Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Spontaneous trip detour to.... Del Rio, TX

The day before we left San Antonio, we were planning our route to El Paso, TX through Ft. Stockton on I-10.  A very spontaneous opportunity came up and we took it!  I'm so proud of us because as most of you know, we are more planners than fly-by-your seaters :)

Old friends that we hadn't seen since 1996 while stationed together in Montgomery, AL, contacted us and invited us to visit them in Del Rio, TX.  What a treat for us!  We thought we were mainly going to visit them and have a BBQ.  Well, they had many more adventures waiting for us :)

The welcoming committee!!
T-6s were flying right over our truck!



When we were on the road to Del Rio, we get a text message from Donna.... "You have a flight sim scheduled at 4:00!"  Jon's friend Glenn is retired Air Force also and is now a flight training instructor for the T-6.  He invited us to jump in the simulator and have some basic flying lessons!!!  It was an amazing experience!


I love the caption above the door!

Inside the big black ball is where all the magic happens...
the T-6 Flight Simulator

We all got a brief flying lesson so we knew what some of the buttons and gauges do.

DT expertly flying over Del Rio.

Jolie did a great job, especially considering she could barely see over the dashboard :)

Faith with the eagle eye and steady hand flew under the bridge without crashing on her very first attempt!


Getting my lesson... looking forward to my turn, even though I'm already naseuseous from watching the kids fly :)

Monty reliving the glory days....
Like Father....

Like Son...


T-6s.... these are what we flew in the simulator.


Our very cool host and hostess:  Glenn and Donna Quarles



A gorgeous evening at the Quarles home...

Unfortunately, I didn't get good photos of the signs around our campground.  Here are two though to show how close we were to the Mexico border:


When pulling out of our campground onto the the street, when you look to the right...
you see this sign.  The long road is Amistad Dam, with the Port of Entry to Mexico at the end of the dam.

"Turn left off of the main road... Hwy 90,
go a couple of miles....
turn right just before the dam at the last right turn in the USA,
to find the campground."

This is our campground security:  the Border Patrol!
I took this from our campsite :)
Site #3... what an amazing view!
Southwinds Marina on Lake Amistad, Laughlin AFB fam camp

Breakfast with a view...relaxing and just awesome...
Math with a view....an excruciating temptation
Ok, ok...you did great with your studies.
Now go explore the lake!






Time for lunch!



Mexican Coke


DT's new buddy... Brady!
Last time we saw Brady he was DT's age  :)


Next up, afternoon adventures on Lake Amistad with Glenn:

"So Glenn, how fast does this bass boat go?"

"This fast!"




We discovered wild goats on the hillside at the water's edge!


They were so cute and fun to listen to.

                                                                                            

What else lives up there????


"Mr. Quarles, may I drive?"





After a long day of play on Lake Amistad....
a precious moment.



Back to the Quarles to feed the deer... and eat pizza!


We had an amazing weekend with our old friends!  Since we only had 2 days there, we left many things undone... like a trip across the border to Acuna!  We'll just have to go back again someday :)


Thank-you Quarles and adios Del Rio....


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