Greg "Koa", Isaac, Debey, Doreen and I
Today we drove from Buckley Space Force Base to our next stop which is the Glenwood Springs West/Colorado River KOA in Silt CO. The highlight of our day was our stop in the middle of the trip at Frisco CO to visit some dear friends and a military comrade of mine, Greg "Koa" Schwab and his family, spouse Debey and son Isaac. I normally feature the map as my first picture on travel days, but folks, this is what our journeys are all about - reconnecting with friends, family and military comrades across the nation. These guys fit into all of these categories. Much more about our stop later.
We pulled chocks this morning at 0830 hrs and things just seemed a bit disjointed. Doreen and I were out of sync and the normal "well oiled machine" was not... Nothing serious, no bent metal, no lost limbs, but for whatever reason we struggled to get out of the chute. I guess everyone has one of those days from time to time. I went to retract our levelers and hit the wrong button. Nothing serious, but I had to do an abort in the middle of the process and retract the gear manually. No harm no foul. It all worked out. I decided to back out of the pull-through due to the nasty ruts in front that we reported in our email to the base a few days ago and that did not go smoothly for whatever reason. Ugh. I thought maybe we should start all over. But in the end it all worked out and we were on our way with a happy face :-) Coffee will make it all better!
The next hiccup was Denver traffic, wrecks on the freeway, detours due to construction, but after a few recalculations we were on our way on I-70, albeit slowly. Traffic was crazy as usual, but you simply cannot be in a hurry. Leaving the Denver metro we passed familiar areas in Golden where we traveled a couple days ago. The scenery improved and the mountains came into view.
The I-70 route took us through several tunnels and the scenery was amazing. If you travel this area much maybe you get used to this but for a couple Iow-egians, this is really cool!
We stayed in touch with the Schwab's via text as we proceeded west and headed through the Eisenhauer-Johnson Memorial Tunnel.
Interesting that this tunnel was the result of more than 50 years of discussion, planning, designing, and construction- with the Eisenhower Bore (westbound) opening in 1973 and the Johnson Bore (eastbound) opening in 1979. It traverses through the Continental Divide at an average elevation of 11,112 feet. When originally opened in the 1970s, the tunnel was not only the highest vehicular tunnel in the US, but at that time it was also the highest in the world. So now you know!
The entire journey from where we started in Denver to Frisco was about 100 miles with a climb right at 7000 ft. The big ol' brown truck purred down the road and the Cummins turbo diesel was a real blessing especially on the downhill portions with the exhaust engine (Jake) brake. Even with the steep decline shown, seldom did I have to use my brake pedal.
We arrived at Frisco CO at 10:35, right at two hours from our start. Greg had picked out a great parking area and the whole family was waiting for us there. There was plenty of parking space for our truck and trailer, and after a few hugs we had a brief tour of our Alliance Paradigm coach and then we loaded up into the Schwab's vehicle, including Liberty, for a tour of Frisco, the Schwab's home, their church and lunch near the beach.
So back to the Schwab's. As I mentioned yesterday, Greg Schwab and I were both members of the 132d Fighter Wing, Iowa Air National Guard. Then "Col" Greg Schwab was the Wing Commander and an F-16 fighter pilot, and I was the Chief of Communications Maintenance. I had the honor of deploying with then Col Schwab to Kirkuk Iraq in the Kurdish region during the Iraq war in September 2006. He was chosen to deploy and serve as the 506th Air Expeditionary Group commander, and he picked his leadership team to accompany him. I was fortunate to be one of those team members, along with Lt Col Jim Freese, Capt Trent Twedt and Lt Joe Lestina. TSgt Jeff Mendenhall from our Communications Flight also deployed there during the same time.
Without going into grizzly details, lets just say that things were pretty crazy in Iraq during that time and we had our share of 'challenges', but as a team we met them head-on. If you read my blog, back in April you read about reconnecting with Frank Leota and his friend Vanessa in San Antonio.
Well then Command Sergeant Major Frank Leota was the senior enlisted leader on the Army side there at Kirkuk and I was the senior enlisted leader on the Air Force side. He and I worked as a team with our Chiefs, Sergeant's Major and First Sergeants to solve enlisted issues and promote Army-Air comradery - One Team One Fight. And we did.
I believe at least partially as a result of this deployment, upon my return home I was selected to serve as our Wing Command Chief and further as our State Command Chief. So when I say that experience was "life-changing", I truly believe it was. Then Col Greg Schwab went on to be promoted to Brigadier General (one star) and further Major General (two stars) and serve at Headquarters Air Combat Command level.
So when you serve with someone in a combat environment, you develop a level of trust and form a special bond that will never be broken. And it is such a special time when you can reconnect, even if it is just for a three hours. Today we reconnected with Greg Schwab and his family and we are so thankful for our time with them. We visited their home, toured their town and then we visited their church, and we met their pastor! I took about 65 pictures today and I am disappointed the one picture I took of their outdoor 'sanctuary' did not come out. It is an outdoor worship area with a trout stream in the background, and it is amazing! Here is one of the church with the mountains in the background.
From there we drove to Frisco Bay and had lunch at the Island Grill where we had time to relax and talk. Liberty chilled in her stroller while we talked about what everyone had been up to and our RV journeys.
After lunch we took a walk towards the beach and watched people kayak, paddle board and enjoy a beautiful afternoon.
Busy for a Tuesday afternoon!
We concluded our visit, said our goodbyes, exchanged a few hugs and pointed the big ol' brown truck westward towards Silt CO. Thanks, again, to Greg, Debey and Isaac for your friendship and for your hospitality!
As we departed Frisco and headed westbound, Doreen says this drive was the most beautiful of our entire 2023 trip so far.
We arrived at the Glenwood Springs West /Colorado River KOA at 1530 hrs, right at 200 miles after we departed Denver. Checkin was quick and we were set-up in a nice full hookup pull-through.
We took Liberty on a walk around the park, and discovered the Colorado River to our south.
We don't have any firm plans here yet, but Doreen spent some time tonight coming up with some ideas. This is just an interim stop between Denver and Moab, and we are only here two nights, but there are things to see here. We will find them!
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