I'd never been to a Starbucks before this trip. I knew it was a coffee place and I don't like coffee, so I never felt the need to go into one. However, I also knew they had free wifi and electrical outlets, so I finally had a reason. I believe the first one I went to was in Amarillo. Going inside, I asked, "I've never been to a Starbucks before. Do you guys have any regular drinks, like soda?" One of the employees pointed out a bottle of mango flavored soda that ended up being pretty good. The second visit though, in Colorado Springs, it was pretty cold outside, so I decided to try their chai tea latte. It was pretty good too, but the after effects were really amazing.
I've been trying to drink nothing but water since starting my trip to save money, so I wasn't used to having large amounts of caffeine pumped into my system. The soda perked me up, but while blogging with the tea, suddenly I felt a high...did I just break some sort of sound barrier? I feel like I'm moving really fast but I'm sitting down. I should type faster. Like, reeeeally faster. My eyeballs feel like cheetahs.
I knew I could get high in Colorado, but I didn't expect it to happen that way.
That was the night after I visited the Great Sand Dunes National Park. The next day, I went into a different Starbucks and grabbed another soda. I didn't want to stay at any one Starbucks for too long. I figured if I kept buying things they couldn't kick me out, but it's still gotta be creepy to have one customer that won't go away and buys just enough items to stay there all day, and creepy is something I can go without.
Taking a break from blogging, I visit the Garden of the Gods.
The Garden of the Gods is a park consisting of a series of giant red rock formations. An original surveyor of the area commented that the place looked perfect for a beer garden. A man who was with him said it was a place for the gods to assemble. And so, the name Garden of the Gods was formed.
Charles Perkins, the last private owner of the Gardens, wanted it to become a public park. He died before this could happen, so his children donated the park to the city of Colorado Springs under a few stipulations, including that it forever remain free to the public.
I didn't know the Garden of the Gods was a full blown park until I arrived. Before then, I assumed it was just a spot to pull over and take pictures, similar to the Cadillac Ranch. Discovering it had trails though, I felt compelled to take one; they were rough. The trails consisted completely of mud and ice, making it a slippery mess. No one else seemed to have a problem with it. Not only can this southerner not drive in Colorado weather, I can't walk in it either. I did get some good pictures doing my best though.
Going back into another Starbucks, I load myself up with more caffeine. This time I have a chocolate chai tea latte. EVERYTHING AROUND ME IS MOVING SO SLOWLY!
After a couple more hours writing, I head a little farther north to the United States Air Force Academy. I'm looking for the Visitors Center, but my GPS sends me towards a guard gate, something that generally means,"off limits". I approach the gate to talk to the guard.
"Is the Visitors Center this way?"
"Do you have a military ID?"
"No, sir."
"Do you have a driver's license?"
"Yes, sir."
I get it out for him.
"Do you have any guns,..."
Not any more.
"...explosives,..."
Don't say it...
"...or munitions in the car?"
...damn it.
"Yeah, I do have some ammunition in the trunk."
"What kind?"
"9mm."
"But you don't have any type of weapon to fire the bullets?"
"No, sir."
"Please put your car in park and pop your trunk."
There is no respect for privacy anymore.
Aside from asking me to park right in line rather than to the side as my old job would have, this guard also gives a much more thorough search of my car compared the the officer in Texas, so a line forms behind my car as he digs through everything I have. I'm cleared to go and drive to the Visitors Center. I'm given a map and explained the route. Since it's military, I ask if I can take pictures. "Yes, but I would suggest not taking pictures in this area. That's near the guard station and they get a little jittery when they see people taking pictures of them." Yeah, I can believe it.
The Chapel seems the main draw for touring the academy. It very much seems like something out of Star Trek. The interior glows blue and has stained glass windows.
The primary room of the chapel is meant for Christian worship, but there are worship areas for other beliefs as well, such as Catholicism...
...which had a disturbing (to me) amount of portraits of Jesus suffering along both walls,...
Buddhism,...
and Judaism.
There was a worker who let me go into the Jewish room to look at the paintings. They were actually really neat looking from close up, so I took a picture of my favorite one, Ezekial's Last Vision I believe it was called.
It was my favorite because it looked like absolutely nothing I'd ever learned in Sunday School.
The Air Force Academy also includes an entertaining collection of statues.
While there were more statues than I felt the need to take pictures of, I have a couple specific friends I thought would appreciate the one celebrating the Tuskegee Airmen.
Walking inside Arnold Hall, a theater that includes a great deal of memorabilia relating to the late Air Force General Henry Arnold, the first thing I see is a Nazi dagger. I see no explanation as to why it's there or how it relates to Henry Arnold: it's just there, and I found it interesting.
The Air Force Academy also includes a display of a decommissioned B-52 Bomber. Always loving to see large examples of mechanical technology (eg. VLA), I spend a bit of time inspecting the beast, and it is huge.
It's not often I walk under something and think, "If just a small piece of this fell on me, it could flatten me to death."
Oh, those Air Force scamps...
The next 18 or so hours include sleeping and going to Starbucks, but I'm starting to feel sick from having so much sudden sugar and caffeine, so I finally decide to leave Colorado Springs and continue on with my trip.
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