Hi, everyone!
Last Sunday, I got to go to an art show! My friend Sharon-san had a reception for her exhibit at the Little Theater, and Grandma said I could go. It was fun to see her work, especially the painting of the last pitch at Silver Stadium. I remember when Sharon-san had the party to celebrate finishing that painting!
Then, on Tuesday, Grandma got me up very early to go to the airport! We were flying to Denver, Colorado! Our flight to Chicago went right over Niagara Falls! We had a layover in Chicago before our flight to Denver, so Grandpa read the paper on his iPad.
When we got to Denver, we drove right over to Arvada to see Grandma’s friend Robb-san! There was a lot of road construction on the route between the airport and Arvada! Robb-san is very proud that he is building his 11th low income housing project in Denver right now! He has a new home in a senior community, and it is very nice! After we visited Robb, we went to our hotel. Grandma and Grandpa had dinner with Cousin Bev and her husband David. I was still on Eastern Daylight Savings time, so that was after my bedtime!
Wednesday morning, we drove south to Colorado Springs. I was excited to see the Air Force Academy again from our hotel! We were in Colorado Springs for a special event. The Academy alumni association was melting class rings from graduate classes to make the rings for the class of 2021, and Grandma and Grandpa donated Uncle Bill’s class ring. Three of Uncle Bill’s friends from his class came to present the ring formally at the ceremony, and we all got together beforehand for lunch. Then we had an escorted tour of parts of the Academy. First, we went to the Polaris building. That wasn’t there at all when Uncle Bill was at the Academy, and it wasn’t done four years ago, the last time I visited. The Oculus is a sky window that lets light from Polaris, the north star, into the building.
After that, we went beyond the cadet chapel into the secure area where the cadets live. Vandenberg dorm was where Uncle Bill and his friends lived when they were at the Academy, and it’s where Uncle Bill’s volleyball court is! Grandma especially wanted to visit the volleyball court, so she could add some sand from Grenada and Bonaire.
Uncle Bill’s friends were all in Squadron 16 while they were at the Academy, so we visited the part of the dorm they lived in then. That was right next to the rooms for Squadron 15, where Uncle Bill was. Uncle Bill’s friends said there wasn’t as much artwork on the walls when they lived there. I liked seeing it!
When we went outside again, we stopped to see the class plaques on the wall near the cadet chapel. Amy-san told me that when the new plaque for a graduating class goes up, it’s a tradition for the next class to try to steal it. Now every new plaque gets a GPS tracker attached, to make sure it can be found! Grandma has been saying that we were taking Uncle Bill’s ring to be melted at the Academy because that was easier than throwing it in the Cracks of Doom in Mordor. When we got to the security gate around the cadet area, we found out that the cadets call it the Gates of Mordor! I made friends with an airplane monument in the public area near the cadet chapel.
Then it was time to go to Doolittle Hall for the Forged in Blue ceremony! I got to see the portable smelter and the ingot molds up close before the ceremony started. The ingot molds had engraved bottoms for Air Force.
There were twelve rings presented, three to go on permanent display representing their classes and nine to be melted to make new class rings. Someone presented each ring and told the story of the person who owned it. One ring was recovered years after the owner’s plane was shot down in Viet Nam during the war there. Another ring was lost in a lake, but the owner found it with a metal detector when the lake was drained! One ring was found in a dresser drawer when new owners bought a house! Uncle Bill’s ring was the last and newest one presented. His friends talked about what Uncle Bill was like as a cadet, then added his ring to the bowl.
The ringmakers added each ring to the smelter and waited for all of them to melt. The temperature in the smelter was over 2000 degrees F.! It took longer than expected for all the rings to melt, and finally the ringmaker fished out one unmelted ring. It was so hot it was glowing orange! After that ring was out, the ringmakers were able to pour the ingots. It didn’t take long for them to cool enough to come out of the molds.
Guess what! The ring that refused to melt was Uncle Bill’s! Grandma figured out that he had ordered his ring made with a different metal that needed a higher temperature to melt. Uncle Bill’s friends said they guessed right away that Bill’s was the persistent ring, and that was just like Uncle Bill! The ringmakers said they’d take Uncle Bill’s ring back to their big smelter, where they wouldn’t have any trouble getting it to melt for the new rings.
I made friends with an airplane table decoration before I left. Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Bill’s friends all went to dinner together, but it was after my bedtime again. In the morning, it was clear, so we could see the Front Range from our hotel room. We drove to the Colorado Springs airport to start home. I made a lion friend in the part of the security screening area where you can sit down to put your shoes back on!
Flights were running late all over the Midwest because there had been two days of thunderstorms. The storms had cleared out to the east before we got to Chicago, but the last of them were still around Rochester when we got home. The pilot had to fly around some big storm clouds to get on the approach, and we landed fast! When we got home, Grandpa told me we had been gone sixty hours, door to door.
Today, we’re going back out to the bay. Grandpa says we might get the powerboat back in the water!
Love,
Lion-san
It was nice you got to see some of Sharon-san’s work. and some of Uncle Bill’s friends. You even got to see a model plane. It is neat that they have all the stuff needed right there for melting down rings.