6 Mar

I knew there would be a break but I didn’t expect it to be this long. The days before I left were a little hectic – lots of running around and getting things in order. I didn’t plan on writing any during leave – I wanted a complete break but now that I am back I will give a rough outline. It didn’t start off too well -on the night before I left I came down with some bug that made for a pretty miserable time. I would have postponed my leave if we hadn’t already made all the reservations and bought the plane tickets. I made it down to Kuwait the night of the 7th and found out my flight wouldn’t be leaving until the night of the 9^th. There wasn’t a whole lot to do except lay on the bed and feel sorry for myself. One thing about flying military – it makes it a whole lot harder to complain about civilian flights. From the time they started processing us for our flight it was 9 ½ hours until we actually boarded the plane. The majority of that time was standing in formation or waiting in what was called the Freedom Room, which is a little ironic since we weren’t allowed to leave. Civilian security pales in comparison to what the Navy does during a customs inspection. Our bags were x-rayed after which all the contents were dumped out on the table and gone through by hand. After repacking they were sent through the x-ray machine again. We all walked through the metal detector then individually wanded. Keep in mind we were all military people going home on leave – I can’t think of a group of people less likely to want to cause problems on a flight. This was my eighth trip between Iraq and Alaska and like the other 7 times it was about 32 hours from when I stepped on the plane in Kuwait until I stepped off in Fairbanks. Needless to say the days in transit didn’t do my body any favors and I spent the first couple of days at home lying on the couch but it was still a whole lot better than being in Iraq. The only think I did around the house was fix two flat tires before we flew down to Seattle on the 13^th. We only stayed one night but it was nice to see Betsy, Ken, Heidi and their new baby Max. The next day we drove up to Vancouver BC and spent 4 nights in the city. I was a lot less mobile than what Wendi had anticipated but we were still able to see quite a bit. Vancouver was interesting in that it felt like a very young city and everything was new. It was the only city I have been in where I thought it was a better place to live in than to visit. From there we took the ferry over to Victoria and stayed two nights in the same bed and breakfast we stayed in the week before I joined the military in 94. Everything was just how we remembered it except the price had risen dramatically with the bad exchange rate. It was here that I hit the low point as far as not feeling well and we seriously thought about calling it quits and heading back. After much consideration I figured it could only get better so we continued on to Tofino which is on the west coast of Vancouver Island. We were both glad we did because I started feeling better and it was absolutely beautiful. It only rained one morning and the rest of the time the skies were clear with temps in the upper 50s to low 60s. The area felt a lot like the Oregon coast but even more rugged. We stayed there 4 nights then back to Victoria for a night then Seattle, then home. The trip was a lot of fun but we both agreed it was a little too long. We got tired of living in hotels and eating in restaurants. By the end we had a great urge to go camping somewhere – too much luxury. The last few days in Alaska were a little strange because while we didn’t want it to happen both of us were just kind of waiting for me to leave so we could get back into our routines. Living in limbo like that is emotionally exhausting. I left Alaska the morning of the 1^st, spent the night in Dallas and arrived in Kuwait the afternoon of the 3^rd. The next morning I got on a flight to TQ but it was in a dust storm so we landed in Balad, spent the day there and then flew back to Kuwait. Around midnight there was another flight for TQ but when I called the unit they said the visibility was still ¼ mile so since I had been up since 5 AM I pulled myself off the flight and went to bed. The morning of the 5^th everything cleared up and I made it up here a little after noon. The trip was well worth it but I am very happy to be done traveling for awhile.

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