What the Hell Is Thompson’s Colorado?

What is Thompson’s Colorado to you as a subscriber, reader or follower?

Because as the creator, I’m not sure what the hell this is anymore.

And that’s kind of what makes it fun.

Thompson’s Colorado started as a vanity project. I’d spent years away from journalism, and I wanted to know if I could still find stories, interview people, dig through government documents, shoot and edit video, and build an audience from nothing.

Since then it has tried to be Bus Bloomberg, covering the eight-county RTD the way a metro desk would. It has tried to be Longmont’s paper of record, a public-records experiment, a Colorado explainer, a community newsletter, a personal blog and a car-free influencer account.

If you came here for the journalism, you’ve probably noticed there’s been less of it lately.

There’s a reason. Life has been hard. For the last couple of months I’ve been dealing with job loss, financial stress, applications, interviews and a lot of uncertainty.

But there’s also a practical reality: serious journalism wasn’t paying my bills. A deeply reported story can take days to produce, and lately every unpaid hour I spent reporting was an hour I wasn’t spending finding work that could actually keep a roof over my head.

I suspect I’ll eventually end up working an 8-to-5 in another industry. If that’s what happens, Thompson’s Colorado isn’t going away. Journalism will just have to fit around it.

So Bus Bloomberg is on pause. But I’ve kept getting on my bike and going places, and apparently some Coloradans really enjoy watching me do that.

I didn’t suddenly start doing ridiculous things on a bicycle. I’ve ridden to Denver plenty of times. I’ve climbed Highway 7 before. This spring I made a music video at the summit, and about 2,000 people watched it. Recently I went back, narrated the ride as I went and didn’t even make the top. Roughly 20,000 people watched across Instagram and TikTok.

Apparently, narrating the attempt was about 10 times more interesting than showing you the summit.

More than 56,000 people watched my car-free trip to Hessie. Thousands watched me take an e-bike up Guanella Pass and figure out how to get home from Georgetown without a car. Then last week I documented another ride to Denver: 40.89 miles, nachos and a decision that RTD could handle the trip home. That video has passed 100,000 views on Instagram and 26,000 on TikTok. More than 3,000 people liked it, hundreds sent it to somebody else, and more than 250 followed Thompson’s Colorado because of that one Reel.

So I have an important editorial question: What the hell do you people want from me? 😂

Because it isn’t just the bike.

When I stopped reporting on everybody else for a minute and told you I needed a job, nearly 70,000 people watched on Instagram and another 14,000 on TikTok. That video followed my whole day, from a plasma center to a job interview. My inbox filled with leads and suggestions. People made introductions. Some sent cash that helped hold September together.

Then the bike I’d ridden roughly 1,000 miles across Colorado died on Kimbark Street.

I’d parked it outside the OUR Center while I got groceries. When I came back, the headlight was gone. Somewhere on the way home, the cassette, the derailleur, everything just shattered. I don’t know what happened, but it was odd. I posted about it.

Dozens of people offered parts, bikes and help. Yesterday a supporter pulled a Fuji out of his garage and gave it to me so I could keep riding.

While we talked, he told me what he thinks people like about the videos: “Normal guy tries dumb stuff” energy.

That tracks. I’m not an elite cyclist. Sometimes I make it where I’m going, sometimes I change the plan, sometimes I take a bus home. This week the bicycle itself quit.

And two different strangers have now said nearly the same thing to me.

The first stopped me downtown: “Life is hard. I love that you’re pushing through it.”

Saturday night, a Longmonster stopped me on the sidewalk. He said, “I saw you walking. You came across my feed.” He told me he’s been trying to retrain his algorithm toward positive, local stuff, and that he appreciates my candor because life is hard.

Maybe that’s part of this too. The car-free adventures have been easier to make while everything else has been chaotic, and I can think of a new one almost every day. Fort Collins. Eldorado Canyon. Flagstaff Mountain. Left Hand Canyon. Lookout Mountain. Waterton Canyon. As far east as my legs will take me.

Bus Bloomberg isn’t dead. Eventually I’ll open another government document, see something that doesn’t make sense and spend three evenings figuring out why. Maybe one day Thompson’s Colorado is a 2,000-word enterprise story about public transportation. Maybe another day it’s a story about someone doing something interesting in Longmont. And maybe another day it’s me pointing a bicycle toward Fort Collins to see what happens.

After more than a million views since May, thousands of followers, strangers recognizing me around town and one of you literally giving me a bicycle, I’m curious:

What is Thompson’s Colorado to you?

Seriously. Tell me in the comments, email me @ nickthompsonreports@gmail.com or send me a message. I’m curious what you think I’ve built here — and what you’d like to see more or less of.