Since arriving in Fort Collins after leaving my job in San Diego, Mark and I have schemed. Fort Collins is a homey resting spot. A place to rest, enjoy home cooked meals, warm beds, toys for the kids, and plenty of miles of bike trails to circumnavigate the city while making the next big plan. But where to next? We appreciate Fort Collins for all of its wonderful attributes, but it is the place of my birth, and the place where wanderlust takes hold the quickest. Since I left for University in 1999, I have often stopped back in the Fort for short periods to recover, and plan my next move. Now that I have a husband, and two children, you’d think I’d have grown up. Or at least have a grown up plan. Not the case. We’ve had so many hair-brained schemes since departing the land of endless summer that our SoCal friends have begun referring to as the ‘Drifthisers’. Funny. They never visited the Wandering Cyclehisers Blog.
Anyway, for the curious, here are a few of the ideas we’ve considered/are pursuing.
– Erica goes back to school for an agricultural PhD program, somewhere overseas or in the Northwest
– Mark gets a bicycle-related job in Missoula, Montana, Eugene or Corvallis, Oregon
– Stay in FoCo and develop Mark’s Handyman on a Bike business in Fort Collins
Mark and I have each applied for positions in organizations that we are waiting to hear back from. We are keeping our fingers crossed, as each will offer unique new experiences, thriving local food systems and plenty of miles of country roads to tour on bikes. If the above-mentioned plans fall through, the major contingency plan is this:
– Move what is left of our belongings to a storage unit in Bozeman, Montana and begin the Last Chance America (LCA) tour from Bozeman, and south down the Adventure Cycling Association’s new ‘Sierra-Cascades’ route
What will it be?
Mama Cyclehiser 