Fort Collins (Colorado, USA) | Changing Weather - 6 Mar, 2023

The weather the last few days has been reasonable. Although the temperature drops quickly after the sun sets, the warmer days have allowed me to walk around Fort Collins more. Today, seeing the sun set behind the mountains feels good as I return from my 6 mi (9.5 km) wander.

Typically, Colorado has beautiful blue skies with few clouds. Unfortunately, this is the exception these days. Low-pressure systems have dominated the weather patterns, and grey skies have been much more common. This is an excellent time of year to observe waterfowl. The ponds I pass by are loaded with ducks. 

Many of which you only see during the spring migration, like Redheads, Canvasbacks, and Ring-necked Ducks. Like many I see in Colorado this time of year, these diving ducks are just passing through. Most of them breed in the Canadian Prairies of western Saskatchewan and eastern Alberta. In the photo below, you can still see ice sheets on the pond.

The views west are beautiful this time of year.

With the improvement in the weather, the last several days have been much closer to how I live when I travel. I've spent more time outdoors wandering to and fro. 😊 Unlike when I am traveling, though, there isn't much around except houses and pavement. This is because the car culture prevails here in Colorado, and space is abundant. So there, this enables people to spread out, which feels good but is not ideal when I am on foot.

I've spent a few days this week reorganizing my blog. The changes are subtle; however, viewing my posts by month or country is now possible. On the desktop site, about my bio, you will now see dropdowns for "Posts by Country" and "Posts by Month." On a mobile platform, click the menu options at the top right. This is something I've been working on for some time now. I originally wanted to display these options differently. Nevertheless, I can directly jump to a set of posts relatively quickly without endless scrolling on the main page. 

One of the restaurants that I enjoy in Fort Collins is Honolulu Poké. Although it is fast food, it usually takes less than 10 minutes to get my order. It is both delicious and healthy. Today's bowl consists of white rice, salmon, octopus, squid salad, edamame, ginger, carrots, mango, and dried seaweed in a sweet chili sauce.

As I continue to work through my posts and reflect on what I've experienced thus far, I am realizing that I am on a quest of sorts. Since returning from my adventures, I've been hesitating about simply traveling. I've met many people in my travels who bounce from country to country. They travel at a furious pace squeezing in everything they can get done. That style of travel has never resonated with me. It is important to me that I don't fall into that trap. After all, it is easy to travel that way, but I have a bigger purpose in mind.

Reflecting on why I have been hesitating, I now realize that since I left last June, I have always had a secondary purpose for my adventures. I'm 140 days into my posts and have yet to refer to the United States or Canada as home. My purpose is to find a place where my values align with the local culture. I've shared before that it isn't where you live, but how you live that is important. How you live is greatly impacted by local culture. In reflecting on this statement, I offer up a corollary. I believe that how you live is important and that aligning your personal values with the culture you live in is the most important step a person can take to find their place.

Speaking of culture, I was introduced to a great Mexican Food Truck recently. Tacos El Diablo makes fantastic tacos in Fort Collins. To my surprise, they had Lengua (i.e., tongue) and Tripa (i.e., tripe) tacos on the menu. 

My cooking classes are coming along. In between learning new techniques, I mix in the occasional dish. I recently made a chicken pot pie casserole that was outstanding! 😋 I generally am not big on having leftovers, but these days I enjoy having leftovers for lunch. I tweaked the recipe slightly. I added corn and English peas. English peas must be blanched before cooking. They are much tastier and have a firmer consistency than canned peas. 

If you want to try it yourself, the ATK recipe follows below. Unlike other pot pies, this is light and doesn't use butter or heavy sauces. I would definitely, make it again. I always prefer to use fresh veggies, but I suspect you could use frozen veggies.