Air Force Academy; buildings and athletic fields

The Air Force Academy lies on 18, 500 acres, nestled in the Colorado Mountains near Colorado Springs. The average elevation is 7000 feet. This site was chosen out of 580 proposed ones. The construction began in 1955. At first, the Academy was temporary set in Denver. In 1958, 1145 cadets moved to the present site and the Academy was credited a year later. The first 207 cadets graduated in 1959.

Nowadays, there are 4000 students attending the Academy.  About 900 graduate each year. Women entered the Air Force Academy for the first time in 1976. The first class with women graduated in May 1980. They comprise about 21% of the students.

Cadets can major in 32 different subjects. They graduate as Second Lieutenants with a Bachelor of Science degree.

One of the most distinctive feature of the AFA is the cadet Chapel. Soaring 150 feet towards the sky, the Chapel is an all-faiths house of worship designed to meet the spiritual needs of cadets. It contains a separate chapel for four major religious faiths; Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and Buddhist, plus an all-faiths room used by Muslims cadets and available for other faiths as well. Each chapel has its own entrance.

The Cadet Chapel

The structure is made of glass and aluminium and features 17 spires. There is no special significance to this number. Inside, the stained glass and amber windows cast a soft light.

Inside the Protestant Chapel

Sun setting behind the mountains, viewed through a stained glass window

Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of the inside of the other chapels.  All I can say is that the cadets attending the Academy are very fortunate.  The beauty of the site, the small classes and all the extra-curricular activities available  make this place very special indeed.

After many trials and tribulations, some of them quite costly, we finally made it to Dallas.  Our friends David, Lana, Duane, Dona, Ron and Sandy happened to be in Dallas also.

That’s where our travel mascot “Chubby Chicken” met David and Lana’s mascot “The Egg”

The chicken and the egg....

We saw Ron and Sandy the first night, but Ron had one of his wisdom tooth pulled and he was not feeling too good.  We went to dinner with David and Lana.

The next day, David and Lana took us downtown Dallas to visit the Sixth Floor Museum, about the assassination of John F. Kennedy.  The museum is in the building (which used to be a book warehouse) where supposedly Lee Harvey Oswald fired the fatal shot that killed J.F.K.  Strangely, as soon as I walked in the museum, a man who says he used to work at the warehouse and was there the day it happened, started telling me about the events.  He seemed agitated and mentioned that he saw the actual killer getting out of his car, wearing overalls and carrying a rifle, but it was not Oswald.  He said no one ever asked him any questions about the event, in fact, no one ever asked any of his fellow employees any questions.  He was quite set on getting his point across.  When I told him there was no proof of what he was saying, he left,   upset.

The exhibit is well done and very informative, I had very little recollection of the event, apart from what I saw on TV once in a while, since it happened when I was only 6 years old.  While visiting the museum, I started to really understand the feelings of total shock, and extreme sadness this event brought the people of the time.

This is the 6th floor window from which Oswald shot JFK

It is pretty hard to believe that the fatal shot was fired from this 6th floor window, the angle seems all wrong.  Either Oswald was an excellent sniper, (according to his military record he was average)  or there was someone else shooting from somewhere else…  oh well… after visiting this museum,   I am starting to believe the conspiracy theories…. maybe, just maybe, that man was right.

After the  museum and a nice lunch, David and Lana took us to the Fort Worth Stockyards where we met with Duane and Dona.  We had a very good time there.  This was the end of the line for many cows back in the days or free range and cattle drives.  The whole area is very similar to what it was back then.

Forth worth Stockyards

We witnessed the daily cattle drive.  They don’t call these cows “Long Horn” for nothing!  How about a 6 feet horn span!

Long Horn Cattle Drive

We then went shopping for a little while and ended up in a bar for a drink.

Chubby Chicken didn’t have a beer but he met a very nice cowboy who graciously allowed him to  pose for a picture.

The chicken and the cowboy

David, Lana, Doug, me, Dona, Duane

How about some Buffalo Butt Beer huh? anyone?

We then had a nice steak dinner (you could cut the meat with a fork) and ended the day in the biggest Honky Tonk in Texas; Billy Bobs.  On top of having live country music performance, they also have their own bull riding ring.

Billy Bobs Honky Tonk

We sure had a great time!

I woke up this morning and tried to look at the clock to see what time it was.  I somehow could not see the time, so I pushed the button which activates the “projector” feature on my clock.  I still could not read the time, it was upside down, and I could not for the life of me figure that one out.  My husband, laughing like crazy, took the clock from my hands and turned it around, showing me a perfectly readable time on the ceiling.  I took the clock back, the time was backwards again…  Hubby was laughing, I was just confused.  I think I am getting old.  What a way to start the day!

I finally managed to get up and get dressed, the fog lifted somewhat from my brain and I started getting excited about going to Stitches South Market.

We found our way to the Cobb Galleria Center (thanks to my GPS)  and after many U-turns and a lot of confusion searching for the right parking lot, we finally parked the car (not the in the right parking lot, but still, we parked the car…) and made our way (actually  a good Samaritan helped us) to the registration booth and  the  Market.

Sensory Overload is how would describe the feeling I experienced when I first walked in there.  There were rows and rows of vendors selling yarns of all fiber content and colors.  Books and tools were also well represented.    It was amazing and overwhelming!

So much yarn, so little money!

I never buy a lot of yarn when I am at a show like this, first of all, there is just too much of it and I loose focus.  I am also more of a project yarn buyer than a stash buyer, I need to have an idea of what I will do with the yarn before I buy it, which is very hard to do on those days when you brain just refuses to work properly and wants to stay in foggy twilight zone. Hopefully the fog will lift for the class tomorrow.

Don’t get me wrong, you can’t be a knitter (even a foggy brained one) without falling in love and buying some knit-related stuff:

So… there’s the list of our purchase (I am including hubby in this, because he is a brave soul and followed me  all day, carrying my purse and bags around.  I even had  a few request to see if I could “rent” his services for a fee, some women with very big  packages  were really interested….  but I kept him all to myself! How selfish of me!)

It's not my birthday but it sure feels like it!

Anyhow, Bear bought me the most wonderful Sterling Silver needle gauge pendant , very suitable to wear as jewelry, not available through the website though (sorry).

Silver needle gauge pendant

Then I bought some gorgeous glass knitting needles made by Sheila & Michael Ernst.  Check out their web page, they have extraordinary glass buttons and even have glass crochets!  (You read it right, glass knitting needles, I tried them out, and I must say, after you knit with those, it is hard to go back to metal or wood needles again, they are totally addictive!  They are made with a very strong glass,   like Pyrex and are guaranteed for life)

Glass needles

And then there was the Skaska Designs Ltd booth,   featuring Orenburg Gossamer lace and I was blown away.  This is the most beautiful  lace I have ever seen in my life.  Russian knitters from the Orenburg region knit this lace without patterns, the basic lace designs are passed down through generations.  The stitch patterns have names like mouse prints, cat’s paw, fish eye, diagonals, peas and strawberries, and the designs are combined into works of art. The yarn is so fine, it almost looks like spider web.   The owner, Galina Khmeleva spent years researching and charting the designs in order to save them from extinction.   I indulged there too, and bought her  book and a Silk/Yak blend lace yarn to try my hand at knitting Gossamer lace.  I don’t know if I will ever be able to make something this beautiful, but I sure will give it a try.  It must have been serendipity because I had signed up for a “Cable CSI” class on Sunday morning, but since the class was cancelled,   and without knowing anything about Galina Khmeleva, I replaced it with “Russian Knitting”, and the teacher is no one else but … Galina Khmeleva!  I am so excited about this class now!

Orenburg Lace

close-up of Orenburg Gossamer lace

The book One Stitch Below was a big star at the show, there was a whole booth dedicated to it, showing most of the designs.  The author Elise Duvekot whas there to sign, so I did get an autographed copy! 🙂

Elise Duvekot and me 🙂

I also found some monochromatic brown merino  sock yarn to knit socks for my sister Legs.  I want to make  the Bacchus socks for her, she is a wine lover and Bacchus is her dog’s name!  I tried to knit this pattern with a hand painted yarn I had, but the variegated colors were hiding the design.  Hopefully, this yarn will be perfect.

I have a lot of trouble with crochet, it hurts my hands pretty bad, so I found some therapeutic gloves to wear while crocheting.  According to the litterature, they should help with the pain.  We will see…

Therapeutic gloves

We also picked up the inevitable freebies (magazines, patterns etc, etc, etc).

Tomorrow I will be in class all day with Joan Shrouder. Bear will be free to do whatever “guy thing” he wants to do all day 😉

Chubby chicken had a good time 😉