Are We There Yet?

Before starting the last leg of our trip home, we had to go to the Museum of the United States Air Force! And it was well worth it! I could have spent the entire day in the 3 giant hangars, but we only had a couple hours to spare. 

The museum started from the very beginning in the early 1900s with Wilbur and Orville Wright and went all the way to present day (not exactly present day, but there was an F-22 in the museum!). My favorite hangar was probably the WWII hangar. That's where Jay Zeamer's memorabilia was, which I thought was awesome! Also, all the planes were super cool and amazing!!! One of the neatest things was the Doolittle Raiders toast goblets. There are only 4 remaining Doolittle Raiders alive and they took their last toast last year. That was an amazing sight to see! 

While we were in the museum, I met 2 USAF enlisted retirees. They were very nice and congratulatory when they found out I had just graduated from the Academy. They had advice and well wishes for me as I started my career in the Air Force. It was very inspiring and encouraging to meet and talk to them. 

It was a fun and awesome stop before finishing the trip home. Here are a few pictures from the last day of traveling! 

Outside the museum in the memorial park...F-22s in the Missing Man formation.

We found mom's airplane...Fiery Ginger! 

A picture of Robin Olds's F-4 that I took for my favorite 2011 USAFA grads, Trevor Lockhart and Courtney Schaer. Their exemplar is Robin Olds. 

A new addition for my keychain!! 

That's all for the last day! 

Gateway to the West

We began our second day of driving in Kansas City, MO. Our destination for the evening was Dayton, OH, but we wanted to make a stop in St. Louis, MO to see the Gateway to the West, the St. Louis Arch. For the day, it would actually be our gateway to the East since I have spent the last 5 years in the West. There wasn't anything really special about Missouri, just some rolling hills and land. But, the Arch was awesome! Here are some pictures and commentary from the day! 

Mom volunteered to sit in the hole today. Dad repacked the car in a different way, so there was more room. 

Dad's fancy sun hat kept falling into my lap so I just decided to wear it right into town!

We made it!

Mom and I in the teeny, weeny pod to get for our journey to the top! 

St. Louis capitol from the arch!

Looking towards the Cardinals stadium. They were getting ready for a game against San Francisco.

I made it to the top!

So, mom and my sister Natalie (she was not on this adventure with us) had been to the top of the Arch when my sister was in TAG oh so long ago. When my parents brought my car our to me, they stopped here and tried to go to the top, but all of the tickets were sold out, so they just got to look at it from the bottom. This trip, though, we secured tickets and it was a first for both my dad and I. It was crazy walking up to the arch because it was so big and it didn't seem like anyone could go to the top. There were tiny slits in the top, which turned out to be the windows as I soon discovered. Anyway, we got in line for our journey to the top. The pods were extremely tiny, but they fit 5 people into them. Thankfully, there were only 4 people in our pod to the top and we had a little bit of space. When I say little bit, though, I mean very little bit. It was approximately a 4 minute ride to the top, so only a few minutes for small talk. The other guy sharing our pod was on a business trip from Walla Walla, WA. I like to say Walla Walla so I thought it was pretty neat. 

Once we got to the top, out we went. It was a small strip of space at the top, with tiny windows to look at the Mississippi River and West. We got our pictures by the Top of the Arch sign (630 ft up) and took some more glances in and out of the windows. I will say they know how to fit a lot of people up there. We only stayed at the top for about 10 minutes and then it was back to the pod to take our trip down. 

At the bottom, we took a whirl through the Westward Expansion Museum and then headed outside to get some more views of the Arch. It was hot outside, a lot hotter than I have experienced in the last 5 years. Oh and there was humidity too. I suppose I should get used to that again! We headed back towards the car and stopped at Hannegan's Grill and Pub for some lunch before hitting the road again. It was a lovely place, but we chose to eat outside since there was a nice breeze and it was under the shade of some big trees. Then, we were off again, out on the open road. We hit some rain here and there on our journey to Ohio, but for the most part we had nice weather. Ohio greeted us with a blue arch, which we thought was pretty neat. Here are some pictures that I took with my actual camera. 

The Gateway Arch from the road. 

Walking up to the Arch

Downtown St. Louis

The Mighty Mississippi 

The Mississippi River. Now all we need to do is take a cruise on the Mississippi from St. Louis to New Orleans! How cool would that be?!?

The shadow of the Arch! 

Posing in the Museum

It's so big I cannot get it all in the frame! 

The Arch with my foot to prove I was there...I know, too much! 

My classic jump portrait with the Arch. 

We ate at Hannegan's in Laclede's Landing! 

Crossing a bridge into Illinois!

We made it to Ohio! 

More to come about the third and final day of the road trip! 

We're Not in Kansas Anymore...

Yesterday, I said goodbye to Colorado. After 5 years in Colorado Springs (1 year at the Prep School and 4 years at the Academy), it was very odd and weird to think I was leaving. I don't think I actually realized that I was leaving for good until I started driving East on I-70 and could no longer see mountains in my rear view mirrors. Oh and I think it really hit me when I saw the sign that said "Leaving Colorful Colorado."  Anyway, here is a recap of the first day of travels, Colorado to Missouri. 

We left our graduation house around 7:25 am to take my sister and my grandmother, Nanny, to the Denver International Airport. This was a pretty normal trip for me because I had made it so many times over the last 5 years. But I kept reminding myself to look back at Pike's Peak and the Academy because I wouldn't see them again for a while...at least until September when I return for IFS, Initial Flight Screening. I never really got emotional or upset or anything like that, but there was this feeling of a hole in my chest. Okay, so that sounds weird and wrong, but I just felt like I was leaving a part of me behind. In a way, I was. I was saying goodbye to 5 years of my life that I worked so hard for and to a place that had become my home. Now I couldn't even get back into the Cadet Area, the main center point of my life. It wasn't hard or anything, but I could definitely feel a chapter of my life closing. 

I have too much stuff. I thought I shipped a lot of it earlier, but I still had a lot. Not to mention we had mom and dad's luggage, decorations from the graduation party, and graduation gifts. It was okay, though, because we made it work, fit everything in, and there's a small hole in the back of the car for one person to sit it. 

After dropping off my sister and Nanny, we left the airport and headed east. It didn't take long AT ALL to hit flatness. Granted, we were still at like 5,000 feet above sea level, but it was really, really flat. We made our way into Kansas and stopped at the Welcome Center for a sandwich lunch. I must say the Welcome Center was very nice. Oh and during lunch we got a glimpse of a bird's nest with some babies! It was pretty cool. Then it was back to the road and flatness of Kansas. 

As we drove along, the wind picked up. About a month ago, I had a piece of my window molding on the car pop off. I simply popped it back in and didn't have any other problems with it. But, the combination of 75 mph on I-70 and strong winds made it pop out again. It caught me off guard when it first happened and woke up both my parents from their naps. So, I pulled off of I-70 and popped it back in. From there, though, we knew we had to get some auto glue and put it back into place. So, when we arrived in Hays, Kansas, we stopped at WalMart, got the glue, fixed the window molding, got gas, and we were back on the road. 

Dad fixing the window molding on my car before we set off again. 

Along the way, we saw lots of flat land, some interesting amusement sights, and windmill farms! My favorite things were the windmills. They are SO huge and were right next to the road. Plus, they made for some great entertainment in boring Kansas. Driving through Kansas, we saw a sign where we could see the World's Largest Prairie Dog and a 5-Legged Steer. We decided to bypass them. Who knew those things really existed? 

Driving across Kansas with a thunderstorm and some rain in the distance. I was happy to see some rain again! 

WINDMILLS! 

Driving across Kansas made me a little crazy!

Thankfully, we finally made it out of Kansas and into Missouri via Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri. We saw downtown Kansas City and the Kansas City Royals stadium before stopping at a local restaurant called V's Italian Restaurante! I had Baked Lasagna and cannolli. It was delicious and no one was disappointed. We finally rested our heads in a Comfort Inn and Suites just outside of Kansas City, Missouri, before it was time to wake up for another day of driving across the great United States!