“The Improbable Dream” is an original mixed media painting commissioned by fellow 2013 (Lemay!) grad and best friend of the artist. The painting documents their journey on Route 66 during 60 Days, beginning with graduation and culminating in a car accident involving a deer (no one was hurt but the deer). Reading left to right, the work depicts the CS38 Almighty Allstars section of Sijan Hall they called home for three years. Sijan hall dissolves into graduation, depicted by an original image of construction at USAFA painted over to resemble graduation. Upon graduation the scene shifts into their trip on Route 66, starting with Kansas. Original documents collected during the trip are collaged layer by layer into the painting: a Frida Kahlo exhibit, cutouts from a Route 66 Booklet (Kansas, Missouri, Illinois), the St Louis Arch from a brochure, and beneath it all the actual traced route on a map they followed (mostly not using GPS). Notable stops on the road included The Cozy Dog Drive In (birthplace of the original corn dog on a stick) and an unexpected stay at the haunted Inn at 835 Boutique Hotel. The Pink Elephant Antique Mall yielded an excellent opportunity to hunt for treasures (and many were found). During the road trip the two 2nd Lieutenants discovered Indiana by surprise after the atlas they used misled them into thinking they were in Ohio – hence the “?” question mark over Indiana on the map. This led to a long night of driving before the two made it successfully to Sandusky Ohio, where the Cedar Point Amusement Park (depicted in the upper left corner) awaited. The final leg of the journey ended abruptly when, while driving through Pennsylvania, a deer leapt out of nowhere and crashed into their car. They were stranded. But not for long. A car approached, stopped, and an older man with a cane got slowly out. It turns out the man was a former helicopter pilot. He was delighted to let them know “the last time [he] saved two Lieutenants was back in ‘nam.’” He and his hippie wife rescued them, fixed up the car, and helped them get on their way. The two 2nd Lieutenant besties made their way home to Maryland, where they had a wonderfully uneventful rest of their 60 Days. Still friends, they went on to have amazing experiences in the Air Force, and are living their best lives. But they will always remember their time at USAFA, and how it all began with an improbable dream.