Flight to Odessa

Today we flew to Odessa, TX to fulfill one of the requirements for Scott's commercial rating. Odessa is about 5 hours away by car (340 miles) and a little over 2 hours away by plane (260 nautical miles). It's northwest of San Antonio, close to the New Mexico border in west Texas. If you've ever read the book, seen the movie, or seen the series "Friday Night Lights" about football in west Texas, Odessa is the setting (and the book was actually nonfiction...not sure how close the movie and series followed). Anywho, Renee had read the book about three years ago and at the time assumed she would never have cause to visit Odessa in her lifetime as it is not a vacation destination and is in the middle of nowhere in west Texas. It seemed a completely foreign place. And here we are, three short years later. Isn't it crazy how life works?

Taking off from Stinson...

Renee hadn't sat up front since New Orleans!
Leaving San Antonio...
I-10, going through the middle of nowhere on the way to El Paso. The same I-10 that went through New Orleans and Slidell...

Junction, TX (very small).

Again, nothing around for miles and miles on the way out there. Not even really many houses.

Barnhart, TX (even smaller).

Scott monitoring while the auto pilot did all the work.

Oil fields near Odessa. There were hundreds and hundreds of pumps as we got closer to Odessa, it was surreal.

Coming in to Odessa Airport (Schlemeyer Field).

A high school football stadium. Look at the size of the parking lot!

Luckily the airport had a courtesy car we could use for a couple hours to go to lunch and check out the town. It was a nice little car and the airport was so nice, very hospitable.

We went to a BBQ place they recommended called "The Rockin' Q."

Picture of a pump from the ground.

Taking off from Odessa heading back to San Antonio. There were empty patches of land all over town with no trees or anything on them. Not sure if they were just green space or what.

It got to be a long time in the plane and Renee got bored. And a little crazy.

We stopped at a couple airports on the way back but nothing interesting, just meeting the requirement. As we got back to San Antonio we passed near Medina Lake, which is just northwest of the city.

Back at Stinson.

It was kind of a long day, but everything worked out and we got to visit a new place and see new sights. We couldn't ask for more!