Into the wild blue yonder!: We are family

Our journey started on Thursday at 0430!!!! That's 4:30am for you non-military type. It took us 12 hours to drive there. That was including us stopping for gas, food, and potty breaks. The good news is that it is very easy directions to Del Rio, TX from New Orleans (in case anyone decides that they want to come and visit us). Take I-10 West to San Antonio, then exit to Hwy 90 West. That's it. After 2 1/2 hours on Hwy 90 you get to Laughlin AFB (Del Rio, TX). OK, so that was the good news..... The bad news is that Del Rio pretty much sucks!

So, we ate at some Mexican restaurant, and it was not that good, the town looks like the armpit of Texas, and it's miles and miles from any "real" civilization! The base is nice and clean, but it is small. Oh well, gotta start somewhere ( just keep saying in my head "it's only a year and a half"). We talked to a lady at the housing office, she was 20 something, newly married into the military, and she said that she goes to Mexico no problem...., and she said that there is almost no crime due to the fact that there are so many police, border cops, and military in Del Rio. So that's a good note.

Next we drove to Dyess AFB, in Abilene, TX. That was a 5 hour drive. We saw the VAST Texas landscapes. We saw cacti, rocks, boulders, grass, cows, horses, nothingness, bulls, goats, farms, ranches, bushes, big sky, oil wells, sheep, and more nothingness. And in between all of that we saw a lot of Dairy Queens.... there are A LOT of those.

Dyess AFB and Abilene, TX, was very clean and nice. The next morning on our way to pick up Dallas we passed by some "wind catching windmills", that generate energy. We felt like we were on another planet, or trapped in a sci-fi movie. They were HUGE! I mean probably 150'-200' tall. It was interesting to say the least.

We picked up Dallas from her owner that afternoon (Saturday), and headed to Wichita Falls, TX, at Sheppard AFB to sleep for the night. I'll use the word sleep, but we did little of that thanks to our new child (12 week old, 15lb., barking/crying/whyning machine) Dallas.