Day 14: Cadet Chapel, indoor skydiving and wild buffalo chases

Starting point: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Ending point: Denver, Colorado
Miles driven today: 129.2
Miles driven total: 3,597.4

This morning we decided to check out the Air Force Academy before leaving Colorado Springs. Every car gets searched before it goes through the gate, so we stopped and popped our trunk for the guard. One look in our trunk and all he said was “Road trip?”

“Yep,” we replied as he motioned us through. It could have been the two suitcases bulging with clothes that gave us away. Or all the bags of souvenirs. Or Cecily’s folded up bed stuffed on top. Not sure which one was the biggest hint of our activities.

We had heard that the Cadet Chapel was especially beautiful, and it did not disappoint. The outside was really interesting, with the triangles representing both the holy trinity and the shape of a plane or wing, as well as an A for Air Force:

The inside was absolutely stunning, especially the stained glass on the ceiling:

After leaving the Air Force Academy we headed north and stopped about half of an hour outside of Denver for our appointment at an indoor skydiving place. It was basically this tube about 12 feet wide with a giant fan on the bottom. We put on jumpsuits, helmets, goggles and ear plugs and the instructor helped us each take a turn flying on winds of about 120 MPH. It was pretty incredible, especially when the instructor grabbed our hands and took us soaring up about 20 feet and then back down. Fun fact about indoor skydiving: somehow it is possible to be drooling up a storm while at the same time your mouth feels drier than it has ever felt in your life.

We had some time to kill before meeting up with Cecily’s friend Katie in Denver, so at lunch we started Googling for other things we could do. Megan found what seemed to be a cool buffalo nature preserve, but couldn’t find the actual address of the place. That should have sent up a red flag, but perhaps the skydiving had blown all the common sense out of her brain. We then proceeded to go on what can only be called a wild buffalo chase. Not the kind where we chased wild buffalo, but the kind where we went on a wild goose chase for buffalo but never actually saw any.

However, along the way we did happen upon Red Rock Park, which was very cool and similar to the Garden of the Gods formations we had seen in Colorado Springs. This time we actually got out of the car and Megan finally answered the call from all those rocks begging her to climb them. It went great and that rock slide thing that happened was really pretty minor.

After finally giving up on seeing any buffalo, we headed to Katie’s place in Denver. Her husband Frank was born and raised in the area so he made the perfect tour guide as we drove downtown for dinner. Megan was overjoyed to find a fellow Cardinals fan in Katie, and we made sure to go to a restaurant that would have the game on.

But this was not just any old restaurant. It was started as a brewpub in 1988 by John Hickenlooper. Five years later, the Colorado Rockies made their home just a few blocks away and Mr. Hickenlooper’s business exploded. He became a very successful restaurateur and in 2003 decided to run for mayor of Denver. Guess who is now the governor of the state of Colorado? The guy who started that Denver neighborhood bar. That has got to be one of Megan’s favorite rise-of-a-politician stories.

Tomorrow we have another long day of driving, this time through the entire state of Kansas. It’s sure to be just delightful. We have to be there by 5:30 because we have tickets to go to the U.S. Men’s World Cup qualifier match against Guatemala in Kansas City. Combine that with the time change and we’re going to be getting up pretty dang early tomorrow morning. Still, it’s not 4 a.m., so who are we to complain. Any tips on how to make the drive through Kansas go faster?

Day 13: Cog train, Pikes Peak and Garden of the Gods take one

Starting point: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Ending point: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Miles driven today: 2.2
Miles driven total: 3,468.2

Today was the first day of the trip that we pretty much didn’t drive anywhere. Besides one errand down the street, our car stayed parked in the Chapmans’s driveway while they drove us around. It was pretty nice to just ride for once. Our first adventure of the day was the Pikes Peak cog train, which we took all the way up to the top of the mountain. It took us about an hour and a half to climb to the altitude of 14,110 feet, but the view was absolutely gorgeous the whole way so it went by quick.

It was a beautiful morning down at the train station at about 6,400 feet and we only needed light jackets. But by the time we made it to the top, the temperature had dropped to 17 degrees and we were freezing through about four layers apiece. We admired the incredible view for a few minutes before running inside the souvenir shop to escape the chill. Also to get some of their world famous donuts. At those high altitudes, our ears were constantly popping, we got out of breathe walking about 20 yards, and Cecily thought her sinuses might explode at any moment. Yet it was totally worth it to literally be above the clouds looking down.

Yeah that’s not smoke in the distance – that’s a cloud!

Speaking of dealing with high altitudes, the Chapmans have shared with us several things they have learned about living at around 7,000 feet above sea level. Apparently baking is completely different and ingredients must be adjusted accordingly. It takes six weeks to adjust to swimming at the higher altitude. And sealed things tend to explode when you first open them. That last one we had actually each learned on our own when we tried to open our shampoo in the morning.

On our way back from Pikes Peak we drove through the Garden of the Gods, which is this awesome collection of giant rocks, many of which are a really deep red color. All were calling on Megan to climb them, but thankfully she resisted. She’s saving that for when they visit the southern Illinois version of Garden of the Gods on Friday.

After we got home, Mary Jo helped us make awesome Destination: Inspiration t-shirts with our logo on the front and all the cities we are visiting and our words of inspiration on the back. Megan feels a little like they’re in a band on tour. Expect some action shots in these shirts sometime in the future.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to the Chapmans and Colorado Springs and head to Denver and possibly Boulder as well. We plan to go indoor skydiving tomorrow as well, so it should be another exciting day!

Day 12: Olympians and caves but no zipline

Starting point: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Ending point: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Miles driven today: 78.8
Miles driven total: 3,466

One of the difficulties in packing for a cross country road trip is that you’re going through so many different climates. DC has pretty average weather: it’s hot in the summer, cold in the winter, and somewhere nice in between during the fall and spring. October weather usually calls for a long sleeve shirt, maybe a light jacket. But in New Orleans, we had to deal with the kind of heat we only expect in August. Now that we’re in Colorado, the pendulum has swung the opposite direction. And Megan didn’t pack a coat.

Luckily the Chapmans have plenty of winter gear to loan out, because we spent a majority of the day outside. The highlight was definitely the Olympic Training Center. If Roswell was Megan’s happy place, this was Cecily’s. We got a tour of the whole complex, led by a gold medal winner and captain of the U.S. Paralympics swim team. It was pretty incredible to see.

Plus they had a fantastic gift store, which of course is what really matters.

After the Olympic Training Center we headed to Cave of the Winds, which we had heard was pretty cool. What we hadn’t heard is the treacherous journey you must take to get there. We climbed almost 1,000 feet in about half a mile, all of it winding curves up to 180 degrees. But the view at the top was definitely worth it:

To Megan’s great sadness, the zipline that you could ride through this canyon on was closed down for repairs. Instead they just took a tour of the caves. With the handrails and concrete steps it wasn’t exactly rustic, but still cool to see.

Tomorrow we are planning to take a train up Pike’s Peak and check out the view from there. We can see the snow on top from here so Megan will definitely be borrowing about three additional layers. It’s also rumored to be home to Santa’s workshop, so we will be keeping an eye out for short little guys with pointy ears.

Day 11: The scenic route, tumbleweed and sand surfing

Starting point: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Ending point: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Miles driven today: 443.2
Miles driven total: 3,387.2

This morning we packed up and pulled out of Albuquerque, sad to be leaving but excited for the next adventure! The first stop of the day was Santa Fe. First we shopped a little in the town’s plaza and it turned out to be a really good thing that we were trying to be quick, because otherwise we could have easily spent way too much money on all the cool things being sold. After a few great purchases, we went to the Georgia O’Keeffe museum just down the street. Cecily had been pretty excited about this stop but she was actually a little disappointed, partly because they did not have a lot of the large-scale flower paintings O’Keeffe is famous for.

Megan was determined to find a local place after all the fast food we have been eating lately, so we ended up at the Blue Corn Cafe for lunch and it was incredible! Never had sopaipillas like that – YUM! Definitely check it out if you’re ever in Santa Fe.

After leaving Santa Fe we headed to the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado and along the way saw some of our favorite scenery from the entire trip. Instead of being on an interstate, we went on this two lane highway that had the most amazing views. Check out this little golf course we came across in the middle of nowhere – I was very impressed they managed to keep that grass green!

Once again we had several interesting incidents while on the road. The first was a bit of a downer. You know when you’re driving and there’s a bunch of birds in front of you and it looks like they’re not going to move in time, but then at the very last second they all fly away? Yeah, that happened to us, except the last bird did not move fast enough. We’re going to pretend the little guy was only stunned after ricocheting off our windshield at about 65 miles an hour.

We went through storms for most of the drive and several times there was some really crazy wind. During one of those moments in northern New Mexico, we were amazed to see tumbleweed roll by on the road in front of us. Actual tumbleweed! It happened about 10 times, including a couple after we had crossed into Colorado, and we enjoyed every single encounter immensely. We are seriously filling up our road trip bingo cards at this point.

We finally made it to the Great Sand Dunes just as the rain was stopping. Surfing the dunes was something we had been looking forward to for quite some time, but we weren’t sure if it was still going to happen since they were totally soaked. However, the lady at the sand board rental place assured us that wet sand actually means it’s easier to go faster

She lied.

Since Cecily has only gone snowboarding once or twice, and Megan not at all, we didn’t exactly know what we were doing. But we did eventually figure it out a bit, and got some great rides down these monsters:

Trust me – these are HUGE!

Unfortunately they haven’t actually gotten around to installing a lift in the sand dunes yet, a serious oversight in our opinion, so we were totally wiped out after about an hour of climbing up them in the high altitude. Because of several quite hilarious falls and the fact that you had to take your shoes off to get your feet in the boards, we were also soaked and oozing sand out of every pore. Basically, it was a blast!

A few more hours down the road and we had reached the home of the Chapmans just north of Colorado Springs. They are Megan’s cousins who used to live by her in DC, so she is really looking forward to spending a lot of family time with them. Tomorrow we plan to check out the Olympic Training Center and possibly do some caving if we can manage it without freezing to death.