Uvalde Day 9: Tubing and BBQ

Today was the first official rest day for the 18m Nationals! Today was VERY exhausting, even though it was a rest day. We tubed, BBQ, and had a great time. Only thing I can really complain about it the mosquito’s… I feel like they just have it out for me! I might have to stay in Texas now because I have become a regular food source for them…

For the first time in over a week, I have finally been able to sleep in. Well, kind of sleep in as my dad decided to use the room I was in for work at some ungodly hour. But after I had finally crawled out of bed, we had decided where and what we were going to be doing for the day: tubing down the Concan River. I had talked to a very nice older lady yesterday at the library and she had recommended that we go to Neals for all of out tubing needs. Once we had gotten there and had rented our tubes for the day, we headed up a shuttle to the drop off point.

Because there hadn’t been much rainfall that year, the water was moving at a much slower pace than normal. Normally it would take about 2-3 hours to get back down to the shop where we rented the tubes, but they said because of the slower moving water it would take 4-6 hours. With this in mind, we moved fairly quickly down the river, walking and pulling along our tubes whenever the river widened and slowed down. But I had a great time going down, especially when the “rapids” came. They were not exactly rapids, as they were fairly slow. Even though they were slow, they were the perfect speed to relax and just have a little thrill.

killer tank top tan

Once we had gotten down to where we return the tubes, there was a part of the river where it widened and got much deeper than it was before. So we stopped there and I had my dad hold my tubes while I went and jumped off of the rocks right down in the middle of the river. I had a real great time doing that, showing off doing all sorts of flips off of them. Once our fun there was over, we carried the tubes up a hill to drop them off, and then started the half hour drive home. The drive back always seems shorter.

Once we got back, the fun for the day wasn’t quite over. We had to run over to the local H-E-B to pick up some steaks for the BBQ we were invited to later that evening. We rushed back to our room, put on some dry clothes and then out to the pool area of our BNB. The pilots all had fun, talking about pilot things, and I got the time to just sit outside and relax.

Tomorrow is the start of another contest day, which is something that I somewhat dread. I am just tired, and want to relax for another day or so. But, there is nothing stopping this next day from coming, so I might as well make the most of it! I will try to do something interesting so that this is an interesting read! But until then!

Uvalde Day 6: BBQ and a Sweet View

Today, I was a little worried I would have to start hitching up our trailer to go retrieve a hopeless pilot in a field. The gaggle was tasked to the south today, where cloud base was no higher than 3000′ MSL in its worst spots. However, lucky for me, the glider that my dad is flying is a HPH 304 Shark, which has a jet. Because of this, I was saved the hassle of trying to find him, and I was able to go to the BBQ that was hosted by the Contest Director, Mark Huffstetler at his own estate.

The property that the BBQ was hosted on was absolutely amazing. They had their own personal lake in their backyard! It was almost surreal just how large and expansive the backyard was compared to something that you would see in the suburbs of Southern California.

The BBQ that we were at was a bring-your-own-meat kind of deal, so I had to run down to the local H-E-B to get some barely above average steak. The crew there cooking it however, did a fantastic job, I believe they were both from the restaurant at the airport Hanger 6. Once the meat was out of the grill, it smelled and tasted like a slab of meat that you would find at a high end restaurant. Other than the meat, the other food provided was exceptional and really made a fantastic meal.

I found this little guy and couldn’t help myself.

I don’t know if I can talk up the view enough, it really was spectacular. Everything there was just so serene, I do think I could live there. Or maybe not, considering the heat. That is something I will have to consider another day.

After digging through some folders, I found these pins! I don’t know if I was supposed to be wearing this during the contest or what, but hey, they are here now. I still have pins from when I was in places like Tennessee, Argentina, Slovakia, and many more. The pins that you get that say “crew” on them is something that I like to collect, kind of like how people would collect post cards. It lets me know where I have been, and it helps me remember the great memories I had in those places.

I know this post is very jumbled and the ideas are not very well structured, but you will have to forgive me. I am having some kind of allergic reaction to the wasp/hornet/??? sting that I got yesterday, so I took some benedryl to help alleviate some of the swelling. That really is not helping me stay awake to write this, so that might explain the lack of structure. I am going to be making two posts tomorrow, one for the daily Uvalde update, another to go over what I talked to my host family in Slovakia about. Tune in to that tomorrow, and I will see you then!