Saturday Excursion with Grandad

Stagecoaches and Loud Aircraft

Last weekend we decided to visit Frontier Texas, a sorta new age museum. David and I had been there once before ( way back in 2005 when my family came to our wedding ), but Grandad hadn't, and so off we went after breakfast.

It had rained the night before, and the stroller had been left out. I had brought it into the house to dry under the ceiling fan, and promptly forgot to put it back in the truck as we left the house.


Fortunately for us, they had strollers ( for the bubs ) as well as wheelchairs ( for the Grandad ) !

"er, this vantage point leaves a lot to be desired"

There was a bunch of things to see and "experience", but all Jaxon was really interested in was trying to take his shoes off, and finding a way to Houdini out of the stroller.

"let me distract daddy with a stealthy move while I get outta this thing"

A bunch of the exhibits were loud and abrupt even for me, so when it came to the last part of the "tour", which was a 15 minute or so movie/featurette ( with a lot of buffalo stampeding and shoot outs ) in one of those 360 degrees rooms with screens all around you, I decided I would just hang around the gift shop with Jaxon, who decided to do a "baby Hercules" number.

"watch me snap this puny snake in two.."

After that, we drove over to Dyess Air Force Base for their annual Air Fest.

The drive on the road leading into the air base took about an hour, A WHOLE FREAKING HOUR to go like half a mile. Okay, maybe I exaggerate, but seriously, it might have only been a mile or two. All this because apparently every single person in 5 different counties and states decided to go to the airshow the same time that we did. ( come to find out later that there were 40,000 there that day ).

David : What IS this? A freakin' Beatles concert???

At least I got to assemble some sandwiches for lunch in the back seat of the truck as we crept on.

And we got to see some planes whiz by up close as we inched towards the gates of the air base.

"Keep your eyes on the road now, buddy.
Oh, I forgot. We are moving at 0.25mph.
Gawk all you want, kid."

It was especially poignant for Grandad, because he had worked with North American Aviation in Inglewood, California during WWII, assembling B25 bombers. Like, woah. And B25s were a big reason why we were there that day. And we got to see them do a mock pursuit with some "Japanese enemy fighter planes", which was very cool.

We were directed to park on a part of the runway that had been barricaded off, and there were cars as far as the eye could see.

A sea of cars

After that long drive to the parking lot, we decided to stay in our truck as we had quite the view from just sitting right where we were. Plus, we had brought our lunch, so we had a little picnic watching the air show from the comfort of the truck. It was a pleasant day too, overcast and cool.

Wonder Woman decided to moonlight as a wing walker that day.

Apparently a bunch of people decided to stay with or close to their vehicles too.

"Now that looks a tad unsafe to me, maam. Yes, you with the wheelchair."

We thought that Jaxon should have his first "watching an air show from the top of the truck's cab" experience as well.

"Jaxon : Am I supposed to be impressed?"

As we circled the lot to drive home, we could see the lines of people still WAITING patiently to get through the security check to get to the Air Show/Exhibition part of the Fest. Er, no thanks, not with 91 year old grandad and a writhing baby ( with no stroller, mind you ) in tow.

All in all, it was a great day and much fun was had by all.