Long overdue picture post 8: From the CA stateline to Ft. Collins, CO

The trip back to the east coast ran into snow very early on. Although we were able to get through the high mountain passes in north-eastern California (having NE and CA in the same sentence, seems strange for a New Yorker) safely, we hit snow again on the high plateaus of Nevada. Had had a half a mind to stop at Reno and head to a Casino, but decided to stick to our plan, which had us overnighting in Salt Lake City.
Did not happen.
Instead we ran into a complete whiteout as we gained altitude. The roads were very treacherous and night was falling fast. We decided that discretion was the better part of valor and took another close look at the map. I had, in the original planning, seen this dot on the map - Elko, NV - that dot turned out to be our sustenance on that snow-crazed evening.
Left the highway, started looking for hotels off the interchange (was too small a town for hotel listings on our trusted Lonely Planet guidebook) and finally settled, mainly on the basis of a pool and hot-tub on offer, for Shilo Inn. Loved it.
The next morning, we took off early for the now much longer drive to Ft. Collins. En route, we stopped at Salt Lake City - the original destination from the previous evening - and visited the Mormon HQ. There we were shown around by two lovely young ladies - one from Taiwan and another an Aussie of Chinese heritage. Much to their disappointment, we chose not to leave our address on record. They were very hospitable, although we were somewhat intimidated by sheer outnumbering of tourists by the tour guides and also their somewhat pointed questions about religious practice in our home (which as those of you who know us will testify, is next to absent). Given that the kids really did not know what to respond with, I had to step in and say that whilst we were very open in our respect for all religions, we would rather not discuss the subject with them.
From then it was the rush to Fort Collins. Given our routing, consistent with the first trans-continental railroad alignment around these parts, Cheyenne would have been the place to camp for the night. However a colleague of mine from the US Green Building Council's Program Committee and a dear friend - Jana McKenzie - is a Ft. Collins resident and I have heard many stories about it. So, given that its only a 35 mile detour (on a 8000 mile scheme of things its not a lot), we decided to go there.
I am very glad we did. It had just snowed and downtown Ft. Collins looked just magical. We also got to stay in a wonderful heritage hotel - The Armstrong Hotel (http://www.thearmstronghotel.com/), Jana's recommendation and a wonderful hotel - eat dinner at Rio Grande (mostly drink), I got to visit the offices of EDAW where Jana works as the Managing Principal and finally we got this enormous western breakfast at Silver Grille Cafe. All in all, Ft. Collins was memorable.
There was also a little something else that happened. But more of that in the next post.

Silver Grille Cafe, the home of the hearty Fort Collins breakfast. Cinnamon rolls are a house specialty.

Trying out the tripod, right after checking out of the Armstrong. Locals there are, often, academics, Ft. Collins being the home of Univ of Colorado. I thought I saw some looks with that MIT sweatshirt on me. As it turns out there was an MIT alum club in Colorado, before it became a state. Because young engineers were heading there from Cambridge, MA to work in the mining and metallurgical industries.

One last shot of that beautiful evening.

The office was in an old converted space downtown and clearly the designers had some fun while doing the conversion. The one thing I really liked was the memory of a staircase that had been preserved, not only in the outline of the steps, but in the handrail, still around.

Fort Collins' mascot - the fat tire bike.

Dinner (and a lot of margarita) at Rio Grande.

Our magical introduction to downtown Fort Collins. With, we learnt later, new LED lights for the trees and a fresh input of powder. Could be straight out of a Norman Rockwell image, if you ignored the big SUVs and trucks.

The young Mormon ladies who gave us a tour, perhaps a little disappointed that we did not fill out the forms for "more information".

The organ at the home of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Our trusted companion, the Lonely Planet Guide. After being very used to opening it up in strange cities and countries, it was quite a change to read it for recommendations on places to see, eat and stay in - all over the USA!

In Utah, approaching the Great Salt Lake. There were signs asking sleepy drivers to pull over and you could (and we are not saying if we did or not) set the cruise control to 100 mph. This on the road. If you chose to go onto the flats themselves, you could do much better.

A whiteout. You can see the shoulder of the road, but there is no horizon line between the land and the sky. Only snow.