Britton and I took a few days off work and today we decided to take a bike ride through Greeley. We thought about taking the Poudre Trail, but had a few errands to run, like picking up fresh tortillas at the tortilleria and stopping by the library for some movies I had on hold.  So, instead we ended up touring Greeley. First we stopped at Houston Gardens on the corner of 4th Street and 23rd Avenues.

While this is a pretty busy intersection, you would never guess that there is this beautiful garden and natural habitat hidden right there in town. It is open to the public most days of the week except Sunday and Monday and was an original homestead in the area. It was really cool. My dad said that when he owned his lawn business he used to mow there. I thought it was pretty neat and had wanted to visit there for some time, but their hours were always the same as our work time and Saturdays are usually so filled with chores that we never thought to stop. When you travel by bike and don’t have to work, life is much slower and detours like this are welcome (so are more bike lanes!).

Side note: Because we weren’t expecting to “tour” Greeley, these pics were taken with Britton’s cell phone and not our usual camera, so they might not be as clear.

Houston Gardens in Greeley

On my bike in Houston Gardens

Our second stop was to visit with my parents. They seemed to be doing pretty good although I still worry about my dad’s health. Mom was working on painting the house and Justin (my brother) was looking for a job in addition to his landscaping business since winter is coming upon us.

Next up on the tour was a short ride over to the tortilleria Los Comales for some freshly made tortillas and some hot sauce. I always try to get Britton to go inside to practice his Spanish and he had fun with it today. Then about 4 blocks down we rode through Lincoln Park and went to the library to pick up some movies I had on hold.

I thought we would just ride home from there, but hey, we had TIME and the day was unusually warm (high 60s) after the snow. So Britton wanted to ride over to Glenmere Park. Glenmere is a really nice old area in Greeley with some homes that have a lot of history to them and is located pretty close to the University’s campus. It is also quite the ride by bike from our house, but hey ok.

The lake at Glenmere

We rode around through the fallen leaves admiring the houses, gazebo, pond and trees and decided to go to the bird sanctuary there. Britton and his friends used to ride their bikes there all the time when he was young and I remember going along with my dad when he took care of some lawns near there.

Britton with his bike in Glenmere

We then rode past my grandma’s old house and what Britton called “Witches Alley”. My brother Justin and I used to dare each other to run up this dark scary alley when we would stay with my grandma, and usually we could only make it half-way, even in the daytime, let alone at night. It’s funny that Britton thought it was a haunted alley as well and we didn’t meet until much later.

We passed the hospital and rode past a house that we are hoping will be our final rental and first paid for house. It is our final step to Puerto Rico.

Finally we rode home and whistled at my mom as she was priming the house and fought a head wind all the way back. I held on to Britton’s backpack filled with tortillas, movies and memories. It is nice to have a day to live instead of making a “living”.