Fort Collins

Tired, we drive to Fort Collins to meet Britney in the evening, whom I met years ago on the ferry from Jordan to Egypt and spent 2 days in Dahab with her colleague. The town turns out to be very nice and quite large when it comes to shopping and car mechanics. Because that's exactly our plan for today: shopping and fixing the car. Unfortunately, most mechanics are closed on Saturdays, or they don't have time. During the long overdue oil change, the employee inspects our car more thoroughly and we feel better afterwards about the longevity of 'Carlito', which is what we named our Dodge (chchchch). And since our Grand Caravan is missing a name on the back, we want to replace it with Carlito. We find all the individual silver adhesive letters in two different AutoZone shops - perfect, we think. We gather the letters and want to put them on in the parking lot, but then we realize that the adhesive film is completely outdated and not a single letter sticks anymore... oooooch. Well, at least we can return all the letters and get our money back.

But back to the topic. The mechanic from Valvoline replaces two caps for us for free, and then the oil leak is sealed again. After that, an indescribable shopping marathon begins in search of affordable mattresses for our sleeping area in the car. Since we don't always want to roll up our camping mattresses and inflate them again after hikes, this seems like a sensible purchase. After about 10 stores and a food stop at Wendy's with chili and internet, we finally find what we're looking for in the very last shop we discover by chance when driving away. They have the perfect mattress for us on offer, as most of them are too wide for our car.

We bring Mexican beer as a welcome gift to Britney's home, where Tyler, her boyfriend, welcomes us. Shortly after, Britney comes home from work and we go to her favorite vegan restaurant, which makes us wait for 1 hour before we get a table. What better way to start the evening than strolling through the really beautiful and lively city center and getting the evening started at a pub with a great selection of beers? Britney and I quickly sprint back to the restaurant as the table becomes available earlier and they can only hold it for 10 minutes. This ends with blisters on Britney's feet. It wasn't a good idea to wear the newly purchased second-hand gloves that she took home from work today... The food is excellent and we end up in their living room, chatting a bit. Her two young cats are playful and adorable. They also entertain us during the night in the guest room and climb or lie on us. ;)

While Britney makes breakfast for us, we go to an alternative coffee house to get cold brew with oat milk. After that, it's time to leave Fort Collins and cruise towards our first destination, the Black Hills in South Dakota...