Tour De Fat September 13, 2008

Everyone in Fort Collins has heard of New Belgium. The company is known for its Eco-friendly business tactics, great tasting beer, and unique fun atmosphere. Jeff Lebesch and Kim Jordan Started the company in their Fort Collins basement in 1991, and ended up expanding it to 15 states. New Belgium offers its employees amazing benefits such as a free bike after 1 yr with the company and a trip to Belgium after five years. To hear the full history of the place, and to get some free beer I would recommend you go on the Brewery tour though.

 Anyway, This weekend I attended Tour de Fat; which for those of you that don’t know is basically the craziest largest bike parade around town that ends in alot of drinking good beer, eating good food, and having a great time.

 I am not quite sure how long New Belgium has been doing this for, but it is done in 11 cities across the country. Every year I guess the number of people that ride grows.  This year over 7,000 people showed up dressed in some of the wackiest costumes ever. The starting line was a solid chuck of bikes for about five city blocks. With all this chaos its a good thing their are biking commandments. The best view of all of this is on the couches on fork lifts. One of the most impressive parts of this whole thing is that every year someone trades in their car for a New Belgium bike.This being an election yearI saw masks and signs for every politician. Even oddly a few Richard Nixon masks. There was a guy in a full body gorilla suit that had to have been dying of heat, and even an entire family with lamp shades on top of their helmets.; which kinda reminded me of that Brad Paisley song “Alcohol.” My favorite though had to have been either Waldo or  the shower curtain bike. How some of the riders stay on their bikes with the contraptions and decorations built around them I have no idea. Anyway, its a great semi eccentric way to spend a Saturday, and I really enjoyed it, so as the New Belgium motto goes Follow your Folly, and check it out sometime.

Getting to Know Fort Collins September 6, 2008

I have decided to make this blog about the city I’ve come to know and love in the little over three years I’ve lived here. When I moved here in 2005 as a freshmen in college not only did I not know anybody, but I had no idea how much there was to do, and how rich the history of the city was. I also just turned 21 which as we all know in Fort Collins allows you to do a lot more or any given night. So I will spend this semester getting to know why Fort Collins was recently voted one of the most livable city in the United States by Forbes Magazine.

To get myself started on this Blog I thought I would look up some history of the city. Apparently Fort Collins started out as a very conservative town in the 20th century. Prohibition was actually in place from the 1890’s until 1969. Thats quite a change from today where it is home to one of the few wet campuses in the country (Colorado State University).

CSU is known for its aggricultural programs, and in my research I found that agriculture has always been a big part of the city. Farmers moved here in teh 1870’s and started the town around Camp Collins. Camp Collins was named after Colonel W. O. Collins. Collins was in charge of protecting the camp, which was built to protect a trading post from native american attacks. Apparently in 1990’s Fort Collins was known as the “Lamb Feeding Capital of the World” due to the fact that sheep could feed easily off of the beet tops in town. I know we all hate getting stopped by a train when it comes right through the center of the town. However the Colorado Railroad was a key economic development for Fort Collins that allowed its population to more then double.

Like I said I have come to Love this city in the time I’ve lived hear, and with this blog I hope to give incite into the many ways it is great and the many things there are to do here.