Canyon

Our move to Colorado is nearing, and on Saturday, 20 September we headed west on our house hunting trip. We stopped at Palo Duro Canyon for some sight seeing and hiking. Palo Duro is the second largest canyon in the United States, after the Grand Canyon. While it isn't quite as spectacular as the more famous Arizona landmark, it's worth a visit.

We checked into the Hudspeth House Bed and Breakfast in Canyon, Texas for the night. Canyon is pretty small, but we found a Thai-Chinese restaurant. The Shrimp Pad Thai was quite good.

Longmont

We arrived Sunday evening at the Raintree Plaza in Longmont, Colorado and met with our realtor, Alyson Canepa on Monday morning. We spent the next three days looking at property from Old Town Longmont to Big Elk Meadows on the West and Berthoud East of I-25. We looked at about thirty properties in all, having a bit of difficulty settling on the right one. I would like to live in the mountains, but while my wife thinks they're beautiful, she'd rather live in town and visit the mountains to play. We drove up to Pinewood Springs at 5 PM one evening to see how the roads are at rush hour (not bad) and had a memorable dinner at Villa Tatra. It was still fairly light when we drove back down, so we didn't get much of a feel for what the roads are like after dark.

Lyons

We settled on a place in Lyons (pronounced like lions, not the French city), signing a contract on Friday, 26 September. Lyons is a neat little town in the foothills about 15 minutes from Longmont and Boulder and 20 minutes from Rocky Mountain National Park. Our new home will be within walking distance of downtown Lyons, with nice foothills views. All in all, it's a good compromise.

Cedar Crest

On our trip back to Oklahoma, we detoured to the west to spend the night at Elaine's Bed and Breakfast in Cedar Crest, New Mexico. Cedar Crest is in the Sandia Mountains east of Albuquerque and south of Santa Fe. We had a pleasant stay.