8/20/08 - Philly to Denver - The First Day

We were scheduled to leave Philadelphia via Chicago to Denver on a 6 a.m. on Southwest Airlines. Philly is the closest airport that Southwest services and we saved over $1,000 over the other airlines, although it is a little over a 2 hour drive to get there (the bill for parking for 2 weeks in the long-term lot was $86). We arrived at the airport around 4 a.m. and waited for the Southwest check-in desk to open and then had to wait for TSA to open the security check-in point. There was only 1 place open in the airport for drinks and snacks and the person working there spoke no English. It was interesting watching Katie try to order a Cran-Grape drink and him trying to give her Grape soda.

The flight to Chicago was uneventful until the landing. The aircraft made quite a hard landing. We had a 90 minute layover where we found coffee and a light breakfast. The flight to Denver left about 30 minutes late (our pilots were flying another plane into Midway that had been delayed, thus delaying our plane), but they made up 20 minutes during the flight, so we were close to on time.

We had never been to the Denver airport, but found it quite impressive and large! I remember reading  about the computer glitches in the baggage retrieval system when it opened.  Obviously, they were ironed out. It was a pretty seamless transition, baggage wise, and it took only a few minutes to retrieve our luggage.

We had intended to call Mic and Jim once we retrieved our luggage, but they were at the gate to greet us - a nice surprise.

We drove through Denver and made our way south to Colorado Springs, where we had a late lunch at the Omelette Parlor - a place any visitor to Colorado Springs needs to indulge in.  The food was as good as promised and there was lots of it.

Leaving there, we made our way to the Garden of the Gods, a city-owned park that has towering sandstone formations formed by the erosion of what was left by a prehistoric volcanic eruption, a beautiful view of Pikes Peak, hiking paths, and, I'm sure, many other neat things.  

The park was given to the city of Colorado Springs in 1909 by the children of railroad magnate Charles Elliot Perkins, who wanted it kept forever open and free to the public.  I had never heard of it until I saw it and I remain impressed.  The colors and the shapes are so different from the granite of the Rockies.

Below are some photos we took there:

          

We were staying at the KOA in Colorado Springs which is just across I-25 from Fort Carson.  We were close enough to hear the small arms fire in the morning.  We were also close to a BNSF railroad line which was on the other side of Fountain Creek.  The whistles lulled me to sleep.