The Springs, The Rocks, The Zoo, oh my!!

They say one inevitably returns to the scene of the crime.  Well I'm not sure what crime got committed, but for some reason that has to do with seeing the alma mater and friends in the area who share the same affliction, every few years we come to Colorado Springs.  Probably not unlike my propensity to drive past the old house in Southgate MI any time we're in the area.

At any rate, I truly did not have any notion of going up to the cadet area, but as we left the Lackey's that morning, well the road goes right down to the North Gate, and its only a few miles to drive up, and Ann wanted to stop in the base exchange, and . . .

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I suppose its at least partially a function of wanting to better understand something significant that happened to you, who's significance you only later begin to realize and want to better understand.  I was pretty naive when I got to the Zoo.  Lackey would just solemnly nod and agree way to easily, while asking if anything had changed.  Nonetheless, its the guys you meet and learn to respect that is the most important thing, regardless how beautiful the surroundings. 

So we got the mandatory visit to the exchange out of the way and headed for Garden of the Gods further down I25.  This is one of the places in the Springs I had never been before, and was looking forward to sharing with Ann.  It turned out to be quite an amazing place.  Ann got us some brochures and maps and off we went.

There are amazing photos of the place you can get elsewhere, so I'll limit the number we post here.  Besides, the sun only snuck in once or twice the whole day, so the rock formations never really lit up.  Even without much sun, though, this is an incredibly beautiful and peaceful place.  

Even with the scenery, I kept an eye on the weather, wondering if it would let us get out of the Springs tomorrow and stay on schedule for the wedding. 

This is not a promising sight, so we head back to Lackey's to warm up, get some weather reports, and maybe pick Mike's brain about routes and techniques to use flying through the mountains.

Mike and Deb are both home by the time we get there.  Mike had to do a deposition in the morning concerning their business, or perhaps I should say their former business as they've sold it to their son.  UFlyMike is a very interesting company.  Ann had a conference in Denver a few years ago and I managed to make a trip to Centennial Airport to join her.  That was another occasion when we had a chance to visit Lackeys and Gebhardts.  While visiting Lackey's on that occasion, Mike gave me a sample set of headsets that are incredibly light and have noise cancelling.  Actually, you have to give credit for the sound quality and noise cancelling to Boze.

Seems Mike never knew he had sensitive ears.  In the Air Force you get custom fitted headsets, helmets, etc.  After retiring and joining Southwest he found that having headsets on for many hours each day caused painful sore spots around his ear cartilage.  Apparently, this was not a problem if one used Boze Quiet Comfort 2 portable headsets, and an idea was born.  He talked to some friends, and came up with a jack and boom microphone that plugs right into the socket on the QC2 and presto, you have a very light weight, noise cancelling aviation headset.

I tried that headset on the way home to Frederick and was amazed at its comfort and sound quality.  Then I made a fatal mistake.  We stopped in Iowa for gas and I asked Ann to give it a try.  Never got it back.  So as soon as we got home, I wrote Mike that we would need a second headset.

Later in the afternoon we headed off to Mike and Lynn Gebhardt's place not more than 10 miles away.  MIke and I first met in an auto mechanics course in school, and later worked together at Hickam Air Force Base.  Their family is doing well though they've had their share of challenges.  Amazingly, like most of the folks I meet doing Angel Flight missions, people with problems are almost universally upbeat and positive in their outlook and approach.  Mike seems to be mostly retired, and they both take care of their son David. 

We stayed late chatting, and finally drove back to Lackey's in a miserable cold rain with low ceilings around 2300, hoping the forecasts for improving weather would actually clear things up by morning.  Hopefully it will be better in the morning.