Birthday Weekend in Texas (October 26th – 28th)

Beast moved to Texas about 2 years ago now. We’ve visited him a few times already, but on this visit we figured we’d celebrate his birthday (the 24th) and Tobia’s (the 30th). So by visiting right in the middle, we got to eat heartily for both of those occasions.

We left California early Friday morning, Cho dropped us off bright and early at SJ airport. We arrived at Dallas-Ft Worth airport in the early afternoon and a roughly 30 pounds skinnier hardly recognizable Beast picked us up.

Texas Land and Cattle, Tobia and Beast had beef and I had lobster.

Beast and I at Texas Land and Cattle.

Beast has worked really hard and in my opinion, made some impressive progress on his glider.

Tobia and I at the Thanksgiving Ring in Dallas.

He took us to eat at what’s become our first Texas meal ritual- Texas Land and Cattle. After pigging out and then getting some fantastic ice cream at Double Dip, we went to his place where he showed me the impressive progress he made on his glider.

Frontiers of Flight museum – huge (and powerful) SR-71 Blackbird engine.

Rocket weighing roughly 10,000 pounds and I believe capable of speeds beyond 4,500 mph… seems like a fair match.

The next day we went to Thanksgiving Square, a place Tobia has wanted to see for years, located in downtown Dallas. Following that, Beast jokingly suggested we go check out a plane museum. We were eager to check it out and had a great time there.

Fogo De Chao’s pre-meal picture.

This was followed by Fogo De Chao’s, a Brazilian steak house that Tobia and Beast claim is the best beef they’ve ever had. I, of course, enjoyed their really great and fresh salad bar. As it was their birthdays, large desserts were brought to us despite our being stuffed. Everything was delicious (impeccable service) and we each easily packed on a couple pounds during that meal.

On Sunday, our last day in Texas, Beast took us to the flight club where he flies out of, and also takes customers on demo flights on weekends. Beast and I were both eager to go up together and for me to experience soaring in a glider. Some folks may recall a few years ago, my flying with Beast in a Piper Archer and hurling while landing back in SJ, and then subsequently throwing up for another 4 hours afterwards. Read more about it.

For my part, I made sure to eat a light breakfast, and Beast ensured we’d fly during calm conditions. We drove out to Caddo Mills airport- roughly an hour east of Dallas- and met some of Beast’s friends at the club. As the glider has no engine, we needed a tow plane to get us up in the air. Incidentally, Beast’s glider, when done, will be a self-launcher which means it has an engine and propeller, and will not require towing. The tow pilot took Beast and I to about 5000 feet where the view of the surrounding area below was nice and clear. After the tow pilot banked to the left and we curled to the right, Beast stabilized us and gave me the controls for a while. I gotta say, I had a blast!! Most of the time I was either too tough with the stick and/or rudders or too gentle, but ultimately I think I improved while up there. When we got low enough, Beast took over the controls and brought us down nicely.

The glider Beast and I went up in.	Our tow plane and tow pilot (David).	Chris the line boy helping us set up for our towing and flight. Chris and Beast exchange so much cussing and put downs, I found it quite entertaining.	Chris attaching the tow rope to our glider.
About to get towed. David tightened the rope slack at this point.	Taking off.	In the air now, headed to 5000 feet.	Looking down at Greenville and Caddo Mills.
The main man and pilot, Beast.	The co-pilot of this show… myself.	My controls, Beast had an identical set behind me. My feet are on the rudder pedals.	Coming in to land.

Tobia and Chris coming to meet us after we landed.

After chatting and joking around with some of the folks around the club, we headed back to Dallas. We had some lunch, some ice cream, and Beast took us back to DFW to fly back to San Jose. It was an awesome trip.