Remarkable People, Remarkable places

First the remarkable places. 

I really liked the architecture of the Dulles airport. 

Outside, concrete "posts"

The inside of same. 

And the "beams" of what is ( technically, I think ) a post and beam structure. I would have loved to see them being set in place and how the tension was set on the giagantic turnbuckles afterwards. 

Then there was the Deroit airport. With an unsuspected surprise. 

Just a normal concourse with all Delta gates (concourse A). 

Nice fountain

Those are water jets in a reflecting pool, not glass rods. I tried to catch them when they were all on. They would do short bursts in very intricate dances. Difficult to capture in a still and I'm trying not to start doing videos. 

During lunch I heard the public address system announce that there was a lounge for active military and vets, so I decided to check it out. 

The only signage for a very small entrance. 

Inside was non alcoholic beverages and snacks and, more importantly, a place to crash. They had three nice bunks and lots of big overstuffed chairs around a TV. There was a WiFi table and even a children's play area with toys. 

When I asked the receptionist how all this came to be was when it really became remarkable to me. She explained that she was a Delta flight attendant and didn't like seeing all the traveling military sleeping on the "filthy floor" between flights. The place runs on donations and volunteer workers. They pay one dollar a year for the space. I don't know how much of the setup was facilitated by Delta but it had to be a lot. 

Anyway the place was full of grateful vets and active duty personnel sleeping, catching up on line or watching TV. 

There were, of course, many other remarkable places on this trip. Especially if you don't get out much. But the number of remarkable people I meet is growing so large I will never get to thank all of them but I'll tell you about a few when I can. Starting with my next post in a few minutes. 

Meanwhile, "stay cool, drink plenty of fluids and avoid strenuous exersize", from the Old Farts Agenda (reprinted here with permission).