Perfect Day Off

So many photos today and all because of the new found freedom to venture to the skies and explore.  The friendly aviation community and beautiful weather made this day memorable in many ways.  We took off from Grand Prairie Municipal at 10:15 am to Mount Pleasant Regional, around an hour's flight to the East of DFW.  On arriving we were offered a courtesy car to enable us to travel to Daingerfield State Park, only being required to replace the petrol we used.  The State Park was a peaceful pine forest surrounding a small lake, which took us a couple of hours to walk around.  One of the reasons for going here was the fact that this park is rated one of the top 10 spots in the US for observing the "Fall Colors'.  Here L is sporting a colorful leaf!
Before leaving, we were treated to a short tour of the aviation museum at the north end of the airport which contained a number of aircraft involved in active combat amongst others.  This included the most decorated DC3 in the US air force.  See extras.
Then we flew west past DFW to a small city, Stephenville, where we had been encouraged to try the 'Hard Eight Bar B Q'  On landing at Stephenville, I called the restaurant, about 10 minutes walk away, and asked for directions.  They said to wait at the airport and they would come and pick us up!  The Bar B Q was delicious and then they took us back to the airport where we took off in the dark for a night flight back to Grand Prairie - landing on the night time lit runway and receiving a kind congratulations from the Air Traffic Controller for passing my Pilot's checkride, he had seen the notification on Facebook and was pleased to put a name to the plane he had been directing over the last few months.  Got back home at 8:00 pm  and reflected on a great day together.