Before we got to Atlanta, I thought it would be possible to drive to east Texas to jump in San Antonio, but driving 16 hours over the weekend was not particularly appealing!  Apparently, the weather gods did not like the idea either - Hurricane Patricia washed away that plan! 

Since we were landing in west Texas, New Mexico was the priority for this trip. If necessary, we could drive back to Texas over the Christmas holiday. However, I wasn't ready to give up on Texas yet! There had to be a way. On the plane, I made of list of alternative possibilities.

• Find a private helicopter like Vertical Limit Aviation near El Paso
• Ask Skydive El Paso what they'd charge to put us out over Texas
• Find a Texas flight school / local pilot - Check Horizon Airport and others
• Renegotiate with Vertical Limit Aviation

Oh well...I couldn't do anything about it until we landed. So, I watched an episode of The Mindy Project on my cell phone while Matt was using his laptop. We landed in El Paso just before 4:00 PM.

When we got off the flight, I went to car rental and Matt went to baggage claim. The rental car in El Paso was so much cheaper than Alaska! We ended up with a Jeep Crossover and our two day rental from Alamo was $50.89.

In lieu of using our phones to find a hotel room, we decided to just pick one near the airport. We didn't waste much time shopping. We got a room at the Marriott across the street from a Cattle Baron Steak & Seafood Restaurant.

Minutes after we entered our room, someone called from the front desk to make sure we were satisfied. Our room was a little small, but over all the room was great. After we unloaded the car, we headed over to the restaurant for dinner.

The Cattle Baron had an excellent salad bar and warm rolls. While we were eating dinner, we talked about our weekend. We didn't have to rush anywhere - no marathon driving sessions. Yay! I enjoyed a glass of red wine with my Prime Rib. The food was delicious and the service was impeccable. What a great find!

During dinner, we checked out the Horizon Airport using Google Maps. It looked promising and it was only 14 miles away from the restaurant! This is what we saw:

After dinner, we headed over to the airport. While Matt was driving, I took a few pictures. Just before we got on the highway, we saw these strange sculptures.

They were cool looking, but why are they here? What do they do? How much did they cost? I'd expect to see something like this in an office park, but not next to the highway.

We went to the Google Maps location for the Horizon Airport and arrived before sunset. I am really kicking myself now for not taking pictures! We were so confused when we got there because everything was gone - no buildings, no trees and no tar runway! I couldn't believe my eyes.

We could see where the runway used to be, but with that exception, there was no evidence that an airport was ever there. Cross Horizon off our list of possibilities.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at Wal-Mart to get some supplies. After walking around the store for a while, it occurred to me that I was the only person with blonde hair. When I got in the car, I told Matt that for just a second I felt special - like a blonde haired princess.

Once we were back in our hotel room, we had showers and watched television. There was no need to set an alarm for Saturday because the drop zone was only 30 minutes away from the hotel! Awesome!