1995 Opening of DIA

On February 28, 1995, I went to the grand opening of Denver International Airport.  I had been planning it for quite a while.  Every time I would drive west of Denver on I-70, I could see it taking shape.  I even thought about volunteering to drive some of the airport vehicles from Stapleton Airport to the new airport.  One day when my son Ben and I drove out to Shylo (Afghan Hound breeders and friends) west of Denver, we took the DIA road to see it up closer.  It was mostly just piles of dirt at that point.  

DIA Under Construction

A couple of days before opening day, it started to snow, and it kept snowing.  I was determined though, I was going.  At that time I was driving a Toyota but it wasn't 4-wheel drive.  I left really early, before dark actually.  It took me forever to get there but I made it.

Snow Day at DIA

It was absolutely amazing.  Everything, the view from outside, the outside itself, like big tents, the inside, it was just amazing.  It was like a cross between a mall and a museum with airplanes thrown in.  Tom Martino (from The Troubleshooter show on the radio) was there asking people what they thought.  I told him I loved it, but I saw no clocks on any of the walls.  He looked around and sure enough, in the main terminal, there were no clocks!  He made a note of it.

 

The trains were incredible too.  Lights and sculptures lined the walls and moved when the train went by.  The lights changed depending on where the train was.  It was amazing.

And the floors!  They were marble with different kinds of fish and animals embedded and embedded into the tile.  It was hard not to stare down the whole time.



I stayed as long as I dared, knowing I had a long drive home.  It was a fabulous day.

After that, any time I needed to go to DIA, I allowed extra hours just to walk around.  A lot of the exhibits changed on a regular basis, and other just evolved.  One had cascading plants, that got more and more amazing the more they grew.