Well it might have been almost a reverse but not all things were the same. I got a fairly early start as I could not sleep late so I got up and did a little work for “the company” and then off to visit Dad. The wind was blowing hard again so I took the “southern” route today. Got a call from an old friend and since I had the remote mike and hearing aides in I just talked to him most of the way to my destination. I know it was probably a bad idea for me not to concentrate totally on my driving but hands free works pretty well. Besides I was driving pretty slow anyway as the Jeep gets horrible mileage at higher speeds and does better if I keep it near 60 mph…
Got to Enid and took care of some things for Dad and covered some of his bills and talked to the staff a bit about his condition and how he is improving. May be out of there in a week or so. From that I left at non as he was scheduled for a long afternoon of therapy. I then started the drive back home on the same route I came over on but on the trip home I made several stops and changes in the plan.
At the south end of Enid is the Vance-US Air Force Training base. I remember it as a kid and back then it had reasonably easy access but now they have taken that all away and included a huge area to the north that also has an outdoor visitor show. They also have a “brief History” that you can download from the site of get from my “Free Files folder”. The “outside the base” area is small by comparison but they have several of the “saved” airplanes that have flown from the base over the years. I made a short tour of those as they are really restored nicely.
The BT-13 “Vibrator” used from 1941 – 1946.
T-6 “Texan”. Seems as though the base was shut down from 1946 to 1948 and this was use for training from 1948 to 1953.
T-28 “Trojan” Used from 1950 to 1955.
T-33A “Shooting Star”. Used at Vance from 1958 to 1964. Actually was used for training as far back as 1949 according to the plaque.
T-41 Mescalero. Used as a Pre-trainer from 1965 – 1973, actually was used and flown at the local airport- Woodring.
T-37 “Tweet” flown at Vance from 1972 to 2006.
Still flying the T-38 “Talon” but they didn’t have one on display, although they have a spot for one when it is “retired”?
Next on my way home was a stop at the historical markers. I have driven by these for years but do not remember stopping to read them…. They are at the same spot and side by side…
The one on the left is for the Cherokee Strip opened in 1893 and the other is the Run of 89. Seems this boundary was used for both, one to the north and one to the south.
Once I got near the I-35 connection I figured I just was well make the run on to OKC and get the motor home from the repair shop – they had found a split in an “o-ring” that caused the Freon to all leak out. I sure hope this is the last time I have to have that fixed. I got there, got a “no-charge” receipt and hooked up the Jeep and headed North toward home. Pulled into the yard at 4:15, unhooked and parked both. Then got on the mower to finish what I had not done yesterday – an area on the south of my “snake river”. I also got the weed eater out and did some trimming on that side as well.
That was enough for the day so I went in and read the paper and did a few other small things , like read the paper and email… what a day and too many miles but “__it happens”.
REX