We didn't do anything worthy of a report on Day 13 (Sunday). Mom and I moseyed around town a bit, and that evening I met up with a friend I hadn't seen since Roadtrip #2 almost 8 years ago. We all relaxed the rest of the time (and we needed it!)

For Day 14 (our last day), it was more fulfilling. Shortly after 9:00am MDT we went over to the Air Force Academy, not too far from where we were staying. At the North Gate, after the back of the van was searched for explosives (yes, they will do that with larger vehicles) we headed to the relatively new Visitor Center, complete with a Gift Shop, exhibits, and a 21-minute movie on what it's like to enter as a fresh cadet at the academy. (Pretty sure I wouldn't have lasted 2 minutes had I attempted such a thing... :)

Afterwards, we drove over to the Chapel, an architecturally magnificent structure built in the early 1960s. Even more impressive is when you go in. At 150 x 280 x 84 feet, it's amazing to stand in the bowels of the chapel. The thin rows of stained glass give LED-like bright colors along the ceilings. Walking back out you'll catch the pipe organ on the upper floor. What I wouldn't have given to hear that thing sound off. We leave there, and caught a few viewpoints of the academy on the road out, as well as a full-scale model B-52 near the entrance. More pictures to take. We're finally released after 11:30am.

We head back to the house of mom's friends, have lunch, take pictures and say our goodbyes. They were great hosts! As we're leaving the clouds are starting to rear their ugly heads around the mountains. I even caught some bolts of lightning and several rumbles as we packed up the minivan one last time. This weather nerd is happy.

Now we've had extraordinarily good weather this entire trip. Why not change things up? As soon as we're on I-25 North heading away from Colorado Springs, here comes the rain. And I mean RAIN. AND RAIN. Yikes, if it rained like this back in California, all the TV networks in the world would have interrupted their programming to break the news. It didn't let up in the least, all the way to Denver. Of course there was the occasional lightning/thunder combo spicing things up. There was even an area on the south side of town where it looked like snow on the freeway, but it was really just piles of hail in between the lanes, as well as the fringe edges of the freeway. This is nuts! But I drove like it was no big deal and kept up with all the other drivers who apparently didn't care either. (I did keep speeds reasonable.) It was getting a little late so we were hitting rush hour traffic, and more rain/construction just weren't helping. *sigh*

So in some futile effort, I exit I-25 onto Colfax Avenue (aka 287/40/Business 70), which heads directly to the State Capitol. I figured we'd park somewhere for a few minutes and I could take a shot of the capitol. But oh no, that rain made darned sure I stayed in the van. It was torrential. I ended up taking only one shot from inside the van. Mom sacrificed being dry and got out for a few more shots. And the traffic made it hard to find any one spot to stay. I finally said "Forget this" and continued east on the same road, heading away from that area. I got a pic, so it counts! (Oh, and it's amusing seeing the pot shops on this street too.)

We soon crossed back into Aurora, CO, where we filled up the minivan for the final time. Now I'm getting multiple e-mails on my phone that our flight home has been delayed (along with many others, most likely due to the rain), from 6:50pm to 7:35pm, then again to 8:10pm. Oh lovely. Well with this traffic I'm not going to lolly gag around regardless. I stayed on the same road (with more construction and rain, argh!) until I-225 was in sight. We ramped there, then to a brief I-70 before taking the exit that went to the airport. We find the Avis car rental (and unfortunately no cover from the downpour) so we had to clean out the van in a big hurry and catch the shuttle bus that was waiting for us. Thank goodness I had enough sense to write down the odometer and trip mileage before abandoning our trusty vehicle. Too bad I couldn't get a picture of it like I usually do.

We grab a bite to eat in the terminal, and I get another e-mail that our flight is now back to a 7:35pm takeoff. Good grief. Off we go through security and use the underground train to get to our gate. After some delays, it was finally wheels up at 8:10pm MDT... and landed inside 2 hours later, at 9:05pm PDT. SuperShuttle gets us home an hour later. THE END!

Please give me a few days to collect thoughts and get all the stats proper and pics picked. This trip was quite a doozy!