Fort Collins - Boulder and back

10/21. Amelia gets us coffee while I wait for the receptionist. She checks all the rooms before we get our $100 deposit back...We give one of our camping mattresses to a homeless person before we head back to Fort Collins. We pick up Britney, who accompanies us to the DMV so that we can add her as a co-owner of our car. We quickly pay $250 and finally get the title in our hands. Back at Britney's house, we don't have to wait long until one of the three interested buyers for Carlito shows up. He is a school principal and agrees to the purchase after a short inspection and test drive. He offers us $5500 and of course we don't say no to that. While he organizes the money in cash, we sign the title for resale and search for a bus connection to Boulder where we have reserved a hotel for two nights. He arrives just in time to drive us and Carlito to the bus station. Then it's time to say goodbye to our reliable travel companion and off to Boulder!

On the way, I realize that our hotel is not actually in Boulder and we can't get there by public transport. Furthermore, the bus driver doesn't know which stop is in the center of Boulder and we end up going all the way to the university campus, 25 minutes away on foot. The past few days with all the ups and downs have been overwhelming for me and I go into a kind of standby mode and feel unhappy. After finding internet on campus, we cancel the hotel outside of Boulder and look for one that we can reach on foot with our luggage (60kg). We find a convention hotel that is affordable and check in after a tiring walk. Finally some rest after all the driving and organizing! Luckily, we can cancel the other hotel for free, despite the booking conditions. A quick dip in the hotel's lukewarm pool and a dinner at the Thai restaurant take our minds off things. Good night!

10/22. Boulder is a small town with a colorful business scene, shopping is fun and we also find breweries. For dinner, we go to the Nepali restaurant and watch movies on the internet.

10/23. After breakfast, we arrange for a taxi to take us to the bus station for the Fort Collins Express. Everyone recommends using UBER as the cheapest option, but we can't book and pay online without a US address. So it's a regular taxi, which ends up costing less with a tip than UBER! The bus is on time and we arrive in Fort Collins around one o'clock. Another long walk awaits us to Britney's apartment. On the way, we see the longest freight train ever, running right through the city! We leave our luggage in front of the apartment door and set out to explore Fort Collins. This small town can entertain you for an afternoon with its businesses. At 5:30, we go to Britney's and look forward to a contented evening with the cats at their home, as they will be staying with Taylor's parents. Unfortunately, they take the two cats with them to meet the family dog and we entertain ourselves with online movies until we go to sleep.

10/24. Sleeping in is fun and the weather is great for an autumn walk. We make it to Odell Brewery, a place many locals visit on this Sunday. The beer tastes excellent and so do the dishes from the food truck. In the late afternoon, we meet Britney and Taylor to freshen up a bit and have dinner at "Blue Agave". The food is excellent. The two drive us to the hotel and show us the bus stop along the way that we need to go to tomorrow. We hope to see them again and say goodbye to our friends.

10/25. We sleep in. After breakfast, I pack my backpack again so that it really fits in the protective cover. Around noon, we take the shuttle to Denver Airport. Luckily, the check-in goes smoothly and quickly. Now we have to kill time - a whopping 10 hours. We imagine that we will visit one or the other airport restaurant. But as we have encountered everywhere on our trip in the States: there is a lack of (trained) workers in all areas. This results in the two only open restaurants at the airport - Denver Airport is currently under construction - closing at 5:00pm.

Fortunately, we manage to find one outside the main building. The rest of the time, we lounge in the chairs, listen to audiobooks, read. Just before midnight, our flight leaves.