Roadside Mysteries

The Big MAX opens today!

The MAX articulated bus

Also known as the MAX BRT which means MAson eXpress Bus Rapid Transit, the MAX BRT is my personal bus line from my house to downtown Fort Collins. Each bus cost $840,000 and total capital cost is around $81 million, give or take a couple $100K. On the MAX’s first run dozens of business leaders and politicians came to speak; I just couldn’t stick around and wait to be one of the first riders… here will be plenty of time to hop on board in the next few days.

FRCC mascot gets trimmed

The opening ceremonies included the above “mascot” from FRCC. Not sure why but perhaps the FRCC is trying to promote the use of the BRT for students so as to cut down on car traffic. Yes, good luck with that. (Note that many of the so-called students at FRCC drive huge gas guzzling trucks and like to keep them idling in the parking lot for HOURS). Yes, it’s true. They’re complete idiots!

Solar powered bicycle pump?

The SolAir made by Sol Design Labs is a bicycle pump that replaces those stupid 150+ year old technology hand pumps your grandfather used. It’s cool, but some of the better models included e-bike charging stations as well. (Maybe they don’t want e-bikes on the Mason trail?)

Welcome to Smokey Street, Fort Collins!

It’s where the Qdoba Events Center is located!

The Q-What? Oh, some kind of “fast casual” Mexican restaurant subsidiary owned by Jack-In-The-Box. I personally don’t care for their food… It seems low quality at a high price. Just not worth it. Don’t know why CSU students would eat there. Whatever. They Do have an events center and it’s on Smokey Street. I’ve asked several FoCo natives if they knew about this events center… No, they never heard of it, nor have they ever heard of Smokey Street. But it’s there.  What else is on Smokey Street?

Solace Meds

I made this assumption when I headed out looking for the Qdoba Center that I might find a marijuana store someplace on a street named Smokey. It just seemed so Cheech&Chongish not to have at least one. Oh, easy one! Right across the street from the Qdoba Events Center you will find Solace.

Yes, two more

Both next to a gun store.Seems odd.

As for ‘Active Arms’, here’s a review from the internet:

“I went in there with my 5 year old sun to see if they could work on an air pistol that I have had for many years, my grandfather had it when he was younger. I waited 20 minutes as the owner was standing there telling some story to his buddy and not really caring that he had 2-3 customers waiting on him. After his wife asked if I had been help, owner still never acknowledged me, I told her what I was looking for, an… view mored then all of a sudden he spoke up and said some negative remarks to my son about the way he was holding the air pistol, while he was looking at someone’s hand gun and swinging it all over the place! Again, it was clearly noticeable that it was not a working pistol, as I had it apart and my son had the handle. He finally got to his point that he didn’t do that kind of work. His business must be good because he doesn’t care anything about his customers, or possible future customers. I wouldn’t do business with him just for that reason!!“

Test yourself for $1:

A local foothills dollar store has these drug testing kits on sale at the checkout counter

Well, the new law in Colorado went into effect today with over one million dollars in sales so far!  That’s for marijuana sales, NOT test kits. While you may get a test kit at the drugstore for $20, for some reason the dollar store has a kit for a buck.  Amazon sells this same brand for $3.49 don’t ‘cha know? Seems hard to believe they can detect 50 ng THC with an accuracy of 98%. I bet not, but it makes a good joke item.

Don’t be surprised if you see one of these kits in our guest bathroom.