Road Trip

After we got home Sunday afternoon from New Orleans I packed up, loaded the car and prepped to leave bright and early Monday morning to head to Alexandria, VA. Started my 13 hour drive about 7:30 AM but my GPS had a hankering to go a different way than mapquest had laid out. Obeyed the GPS and headed toward Atlanta, Georgia.....then continued on up.
The day could not have been more gorgeous (before I hit a major rain storm in Virginia) and I loved driving through states I had never seen before. Unfortunately there wasn't time to stop and sight see but I enjoyed the ride!
Fortunately I am not a sleepy driver and did quite nicely with the help of two books on tape. A SHORT HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR which was fascinating given the route I was taking and Joel Osteen's YOUR BEST LIFE. Yes, he's a little over the top perky, but a good self-help book is always a productive learning tool via the road.

“N’Awlins”

Tom needed to go to New Orleans for a day long US Coast Guard “All Hands” so I rode along. We took off Friday after he got out of school and I drove while he read. We stopped someplace between Mississippi and Louisiana and purchased a pizza to go from a busy restaurant, ate on the way and crashed once we reached our hotel.

I dropped him off the next morning and went to meet an old friend from Utah. Tanner was the resident stage manager at Salt Lake Acting Company (SLAC) for about 7 years but moved to New Orleans (he grew up in Alabama) to help a brother in law with his construction company after Katrina wreaked havoc in the area and has lived there ever since. Tanner had run a breast cancer 5 K that morning so I met up with him soon after at a little coffee shop then he took me on a 2 hour tour of a city I’ve never set foot in. We had a great time reminiscing while he drove through the French Quarter, Bourbon Street, The City Park, The Audubon attractions, the gorgeous architecture, The World War II Museum, downtown and some regular but beautiful streets. The streets were crammed with people as it was election day (Saturday?) and they were passing out flyers, shaking hands and trying to get people to vote. One of the elections was for coroner. Really? Is the average Joe in a position to be choosing the coroner? Anyway, Tanner was a great tour guide. He shared a lot about the history of the city and all the European, African and Caribbean influences. Made me want to get a history book on the area. He was also very honest about the crime that continues and the homeless population that remains.

Tom and I went out that night feeling we really should see Bourbon street in it’s glory. Half an hour later I had seen enough. I’m not a good “crowd” person in the best of circumstances but you add a crowd who has been drinking, young girls in very little clothing, mostly tourists in for conventions or NFL games and you’ve got a street full of people who took me way out of my comfort zone. I guess I thought the bead-throwing and such only took place at Mardi Gras but apparently this is an on-going affair.

Tom could see I wasn’t much into the local scene so we walked up into town, headed toward the river then found our way back through the crowd (by then there was an ambulance and fire truck), and back to our car before heading home. Looked around a bit for a place to eat but I’m not a big Cajun fan and we decided we weren’t really hungry so we went back to our room, where Tom studied and I read. Hmmm, perhaps we’re (I'm) getting old.

We took off early the next morning after breakfast and traveled casually. We stopped when we felt like it to look around and went to the beach in Mississippi and took a long walk. That was my favorite part. Can’t go wrong on a beach!

Sept/Oct 5K

So Tom has always been a runner. He’s done a few marathons & lots of smaller races while I on the other hand am a slug. Well, not a slug but I do not like running. In fact we took a jogging class together when we were in college and while Tom would jog along with the instructor up front, my cousin Michele and I would trot along at the back of the group just talking and laughing. Never did get that runner’s “high”.

However, with the nice weather here, the time to actually train and an abundance of races, I’ve committed to doing one 5K a month while we’re here.

The first was a fundraiser for Big Brothers Big Sisters and as it was my first race EVER, I was happy to complete it without passing out, throwing up, or dying on the course. My time: 41:15.

Tom of course, took first place in his age group and we’ve found that one of his classmates is a kindred spirit in the running dept. so Dave will appear in a lot of our photos. At this race there were a lot of fellow students and they were each supposed to wear their workout shirts representing their flight groups. That’s why they’re twins.

After the race we found Nancy's and treated ourselves to a "Fancy Nancy" italian ice & soft serve. Yummy!

The second race was through downtown Montgomery to kick off breast cancer awareness month. Tom ran with his sister Marie’s name on his tag and I ran with our friend Sue’s name. They both have battled breast cancer. It was a great race through the city. My time: 37:14, but of course Tom managed to finish, go to the car to get the camera and come back to capture me coming across the finish line and high five the mayor all while taking 2nd in his age category!

We also found some other students from ACSC so we had a great time. Each race has provided lunch afterwards and then by the time awards are given out, half the day is over. But it’s nice being outside, moving my weary body, and improving what little I can!

Sarah, Dave, Tom & Jan - proud students of ACSC

You know you're at the Alabama National Fair when the food kiosk is peddling fried pork rinds, fried alligator and Pork Butt on a Stick.

The Weekend

Our weekends tend to go something like this. Tom is relieved after a week of hard work at school so we play Friday night, sleep in Saturday, work out or…read by the pool and then play again. Sunday is go to church, maybe pit stop by commissary then relax at home, read the paper, watch some NFL, phone calls with kids and catch up on any postponed reading. Well, Tom is always reading. This weekend was no different.

We are fortunate that we can buy tickets through the Ticket and Tour office on base and get some great discounts on events. So, we got to hit one of my favorite bands who just happened to be in Montgomery Friday night. Again we were right within a two block radius of everything that happens downtown which is centered around the Riverwalk area.

CHICAGO was appearing at The Montgomery Performing Arts Center which is connected to The Renaissance Hotel and Conference Center. It’s basically two blocks of nightlife as it’s also surrounded by restaurants & bars. The concert was a lot of fun and since I have never seen them live before I was thrilled for the opportunity. There are still a few original members, the horn section is still amazing and the band is great. The singer who does Peter Cetera's songs was a little weak but they were good anyway.

Saturday afternoon, Alma (the ONE girl in Tom's class) and her husband John had a cookout for the first expectant couple in the class (Aaron & Danielle) whose baby is coming next month.

Alma and John (expecting twins in Feb and whose photo I seemed to not get) hosted us and we all had a great time just relaxing and enjoying each other's company. It’s a very funny group and it’s nice to see everyone together.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog this is a very fruitful group...5 first pregnancies which will result in 7 babies! In fact I was the only non-pregnant female at the party. There's another couple who weren't able to make it who are also expecting twins! JC & Bonnie-expecting
Andy & Kazue (pronounced Cosway)- also expecting

I rarely see the students except Dave (the bachelor) who we sometimes see on the weekends because does races with us. I see the wives at other functions but it’s certainly easier to figure out who goes with whom when they’re actually in the same room! Good food and good company.

Dave- the single guy!


Tom and I decided to swing by the Alabama National Fair on the way home. Have yet to find anyone who can explain why Alabamans fancy themselves worthy of a “national” rather than “state” fair but this was pretty much just like Utah’s state fair.

All the entertainment, including the BIG name each day was included in the ticket price and we just happened to enter into the coliseum where Rodney Atkins was wrapping up his show. Now, I don’t have a clue who he is but the audience seemed to be crazy about him. He's the guy sitting and singing on the speaker.
We took a walk down the midway which was packed of course on a Saturday night. The livestock and cultural arts exhibits were much calmer so we took our time in there and after about an hour or so we headed home. Pretty Quilts!

I haven’t been to the state fair in Utah in I don’t know how long. I like the little county fairs but the giant ones..not really my cup of tea. Too many people, loud, expensive, smelly.... but we do feel compelled to try everything while we’re here!

Selma

I am very impressed by those of you who are able to keep this up on a daily basis. First of all, my “regular” day isn’t nearly interesting enough to share with anyone and I’m discovering that with just the two of us, I’m uneasy about readers getting sick of seeing photos of just me & Tom and... places. Oh well. This is as much a scrapbook for me as it is for anyone else so here we go…..

The base didn’t hold class on Monday in observance of Columbus Day so we decided to do a little "exploring" of our own. A lot of the students had headed to the beach but the weather was supposed to be crappy so we decided to do a day trip to Selma.

Historically, the town has a lot to offer and is the beginning of the 54 mile trail that follows the voting rights march that started at a church in Selma and crossed the Edmond Pettus Bridge. On March 7, 1965 as non-violent marchers crossed the bridge, they were tear-gassed, beaten and turned away by law enforcement.

The display was captured by the news media and came to be known as “Bloody Sunday”. Outraged protesters from across the country joined the marchers for a 5 day walk that began in Selma on March 21, 1965 (this time with the protection of law enforcement) and ended in Montgomery with 25,000 marchers on March 25^th. Many notable speakers including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke at the event and as a result, the Voting Rights Act was passed in May of 1965.

The city itself is sadly worn down. It looks as if they’re trying to re-start it with some upgrading of buildings. There’s plenty of gorgeous architecture to see but unfortunately a lot of the buildings are vacant. In the downtown area there were a few businesses that were open. Interestingly there seemed to be a drugstore and jewelry store on every block. Maybe the two extremes of a down economy.

We walked around the town some just to take a look. I’m a sucker for old churches of which there were plenty, but unfortunately we couldn’t get in any of them.

There was also an old cemetery (another favorite tourist attraction for me) that I’d like to go back and visit some time by myself to just wander around and read headstones all day.

We ran into a raucous rain storm on the way home. Coming down so hard we could hardly see to drive and enough to soak us from our garage to the back door. Glad we didn’t opt for the beach.