FREDERICKSBURG AIRPORT DINER (Mark)

With all due respect to MaryAnne Leffel, Monterey Airport Board Member and advocate for Woody’s Restaurant and Bar . . .

(which everyone in the Monterey, California area should try), this post is about the competition in Texas.

Fredericksburg, Texas is the county seat of Gillespie County and home to about 11,000 people.  The fairgrounds and airport are set up next to each other and very nicely done.  The Airport Diner and Hanger Hotel are set up so you can fly, in park on the ramp, and walk into your room or the diner.

Inside the diner the theme is aeronautical; it would be surprising if it were anything else.  We are in Texas to visit my dad who has a birthday coming up, his cat, my sister and her husband, and their two canines.

My dad is a retired aircraft mechanic and pilot. We will be trying out two airport diners while visiting this week.

Pilot refueling juice is available; just as important as aviation fuel for the airplane.

We had lunch just after the noon rush was finishing, when we arrived almost every table, and all of the booths were filled.

We had a very leisurely lunch, followed by an excellent chocolate malt.  The subliminal advertising I had seen on my way in must have worked!

After lunch the aviation-inspired shirt Cheri had made me led to a long conversation with a former Vought F-8 Crusader pilot, who had flown more than 100 missions in Vietnam.  He and his wife were also just finishing a late lunch.  They are from the area, and were wonderful to talk with.

We then walked over to the maintenance hangar and talked with some mechanics.    I sent my brother - also a pilot - a picture of this airplane, and tried to convince him he needs one is his hangar:

Here's another yellow Piper Top Cub, this one amphibious:

As we were leaving I stopped and got a picture of the hotel, easy to either drive or fly to stay.  The diner is just behind the hotel.

And an old-style mural advertisement for the hotel:

Both the diner and hotel are finished in 1940’s style.

We then took a short drive away to a shop Cheri wanted to visit.  (No not ice cream this time!)

A very nicely arranged and finished quilt shop, and air conditioned; important when it is 94° with 46% humidity.  They have some chairs for non-quilters to sit in while quilters shop.

The shop had the same material as the shirt Cheri had made me.

I ended up talking with the mother-daughter owners for quite some time.  They loved the tailoring Cheri had done in making the shirt.

Then I found out we had an airplane in common.  The mother and her husband own a Cessna 195, which my dad and brother also own.  They have been at some of the same fly-ins for that particular aircraft and I am pretty sure have met each other.

I enjoy finding out how much we might have in common with people we meet through chance.