TWB June 15th 2019 Experience: Day 19- Colorado: AF Academy, Olympic Training Center

Day 19- Colorado: AF Academy, Olympic Training Center

It’s the Happy’s for one last time. Today was a very successful morning when we woke up neither wet nor cold. We rushed this morning to brush our teeth and be on the bus by 6:15 AM. The bus was very quiet and not a single person awoke until our first stop in Wyoming at 8 AM. At our first stop, there was a playground with swings, monkey bars, and slides. We all played like we were ten again while the vans went to fill up with gas. We boarded back on the bus and ate breakfast that consisted of honey buns and apples. Then, we rode until our next stop, our favorite place, Flying J’s. Here, a lot of people went ahead and bought food for lunch such as, chicken wings, pizza, and Cinnabon. The people who chose not to buy lunch, had honey mustard or ranch wraps on the bus. After lunch we played many games. These included, burping contests, guess the impersonation, eye roll contest, mixing left over drinks and dressings to make one drink and a winking contest. Josh and Joe Flanagan had a burping contest that had the whole bus feeling a little sick. The vans slept a lot, listened to hype music, and lots of country hits.

When we finally arrived at The United States Air Force Academy, USAFA, many people quickly hit the gift shop before we watched a short informational film. After this we all gathered by the chapel and were introduced to Caleb Davis, who is Brantley Coggins’ neighbor and a third class cadet at the academy. We asked him a few questions before many of the girls and two boys, Evan Das and Joe Flanagan, participated in the TWB tradition of kissing a cadet. Next we went into the chapel to observe the worshiping places of Protestants, Catholics, Buddhist, Jewish, and Islamic people.

After this visit we finished up any purchases and used the restroom before reloading the bus to head to our appointment at the US Olympic Training Center. There we met a family friend of Emily Dotson who kindly provided us with ice cream. After we stuffed our faces, we headed into the training center where we watched a short video and split up into two groups for a tour. First, we visited the shooting range and boxing arenas where we were allowed to take out any frustrations on the punching bags. Next, we went into the wrestling arena, living facilities, and the aquatic training center. We then went to the men’s gymnastics room which doubles as the gymnasium where Michael Jordan and the “dream team” had their first tryouts. After that we went to the store where many people bought t-shirts, postcards, and stickers.

We then headed to Colorado College, where we practiced for our dance competition that was taking place later that night. Josh surprised us with pizzas and sodas, which was a nice break from wraps and sandwiches. Then, we headed to the football field to begin our competition. Many groups had stunts and flips but the counselors proved to be better than us all. After a fire performance by the counselors a dance party began. Soon after, we headed into Colorado College’s auxiliary gym to get ready for the night. We all were surprised with nice, hot showers and cool temperatures to sleep indoors for one last time in preparation for July 4^th tomorrow. HAPPY’S OUT!!!!