scraped up, but it wasn’t a big deal. The poor girl skidded down on her little tushie, and ended up with a rocky wedgie. We had to empty rocks from her little shorts, and her cheeks are sore and scraped today.

<--right before the rock wedgie incident

<--right after the rock wedgie incident

<--These were all over the Badlands. In the photo it looks like a dandelion, but it was yellow and about five times bigger than a dandelion.

<--Loved all the alpine and native wildflowers!

We had to pull ourselves away from the Badlands to start our looong drive to our next location, Ft. Collins, CO. We ran into lots of road construction and ended up arriving a couple of hours later than we expected, holding up the dinner plans we had with our friends.

We finally got to Lori’s house, where we found that Clover had gotten even cuter than she was before. She’s very mobile and fun to interact with. I was also really happy to spend time with their dogs and cats, which slightly helps to soothe my heartache of missing my own babies. Tom grilled up some delicious veggie kabobs, rice, and pita pockets. It was delicious. Then it was topped off by Lori’s famous chocolate cake. We left there at 11 (midnight our time), came back to the hotel. We got settled in and L went to sleep about 10 minutes after getting in bed, and that’s unusually fast for her!