Geek Habitat

I’m probably tripping Google’s “duplicate content filter” since I also posted this on my Wild Texas Forums, but c’est la vie!

The following was written by Justin, my better half, as a quick synopsis of our vacation this past week:

For the past week, Shannon and I have been on a much needed vacation. When I requested my time off from USAA almost five months ago I had big plans for this to be an extravagant vacation (e.g. The Grand Canyon, New Mexico, etc. etc.) Instead, we got so busy that vacation planning got put off to the last minute.

As a result, we decided to “stay local.”

Our destination choices puzzled some of our friends. The first part of the trip would be a three-night day in the border town of Del Rio, Texas. When folks asked me where I was going on vacation, most gave me this puzzled look when I mentioned Del Rio…”what on earth can you do there?” they asked.

A lot.

We combed the shores of nearby Lake Amistad National Recreational Area. A lake popular wish fishermen, boaters and…vultures. The vultures would be a common theme for both part one and part two of our trip. Turkey and Black Vultures find the dam at Lake Amistad irresistible. As a “fellow aviator” I marveled at their mastery of the air. They would hop off a railing at the dam and gracefully float away instead of crashing to their doom hundreds of feet below (a dizzying height when looking over the 3.5 foot railing from the top of the dam!!!).

We also explored the amazing landscape of Seminole Canyon State Park just northwest of Del Rio. There we attended a guided tour that was incredibly educational…that transported us back in time to the Pecos River Indians…that called the amazing rock shelters in the canyon home…their legacy remains in the rock art found on the rock shelter walls.

Part Two of our vacation was a two-night camping trip to Enchanted Rock State Natural Area just north of Fredericksburg. On the day of our arrival we climbed to the summit and enjoyed a breathtaking sunset and took photos as the warm lighting of dusk helped us paint landscape photos with our cameras. We also had front row seats on “Little Rock” (the smaller of the two granite domes) to view the lunar eclipse. It was incredible!!

To see photos from our trip, click below:
http://www.noticetoairmen.com/vacation/index.htm

This is small sampling and only represents my photos. Shannon took many amazing photos herself (but my sore hands are too tired to process more photos tonight!!!). You’ll find more of these – in the near future – on either OutdoorPhoto.com or WildTexas.com.

Hope you enjoy!!

Sincerely,
Justin Moore

OK, I’ve learned never ever ever again to announce in my blog that I will be away for a couple days. Thanks to the (!@#*!# scum of the Earth spammers, I just spent my first bit of time back online deleting their trash comments from my blog.

Spammers … the modern day version of street taggers, except without the creativity, artistic talent and wry wit.

I’ll be out of range again for a week or so. Justin’s got a hard-earned week off work and we’re using it to take a fun “working vacation” to various locales in Texas. First stop: the Indian pictographs and other sights at Seminole Canyon in Del Rio, as well as a visit to Lake Amistad National Recreation Area on the Texas-Mexico border. We’ll be back in town after a couple days, then do two nights camping at Enchanted Rock State Natural Area in Fredericksburg. Intersperse some flying and local sight-seeing, geocaching and the like, and we’ve got a nice week planned for ourselves. We may also be doing our first General Aviation flight into Houston for an article Justin’s working on for General Aviation News.

Busy, productive but enjoyable is the name of the game for the coming week. Then it’s a headlong rush into the holiday season.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: n. “Basically the new cowboys-and-Indians game. With wolves.”

Dungeons & Dragons turned thirty years old today — I knew there was a reason I was feeling an urge to resurrect my Half-Elven Cleric and play some Neverwinter Nights or Baldur’s Gate again!

However, my wrist is shot after all day working up logo comps for a new website (ours, of course — too busy to take on clients!) and 2 gigabytes of photo-taking on an evening flight with Justin — his second flight of the day! Kudos to Justin for his first “Young Eagles” flight this morning — nothing brings him more joy than sharing his love of flight with others, especially young people (and the young-at-heart!

And, while it doesn’t make up for having to miss the Wings over Houston Airshow this weekend, it was cool to see both an Extra (acrobatic aircraft) and a warbird take off at the airport as we tied down our Cessna 172SP rental after our flight.

My favorite photo from our flight today:

Today was a good day.

“Yes, Virginia, we are ALL terrorists.”

Let’s apply Occam’s Razor, shall we? Is a 498-ton luxury yacht named “The Privacy” owned by terrorists and operated as a Vehicle of Mass Destruction (VMDs, not to be confused with VDs — which do exist — or WMDs, which don’t exist, at least in Iraq.) And is San Juan, Puerto Rico, the terrorists choice for the next big globe-shaking terror offensive?

-OR-, as Occam’s Razor reminds us, is it a multi-millionaire golf sensation and his new bride, celebrating their honeymoon on their brand new yacht (soon to be renamed “The Not So @!(#*!~ Private, After All!”) and wanting to hit port so they can do some lounging on the beach?

Just a rant for no particular reason. I’m SURE drug runners and terrorists pick the biggest, flashiest luxury yacht they can find in order to carry out attacks. I’m sure that’s on slips of paper we’ve recovered in burned out “rat holes” in Afghanistan, right? So I’m being anti-American by smirking and writing this entry, right? Whatever…

Cockpit bomb sight video:
F-16 drops 500lb. bomb on large gathering of people in Iraq

Watch it all; the Night Vision stuff at the start isn’t what I’m referring to at all…

I know far worse things occur in war (every war), far worse than this or even the “Highway of Death” (if you follow any of the other photos off this link, be warned some are graphic). And I know I’ll never have a “need to know” basis to be told that half or more of those people were “High Value Targets” (Or Not) or that they were armed and heading towards U.S. soldiers pinned down on the ground (Or Not).

So, I just sigh. What else is there to do?