Saturday August 18, 2007








North entrance to the installation, which is located at the base of the Rampart Range on 18,500 acres; elevation is 7,163 above sea level at the terrazzo level. It is the headquarters of the US Air Force Academy and is supported by the 10th Air Base wing. Cadet wing strength is limited to 4,000.

























Entering from the North Gate, one view of this massive installation as we drive to the Cadet Chapel.

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A U.S. Air Force Cadet passes the front of the chapel.

These stairs lead up to the Protestant section, the largest, consisting of the entire top floor. Stairs down, lead to the Catholic and Jewish portion. Catholic is the larger, about 70 % of the lower floor, Jewish the remaining.

Each church affiliation is different in design, and each are equally beautiful according to their traditions.















Catholic Chapel.














Back of the altar.













Stained Glass of the Catholic Chapel.

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Talk about your souvenirs! As you may know, Deinna is a stained glass artist. As fate would have it, we just happened to be there when workers were replacing broken panels in the Catholic Chapel. We stopped and chatted, and asked if we could have a piece they were discarding. Here she holds the glass they gave us.





















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The Jewish Synagogue.

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Interior of the Protestant Chapel.





















Ceiling of the Protestant Chapel. This stained glass is interlaced between the lance pointed shape of the roof line.

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Memorials like this, surround the Chapel. Listed, are those Air Force personnel who have died in service to this country.

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We stopped for the night at a KOA in Pueblo Colorado.















The next day, 15 August we headed west on Rt 50 to the Royal Gorge. In Canon City, we passed this beautiful building. Seeing that it was both a monastery and a winery, we added it to our check list of places to stop on the way back to the trailer. We were going to get some first class altar wine for mass in Jamul.





















We did stop, only to find out the remaining eight monks were not enough to keep the Abbey financially viable. It is a massive complex. Sadly, it was forced to close this year, in February 2007. The chapel and the large complex attached has been sold to a New York City firm. This firm will, supposedly, 'conduct events in the spirit of the buildings original intent'. We guess that to mean, weddings, bar mitzvahs ??? etc. Uh ... who knows.
















The winery (below) was sold separately. They were allowed to keep the name, and it is known as "The Winery at Holy Cross Abbey". A very nice man inside informed us they sell only first class, superior wines ... from imported grapes he called, 'juice' from California. When we asked about altar wine, he gave us that look, and might as well have said they didn't make anything cheap enough to be called 'altar' wine. So, no treat for Jamul.


For more info click here http://www.abbeywinery.com/