Road Trip June 18-22

 Our final night in Alabama I picked Tom up from the airport and we stopped at our favorite pizza place in historic Cloverdale for dinner.  Spent the rest of the evening doing final cleaning then loaded up the car (and I mean LOADED) before having a final walk-thru of the apartment and turning in our keys.

 First night's stop was Shreveport, LA and we'd already made the decision to stay in La Quinta's as they allow pets, have pools and offer free breakfasts.  We (I) drove about 500 miles each day so we weren't overly tired and had a bit of time to enjoy the scenery.

 Second night we stopped in Lubbock, TX.  Took a run through town that night (home of Buddy Holly) and found some authentic Mexican food.  Over did and vowed to split meals from now on!  Needless to say those folks are proud of their state and even say so through their breakfast offerings.

Third night we stopped in Santa Fe, NM.  Split appetizers at the Blue Corn Cafe then went to pool to swim some laps and rest in the sun.  That evening we drove through the section of town with all the galleries and art shops.  Beautiful area!

Shall I sit on the console.....

 Made a quick stop for some souvenirs before heading towards Utah.  Floyd started our journey here but quickly decided that perhaps his crate was going to be a more comfortable option.  He was actually a great traveler.

...or spread out and relax?

Spent our last night in Moab with a light dinner in the local brew pub and a walk on a trail behind the hotel.  

 Happy to see the beautiful Utah topography and very grateful for a safe trip.  We listened to two Doris Kearns Goodwin books on tape ...Team of Rivals and No Ordinary Time which made the 2000+ miles go by quickly.  After stopping in Salt Lake to take Taylor to lunch we made a pit stop to give Floyd a sudsy bath so he would be a welcome house guest at Mom and Dad's.  Happy to be home!

Container Gardening

One thing I have missed about my house is Farmington is the garden.  I love being able to go to the backyard to pick fresh tomatoes, basil, fruit from the trees, squash and other veggies.  However, my neighbor here has taken advantage of what little space they have and turned it into a lovely garden.  Assuming we have even less room in DC, totally going to steal these ideas to make my own little "green" space.

The Adventure Continues.......

It's official!  We thought the orders would never get here but Tom's new position will be in Washington DC at Fort McNair.  He'll be a Public Affairs Specialist for the Joint Forces in the National Capitol Region.  We don't know what that means exactly but we do know he'll be responsible for ceremonies; most specifically the 2013 inauguration.

We love the DC area and have spent quite a bit of time there.  Tom was deployed there for 18 months right after 9/11 and lived in Old Town Alexandria.  We're going to just rent something hopefully close to town so we can take advantage of the city and have him close to work.  He'd like to be able cycle or just hop on the Green Line.  Taking a house hunting trip the first week of July to see what we can find as well as squeezing in a trip to see Tom's family in NJ.  As much as I miss being around my family in Utah, we've never in 32 years lived near Tom's family so it will be nice to be able to take a weekend to visit his mom more often.

Plus, now maybe I can see some of those cute Eastern cousins I only see via their blogs in person!  And we have friends in the area as well as many new ACSC friends who are going there as well.  Normally this kind of move would totally take me out of my comfort zone (maybe a tad of a control freak) but I've learned to just leave it to God to take us to where we need to be.  What that means in terms of our kids and my work remains to be seen but I've learned that trusting Him is in everyone's best interest.

Going...going....

Tom's last day at boot camp was Wednesday and mine was today.  We gave Chris (our trainer) a new stopwatch and whistle as a going away gift because the man cannot count.  We start holding a plank position for "60 seconds"...he calls out.  Then we wait and he'll say "30 seconds"....then "45 more seconds!" You get the picture.  It was really more a gift for the class!  Tom has taken a few of the guys over to The Waters to show them the course for the sprint triathlon they all want to do in the Fall.  They went again Wednesday afternoon and apparently it was very hot.  They all struggled.  Tom is looking forward to some hard earned rest!
This morning after warming up and doing stations we ran over to the watchtower so they could get some video of us.  We did sprints and lunges up the hill.  It was a gorgeous morning though.



            That's me, heading back to the gym.  Always a happy feeling when I get to the sign! Sad to leave this group who have motivated me beyond what I thought I was capable of but we will keep in touch via Facebook.

 Finished gathering up some things then the movers came about noon to do their neat boxing.  I cleaned the kitchen while they worked for about 3 hours.  We thought we only got 350 lbs but like when we came here, they actually said they'd take more...in fact he said we were authorized for 673 lbs.  Isn't that an odd number?  So anyway, that's less for us to take in the car AND they took our bikes as well so we won't have those on the back of the car!  Hopefully we don't get a bill for extra weight sometime in the future.

                          Loaded up and on it's way to mom and dad's garage until we get there.

More This and That

 The past few days have been spent making piles.  Base thrift store, things to be packed by movers, things to take in the car with us and stuff that we rented that came with the apartment.  Not so much fun.

 Tom went to do a briefing for the new civilians coming to ACSC in August so I hung at the pool for awhile.  He joined me for an hour or so then we decided on a little hike in our backyard.  This greenery literally appeared over a week's period.  So much rain lately and now it's hot and humid!

 We were told there was a swimming pond back in the woods and we've run into people coming out of there before but had never seen it.  Found it on this hike!  Didn't look like anything I'd want to swim in!

Tom had to go to Alameda, CA for a Coast Guard Reserve Change of Watch but he wanted to take something for the office.  We found a pecan place along the way and stopped for some goodies.  Hopefully they liked them!   Then I took him to the Montgomery Regional Airport which is small but nice.  Guests can even walk into the small eating area because they don't go through security until they get to their gate.  Nice!

 I had to head back to the base for a moving briefing and to go over all our paper work.  Finished that, then back to packing before getting picked up by the book club gals to have dinner at Lek's Taste of Thailand.  That's about our third "last" meeting.  They're planning something else for tonight as well but I think I'm partied out!

ACSC Graduation

Tom and the rest of his class graduated on Monday.  This is the first class that has graduated as a whole  in such a long time that they can't find the records to show when it last happened!  These are the people who shared his second half of the year "flight".

Final Dixie cup toast with a couple of his classmates after picking up diplomas in the classroom

 They had one rep from each branch of the service accept the diploma for the entire branch so we didn't have to sit for all 500+ graduates I guess.  These folks were ready to get on the road!  Tom got a "fit to fight" coin which was given to everyone who passed certain physical fitness criteria.  He was the only civilian to do so.  Our friend Oz from the triathlon won the overall Fit to Fight Award which was a combination of fitness, leadership and grade performance.

Mr. Master of Military Operational Arts and Science with proud spouse!

By the time we got out it was afternoon so we headed to one of the few places in Prattville we hadn't been to, but wanted to try...Fat Boy's Bar-be-Que Ranch!  It's right by the creek downtown and the food was yummy.  We shared a beef brisket plate with baked beans and potato salad so we could have the homemade peach cobbler.  Very tasty and great way to wrap up graduation day.

Graduation Ball

Friday night after more Eagles festivities we headed to Wetumpka to see our friend Cheryl in the play Wiley and The Hairy Man.  It's based on an African-American folk tale from Alabama so it was especially fun to see it here.

 We spent most of Saturday starting to pack up then Saturday night headed to the Graduation Ball at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Montgomery.  It was a typical military dinner with toasts, congratulations, a brief but good speech about relationships from a visiting general, then dinner, visiting and dancing.

Bible study pals Elizabeth & Kate

JC, Bonnie, Christy (Dave's new girlfriend!) and running buddy Dave

Molly and Amber.  Amber and her husband Tony were designated drivers along with us.  We did this for the Christmas Ball as well but didn't get any calls!

Sergei and Viktoria from the Ukraine.  She has really loved it here and was feeling very sad about leaving all her new friends....especially the other international wives who have become a very tight knit group.

 Other civilian students included Lance and Julie who are headed back to HAFB and Rick & Kay who are headed to Germany!

Book group gals....Molly (staying in AL) Lauren (going to DC) and Erin (going to Germany)

John and Alma (parents of new twins) also going to DC

Vanessa & Geoff

Karen & Chris (off to Connecticut) and Mauricio (back to Colombia)

Jan (going to DC) with her daughter and sister

JT and Jessica (one of our yoga teachers) are off to Omaha

Chris, Shannon and Karen