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This is the last of a series. You can also read about the first part of our trip to Colorado here.

Day 6:

We had 1 main event planned for this day, which was a late-ish start, so we had a slow morning. By this day though, we had adjusted to local time so it wasn’t a problem to not be early.

USAFA : US Air Force Academy

Well, first of all we noticed the construction happening just outside the entrance gate. A new hotel is coming soon. Then on through the gate and we went to the airfield overlook.

The airfield was a long ways from the gate. The academy is a big place. But anyway, we got there at a good time – the weather was good and the skies were clear so the cadets were doing all the activities they could. We got to see gliders being towed up, being released, and landing. We also got to see parachute practice – planes taking off, planes landing, and people jumping out, and people landing (some rougher than others).

Then we drove to the grounds overlook. The large white box is the chapel, closed until further notice for renovation.

The grounds are surprisingly open. We helped ourselves to the NCAA Div I athletic facilities (i.e. we walked on the track).

Then we wandered through the visitor center and gift shop. One of the things they’re constructing at the entrance (besides the hotel) is a new visitor center. So if you want to see the old visitor center before they retire it, go soon.

After that, we made our way to the planetarium.

We were there at a time when they were showing a movie rather than an astronomy show, but we did get to see a bit of astronomy stuff before the movie.

Then it was lunchtime. We drove back into downtown Colorado Springs, and our plan was to go to the fancy food court. We parked in the parking garage, walked a block or two to the storefront, and found it was closed because they close on Mondays.

So now we had a hungry family and no plan. After consulting our phones, we decided on an Asian place. After walking a block or two to there, we found it was basically carry-out only, and we wanted a place to sit and eat.

The grumbling increased.

We then decided on a Mexican place a couple blocks away. We walked there, and since it was a sit-down place and they could take us, we didn’t check anything else, such as menu or prices.

Don’t worry, that’s not foreshadowing – the menu had all the typical Mexican restaurant offerings, plus slightly more. And the prices were inline with other downtown places.

The food took a little while to get there, but of course that didn’t matter since they kept bringing us chips and salsa and drink refills.

Once the food did arrive, I would say it was worth the wait. Everyone thought the food was good, and not just good but much better than a typical Mexican restaurant. Like fresh ingredients and stuff. Some Wife is the type of person who is not impressed with restaurants because she can cook better for cheaper, so to have her comment on how good the place was meant something. And Delta told the waitress it was 11 stars out of 5. So, rave reviews of Jose Muldoon’s all around.

Then back to the house for a rest and to digest all the chips and salsa. We decided on one last activity in the evening – a hike at a GoG trail we hadn’t done yet.

GoG2 : Garden of the Gods again

We found a trail that was not too long and not too short. It also happened to be a horse trail, as you can see by the variety of shoeprints and hoofprints on the trail.

The views from the trail weren’t too different from other parts of the park, but it was still scenic.

The difference this time was that we were there later in the evening instead of the morning, so the light was different, and there was rain in places that we could see in the distance.

And there was more wildlife on this trail than we had seen earlier. That was probably a function of the different time and also fewer people on the trail.

We got back to our house to pack for leaving the next day, and that was it.

Then it was evening, then morning the next day.

Day 7:

We really had one main thing planned for this day – get home to Michigan. But we had some extra time to kill so we filled in with an extra activity.

DR : Dinosaur Ridge

We had breadkfast, cleaned the house, packed the van, made sure nobody left anything in any room, then we left. Checkout was 11 but we were out of there shortly after 10.

Because I don’t like the uncertainty of traffic, we had decided to find an activity in Denver rather than Colorado Springs. There is a lot to do in Denver, but I wanted to find something we couldn’t do at home (zoo, museum) or didn’t already do in Colorado Springs (mountains, hiking).

That left dinosaur tracks. Denver has Dinosaur Ridge, which is a place with fossilized dinosaur prints. There’s a business that’s setup to run tour buses to take you up and down the I think 2 mile trail, for a fee. Or you can park and walk for free, so that’s what we did.

It was very hot, and very dry, and very windy. The complaints started pretty quickly, as it is a bit of a walk to the first artifacts. If you’re going to walk it, be ready for a half mile of walking uphill.

One of the things that bothered me, was this sign.

How can the rocks fall on you from the left, when the cliff is on the right?

They had a display of ripples on the sea floor that were petrified. Or fossilized. Not sure the right term.

And then lots of dinosaur tracks. They seem to have enhanced them by coloring them darker than the surrounding rocks.

It was somewhat interesting, especially because it was free and was nearby. Not exactly on the way, but something memorable so it was worth the short stop.

Lunch : Lunch

We had packed lunches to eat on the way. Since we still had a bit of time, we thought a good plan was to stop at a park in Denver and sit and eat there, rather than in the rental van.

We also thought it was a good idea to drive for a little bit, get closer to the airport and also keep our stomachs full later since dinner wasn’t going to be until after we landed in Detroit.

The only problem was that there aren’t that many parks near the airport. So we picked one in the middle of Denver on the way to the airport.

Probably not the best choice.

We had to drive about 3 blocks off the freeway to the park, and the houses and the church we passed had bars on the windows. We pulled into the parking lot and there were two minivans, looking very much like they were occupied by homeless guys. Plus there was a shabby-looking guy sleeping on the ground not too far (i.e. about 20 feet) from where we parked.

So we drove back a block to where there was a community pool and some picnic tables. We sat and ate, and it was fine. On our way back to the freeway, since it was just a few exits from the airport, I also filled up the minivan.

DEN : Denver Airport

Then back on the freeway and to the airport. I took the exit (off I-70, to avoid tolls) for the Denver airport, and we drove for miles and miles before checking the map and concluding that yes, we were on the right road. If you haven’t been to the Denver airport, it is way out of the way. We finally made it to the rental return and the gas gauge still said Full. Then we hopped on the shuttle bus for a ride of a couple more miles to get to the terminal. Then we were met with this sight:

The lines to get through security were the longest lines in an airport that I ever remember seeing. In the whole lobby, the line snaked back and forth, all the way back to the entrance doors. It took a while, but we made it through eventually (and without incident, unlike on the way out when the X-ray machine found the can of bug spray that was accidentally left in a bag and thus was confiscated).

We found our gate, and sat down to wait out the next 2 hours. I had a book to read, so no problem. But first, I had to get the seats assigned. Because we had the cheap seats, we just had boarding passes and needed the gate agent to give us our seat assignments.

It was 2 hours until the flight, a little early but that’s not usually a problem. I went up to the agent and she said she was working the arrival flight and I needed to wait for the next agent.

The flight from Detroit arrived, which was good because that’s the plane they clean and refuel and send back to Detroit. The other agent also appeared, so I checked with him and he printed off some tickets with seats assigned for me.

It was odd, each time I had to get seats printed off, the procedure was more relaxed than I expected, because they never asked for boarding passes or ID or anything, just verify my name.
Me: “Hi, I’m here to get seats assigned.”
Gate Agent: “Oh, are you Some Guy?”
Me: “Yes I am.”

It seemed to me that I could have easily passed for anyone else. But chances are the only other people who don’t have assigned seats at that point are in the cheap seats like we were, so it’s not like I’d get any sort of an upgrade. Plus no one else is flying with 6 people, so we’d still have to check in as ourselves to get enough tickets.

At this point I had new boarding passes, and I made sure everyone had everything ready to go, since boarding would start soon.

Half an hour before flight time, and people were lining up. We didn’t get too excited, since we board last. But the odd thing was that the gate person never announced that boarding was starting.

Finally, as people were milling about in front of the gate, the gate agent got on the loudspeaker and announced “We are sorry, but the 3:00 flight to Detroit is cancelled.” It was interesting seeing everyone (including myself) go through the five stages of grief in the span of a few minutes.

Denial? Definitely – no way can they cancel the flight 30 minutes before takeoff. The announcement itself was hard to hear, because it’s an airport loudspeaker. So the information was being spread by word of mouth, and as soon as someone heard it, they immediately looked up the flight info on their phone just to make sure it really was true.
Anger? – Don’t they know we have to get home?
Bargaining? – Look, that other flight is going to Grand Rapids and they’re boarding now. Oh, it’s another airline. Can I get somewhere else? Can I rent a car instead?
Depression? – well, I guess we’re stuck here.
Acceptance? – They rebooked us for 8pm. Everyone make yourself comfortable for a few hours.

So this was our second vacation home of the trip:

We got food vouchers from the airline, since they stranded us. Others who got rebooked for the next day also got hotel vouchers. Note: the vouchers are single-use only, so if you don’t spend at least $15 then you’re leaving free money on the table. So Beta came back from his choice of restaurant with an extra bottled water, just to full up his voucher.

Here’s what I got: a sandwich and a shake from Quiznos. It was about $16.50, so I had to throw in a little bit of my money.

Everybody ate, the food wasn’t too bad, and we eventually made it on the 8pm flight. To Salt Lake City, where we had a layover before getting on an after-midnight flight to Detroit.

Then it was evening, then morning the next day, all while we were flying.

So that travel day started at 10am Colorado time and we got back to our home about 7am Michigan time. That’s a long time with about 30 minutes of uncomfortable sleep total. But we made it home.

The End.

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