Planning Loveland 2018 Trip (Denver, Pueblo, Boulder: transplants, places to live, moving)

[SkyDog77]

Originally Posted by LoveBoating

Have hotel room reserved. Last night, got airline tickets for Frontier Airlines and a Car Rental. On Facebook today, the city of Cheyenne was advertising about CFD (Cheyenne Frontier Days), of which we will be going one or two days.

One other thing, whether the move is to Loveland, Cheyenne or somewhere else, the walls in our apartment are getting very bare. We are packing up pictures and other things. The move won't be until May of next year, but we are too old to do the "wait until the last minute" thing.

You seem like a good person. I hope you find what you’re looking for.

[BabyBoomers2]

Originally Posted by SkyDog77

You seem like a good person. I hope you find what you’re looking for.

We are good people, just living in the wrong State and part of the Country. None of our "likes" really coincide with the city we live in and/or Florida itself. We made a mistake in moving here, but, at the time we moved here, we really thought we'd love it. Wrong!

[ABQGeo]

Saw your post about moving up our way and thought I would add a comment or two.

My wife and I traveled back and forth from Albuquerque to Fort Collins for 20 years before finally deciding to move up here in the fall of 2014. Our son (only child) went to/graduated from Colorado State, ended up marrying a local girl, and now lives in Fort Collins along with our three grandchildren.

Although our address is Windsor, we are probably as close or closer to Loveland and Fort Collins since we live about 1/2 mile east of the Budweiser Event Center that you know about.

We don't do any of the rodeo sorts of things that happen over at the fairgrounds, but in the spring of 2015, at a fishing expo over at the event center, I joined the Loveland Fishing Club. We are a group of senior citizens that enjoy fishing and swapping fish stories, of course At 73, I'm probably one of the younger fellows in the group. We are actually organized as a 501c3 and do a number of volunteer activities like a youth fishing derby and a senior fishing derby. A finer bunch of folks would be hard to find. Our "headquarters", if you will, is the Chilson Senior Center on 4th street. Quite a nice facility with lots to do BTW. Since our fishing club helps out with a number of their activities we get to hold our monthly meetings there in one of their conference rooms. Every Friday morning (7:00am) you can find twenty to thirty of us at the Perkins restaurant on Eisenhower in Loveland swapping fish stories.

I own a LUND 1850 Tyee and do quite a bit of fishing on Carter, Boyd, Horsetooth, Jumbo, Sterling, McConaughey, and others. I can hook up and be on Boyd in less than 20 minutes. I primarily troll and chase after walleye and so I let out line real quick to get under the abundant trout. Your 20' cuddy would definitely be at home on Horsetooth. They've got 40 footers in the marina there. As mentioned by others, weekends can get quite busy so I try to avoid weekends there.

I noticed in your profile that you are also a target shooter? I go out to Great Guns Shooting Range, about 30 miles NE of here and shoot skeet or sporting clays once in awhile.

As to your move, I think you are making a great choice. I love Loveland and would actually prefer it to where we are now. Our choice was driven by being close to the grandchildren, but not next door to them. Where we end up when the grandchildren have moved on........... who knows. For sure, it won't be Florida.

[BabyBoomers2]

Originally Posted by ABQGeo

Saw your post about moving up our way and thought I would add a comment or two.

My wife and I traveled back and forth from Albuquerque to Fort Collins for 20 years before finally deciding to move up here in the fall of 2014. Our son (only child) went to/graduated from Colorado State, ended up marrying a local girl, and now lives in Fort Collins along with our three grandchildren.

Although our address is Windsor, we are probably as close or closer to Loveland and Fort Collins since we live about 1/2 mile east of the Budweiser Event Center that you know about.

We don't do any of the rodeo sorts of things that happen over at the fairgrounds, but in the spring of 2015, at a fishing expo over at the event center, I joined the Loveland Fishing Club. We are a group of senior citizens that enjoy fishing and swapping fish stories, of course At 73, I'm probably one of the younger fellows in the group. We are actually organized as a 501c3 and do a number of volunteer activities like a youth fishing derby and a senior fishing derby. A finer bunch of folks would be hard to find. Our "headquarters", if you will, is the Chilson Senior Center on 4th street. Quite a nice facility with lots to do BTW. Since our fishing club helps out with a number of their activities we get to hold our monthly meetings there in one of their conference rooms. Every Friday morning (7:00am) you can find twenty to thirty of us at the Perkins restaurant on Eisenhower in Loveland swapping fish stories.

I own a LUND 1850 Tyee and do quite a bit of fishing on Carter, Boyd, Horsetooth, Jumbo, Sterling, McConaughey, and others. I can hook up and be on Boyd in less than 20 minutes. I primarily troll and chase after walleye and so I let out line real quick to get under the abundant trout. Your 20' cuddy would definitely be at home on Horsetooth. They've got 40 footers in the marina there. As mentioned by others, weekends can get quite busy so I try to avoid weekends there.

I noticed in your profile that you are also a target shooter? I go out to Great Guns Shooting Range, about 30 miles NE of here and shoot skeet or sporting clays once in awhile.

As to your move, I think you are making a great choice. I love Loveland and would actually prefer it to where we are now. Our choice was driven by being close to the grandchildren, but not next door to them. Where we end up when the grandchildren have moved on........... who knows. For sure, it won't be Florida.

We are into rodeo, because I was involved in professional rodeo for many years.

As far as fishing goes, we got into a group online called Colorado Fishing and had a "meetup" one time at Chatfield Lake/Reservoir. We fished for Rainbow's at Chatfield, then, after getting tired of fishing, decided to "beach" our old Bowrider and relax on the beach there. We took our boat, once, to Horsetooth, but had absolutely no luck at all fishing. So, we continued to fish at Chatfield.

We have our airline tix, car rental and hotel reservations made now for the visit this summer. It' will be almost 11 years since we've been in Colorado and have only been to one rodeo here in the 10 years we've lived here. We really don't know what to expect, but do know that it has to be better, for us anyway, than here.

[BabyBoomers2]

Funny, I told my wife this AM.......wonder which of us, or perhaps both of us, will say, after our week in Loveland and visit to CFD, "I don't want to go back to Jacksonville or Florida" while waiting at DIA for our airline back. We both laughed. We know we have to return, but sure wouldn't mean that we'd really want to.

[BabyBoomers2]

Wonder if there are any boaters on this forum? Power boaters, that is. Have a 1992 20' Celebrity Cuddy Cabin w/5.7L (350) engine and newer long block with 191 hours on it. During our visit this summer (2018), will be checking out Carter and Boyd lakes. Have already been to Horseshoe, when we lived in Parker.

Will also be checking out Boat/RV Storage places as well as Marine Repair places.

If anyone has any knowledge of, or owns/boats on these lakes and also knows of storage places and/or boat repair places, please let us know.

BTW, if we do indeed bring out boat with us, will have it shipped there. To old to haul a boat that far.......Jacksonville, FL to there.

[TCHP]

There are several large and quite a few smaller boat storage/maintenance places in NorCo. I've always been surprised by how many there are so I doubt you will have a shortage of choices. I can't personally recommend any of them, nor say how fishing and recreation are on those lakes because I don't live in the area. Most of my boating is done in southern or eastern CO - Pueblo, Walsenberg, Ordway, Las Animas.

[BabyBoomers2]

When we lived in Parker, we kept our 16' Invader Bowrider in our garage. It was a three car garage and the boat fit into at a little angle. Prop was right up against the wall in the back of the garage and there was only about 2" from the tip of the trailer tongue to the garage door. We had to put it in the garage just right to have it fit and door come down, but we did it.

When we move, we will be renting an apartment. Financially, buying a house or condo is out. I think there are a number of boats that stay outside, covered and winterized during the winter. When we bought the Invader, from a Marine Sales/Service, it was sitting outside in a fenced-in area with other boats. All of them had some snow on the cover. Even though we kept ours in our garage, we still had it winterized each year.

Shoot, it can get pretty cold here in northeastern Florida some days during the winter. We've seen a daytime high of 45 and overnight low of 24. People here say, "if you want to get completely out of cold/snow, a person definitely has to move more south in Florida". For the last few years, we've had our boat winterized here. Before then, we'd simply drain the block, which I did. But, that's still not enough assurance of the engine possibly freezing up.

Looking for more replies from anyone who owns a boat and uses Carter and/or Boyd lakes. Since we will both be retired when we move, we'll be able to take the boat out during the week as well as the weekends. Basically, we are "early on the water", but around 9AM and leave around noon. I've always been an "early riser" from my old farming days and Navy years.

[BabyBoomers2]

Finally almost here!

Airlines tickets bought, car rental and hotel reservations ready and tickets to Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo. Fly out of here on Saturday AM, non-stop on Frontier Airlines to DIA. Will probably look a little, most likely "a lot" odd at JIA (Jacksonville airport), because of what we will be wearing...….short sleeve shirt/blouse, Wrangler jeans, Ariat Lace-Up Roper boots and Wrangler & Cody James (Boot Barn) straw cowboy hats and trophy rodeo Team Roping buckles. We will have shorts, tennis shoes and t-shirts with us to wear as well.


We went to JIA last Saturday to see exactly where it was and go by Frontier Airlines Ticket area. Not a single person there with a cowboy hat on, boots or wearing Wrangler jeans. Everyone was in shorts/slacks and tennis shoes. However, this is Jacksonville, FL., not DIA or an airport in Wyoming or Montana.

Looking very, very forward to seeing Carter and Boyd lakes and other things in Loveland. Looking forward to possibly going to The Boot Grill in Loveland or Sundance Steakhouse & Saloon in Fort Collins on Saturday night, after we get settled into our hotel room.

Then, the next week, spend a couple of days at Cheyenne Frontier Days and possibly hit The Outlaw nightclub in Cheyenne. But, there will be a saloon set up at CFD to dance away the evening at.

[Thoreau424]

Originally Posted by LoveBoating

Will probably look a little, most likely "a lot" odd at JIA (Jacksonville airport), because of what we will be wearing...….short sleeve shirt/blouse, Wrangler jeans, Ariat Lace-Up Roper boots and Wrangler & Cody James (Boot Barn) straw cowboy hats and trophy rodeo Team Roping buckles.

And likely at DIA too. I travel a lot in and out of that airport, and don't recall seeing anyone dressed like that. Yes to jeans, and very occasional cowboy hats, but not sure about the rest. Maybe if you're trying to spot that, it might be seen. I'm sure you'll let us know though how it goes.