Southwest 2021:
Day 4 - Fort Collins

	Friday, February 19, 2021: Breakfast was ham sandwiches for both of us, washed down, as always, with Diet Cokes.
	The sun hadn't risen yet as we ate our breakfast, ...
	... but it had by the time we were on the road a half hour later.
	We paid our camping fees on our way out of the park, ...
	... and enjoyed seeing some deer wishing us safe travels.
	We didn't have far to drive to our next destination, ...
	... but the last 2 1/2 miles was on a dirt road, and we all know how Tom feels about dirt roads.
	We arrived at Mushroom Rock State Park at 8:00 AM.
	This sign told us the history of the area, ...
	... and it had been edited (and rightly so). What insensitive and culturally incorrect word used to be there? We have a few theories.
	Of course, we were the only ones there.
	There are two halves to the five-acre park: the part on the north side of the road and the part on the south side of the road.
	We started on the north side where Debbie stood under the Pulpit Rock formation to give a sense of scale.
	We took a short hike through the north loop. We didn't see any more mushroom shapes, but there were more of the very cool rock formations like the one next to Tom here, ...
	... and this large one near the road.
	We headed south of the road, crossed a little bridge, and followed the loop trail to ...
	... Mushroom Rock (back) and Devil's Oven (front).
	Again, here's a human being to give a sense of scale to Mushroom Rock.
	We continued on the small loop trail, ...
	... but Debbie kept stopping to get artsy pictures of the sun on the ice crystals.
	It was very, very cold out, but that just made everything pretty.
	Here's another cool formation ...
	... and another one. In 20 minutes, we saw it all and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves in Kansas' smallest state park. Five stars!
	We drove through the Kansas countryside ...
	... until we reached I-70 with its modern restrooms. Every Kansas rest area on I-70 has one of these fantastic maps of the state.
	We had seen a lot of Purple Heart Trail signs on our trip to Texas a couple of weeks earlier, so it was interesting to read about the Purple Heart Trail's history in Kansas.
	This rest area also had an adorable Kansas historical marker.
	We passed a cool old house on I-70.
	Hays, Kansas has been an old friend to us over the years. We didn't stop for a visit this time though.
	Oooh, an airplane. It is an F-14 Tomcat, but we have no idea why it's here.
	We were in the land of Sinclair gas stations every mile or two. Out here, every station seems to have an actual dinosaur statue, either out front ...
	... or perched on the roof. Back home in Indiana, green dinosaur statues are non-existent. So unfair.
	Welcome to colorful Colorado! This was The Ocho's tenth state!
	We were still 90 minutes away from Denver when we got our first glimpse of the Rocky Mountains.
	Soon enough, we were in Denver, ...
	... where we learned that we were in the land of TacoTime, so we figured we'd have to eat there soon, ...
	... but RIGHT NEXT DOOR was a Del Taco, which is better than any other Taco-named chain. Sorry, TacoTime.
	We found a self-service car wash and waited in a line three-cars deep until it was our turn.
	After four days of driving through snow, The Ocho was in serious need of some cleaning.
	With that chore done, we had to make it through Denver's traffic.
	We spotted this great sign for Sapp Bros. It wasn't until we reached Salt Lake City and visited one that we learned how amazing a travel store it was.
	We got to our destination where we had a date with Tortuga.
	Just kidding, we had a date with Tortuga's people, Tom and Dianne. Our policy is to not see anyone during our pandemic travels, but these two were just 15 hours away from getting their second vaccinations, and we stayed outside and kept at least six feet apart for our short visit.
	Dianne selected the perfect mug for Tom's hot tea, ...
	... while Debbie and Other Tom enjoyed Fat Tire beers and Dianne had some wine.
	We stayed for exactly one hour, because as always, we had places to go before the end of our day.
	First up: Voodoo Doughnut. We had only driven past on our last visit in May 2019, but this time, we lucked out and got a parking spot on a side street so Debbie ran inside.
	Look at all those tempting choices!
	There were a few people in line ahead of Debbie, so she took pictures while she waited.
	The familiar pink display case rotated and showed off the goods. There's the Voodoo Doll donut on the bottom shelf.
	Hanging from the ceiling was a huge version of it, covered in Voodoo Doughnut stickers.
	Back in The Ocho, Debbie took stock of her purchases: a Strawberry Go-Tart and two chocolate coconut doughnuts, ...
	... and as always, a Voodoo Doll doughnut.
	The sun was going down as we passed the capitol building ...
	... and headed out of downtown.
	Our next stop, if you can believe it, was Winchell's Donut Shop. These were Debbie's favorite donuts as a teenager (note the change in spelling for this section of the page), so we have to buy some French crullers anytime we are lucky enough to be near a Winchell's.
	Tom waited in The Ocho as Debbie made her purchases, ...
	... and came back with six more donuts.
	She bought the last three French crullers and three of Winchell's amazing glazed yeast donuts.
	But we weren't done picking up food yet. Colorado has an entire chain of Black-eyed Pea restaurants, separate from the Texas-based chain that has dwindled to one location. So we placed an order, ...
	... and ate it at our dinette in the parking lot. It's very nearly the same food as the Texas chain location, but the cornbread is slightly different. Everything else is Black-eyed Pea perfection.
	We passed a Top Golf so it had to be photographed. No idea why. It's just a thing.
	It was after 8:00 PM when we arrived at KOA Holiday in Fort Collins.
	Our late arrival information was waiting for us and we parked in a perfectly lovely back-in space with electricity and sweet, sweet running water for a change.
	Finally, Debbie chose one of her ten donuts to eat first: the chocolate-frosted French cruller. She was in donut heaven. The rest of the donuts were packed into a stack of plastic containers to be stored in the refrigerator for later. Day 5 >