Hopping over...

We left Mississippi at around 1:00 p.m. and headed over to Bangor, Maine. We had an hour to hand out at the airport. As we made our way down the terminal we were greeted by 20 or so Veterans. WWII, Korea and Vietman. Some of them were spouses whose husbands had served their country but had since passed on. They lined up on either side of us and shook hands and hugged every one of us. It was amazing. All of these folks work as volunteers with the local USO. They had about 20 cell phones for us to use for free. We had to leave our personal cell phones back home. I made a phone call to Monica but with over 200 of us on the plane it would not have been cool of me to hog up the phone, so I kept in short. That and the fear of getting choked up in front of the guys would not have been cool. (O's&X's baby, O's &X's).
Well, we are now in Budapest. Just waiting on the flight crew to show up. They are inbound now so it will be a couple of hours before we head out. This is my first time out here and I have to say that it is very different from back home. The people seem to be more curious here than anywhere else that I have visited. It does not help that we are wearing our desert cammies. Some of them have come up to say hi but most look at us as though we are carrying Bush around on our shoulders. It is truly a strange place. I wish that we had time to leave the airport and check this place out but we have our protocol to follow.

We will be in Kuwait sometime this evening.

Take care...

And away we go...

In about 18 hours we will be heading over to the sandbox. BTW, I went with "sandbox1822" to reflect where I will be going, the desert or as the guys that have been over call it, the sandbox. (a.k.a. the litter box, BFS and many more) 18 is the battalion that I will be going over with and 22 is the battalion that I am a part of.
So once we get to Saddams old haunts I will be an official member of the world travelers club as I have traveled the other half via a couple of West Pac's. Lots of fun.
Some of the guys are going to be up to no good this evening. Tossing a few back, getting last minute tattoos and such. We have a guy that is in ICU for drinking a little too heavily a couple of nights ago. And he is not even 21. Per the rumor mill he is going to get busted down in rank and kicked out of the service AND the people that were drinking with him are going to go before the captain as well. Good times. As for me, I am going to sit around, meditate for a while and get ready for the whoopin' that the Horns are going to put down on the SUCKeyes!!! It is going to be a while before I get to enjoy a live, not recorded, game of college football and I'm going to miss the entire season of Cowboy football. Dang! Sammy: Keep sending me those updates! All right y'all. I am outta here. Take care and I will update you as soon as I get situated over yonder. Keep the jokes and laughs coming.

"If God is with us, who can stand against us?" Romans 8:31

Almost outta here...

Howdy! I have been blessed with meeting some great people along the road that is my life. Some of them have hung in there with me and I consider myself truly blessed to call them my friends. I have to say that I am a mooch. I say that because I have taken something from everyone of them. It could be a joke, a laugh, a conversation and/or even a sarcastic comment. Some of the best friends that I have are the ones that I made when I was active duty. You can't help but bond with the people that you work and live with for months and years at a time. When I left the ship I did not that think that I would get the chance to find that kind of camaraderie but I am happy to say that I was wrong. I have been working for AWS/Cingular Wireless for over eight years now and I have worked with some outstanding individuals. Starting in Bothell and now El Paso, professionaly and personally, y'all are head and shoulders above the rest. I appreciate the relationships that we have fostered and your friendship means everything to me. Thank you.

"The road to a friends house is never long."

Wednesday and just a few more days to go...

Well, here you go .The first pic is from our weekend down in Pensacola Beach. I decided to pull a uey and what I thought was a solid shoulder was nothing more than sand. I blame it on Monica. All of her oohing and ahhing over the resorts and multi million dollar homes blew my concentration. The Jeep in the back ground came to the rescue. He was one of four groups of people that stopped by to lend a hand. If you ever get a chance to make it down this way, do so. The hospitality alone is worth the trip. Okay, that and the outstanding scenery. It is a beautiful area and not as expensive as you'd think. Having Monica here with me is just what I needed to get me through our last week down here. We willl be heading over in three waves, the second wave will be heading out in a couple of days. One would think that the tension around here would be outrageous but for the most part everyone is in a good mood. The mood is light and almost carefree. We just want to get out of here and start working on our assignments. The sooner that we get out there the sooner that we will be home.

I do not know how often I will be able to update this blog but I will do what I can to keep y'all updated. I hope that you understand that I will not be able to give you too many details but your positive thoughts and prayers will be with us, moving us forward.

Labor Day

Well, I just dropped Monica off at the airport. She flew in last Thursday. We got to spend some quality time together. The fact that her birthday fell on this weekend made it that much more enjoyable. One of us is walking funny today! Whew! But I should be good to go in a couple of days. Ha! She did not bring the boys with her but I can say that it was better that they did not make the trip. Monica had a hard time seeing where I live and as much as she says that she likes to see me in uniform, I could tell that when she saw me in my desert cammies the reality of what we are about to take on hit home. Anyway, we spent a couple of days in Pensacola. If you have not been out that way, check it out!!! Lots of great beaches, cool people, and the drinks are dirt, sand, cheap. I will post some photos from this past weekend later this week.