National Wings of Freedom Tour

As I mentioned in my previous post, Dan and I were at the airport on Wednesday to watch the landing of the five historic aircraft that flew into Temple as part of the National Wings of Freedom Tour. The planes included four WWII aircraft - the B-17 Flying Fortress, German Messerschmidt 262 fighter jet, P-51 Mustang fighter and B-24 Liberator heavy bomber - and the Vietnam era Uh-1E Huey helicopter.

It was exciting to see them in the air, as well as close up after they taxied in. The German Me 262 was the world's first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft.

Me 262 landing

B-17 Flying Fortress

B-17 Flying Fortress

B-17 Flying Fortress with observers reflected in the prop nose

P-51 Mustang fighter

B-24 Liberator

Uh-1E Huey helicopter

52 in 2013 - #13 Theme of the Week: Night

We joined some folks from my photography meet-up group for dinner at The Oscar Store tonight. It is a few miles out of town, on a dark country road. By the time we left, the sun had set. These trees, bordering the gravel parking lot, were lit from below by a flood light, which gave them an eerie appearance in the night.

52 in 2013 - #12 Theme of the Week: Blue

It was a clear BLUE sky, today, that welcomed these historic WWII aircraft to our local airport. More about the Wings of Freedom Tour in another post, maybe tomorrow.

B-17 Flying Fortress

ME-262 Schwalbe (left) and P-51 Mustang (right)

52 in 2013 - #11 Theme of the Week: Signs

We ate at Smashburger this evening. Good eats! And stunning SIGNS on the walls. I only had my iPhone to take pictures, but for a phone . . . it does a pretty good job!

Good Friends Part II

Cindy and Pepper left on Friday. We had such a great visit with them! We hardly had time to change the sheets, clean the guest bathroom, and do a little grocery shopping before Dave and Karen, also from Alaska, arrived on their bike. They are on a three-month tour around the US. They actually flew from Anchorage to Phoenix (correction - It was Las Vegas), where they picked up their bike. They spent time in Arizona, Arkansas and East Texas before arriving here. They left this morning, headed to New Orleans and Florida, with stops along the way. They will end up in Washington (state), where they will put the bike on a barge and fly home to Alaska.

Karen and I went to junior high and high school together, although Karen is a couple years younger than I. Her mom and dad were like a second family to Dan and me when we were in Alaska. (Her mom is Bea Long, about whom I've written before.) Dave and Dan are best friends in every sense of the word.

What a wonderful week we've had - old home week, in a sense - with visits from two sets of long-time Alaskan friends.

Good Friends Part I

Our long-time, good friends, Pepper and Cindy, from Juneau, are visiting us for a few days. We are having a great time. I've known Cindy since I was in high school. She moved to Juneau to take a teaching job. She and Pepper married soon after, and we've been friends ever since.

Today we drove down to the Ikea store, near Austin, and did the full hike through the entire store. Cindy and Pepper had never been to one before, and Cindy was really excited about going. Pepper and Dan were such good sports! Neither one is fond of shopping, but both completed the full Ikea marathon, including a lunch break at the Swedish cafeteria. With no complaining!

On our way home, Pepper asked if we could stop at the Horny Toad Harley Davidson store, on I-35 just south of Temple. Their son, Jess, is a Harley guy, so Pepper wanted to get him a Horny Toad Harley T-shirt. It's a huge store, and we found it fascinating. I told Dan, "This store makes you want to buy a Harley, just be to be part of the 'club!'" (Not really)

52 in 2013 - #10 Theme of the Week: History

Dan and I went to our local Bell County Museum this afternoon. I was confident that I would find something on display to use for my history-theme photo. It was an interesting visit, and I did take a number of pictures of the exhibits, but in the end I chose the old, historic Carnegie museum, itself, as the star of the History theme. I loved the intricate artistic architecture on the outside, but was even more impressed by the interior plaster relief. Andrew Carnegie (1835 - 1919) spent his last years as a philanthropist, after shrewdly accumulating his fortune. His philanthropic efforts included the establishment of public libraries and museums, such as this one. I recently watched the History Channel series, The Men Who Built America, which brought to life the stories of Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Rockefeller, Morgan, Frick and Ford. If you get a chance, be sure to watch this fascinating series of programs.