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ZoominMX-5 · 05-08-2009, 03:55 PM

So I made it out here yesterday. For those of you that don't know and care I'm attending Colorado State University in Fort Collins for a masters in food microbiology. They are not wasting any time as my professor informed me that Monday I will be out and about in several rural northern CO farms collecting samples from wildlife poop.

Anyways, the drive from SC to CO sucks. Based on my garmin I did it in 1650 miles, and about 25 hrs of driving. I left on Wed and stopped the night in columbia MO (home of the tigers). The first day of driving wasnt so bad, its the Kansas leg thats absolutely horrendous. I never want to go through that crap again.

Cool cars I saw
Not one but TWO GTRs, both outside St Louis on the interstate. One silver one dark color (black maybe).
Nice C6 Z06 here in fort collins yellow in color
Cool Jeep Cherokee I think that was decked out for Sandblast Rally with lights and stickers and stuff

The city is a lot of fun. Everyone is quite friendly. There are SO MANY DAMN BICYCLES. Its not like the library on campus at Clemson.... There are literally several hundred bicycles outside of the library here at CSU. I've almost hit about 10 bikers already in the 24 hrs ive been here because of all the bike roads and not understanding how to navigate them.

Everything is pro green, sustainable, recycled, locally homegrowned, homeowned, organicly produced, vegan, environmentally friendly, etc. etc. Huge contrast from SC but in a good way.

I like it so far. I'm gonna get out of this internet cafe and head to the new belgium brewing location and sample some free beers. Smile

clemsonhatch · 05-08-2009, 04:14 PM

Good to hear you made it out there safe and sound.

Hope all goes well and look forward to hearing how things go for you. Good luck!

Theodore · 05-08-2009, 04:28 PM

Good update Chip... keep us posted. With all that natural environment, I'm betting the poop will be boring.
If you need some good samples of SC crap, you let us know. We're here for you. We can ship it right out to ya! Who knows.. You might get extra credit !!!! Lol

Several active SCCA regions out that way... take a look at
http://www.rmsolo.org/schedule.html

Take care. Let us know how it goes.
Ted

**RHennin** · 05-08-2009, 04:41 PM

Chip, sounds like you've found a great place. Def. sounds pretty nice to me as well. Might have to make a trip out there to check it out one day, or atleast learn some skiing/snowboarding.

**kbrew8991** · 05-08-2009, 07:13 PM

I promise Nebraska is worse Shock

***jedimario*** · 05-08-2009, 08:32 PM

Meh, I'll keep my toxic, non-hybrid Civic, processed meat products, and overall decent, enjoyable standard of living Tongue

But I'm glad you like it! Lol

Glad you had a safe trip, make the most of it.

zps2004 · 05-08-2009, 10:04 PM

Flyin miata is having their open house in august, you should go even though you don't have one. I am sure you can take a bunch of pics for them.

ZoominMX-5 · 05-08-2009, 11:45 PM

Funny you mention that. I've been making a summer calendar and the open house is on my list of things to do. Pikes peak hill climb is on there too. After all ill own another Miata again, I miss mine too much. Unless I get myself onto a ducati.

Again I still can't get over all the bicycles. Apparently there is a huge bicycle parade festival type thing coming up that's put on by the local brewery in town coming up. Everyone dresses themselves and their bicycles like crazy shit and take over the town for a day. Should be neat. Google tour de fat and check it out.

punknamedjimmy · 05-09-2009, 09:58 AM

That's awesome man. One of the grad schools i got accepted into is UC Denver so I'm considering a move out to colorado as well. Still waiting to hear from a few more schools before i decide though.

good to hear you are enjoying it so far.

Jrubins · 05-11-2009, 11:27 AM

Congrats Chip!
Have in the wild west Smile

And ken: Kansas is worse.... until you get pulled over by a cop and have your car searched for 2 hours, standing outside with no jacket.... in November.

But I don't really want to talk about it.

ZoominMX-5 · 05-11-2009, 07:46 PM

I started my research today. It was quite interesting, driving around to different farms and taking samples. Went to a cow pasture and some of the mother cows looked piss at us, i thought we were going to get charged.

One of the other grad students has a subaru outback and we ended up doing a little rally in it in one of the fields since we just had a big rain.

All in all it was fun, until I had to scoop up fresh cow crap.

ZoominMX-5 · 05-11-2009, 07:52 PM

here's a small picture of one of the farms we were on today. The views on a clear day here in Fort Collins are absolutely gorgeous.
[Image: grant-family-farm.jpg]

ZoominMX-5 · 05-28-2009, 09:05 AM

Some thoughts so far:

Weather - very weird and unpredictable. Within 3 days it was literally a high of 93 and sunny, and then morphed into a low of 40 with heavy rains. I guess thats mountain weather for ya.

Fort Collins - its a pretty neat town. I usually go to the downtown area about twice a week and find new shops and stuff. Im a big beer guy so I've been trying to find a good bar. So far honestly nothing has really impressed me. I figured since this is a big beer town that there would be at least a couple of beer bars which rivaled Barley's in Greenville.... Nope. The most taps of any of the bars here is surprisingly at a Deli. Anyways I guess the fact that I've got 4 breweries in the city and a homebrew store a short walk away from me helps out.

Grad school - so far its a lot of work. I've been logging about 60 hrs a week in the lab, and usually have to go in for a bit on saturdays and sundays. Sucks but I guess thats part of the process. At least im working on a neat project.

Cool cars that ive seen:
EVERYONE HAS SUBARUS!!!!! This is ridiculous. Everywhere you look there is a modified WRX or STi. I've seen maybe 2 EVOs and 213098230984 Subarus.

Theres a purple lotus elise that lives a few blocks away

Saw a heavily modded supercharged corvette roll through town a couple times.

Saw a red F430 ferrari on the interstate while going to Denver the other day.

Someone has hot rodded a really old and ugly jaguar XJ sedan. It has flames all over it and a huge 6.8L (what the badge said) V8 with gigantic blower sticking out of the hood. Wish I took a picture but Only saw it for a split second.

Thats all. Woot

ZoominMX-5 · 05-28-2009, 09:06 AM

Profile of Fort Collins - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pbuBHtq2Y4

***jedimario*** · 05-28-2009, 11:22 AM

Good to hear from ya. There tends to be a lot of Subies anywhere that has a lot of snow; they're about the only company known for having decent AWD cars I guess, and lots of people don't want to deal with SUVs or trucks.

Anyway, when you top a Plymouth Superbird in heavy rush hour traffic in a big city, let me know and your town will be cooler than mine Tongue