We're On The Road Again...

Daniel took this picture to show everyone back home just how many bikes people ride around here (Fort Collins). This is a small portion of the bikes in this community. As he put it,"people ride horses like we ride bikes, and people ride bikes like we drive cars." Actually, quite an accurate statement so far.

So we finished up in Fort Collins by touring the Poudre canyon which was beautiful. Huge walls of rock jutting straight up from the earth to touch the sky, the poudre river meandering over boulders and between the rocky walls, coyotes playing in the grassy meadows, and bighorn sheep trimming what little grasses grew on the cliffs.

After traveling through the canyon for about an hour we took this tiny little dirt road all the way up to a place called the Shambalah Mountain Center. Can I just tell you guys that even back there we saw a truck that was stopped next to a bunch of four wheelers that read across the back windows, "MONA VIE: Drink It, Feel It, Share It." How did someone think of these people all the way back there!? I was quite impressed to say the least. Anyway, Shambalah Mountain Center is a Buddhist retreat on 600 acres, boasting what is called The Great Stupa of Dharmakaya. A project that took 14 years to build and is the largest and most elaborate example of Buddhist architecture in North America. It was amazingly interesting to see what and why this monument was built. What it represents cannot even begin to be described in this measly blog, so peak at their website. It's fascinating.