Hobbs Trip - Day 6

[got up relatively early - girls dragging - filled up gas tank and then headed out of Hobbs towards home - stopped for lunch at Sonic in Lamesa (TX) - no traffic or other delays all the way home (no need for gas, either...) - home around 1830L]

Hobbs Trip - Day 5

[I got up early and drove from Hobbs to Artesia to see Chuck - he was busy, but eventually got a chance to eat lunch with him at the Wellhead - he had to go back to work, so I took my time driving back (via Carlsbad) - wanted to visit Sitting Bull Falls, but it had been burned to the ground in a wildfire (along with lots of other places around the state) - stopped at Brantley Lake State Park briefly and then drove down to Carlsbad to check out the Living Desert attraction (looks like fun for the kids) - headed back to Hobbs and arrived around 1600L - Kelly took Nicky and girls to see Kung Fu Panda 2 - I met them later (for dinner) at Chili's - back to Bonnie's for night swimming and packing]

Hobbs Trip - Day 4

[visiting - yard work - visited Prairie Haven Cemetery - Kelly came over to visit - steak dinner (late) - night swimming]

Hobbs Trip - Day 3

[visting and yard work again - relaxing - Mass in late afternoon - salmon and shrimp for dinner (on grill) - Kathy arrived just as we sat down to eat - night swimming]

Hobbs Trip - Day 2

[relaxed and helped Bonnie in the yard - dinner at Hobbs Country Club with Bonnie's friends - visiting late]

Hobbs Trip - Day 1

[drove from Fort Worth to Hobbs - dinner from Empire Buffet (Chinese food)]

Burleson, TX (USA)

[second VA appointment - Burleson (Hugeley Medical Center) - done quickly]

Euless, TX (USA)

We had to take Katie back to the airport today. No one wants her to leave, so we spent some time exploring Fort Worth, especially the area near the Base (unfortunately, the airplanes were not in town). Nicky showed her the Exchange... Later drove by TCU and used some back roads to get to I-35W. While we were driving around, Katie began talking about how she just had to have some frozen custard: apparently, that is a big deal at her house since we met up in Branson [see JUL 2010]. With her smartphone (and a bunch of course corrections), we eventually located Freddy's Frozen Custard on TX-121 (on Glade - right on the Grapevine/Euless city line). What we found to be funny at that point was that it turned out to be the same chain restaurant we visited in Edmund, OK [see NOV 2010]... They have great steakburgers (and the frozen custard was a big hit for everyone). Mission completed, we navigated our way over to the DFW Airport (north entrance) with no problem. Dropped Katie off for her flight - it was sad to see her go... Departed the airport property via the south entrance (quickest return ever - where was the traffic ?). I'm very tired from the last five days...

Hillsboro, TX (USA)

Katie wanted to visit Dealey Plaza in Dallas (to see site of the JFK shooting). We got a pretty late start (1100) and had to stop at the Stockyards to pick up some last minute gifts that the girls had missed on Thursday (while I was at work). On our way towards Dallas (finally) by noon. Spent around two hours on the "grassy knoll" and in the gift shops nearby. Ate lunch at Subway (a block away). I figured the ladies would want to do some shoppping, so I took them down I-35E to Hillsboro, where we've (previously) seen an outlet mall. The drive was OK - but I think our side of the city (I-35W) is actually a better way to get to the merge... The outlet mall was a big disappointment: there were many, many closed stores and a limited selection (especially compared to the San Marcos outlets we saw earlier in the month...). Still, it appeared everyone enjoyed shopping at the available stores (bags appeared in the car for the drive home, anyway!). Used I-35W to drive back towards Fort Worth. We stopped to take pictures of HUGE fields of sunflowers on the side of the interstate. One of my co-workers has been recommending we go out to dinner in Burleson, especially to try their version of Babe's Chicken restaurant [see MAY 2009]. Convinced by his suggestions, we stopped there at 1700 and discovered that the ambiance was much like being in a small German town after dark. They had a lot more entree selections, too (including smoked chicken). Everyone had a great meal and we enjoyed the entertainment for a while. Afterwards, we xplored the small town and then took our time driving back to the Interstate (we even visited an Army-Navy surplus store). Got back to our house around 2030 and spent a good bit of time visiting. Katie actually dusted off our sewing machine and showed the girls some of her sewing tricks. It was fun to watch, but I ended up going to bed early (tired)...

Alliance, TX (USA)

[spent the whole morning taking care of last-minute business: flowers (Albertson's), gift cards (Sonic), delivery of all the items - met up with Katie, Nicky and kids at the Galley around 1145 and we had a great "retirement luncheon" (Mexican food, buffet style) - there were probably around 40 people there (pretty good number, since there was an Indy-car fundraiser and Paint-ball tournament going on with our staff...) - nostalgic photo show (thanks to several techno-folks who worked for about an hour - awards ("Yellow Rose of Texas" and "Admiral of the Texas Navy") and letters of appreciation for Nicky and the kids - HUGE cake - dust settled and we went home around 1430 - rested (games at home) until around 1800 and then drove over to the Noodles at Boba Tea House (Mollie and I had scouted it out a few weeks ago) - great dinner - afterwards drove up to Cabela's to explore with Katie (she was impressed) - drove home later (stuffed and tired) - stayed up very late - what a day!]

Abilene, TX (USA)

[last flight as a Navy pilot - briefed at 0800 - flew with Mark over to Abilene to do touch and gos - weather was great - a couple more landings back at NAS JRB - last landing ("Naval Aviator, last pass") bitter-sweet - fire trucks sprayed my plane - maintainers dumped icewater on me (kids did too) - lots of photos, video and shaking hands - had to do some meetings for Raul in the afternoon - drove over for my first VA appointment (near intersection of I-820 and I-30) - spent about two hours there (finished at 1700) and then drove home (via I-820) - rested at the house until it was time to go get Katie at the airport (2230 arrival) - traffic OK - but then tried to go in North Entrance and got burned (highway completely closed!) - found my way back to the entrance (side roads) and met Katie right after she got to the bag claim area - used South Exit and got home pretty quickly - stayed up late, talking...]

New Braunfels, TX (USA)

One of the perks of staying at the resort is that you get to enter the park at 0900 (normal hours are 1000). So, we woke up around 0730 so we could take advantage of that! After checking out of the hotel, we had breakfast nearby - at Union Street Station (it was delicious: pancakes, bacon, eggs and toast). We arrived at Surfenburg around 0830 and got our new park-pass bracelets. It turned out that we were able to use rides on a huge tower in Blastenhoff (Wolfpack, Black Knight and Master Blaster), so we parked over there. We'd seen the lines for these rides yesterday - from the bottom of the stairs to the top (probably four stories). So, when they let us into the park (0845), we rushed to the top. If we weren't tired already (from yesterday), we were nearly exhausted by the stair-climbing. Mollie and I rode on the Wolfpack a few times and Brenna checked out the Master Blaster. Eventually, we all ended up on multiple trips down the Black Knight. By 0945, the lines were getting huge again, so I sent the kids to Blastenhoff Beach to wait for the rest of the park to open. I walked around and made movies, took pictures (in the process, learning that Surfenburg opens early too) and bought some park souvenirs. Met the kids again around 1015 and rode The Torrent with them multiple times. Around 1045, we purchased some photos from the park (taken yesterday) and made a squished penny. We then went over to Surfenburg and rode on Dragon's Revenge (probably the best ride in the park). On the way out, I spotted "Backsplash" (shoots water down a hill into the Kristal River) and we had fun doing that one! After floating around for awhile, we spent some time relaxing in Kristal Cove and Hang Ten Harbor. At about 1230, the kids started mentioning food - so we got in the car and headed out for lunch (Subway near the park was too crowded, found a second one on TX-46). Filled up the car with gas and we headed back to the original Schlitterbahn again. I made some more movies and photos while the kids rode more rides (and relaxed in the huge hot tub, Lava Lagoon). Met up with them around 1400 and we rode the Cliffhanger again and then walked up to the Lagoon. We rode the Soda Straws and Hillside tube before getting on the Raging River again. Brenna wanted to relax in the Gator Bowl pool after that, so Mollie and I went on the Congo River Expedition and played nearby in the wave-pool. She even got to ride on a carousel. We met up with Brenna later and the kids practiced holding their breaths. It was getting late (1800) and we still had to drive home (!), so we picked one more ride (Cliffhanger) to enjoy before leaving. We then changed into some street clothes and said goodbye (1845). I'd been wanting to try out a nearby German restaurant called Oma's Haus (on TX-46), so we went there for dinner. They had a special combination meal and we tried that (chicken Neirsteiner Schnitzel, rasberry porkloin, and a sausage plate - along with German potatoes, seasoned green beans with bacon and corn). The whole meal was excellent and we finished around 1900. It all turned out great: along with an additional stop to explore the San Marcos outlet mall (very swanky!), we missed all the rush-hour traffic for Austin... Drive was very nice (sun setting on our left side - first with hills and then with the prairie). We stopped for a bathroom break and playground fun at one of the tornado refuge rest-stops. Later, we picked up a dozen kolaches (in West, TX) to take home. Drive couldn't have been better - until we reached downtown Fort Worth and five lanes went down to one. We were so close to getting home - and then we were stopped completely! However, we still made it back to the house by 2300. What a trip - you can't beat Schlitterbahn!!!

New Braunfels, TX (USA)

I still had some leave to burn before I leave my job, so I took some this week. One thing I've been wanting to do since we moved to Texas was to visit the Schlitterbahn water park. We did drive by there before (see OCT 2010) but it was off-season. Woke up early (0630) and got on the road by 0745. We drove through Fort Worth - it took some time, but after we made it through the city, there was very little traffic. It's always fun to be with the kids on an adventure! About two hours into the trip, I looked down to adjust the temperature and Brenna said "Daddy, watch out" (in a quiet tone) - I looked up and saw a fertilizer spreader bouncing down the highway in front of us. Fortunately, I wasn't too close to the truck that had dropped it - and we were able to dodge it. Whew! The rest of the trip was uneventful. As it turned out, we timed the traffic almost perfectly - and we made it to New Braunfels by 1030. Stopped for a quick bite at Wendy's and then drove over to the Resort. We pre-checked in around 1100 and got our water-park wrist bands (included with a night's stay - similar to the Great Wolf Lodge). We were just about to get started with park rides when I got a call from the company who interviewed me last week. I sent the kids off to explore nearby while I chatted with the recruiter - what great news! Jazzed up after learning about a job offer, I joined the girls inside the park. The best thing about the place is that the rides are scattered across three zones (including Blastenhoff, Surfenburg and the original park). We explored the original for most of the day. There are some great things about the place: they let you bring in coolers and food, there is lots of space to sit and relax (including tables and chairs everywhere) and people were polite and friendly. It took quite awhile for us to figure out how to navigate the park - there was LOTS of walking - but we eventually learned that there was a walkway along the Comal River that connected to all the lines for the tube-chutes. We rode on rides called Congo River Expedition (reminded me of the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland), Whitewater, Cliffhanger and Raging River. We also played in the Lagoon. The water, piped in from the river, was very pleasant and cool. It almost made me forget how hot it was... Around 1500, I went to check into our room. While walking to the lobby, I saw a deer and her twin fawns... A short time later, I met up with the girls, who started talking about being hungry. So that we could wait for a nice dinner, I told them we'd go out for ice cream. That turned out to be harder than I expected - and we ended up having to drive almost to I-35 to find a place (Sonic). It perked the kids up, though. On the way back to the water park, we saw lots of poeple floating on the Comal River in tubes - it looked fun. We ended up at Surfenburg next. We watched kids showing off on boogie boards at "Boogie Bahn" and then floated in the Krystal River for awhile. I was getting tired from the walking, so I took a break while the girls played in Squirt 'n Sliden. A little later, we walked over to Blastenhoff (passing "The Falls", the next component of the park - opens soon). We enjoyed Blastenhoff Beach and The Torrent (a "wavy river"). After a few hours, we went back to the Resort at the Bahn. I had to take care of some work emails (quickly) and the girls raced around, trying to fit in as many rides as they could. When I joined the kids again, they told me we needed float in the Comal River, which had just opened (late in the day, since some of the employees are students). We had a great time, riding Cliffhanger multiple times. Suddenly it was 1830. We'd had a blast! Drove back to our room and changed for dinner. Brenna wanted to check out Gruene again (see OCT 2010). The evening was very pleasant and we wanted to eat dinner on the river - this time we chose the Gruene River Grill. There were far fewer people there than at the Gristmill - food was very good! The appetizer was grilled shrimp submerged in a spicy cajun juice, the kids' entrees were fish tacos and Mexican meatloaf. I had Filet Gargonzola. After a few hours, we walked along the river and listened to music coming from Gruene Hall. Around 2130, we drove back to the resort. Mollie and I walked around the park in the dark (and spotted a raccoon!). Back in the room, got ready for bed: very tired, but excited for tomorrow!