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PLEASE NOTE:
EFFECTIVE 28 JULY 2007, THIS PAGE IS NO LONGER ACTIVE AND SHOULD BE DELETED FROM YOUR FAVORITES LIST OR SIMILAR FILE. TO VIEW PHOTOS OF THE 2007 REUNION, CLICK HERE:
| 2007 REUNION PICS |
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OR.....
VP-17 2007 REUNION
All 1970-75 Alumni
15-17 June (Friday-Sunday) 2007
Come as early, stay as long as you desire.
"Early-bird" get-together Thursday evening 14 June
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Rated by Money Magazine as the best place to live in America
Elevation: 6184 feet
Host/Head Mofo-in-C - Ger Spaulding
A set of VP-17 stadium cups for all attendees
BEST DRIVING DIRECTIONS TO COLO SPRINGS AND THE HILTON
Forget Google, MapQuest, Yahoo and MSN directions, which do not take current construction projects into account. Whether you are arriving via the Colorado Springs Airport, I-25, or Highway 24, click on the link above, print these two pages of maps and directions (updated 26 May) and don't leave home without them.
VISITING THE USAF ACADEMY EN ROUTE FROM DENVER
Average June weather in Colorado Springs
JUST OUT: "THE BEST OF THE SPRINGS"
HEADS UP: SPRING SPREE ON SAT 16 JUNE
(Entertainment all day along Tejon St. which runs north-south just one
block east of the Hilton. Easy walk to the festivities, but in the downtown
area Tejon will be closed to vehicular traffic that day for the street party.)
Colorado Springs links:
GIUSEPPE'S OLD DEPOT RESTAURANT
(Suggested for dinner Thursday night)
(Friday night reception)
OTHER RESTAURANTS
COLORADO SPRINGS-PIKES PEAK VISITOR'S BUREAU
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THINGS TO DO:
AIR FORCE ACADEMY (on-line tour)
PIKES PEAK:
VP-17 Reunion Cog Rail options (Be sure to visit this page)
Peak Cam - 8 current views from the top
MICHAEL GARMAN SCULPTURE GALLERY
(Be sure to check out the Magic Town interactive tour)
(Free factory tours available)
(world's highest suspension bridge)
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Factoid # 1
Did you know?
At 14,110 ft above sea level, Pikes Peak is Colorado's 30th (some say 31st) highest peak. The highest is Mt. Elbert at 14,433 ft. Altogether, the state has 54 "14ers" and over 700 "13ers." If you like getting high, go here to read more:
http://www.14ers.com/photos/photos_14ers1.html
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Factoid # 2
Did you know?
The hotel where we'll be staying is on the site where
Kathy Lee Bates wrote "America the Beautiful"
The Antlers Hotel is truly a "landmark of excellence" in Colorado Springs, as historical as the city itself. General William Jackson Palmer founded Colorado Springs in 1871 and, soon after, tourists and health-seekers alike made it one of the country's top resort destinations. Palmer was at the forefront of plans to establish a luxury hotel for travelers who were discovering the Pikes Peak region.
On June 1, 1883, the doors opened on the hotel which was to remain at the center of the community for the next 100 years and on into the second millennium. The name "The Antlers" was distinctly appropriate since the lobby was adorned with the General's numerous elk trophies.
Modeled according to English architecture, the hotel was a Victorian mass of towers, turrets, balconies and porches. It featured 75 guestrooms, each completely unique in design. One of the most attractive aspects for that era's guests was the sanitary facilities -- two bathrooms on each floor.
An English teacher from Wellesley College stayed at The Antlers in the summer of 1893 and gave the hotel its most significant, and certainly proudest, place in history. Katherine Lee Bates journeyed to the summit of Pikes Peak where the "...purple mountain majesties..." so inspired her creative spirit that, upon returning to her room at the Antlers, she penned the poem which was to become our country's beloved song, "America the Beautiful."
A bit more Antlers Hotel history in pictures.
The top four photos are looking west on Pikes Peak Avenue, Colorado Springs's historic main street. Photo #1 was taken about 1880 before the hotel was built. Photo #2, circa 1891, is of the first Antlers, where Kathy Lee Bates penned "America the Beautiful" in 1893. The hotel burned to the ground five years later. The second Antlers, featured in 1950s Photo # 3, was torn down in 1964 and replaced with the present-day building. Photo # 4 was taken in late January 2006. The photo below is of today's recently remodeled Antlers Hilton Hotel (partially visible in Photo # 4). Obviously, Kathy Bates, who died in 1929, never slept in the Antlers Hilton.
History was made in 1893 when Kathy Lee Bates wrote "America the Beautiful" in her room at the Antlers Hotel following a trip to the top of Pikes Peak. History will be made yet again when VP-17 holds its 2007 Reunion on the same spot at the Antlers Hilton.
Entryway/Lobby
Lobby/Restaurant entrance
Judge Baldwin's on-site microbrewery
VP-17 Hospitality Suite
VP-17 group rate = $139 per room per day plus tax.
Driving directions, parking, etc.
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Factoid # 3
Did you know?
Colorado Springs hosts five major military bases:
U.S. Air Force Academy (huge)
Fort Carson (huge), home of the 3rd Armored Cav
Shriever AFB, 50th Space Wing (Satellite Ops)
Cheyenne Mountain AFB ("Stargate" from TV), and
Peterson AFB, home of:
- North American Air Defense Command (NORAD)
- US Northern Command (NORTHCOM)
(Homeland Security Central)
- US Strategic Command
- Air Force Space Command
- 21st Space Wing
- US Army Space and Missile Command
- The place Ger plays golf with ORBS
(Old Retired Bastards Society)
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Factoid # 4
Did you know?
The Colorado Front Range, particularly the area west of Denver just a little south of Golden (Coors Brewery, Buffalo Bill's gravesite and museum), once was steamy, tropical and teeming with dinosaurs. Click here for more: COLORADO DINOSAURS
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Factoid # 5
There's no friggin' way you'd know this:
The Spaulding family (Ger's grandparents and father at age one) moved from Springfield, Illinois to Colorado Springs in 1919. No motels then, so camping en route was required. Their vehicle was their nearly new Crow-Elkhart "touring car," which featured wooden wheels and rubber tires.
In 1920, they bought 240 acres of farm land southeast of Colorado Springs and lived in this shack while Grandpa worked the farm and built a real house. The area, just east of Colorado Springs Airport, remains farm land today and that old, now decrepit house is still occupied, although by whom we're not really sure.
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Factoid # 6
FROM THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER:
PROJECTED HURRICANE THREAT IN COLORADO SPRINGS
"You could square the chances and still come up with a negative number."
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A note about Colorado's thinking about Hollywood.....
Despite that Charlton-Heston/John-Wayne/George-W-Bush-hating, faggot-infested Hollywood's best efforts to make everyone believe the movie "Brokeback Mountain" is about gay cowboys, it ain't about cowboys at all. It's about a couple of sheepherders who never learned what "stump broke" really means. In other words, they flunked "animal husbandry." And, Hollywood, just for the record cowboys drive cows not sheep and are attracted to cowgirls, not shepherds. In case ewe don't know the difference, this (the critter on the left below) is a cowgirl:
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E-MAIL/SNAIL MAIL ADDRESS CHECK:
Changed your e-mail address recently without letting us know, but still checking this web site? Then have a look at the latest reunion announcements (link immediately below). If you have not received these messages as emails, there's a good chance we don't have your current address. Update requested. ALSO PLEASE ENSURE WE HAVE YOUR SNAIL MAIL ADDRESS.
2007 Reunion e-mail announcements
Reunion Registration Form (pdf format)
Reunion Registration Form (Word format)
VP-17 bio update form (pdf format)
VP-17 bio update form (Word format)
SPECIAL NOTE: GUS COOK,
E-MAIL GER OR CALL 719-638-5786
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