TONE Dollar ride!!!

 Last weekend we went to San Antonio to buy some new running shoes (and just to get out of Del Rio).  And on the way back from there my truck rolled over 100,000 miles!  Yaaayyy!!!!  I love my truck.  And Kristen's car looks nice too.

We had a bad storm roll through Del Rio this week.  It was so hard to sleep through.  krsten really didn't sleep. Especially when the tornado warning sirens kept going off.  She took Dallas and hid in the closet.  I just tried to sleep through it.  A few trees and telephone/electricity poles came down on base.  It was pretty bad.  There was no hail here on base but some did fall around here because all sorts of "HAIL REPAIR" businesses popped up over night.

I had my dollar ride on Friday!  It was awesome!  Its my first "real" plane to fly.  That meaning......, if I were a civilian pilot, the plane that I am flying could be flying around celebrities.  Its a nice jet.  Its so powerful!  And I have two engines now.  Which feels a lot safer.  Haha.  I don't have any pictures because I can't take any pictures while in the jet.

I have a flight Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and a sim on Friday.  On day one of T-1's they told us that we could expect to fly two to three times a week and one sim.  Haha.  I am one flight/sim ahead of anyone else in my class.  I don't know why that always happens to me.  They say that pilot training is like trying to drink from a fire hose...... I think they just turned on the fire hose again.  And I can't drink this fast......

Sorry so short this week.  And no youtube videos......that sucks.  I'll have to do better next week.  Big week again this week. 

I cooked steak!

 I cooked a steak for Kristen and chicken for me!  1st time ever!  For those who know me know that this is a BIG deal.  I didn't eat any of the steak but I did eat the chicken. And Kristen said the steak was good!

Our base got a new commander this week and there was all kinds of extra planes parked on the ramp to come and watch the ceremony!  I had to take a picture of one of the rows of planes.  There were three full rows!

Well..., our dollar rides got pushed back a few days.......It sucks..., I haven't flown now in a few weeks!!! I thought that this was supposed to be pilot training!  Our new dollar ride date is for 28 May.  But on 28 May not all of my class are going to get our dollar rides.  They don't have enough IPs.  So some of us are going to have to wait until after the Memorial Day weekend.  Geeesssh.   That sucks.

I've taken five tests now for T-1s and my average score is a 97%.  That sounds good but most people in my class have a 99%!  Darn!  I have a fairly hard test this Tuesday and if I do well and others suck it up then I can catch up with them.  That's what I'm banking on.

I had two simulator rides this week.  I got an excellent on both of those.  That just sounds good but it really doesn't mean much.But the sim rides are a lot of fun though!!!  The TONE is a BEAST!!!  This week I learned how to fly and land the plane with just one engine working.  That was challenging at first.

Kristen and I are driving to San Antonio this weekend to buy running shoes for me.  I need them.  Not only because my old ones are worn out but because whenever I get new running shoes I usually start running a lot again.  Haha.

All these pictures are either from the sim or a plane that they let us look around....nothing exciting yet.


Click on this sentence to see that Dallas was a bad girl when we left her home alone!

 After getting the "skating bug" in us last Friday night we made plans to go to the local skating rink on Saturday.  

 It was a blast!  I have not skated in a few years.  I love to skate.  My mom bought me some nice skates when I was in 7th grade and I still have them.  Kristen has nice old skates also.  She has tried to get me to throw away my and her skates for a while now but I just can't let go of them.  Haha.  And I'm glad we kept them.  I like to think I'm good out there on the rink but if I ever saw myself I would probably just laugh. 

 It only cost $7 per person to get in and skate.... and that includes their miniature golf also!

We played skating limbo.  I lost. Click on this sentence to see me losing.  Wendy, a friend of ours went right before me and made it.....I suck!

 I was third place in the races though!!!  Of course there is no video of that though!

After our ankles were killing us and we had fallen down enough times we decided to go outside and play miniature golf.  It was good times there too.  By the end of the day.....we were pooped!

No animals were hurt in the taking of this photo.

Kristen made a HOLE IN ONE!!!!

On Sunday, Mother's day, we went to this natural spring around here with Dallas.  It has a sidewalk along the river/stream that you can walk on.  Everyone goes to this thing, especially the locals.  They go tubing, diving and swimming in it. It's clear and looks like fun. Some parts are calm and some parts have rapids.

 After we too Dallas for a walk we drove about two miles to the Mexican border.  It was pretty cool.  We saw the long line of cars waiting to get into the USA.  We see a lot of Mexican plates over here.  Mostly at the Wal-Mart and Home Depot.  I guess its just nicer over here or something.  Kristen would not let me touch the fence..., she thought that it might be electrified! Haha.

Well, with work now a days there was a lot of tension in the air around here.  Every three years each base has to get inspected.  It is a big deal in the Air Force.  It's called a UCI (Unit Compliance Inspection).  It's basically a team of 100 people who come onto the base for a week in a half and observe everything!  I mean everything!  They dig back in paperwork three years old and check and make sure that it's correct.  It's kinda scary because the inspectors can stop and ask anyone anything they want.  And you probably have to know the answer.  If you don't then your name WILL be recorded and it WILL show up in the final document of our bases UCI.  If anything like that happens your career can be limited in the Air Force.  Now....., for me..., probably not.  But for some of the higher ups....YES.  This is basically a way for them to get promoted.  So..., they put pressure on the IP's here, and they in turn put pressure on us.

Morale on the base has been suffering because of it (UCI) so as soon as the inspectors left here on Tuesday morning.  The commander threw us a base wide BBQ.  And we were off for the rest of the day. Sweet!

Other than that its been pretty mellow.  I have class during the day.  It usually only lasts about 6-8 hours.  But I try and stay a full 12 to make myself study.  As soon as I come home its so hard to make myself study.  I only had one test this week..., I got a 96%.  Missed one question.  That's not good enough yet. I need 100's!  On Monday I have my next test.  I'll study tomorrow. Haha.

I start flying my new jet on the 24th of this month!  I am so excited!!!  That's just two Mondays away!  The good with the bad though.  My morning shows will be at 4:30am.  That kinda sucks.  But, look at the bright side..., they can't keep me later than 4:30pm! Haha.  And instead of coming and going as I please I'll probably be told to stay in the flight room all day.  that's just a little hazing for the first couple of weeks I'm sure.  It's worth it though!  the plane is sweet!  I had three simulator rides this week in the TONE.  It has so much power!  I mean....it's a REAL plane.  It's a JET.  It's what some multi-millionaire would have as their personal plane!  It's cool.

We take Dallas for walks almost everyday around here.  This week we decided to stop and swing on the swing set and then let Dallas slide.  It was funny.  Dogs don't get the whole sliding thing.

Dallas also thought it would be fun to play with the toilet paper while we were gone one day.  I guess we'll have to close the bathroom door for a while.  The "I know I did something bad and I'm sorry" look she has on her face is priceless.

Click on this sentence to see Dallas playing a game that she made up and we named...soli-soccer.
Click on this sentence to see the tad bit longer version of the same game.

Cinco de Mayo week!!!

Last Sunday we went to the local rodeo.  Its only a bull riding rodeo.  It was fun.  There was real cowboys everywhere.  The parking lot just had trucks in it.  It was awesome!   
Click on this sentence for a video of a bull being herded back into the stables.

We went with a classmate of mine, Josiah.

OK..., so for those of you who don't know.  A bull ride has to be at least eight seconds to be scored.  And at eight seconds a horn goes off and the rider can release his hold on the rope and "get off" the bull.  We only saw about 10 "full" bull rides.  Haha.  The riders usually get thrown off in a few seconds.  It's funny.

Our pictures were just OK because we brought our little point and shoot camera instead of our nice camera and the darn thing kept focusing on the white bar in front of us.  Stupid camera.

 It was so hot out there!  These pictures are trying to show the temperature from the rear view mirror in my truck.

They had this really cool "tornado" like dust cloud.  It was really big and kinda scary.  Everyone was looking at it.  We took a video of it but it doesn't give it any justice.  Also..., we took the whole video sideways....oops.
Click on this sentence for a video of the dust storm.

I found out a few things this week about my plane.  It's affectionately called the "TONE"  because it's the T-1..., and you can spell that out as the T-ONE....= TONE.  Also, I should be having my dollar ride in the TONE on 24 May!!!  I had two tests this week.  I got a 100% on the first one, and a 92% on the second.  That might sound good..., but it's really not.  A 92% sucks!!!  Oh well... I'll do better.  I got my headset issued to me this week.  I'm so pumped up about them!  I don't have to wear that huge constricting helmet anymore.  Or breath oxygen from an oxygen system.  My plane now is fully pressurized and keeps it feeling like 1,000ft.  It's nice!
Click on this sentence for a video of all the lights on my plane. .....I'm a nerd I know... but all of the lights on looks cool.

On Cinco de Mayo we were all pumped up! Usually, in New Olreans we would go out and have a great night.  All of the bars would have special promotions and there would be bands everywhere.  So, naturally living five miles from the Mexican border we thought that it would be a HUGE celebration over here..... We were wrong.  Haha.  Apparently its just a "made up" American holiday.  Haha.

 First we went to The Emporium for a shake.  This place is cool!  It's all old times like.  They even serve their soda by first adding syrup..., then adding the soda water.

Our friend Kit had a birthday on that day also so we did get to go out to eat.  Where you ask...?  A a trailer on side the road of course.  Haha.  There are a lot of those kind of food trailers around here.  They're actually very popular around here.  Then we went back to Kit's for birthday cake.  They're leaving to helicopter school in Alabama this week.  We'll miss them.

We did get to hang out with Kit and Peter one more time on Friday.  We went to Salas Burger.  We always see it but have never worked up enough nerve to go eat there. Of course..., it was good.  We found a new favorite burger spot!

Last night we had some friends over to have a Siete de Mayo celebration.  I'll use any excuse to use our Margaritaville blender. Haha.  We made margaritas, then pina coladas and then beer.  Then we played drinking games and ended up skateing in the house.  Sometimes you can't explain how things happen.....they just do.  Haha.  It was nice to skate inside the house without my mom yelling at me though.
 Click on this sentence for a video of Kristen skating uhmm......drunk.