Wednesday 6 May 2009 - Marshall/Texarkana

Fond Farewells at Marshall (sniff sniff).



Lunch at a Catfish diner in Bowie (pronounced boo-eee) to enjoy the company of, and share our presentation with the local Rotary Club.


Touring the Bowie Court House

Red River Army Depot (we weren't allowed to take the camera in unfortunately).

Red River Army Depot is where they decomission and rebuild many of the army's combat vehicles. We got to see tanks, HumV and track based passenger vehicles in various states of construction and most excitingly we all were allowed to climb inside one of the transport vehicles that was at the testing track. They can travel up to 70 miles ph which is pretty fast for what looks like a tank! We got to look through the infrared vision, communicate with the driver via radio, use the joystick to spin around in the 'head' and target our guns etc. It brought out the child in many of us - we couldn't help but point at the others who were stood outside and make silly 'bang bang' noises. The poor guy giving the tour must have thought we were all a bit immature and silly really (and hey - he's probably right). It gave us all a new admiriation for people in the combat zone - those vehicles would not be comfortable to live in for half a day - let alone weeks on end.