Journey's End

After 63 hours of leaving our house, we arrived at my in-laws'. So nice to see family. Over-all it was a great trip - the flights worked out.

We easily got on a flight out of Guam on a c17. At first they said there were 20 seats, then 50, then 70 and finally 89 - a very full flight. C17 has "sling" seats and they allow you to lay on the floor. For an eight hour flight in the middle of the night, it's nice to be able to stretch-out.

We did have a momentary scare - as we all were getting settled in our seats, a loud horn started to sound and the lights went off, then flashed for a few minutes. It's was a little dis-comforting as we watched a few of the crew run around in a panic. But several were not in a panic so that was nice. It only lasted a few minutes and we all were very relieved that it ended.

We landed in Hawaii around 9 a.m. local time. It took us a few hours for us to set our suitcase, sign up for a flight, figure out about hotel and car. Drew and I both thought is was ironic that the day we would like someone to pick us up - none of our friends were able to. His friends/co-workers were at a firing range and my friend had car issues. But it all worked out - it's called "taxi"!

Some friends, Paul & Robyn, that we were stationed together in CA years ago were actually vacationing in HI this week, so after we got settled in our room and took a nap, we meet them for dinner. - So nice to see them! - Way too short though.

When we left the terminal there were several flights going to CA, but by the next morning there was only one in the morning and one close to midnight. The morning flight was also a C17, but this time the 20 seats turned in 9. But the grace of God we still got on! As they were doing roll call, my heart was just pounding as I prayed.

We kept telling the kids we would have a vacation - either in MS or in HI, but we all really wanted it to be in MS with family.

The flight to CA was five and half -I was surprised it was that long. This flight seemed colder than the first one. This one had jeeps and hummers down the middle - which is one reason there was only 20 seats. Then the 11 army guys who "own" the jeeps took some of the seats. They did have room for more people, but the base we flow into is a reservist base and the terminal there is not set up for massive amounts of people. In fact they only had a small bus and they said they would take us to the base billeting or the front gate if we had someone waiting for us.

Which we did! We got to visit with another set of CA friends, Dan & Cindy while we had dinner and they drove us to a hotel close to the airport where we had commercial tickets for Wednesday morning.

On Wednesday we flew into Jackson where my parents and niece meet us. We only visited with them for a few minutes as we drove to Natchez. Today we'll go out to Drew's brother's lake house and spend the holiday weekend there. At some point next week we'll drive up to West Monroe, LA where my parents and brother live. Drew is flying back to Guam on the 14 July while the kids and I will hop back through Memphis around the 15 or 22 July.

Melissa and I are waiting for the stores to open - we'll need our Kelly's Kid fix as well as Darby's...and several other stores....let the fun begin!