Checkin and gathering at the "Officer's Club":
For those unfamiliar, the Hangar Hotel is at the F'burg airport and built in a renovated WW II era hangar. It is a favorite stopping place for general aviation pilots and features a 1940's era aviation them throughout. The hotel bar is called the Officer's Club and as you can tell, it is a very comfortable hang-out. When filled with a bunch of F-105 pilots, it becomes a wonderful place.
Dinner just across the highway from the airport at the Cabernet Grill, a bed-and-breakfast with some great atmosphere and a pretty fine restaurant featuring all Texas wines. The food was upscale local fare and the dinner on the patio beside a small waterfall and koi pond was a long way from WW II standards.
Saturday was reunion of the 421st Tac Fighter Squadron at the Old Church in Willow City TX. Don't look for much in the way of facilities if you visit Willow City. It is little more than a very small ghost town with a few single-wides, a parking garage for some state DOT trucks and the historic old church. It sits at an intersection of a road called the Willow City Loop which offers about 20 miles of some of the most beautiful wild flowers and Hill Country scenario you can find.
BBQ, music, some vintage aircraft fly-overs and a lot of telling of war stories which we've all told before but usually we've forgotten that so we tell them again. They get better over the years. We get taller and braver. The targets get tougher and the defenses more accurate. And we all nod appreciatively because we know that every word is true.
Evening spent back the O'Club watching the projection TV as the Texas Rangers annihilated the Detroit Tigers to clinch their World Series berth. A wee dram of MacCallan's 12-year old single-malt to finish the day was consumed.
On the road Sunday and now things will get back to normal for a while.
4 comments:
Excellent.
Got an invite from Terrie (great card!), but couldn't make it. Hopefully, next year - on behalf of Dale Pichard; 1967, 421st/44th. Would like to hear the stories, retold firsthand.
And I've always wondered how big a "dram" is.
A "dram" in the real world is 0.125 fluid ounces. One can readily understand the a "wee dram" of Scotch is only a figure of speech. I'd say my evening's dram on Saturday during the conversations of the evening was a bit closer to 300-400 ML.
Was great seeing you and your friends, Ed. And to all readers, yes, he waxes even more eloquent when properly lubricated.
Sounds like a great time...except for the Tigers' loss, that is.
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