THURSDAY

Monterey: Up at 6 a.m. taxi to airport.  Cleared customs and tipped about a dozen boys for helping us.  No 80 octane gasoline.  It's only 145 miles to Laredo and we have just enough gas to get there.  It looks like we are not going to use any Mexican gas.  We fly over the Pan American highway all the way from Monterey to Laredo.  Beneath us is desert area, nothing green. (At this point I wish we had another gallon of gas in the tanks).  It's a long walk to town.  Eddie is tuned to Laredo radio about 50 miles away.

One thing that makes you realize the country is different, is the measuring system.  Gasoline is bought in meters and distance measured in kilometers.  When you get a bill for breakfast and it's $10 (peces?) --you gasp.  But then you remember this is only $1.50 in our money.  Prices are generally lower in Mexico than at home.

This is a beautiful day--clear--smooth flying.  It looks like we'll make Laredo in one hour, 15 minutes from Monterey.  We can see the Rio Grande river now and can make out the buildings in Laredo.

Last night in Monterey we stayed at the Colonial hotel.  We had a taxi driver show us around yesterday.  He showed us the fine homes and I do mean "fine."  Monterey is a city of about 300,000.  There are hundreds of homes that would cost $75,000 to $100,000 back home, both new and old ones.  The older homes had barred windows and locked doors.  The new ones iron fences.  We saw what they call the Bishop's Castle, an old church used as a fort during the war between Villa and Carranza.  The old church, which was shot full of holes, is being remodeled.  We went through the new Catholic church--a wonderful structure architecturally.  Well, we can see the airport now at Laredo, Texas.

at 11:03 we are headed for San Antonio.  Navigating is easy today, visibility is as far as the horizon.  We could see a high building or a mountain 100 miles away, but there are none.  So we look at the red soil, cacti and sage brush.  There are ranch houses occasionally, but very few cattle. At this point in Texas, I don't know how many acres it takes to pasture a cow, but I know it would take a lot of them.

at 11:52 we are crossing the Leona river.  Below are plowed fields being prepared for cotton.  To the east is mostly sage brush, but to the west the land is tilled.  We sighted high buildings of San Antonio at 11:05.  There are 20 airports shown on the map for San Antonio.  Many are army fields, however --Kelly, Randolph, Brooks.  These fields bring memories of veterans of both wars.  There are a few lakes and rivers shown on the map for this part of Texas, but the lakes are dry and so are most of the rivers.

Well, here we are at 2:54 p.m., 2,000 feet in the air, traveling 110 miles per hour and over the capital city of Texas-- Austin.  The capital building looks like it is made of brown stone Visibility is still near perfect as we pass the west edge of Austin on the radio range.  From this point we can see and easily identify the following: McNeil to our left; Round Rock ahead and to our left; Georgetown ahead and to the left; Taylor ahead and to our right; Hutto ahead to our right.

We have the company of a big buzzard, who tried to flirt with us, but we dodged him.  He was flying at 2,000 feet.  Granger, Texas, and Bartlett ahead and to our right, and now at 3:19 we can see Temple and Belton ahead.  Waco is going by at 3:55 as we cross the Brozos river north of town.  This brings back memories of 1918 when I was squadron clerk in the air force there.

Our present hop on this beautiful day is 420 miles from San Antonio to Dallas.  The smoke from Dallas and Fort Worth cross our path ahead in the northwest wind.  Our map shows 50 airports in the Dallas-fort Worth vicinity.  We are also going to try and see the squadron of B-36 airplanes which we understand are stationed here.  We store the plane at Dallas Flying Service, Love Field, and take a taxi to Western Hatcheries--one of our customers in Texas.

FRIDAY

We thought we'd get started early today, but Eddie wanted to fly over to Fort Worth and see the big planes.  The B-36 is made at Fort Worth.  So we head for Carswell Field, home of the B-36's. Yes, there they are the giants of the skies, some 25 or 30 of them.  Six motors, they can fly almost anyplace in the world without refueling.  Now we head northeast, navigating by radio.

At 10:27, Texarkana is 40 minutes away.  Beneath us now is almost solid woodland.  At 10:43 we pass over a big army camp at Hooks.  You never saw so many trucks--acres of them--field upon field of trucks--all out in the weather.  Big saw-mills, the Red river 8 miles away, identify Texarkana, and we drop in for gas.  We are just over the line in Arkansas.

And so, from the Red river valley, we head north and east of home and Indiana.
(Final excerpt from Mr. Creighton's diary, next column).

Warsaw Daily Times February 1, 1949