About That Santa Fe (September 10 - 17)

Hello Family and Friends,

Our last days in Colorado Springs involved a football game and friends! Sadly, USAFA lost to the TCU HornFrogs! Frog fans were super supportive of the men and women in uniform at USAFA. They were great opponents! Congrats Frogs!!! ( I have to say all of that because I am from Ft. Worth and have several TCU grads in the family, including my parents.)  Below are some of the pics from a very patriotic pre game show.

Cadets march onto the field.

Jumping with smoke!

All flags of each branch of the military are represented here.

There is nothing like OLD GLORY!

This flag took up the entire football field.

This RV life is great in that you run into friends from previous stops! Imagine our surprise when we found Butch and Pam (friends from Davis Monthan AFB Fam Camp) at the USAFA RV park at the Academy. We spent three days with them and had so much fun. We look to Butch and Pam for all sorts of help as they are seasoned full time RVers. They had us over for dinner the night before we left.

Butch and Pam

Our trip to Santa Fe went very smoothly. On Wednesday, we left the beautiful Rampart Range of the Rocky Mountains, driving south on Interstate 25, into the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Santa Fe. Along the way we spotted herds of antelope "playing" in the fields. Our site for the next two weeks is at Santa Fe Skies. We are on the south side of Santa Fe. At night we are up high enough to see the twinkly lights of the downtown, Plaza area. Our first day in Santa Fe was spent on a walking tour of the plaza area with a local guide. Below are a few pics of the Plaza. The first picture shows wares being sold in front of the Palace of the Governors (one of the oldest buildings in the country). The second picture shows the Plaza square directly across from the Palace of the Governors.

Friday found us at the Georgia O'Keefe Museum. Unfortunately the museum was closed for a change in artwork. Fortunately we were able to join a tour that showed us the artist's personal collection of books, drawing implements and her clothing located in a separate building. This is something that is not normally open to the public so we were thrilled to learn more about the artist via her personal collections. We will head back to the museum when they reopen next week. The rest of the morning was spent browsing the many shops in the Plaza area.

If you study Georgia O' Keefe, you cannot help but be fascinated by shapes. Notice the bark of this very old tree in front of the O"Keefe workshop.

Saturday morning we were able to get our first bike ride in by cycling along a path that took us straight into the downtown Plaza area. The Plaza was busy with all ages and it was fun to see the sights by bike. Tomorrow we hope to visit El Rancho de las Golonrinas. This "Ranch of the Swallows" founded 300 years ago, in 1710. It was the last stopping spot on El Camino Real before reaching Santa Fe. El Camino Real ran from Mexico City to Santa Fe for several hundred years. 


We are grateful to have two weeks in Santa Fe. We look forward to cycling, hiking, playing with Bear and touring the many fascinating places that are found in this area of the Southwest. Thank you for checking in with us. We appreciate your interest in our never ending vacation. 

About That Colorado Springs, Part Four (September 3 - 10)

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you for checking out our blog. We are into our fourth and final week at Colorado Springs, with a departure to Santa Fe on the 14th. Our perpetual vacation continues to amaze us and this week started out with lots of excitement.

Saturday was the first football game of the season. Thanks to Ann and John, we had great seats at the 50 yard line. Air Force games begin with a march on the field by the cadet wing. Below are the pics of the game. USAFA beat University of South Dakota 37 to 20.

Roger's new friend from Famous Daves.

Led by the Cadet Drum and Bugle Corps, the Cadet Wing begins marching onto the field.

The Cadet Wing running to their seats in the stadium.

Sunday morning was an early departure for Memorial Park in Colorado Springs. It was the 34th Balloon Classic. The morning was perfect with no wind. At 7 the first wave of balloons left the park followed shortly by the second wave and finally the third. Almost 70 balloons were launched and the pics below show the wonderful sight.

Guess what??? Pigs can fly!!!

Filling the balloon and preparing to launch.

Roger, Bear and I took a road trip to Canon City, in search of  The Royal Gorge, on Tuesday. What a rip off! I love the free enterprise system on our country, but this was over the top. For $25 per person, we could get into an amusement park that allowed us to walk over the bridge that spans the Royal Gorge. Fortunately there was a free spot (not well marked) where we could see small parts of the gorge.  Below are the pics from our expedition. Besides the bridge to nowhere,  look closely and see the rafts on the river.

We leave Wednesday for Santa Fe. I will miss the beautiful scenery of Colorado Springs and Pikes Peak, the crisp mornings with a touch of Fall in the air, the cycling, the Rockies, the animal life (wild turkeys, a red fox, chunky prairie dogs, black squirrels), old and new friends, and Air Force Academy athletics. What a great month this has been!!!

Roger and I are headed over to the Falcon/TCU game. I am hoping to be able to post a win for the Falcons on next week's blog. GO FALCONS!!!

About That Colorado Springs, Part Three (August 28 - September 3)

Dear Family and Friends,

Our month in Colorado Springs is going quickly, with two weeks down and two to go before we leave for Santa Fe.  Our days remain packed with many activities.

Sunday found us out on our early morning bike ride. We ran over to the local Apple store for a lesson on the MacBook Pro after our ride, then hurried back to meet our friends from Stockton, Bunny and Joe. Roger gave us a great tour of the Academy before we went out to dinner.

Bunny and Joe with the Academy in the background.

Bunny, Joe and Roger in front of the Chapel.

The Protestant Chapel Altar

The needlepoint cushions were stitched by Officers Wives Clubs.

The Catholic Chapel

At one time, the Thunderbirds flew the T-38. Roger flew this plane in pilot training.

Roger in front of the A-10. He has over 1000 hours in this plane. This plane was instrumental in our victories in Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom.  It has a Gatling Gun that protrudes out the nose and can drop bombs and fire missiles.

My brother, Warren, arrived from Park City on Monday. He brought both mountain and road bikes. Warren is a five time Ironman, so I hope I can keep up with him. Below are the pictures I took as we walked our dogs (Bear and Andie) around the Campground.

Our time with Warren was spent riding bikes, hiking, walking dogs and sightseeing. The following pics are of the Academy Falcons volleyball team and our trip to US Olympic Center. The Falcons played the University of Northern Colorado.  Colorado Springs is one of three facilities in the nation that train athletes for the Olympics.

The Falcons

Warren and Roger at the Olympic Center.

Can you believe that the Olympics in London will take place in less than a year?

On a short hike to the Flatiron, we were able to capture a beautiful view of Cathedral Rock. This landmark can be seen from Interstate 25. Bear loves to hike with us.

It seems that this week rushed by! We head over to Falcon Stadium for the first football game of the season this afternoon. The Academy plays South Dakota. Go Falcons!

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog. We appreciate your interest in our travels. Next week is our last week on the Academy grounds.

About That Colorado Springs, Part Two (August 21 - 27)

Dear Family and Friends,

We are into our second week in Colorado Springs. We try to start each day with a bike ride that is truly memorable. The scenery is gorgeous but the hills and altitude offer lots of challenge, hence the memorable!

 The Tour interior has to be cleaned occasionally, so Sunday was that occasion. It took about an hour to clean our coach. That is one of the pluses of going from living in 3400 square feet with lots of things to dust to 350 square feet with very little to dust. Surprisingly the things in the coach that I thought were unnecessary (washer, dryer, dishwasher and fireplace) have turned out to be much appreciated and useful. Living in the Tour is a pleasure!

Everyday turns out to be an adventure! We never know who our neighbors will be, but they all turn out to be very social and there are great happy hours all most every night. It is truly educational to hear other people's opinions about the state of our nation. I must admit that I learn so much from these chats and feel that they are well balanced. Most of all, I am impressed with the patriotism of the Americans I am meeting.

Permit this proud mother to take a few moments to let you know that Michael Radcliff won the CAT 3 Arizona State Road Race Championship on Sunday.  His hard work and dedication to his sport culminated in this very special victory. Roger and I are thrilled for him. Yeah Michael!!

Michael at at the finish of the race in 110 degree heat!!!

Monday was the start of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge held here in Colorado, that luckily for us began in Colorado Springs. This professional cycling race lasts seven days with many mountain pass climbs. The prologue (start) of this race began in Garden of the Gods and ended downtown for a total of 5.2 miles. The 130 cyclists are sent out alone in one to two minute intervals. The winner of this time trial wears the yellow jersey for the next leg of the race. Roger and I stood a few feet from the finnish line and were so excited to watch this caliber of racing. Below are some pics that capture the moment.

Working on the finish line before the start of the race. We stood several yards behind the finish line.

A shot of the street that the cyclists came down before crossing the finish line. You can see Pikes Peak in the distance.

Cyclists do not get better than this. They wear special kit, helmets and use a different bike from their normal race days for the time trials.

On Tuesday morning, Roger spoke to an econ class about investing. He enjoyed seeing the Academy again from the inside, but this time he was standing on the other side of the lectern. 

After our longest bike ride yet on Wednesday morning (40 miles of hills and altitude), we headed out for a drive into the higher mountains of Woodland Park. We enjoyed watching the temperature plummet 20 degrees. On the way back into town, we stopped at a German deli that has been in the area for over 50 years. We saw so many things that reminded us of our years in Germany and Austria. Not only the food, but German newspapers and magazines were available for purchase.  Later in the evening we enjoyed eating bison at Ted's Place in Colorado Springs. This restaurant was new to us, but apparently there are more in other parts of the country. 

The rest of the week found us hiking, biking, running errands, and watching the televised pro cycling race in the afternoon. On Saturday we headed up to Denver to see our friends from Ft. Collins, John and Ann.  

Roger and Bear hiking on Falcon Trail

Bear takes a break on the hike.

Roger and Bear hiking on Chapel Overlook Trail.  The pointed pinnacles of the Chapel mark this  easily recognized landmark of the Academy.

Thank you for reading the blog. We appreciate your interest in our adventures.  Next week will find us in week three at the Academy.  In addition to more bike rides and hiking, we are looking forward to having my brother with us for the week and a visit from Stockton, Missouri friends. Saturday marks the first Academy football game and they play South Dakota. Thanks to our friends John and Ann, we will be in the stands.