We got up early on Monday morning and My Sweetie went to her physical therapy while I took a quick nap in my chair. (OK. So it was 0700 - I was a bit tired.)
She gets back, wakes me up, and we head out on our way to San Angelo, TX. Woot! Yippee! Ye-Haaaa!
Really? No, we just needed to head to Goodfellow, AFB, to renew her retired dependent identification card (better known in these parts as her 'Aye Dee') and for her scheduled allergist appointment***. Road trip! We're on the road as soon as she got back from her neck massage.
Not much to say about the journey to San Angelo except maybe the really nice bean & chorizo breakfast taco I got in Garden City. The beans were a little dry but the combination with a morning Mr. Pibb XTRA put a big smile on my wrinkled face.
We pull into Goodfellow and find the administration building to sign in for her new card. We are in a waiting room with two large screens TV sets; one with a note that you can make reservations if you don't like to wait and the second with a documentary on NAVAL air crafts and their battle worthiness. Fortunately, we didn't have too long of a wait and her Aye Dee was quickly presented to her.
Now we had 3.5 hours until her allergist appointment. So, we head over to Western Sky for a really nice cheeseburger. It's a small place but has a 52 ounce steak for sale. Don't think I'll try that one.
After lunch, we head over to the visitor center and meet a remarkable lady who clearly needs a companion during the day. She talked and talked about things to see in San Angelo and gave us tons of flyers. So, we decided to hit all of the major tourist activities here in less than 2.5 hours!
Next, we visited the Hotel Cactus. From their website:
Elevator In the late 1920's, Conrad Hilton provided San Angelo with a fine hotel and a West Texas landmark. The impressive tower and magnificent interior spaces established a tradition of elegant affairs, place of commerce, and quality accommodations. The Hilton Hotel (one of the original Conrad Hilton hotels), later to be renamed the Hotel Cactus, still stands as the tallest building in San Angelo. Stretching fourteen stories into the West Texas sky, it is visible from fifteen miles. The mission tile roof and stately tower have served almost six decades as a familiar reference point and historic landmark.
After that, we headed over to Fort Concho, a National Historic Landmark. Established in 1867, along the banks of the Concho River, Fort Concho
was built to protect frontier settlements, patrol and map the vast West
Texas region, and quell hostile threats in the area. This fort and the one at Fort McKavett (we visited this a couple of weeks ago), were responsible for insuring the safety of the settlers in the wild, west Texas area. Seeing the two on the same trip is probably something that I'd like to do.Anyway, we decided to spend time in the main building and not walk around the fort to visit the buildings. Mainly, we didn't want to be in the open when the rain started.
We made our appointment but had to use an umbrella to get to our car! As I pulled the car into the lane to pick up My Sweetie, I noticed that the lights in the clinic were off. She told me the power went off about the same time I got to our car. Lucky thing we had already finished with our appointment! Anyway, the skies opened up and rain came down in buckets! Seriously! According to the San Angelo Standard-Times, they received over 1 inch of rain in a short time. These thunderstorms included hail, road flooding, flash floods, and wind gusts up to 65 mph! Yeppers, good buddy, it was a real challenge driving back to Midland, which, by the way, did not receive any of that rain until later that night.
OK. I really enjoyed the trip because, once again, I got to spend some really QUALITY time with My Sweetie! Thanks, darling!
*** NOTE: the vast majority of the medical doctors (including GP, OB/GYN, Surgery, Internal, Ortho, Allergists, ENT, etc.] in Midland do NOT accept TRICARE so those of us who are active duty or retired either buy other insurance or drive to Odessa, Lubbock, San Angelo, or Abilene for our medical care. Yes, it is an insult to those of us who have served honorably for more than 20 years or who were disabled as a result of their military service but we fought for these doctor's rights to be able to decide to not accept TRICARE as a form of insurance.
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