Meredith had a student, Hope, who was an excellent writer in Mer’s classes, and Hope went on to become an author and to work in the publishing industry. Mer and Hope have stayed in touch over the ten years or so since Hope graduated, and so it was that several months ago we were delighted to receive an invitation to Hope’s wedding. Even though Hope lives in Ohio, she decided to have a destination wedding in Colorado Springs. The wedding would have been a delightful priority for us no matter what, but to have it held in a pretty place in a state neither of us had been to made it an event indeed.

We flew in on Saturday, and after three and a half hours of getting through the airport, getting to the car rental place, getting our car, getting our second car after the rearview mirror fell off in my hands, and then navigating through a surprisingly heavily trafficked highway, we got to Colorado Springs, which is supposed to be an eighty-minute drive away. We drove straight to our 1:30 docent-led tour of the National Museum of World War II Aviation, getting there at 1:31. I ended up missing the intro movie as I used the bathroom, but otherwise, we made the entire three-hour tour.

It was excellent. Our docent was a retired Coast Guard pilot who was qualified to fly anything the service had (single engine, multi engine, prop, jet, helicopter), and he was highly interactive and personable. He asked our group lots of questions to have us give many wrong answers, and he then explained the what and the why. The planes were magnificent, and there were probably two dozen planes in the hangar, all of which can still fly. He took us around and highlighted about eight different aircraft, and then took us over to the hangar where people restore aircraft and talked about that process. Almost everyone at the museum is a volunteer (they have two paid positions), and it seemed as if that included the restorers (it was a little murky in that the restorer hangar was run by a separate non-profit that was closely associated with the museum). We finished the tour in another hangar, in which the museum still has a functioning mechanical flight simulator from the 1930s, which was a mechanical marvel to see in action. The man demonstrating it put the “plane” into a spinning stall and recovered from it, all while being enclosed and having to rely on instruments and feel.

There was a more modern simulator we could use, but by then I was feeling pretty poorly from lack of sleep, water, and food, so sadly, I passed that up and went to the car to eat a granola bar and drink the rest of my water, and then we headed out for the hotel so I could eat and rest before evening plans. A few quick things learned from the museum:

• One of the major advances in planes was the variable-pitch propeller. That acted as a gear box for the plane, which allowed for both power and speed options. It took until the 1930s for engineers to figure out how to build that system.
• Aluminum was precious and expensive during the war years, so many planes were covered in sail cloth, which was stretched and sealed.
• Aquatic airplanes needed to  have small steps in the hull to cause bubbles, which broke up water tension, which would have held the plane to the water.
• Navy aircraft had foldable wings that were held in place by just one or two bolts depending on model.

Mer had evening plans, so after my hour nap, we drove a short distance up the road to Cosmo’s Magic Theater, which, as you may have surmised, is a theater for magic. Cosmo had a long career of touring the US, but he wanted to stop being on the road, so he built this small theater that seats about fifty people. He and other guest magicians perform magic tricks in the intimate space, which allows for lots of interaction, at which Cosmo was very good. He bantered with us, telling stories of how he learned magic (from the age of five) and having audience members help him with tricks. Cosmo even came out to the lobby before the show, during intermission, and after the show to chat with his audience. Mer and I got to talk with him and his wife for about five minutes after the show. It was a lovely evening, and the magic was top-notch. I only had vague guesses on how things actually worked on maybe ten percent of the illusions. We followed the show up with ice cream in a cute downtown part of Colorado Springs.

On Sunday, the wedding wasn’t until 3:00, so we had the morning to explore. We went out to a small mom-and-pop breakfast restaurant in a very crunchy-seeming neighborhood (“Tie dye grand opening!”) that was also having a street festival. The food was very good, and I had a slight view of the mountains from the front deck area.

Mer then had us head north a few miles to the Air Force Academy. It’s a dramatically set campus, sitting right in front of mountains. The working area of the campus is small, but the area for the grounds is something like ten miles long and four miles wide. We got out at the visitors’ center and explored it efficiently since we didn’t have a ton of time. We did take the time to watch the “a year in the life of a new cadet” film, and we both decided it was something for which we wouldn’t have been cut out. I don’t particularly like being yelled at. We browsed the rest of the center, where I learned that all cadets are required to be involved in sports of some kind, either intermural or intramural.

We spent the rest of our time wandering the campus. Sadly, the rather iconic chapel is being renovated until 2027 and is fully hidden under a huge box. But we walked up an adjacent hill that had a path put in that led to small areas to sit for prayer and contemplation and gave great views of the surrounding area. We explored a courtyard full of large monuments to WW II aircraft and the people who served on them, and we poked around one open building where we discovered not only that the cadets had a theater society, but that they were putting on a free show of How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying. It was hard to think of these hard-nosed military people singing and dancing around, but there I am stereotyping.

We headed home to the hotel to get ready for the wedding, which was only a few minutes away at a lovely facility that looked out over the mountains. We pulled in just as a car with a couple of former CVCA students pulled in, which was fun. We spent most of the evening chatting with them, especially since they were seated at our table. The ceremony was simple but formal, being an Anglican service of marriage. The reception afterwards was great, with good dinner music (mostly swing and related music), and Mer and I danced a fair amount. Anytime we needed a break, we went out on the veranda to look at the mountains.  The wedding wrapped up about 8:30, and we went back to the hotel, where I went to bed as quickly as I could. Mer still had Monday plans, so I needed my rest.