Trip to NC - Day 3

October 30, 2011

Wounded Warriors, Life on the Base and Other Fun Things

The first thing I need to do today is share a photo of Tanya and her lucky wallet that I intended to post yesterday. Sorry for the omission! I still believe that wallet saved us from hurricane Sandy! :)

 

With that done I can tell you what happened on Day 3...

 

The first thing we all did was SLEEP IN. We were pretty tired. Around about 9:30 a.m. I made us all some waffles and we took our sweet time getting organized.

 

The only thing we had to do today was get to the small airport outside Jacksonville to pick up Zach and Kylie. We left the cabin around noonish and drove across the base. I can't begin to describe the immenseness of Camp Lejeune. These Marine bases are HUGE. Jimmy says it takes a half hour to 45 minutes to drive from the back gate to the front gate. Parts are populated and other parts look like countryside.

 

 

For a bunch of civilians from Wisconsin there are plenty of sights that are considered normal here that seem very unusual to us. This for instance, is something we DON'T see every day back home...

 

 

We also regularly see convoys passing outside the kitchen window of the cabin here,...

 

...military helicopters fly overhead several times a day...

 

 

...and the cabin occasionally shakes from the low rumbling booms of tank cannon fire and other heavy artillery from training exercises. It is an interesting experience but oddly it's not scary. I guess we know that being surrounded by Marines is probably one of the safest situations on earth!!

Around noon we left for the airport. We had to go through the main gate check point. Don't try to get through here without a pass or an ID!

The gate guards, and yes, they are armed...

 

 

We arrived at the airport about 45 minutes early. The others all found ways to pass the time...

 

 

Jim responded to work emails and phone calls,... 

 

 

Natalie played a game on her Kindle,...

 

 

 ...Jimmy took care of some business over the phone,...

 

 

...and responsible Tanya studied for a test she has next week. Richard was also responsible today. He stayed at the cabin and did his homework too.

 

 I was the only one who didn't have the foresight bring something to keep myself occupied (you have NO idea how unusual that is for me!) so I just annoyed everyone by taking pictures.

 

 

Zack and Kylie's plane arrived right on time and before long we were finally able to meet Zach who had been wounded with Jimmy when their vehicle rolled and fell about 30 feet into a ditch in Afghanistan. Jimmy had been riding shot-gun when his driver hit a large rock. The mine-roller on the front went up over the rock and sheared off. The vehicle kept going up over the mine-roller and tipped into the deep ditch to the side. When the vehicle started to go over Jimmy tried to pull in Zach who was up in the gun turret. That is how Jimmy's arm was shattered. Jimmy did not have time to get Zach all the way inside the vehicle and Zach's back was broken. He has lost all feeling and movement from the chest down. Due to the extent of the injury he is not expected to regain feeling or movement below the chest. Zach's girlfriend Kylie has been with him every opportunity she can since he's returned. It is inspirational to see how supportive of him she is! All the way back to base and even after we got to the hotel Zach and Jimmy told stories of the accident, their rescue and the stages of their recovery from their injuries. It was humbling to listen to and I consider it an honor to know these brave young men!

 

Left to right: Kylie, Jimmy, Zach

 

 

The weather today was excellent and I can't get over how green everything still is here. It was around 55 degrees again today...

 

 

...but back in Beckley, WV it is still snowing. I hope it clears out by the time we need to go back through there!

 

 

 

After dropping us at the cabin Tanya and Jimmy went back to the hotel. Jimmy went to visit with Zach and Tanya joined Kylie and some of their friends making signs for Thursday.

We watched "The Avengers" while I made supper...

 

...and Natalie completed her Pumpkin Bars for dessert.

 

Tonight we had comfort food on the menu - Shepherd's Pie!

 

Life in the cabin on Onslow Beach is pretty good! I could stay here a long, long time.

 

 

Photo of the Day:

 

 

 Scripture Verse of the Day:

 

(Thinking of Jimmy and Zach)

 

"Call upon me in the day of trouble;

I will deliver you, and you will honor me."

Ps. 50:15

 

Trip to NC - Day 2

Monday, October 29, 2012

Our day started very early. Tanya (who you can see LOVES having her picture taken early in the morning) and I were both up before 5 a.m. The others roused themselves not long after. We were tired but excited to get going...

...but then we discovered our first major wrinkle of the trip. Tanya couldn't find her wallet (which contained the picture ID she'd need to get on the base) and thought she must have left it in her room back at the college. Fortunately we were only about an hour and a half away (instead of a day and a half for instance) so she and Jim went back for it while Richard, Natalie and I stayed behind in the hotel lobby. Richard and Natalie did some reading and I got the blog updated and got to message Nick on facebook, so it turned out to be a win/win.

 

 The weather had not improved much from last night...

 

 

but the traveling was easy and there was lots to look at to keep the trip interesting. Tanya and I were especially amused by many of the signs we saw along the way, especially in Ohio. Pickaway County had these political signs up all along the highway...

 

 

Yup, it's true, Jackson Lawless is running for sheriff of Pickaway County, Archer for prosecuter and Perrill for commissioner. Hmm, let's consider this...a "lawless" sheriff with an "archer" for prosecuter and "peril" in the commissioner's office...that might suggest a county to avoid in the future if they were to be elected! It has to be real, you just can't make this stuff up.

  

Somewhere along the way we lost Jim who got stuck at a stoplight and ended up being a ways behind us, so our first rest stop was at a very LARGE Walmart in Ohio to give him a chance to catch up. I've never seen a Walmart so big! It worked out well because we wanted to pick up a few things anyway.

 

 

Because it was so cold and rainy Natalie, Tanya and I bought some gloves. We also bought a three-port power converter so we could plug in our phones (roaming takes a lot of juice!) and the GPS at the same time. We had a little unwanted excitement when the new converter immediately started smoking the first time Tanya plugged it in. Fortunately we were still in the Walmart parking lot so we made a quick exchange.

 

By-the-way Tiffany, I picked up a little something that is cute and practical for you too. We miss you!!! Hope all is going well at home!

 

While Natalie and Tanya warmed up in the truck...

 

 

 

...I made some sandwiches and Jim checked the oil and reattached Nick's rearview mirror which had fallen off. (Do you like the golf club hood holder?)

 

 Then we were off again in more rain...

 

Tanya and I took the lead in the Suburban while Richard and Natalie followed in the Fairlane...

 

Jim brought up the rear in the Camaro for this second day of traveling. He and I had walkie-talkies which worked very well for keeping us all together in the caravan.

 

We made good time and were fortunate enough to see more amusing signs. I saw a sign for Savageville which made me giggle, then I saw this one...

 

...Savageville has a school?! What kind of people live in Savageville? What do they teach in the school? What is their mascot?! The speculation and comment opportunities were endless!

 

We also got a kick out of this...

...look carefully to see the red ball on the deer's nose. Every deer crossing sign on the highway through Ohio had a red ball on it. Someone obviously had a little too much time and ambition on their hands!

I also saw several of these signs...

 

They said "DRUG ACTIVITY IMPAIRED DRIVERS CALL #677"

So apparently Ohio has ethical drug users that turn themselves in? Good to know!

 

I also found the name of this city (Gallipolis) funnier than I probably should have. In my defense "Gallipolis" is very fun to say, go ahead, try it. See? And I can't help but wonder, is this town the home of the Gallup Poll, or is it just the special place persons who gather poll information every election year?

 

 

 

We had so much fun that before we knew it we were in West Virginia!

 

 

At that point my friend Gina sent me a head's up about the town of Beckely which was on our route through West Virginia. Beckley was under a blizzard warning and the radar didn't suggest pleasant travel conditions.

 

 

We decided to pull over and gas up and then get as far as we could before the weather got too bad too continue. As we pulled back onto the highway we saw this sign. Ironic, eh?

 

The further we went the more the weather deteriorated, but people were driving sensibly and we didn't push it either.

We made steady progress. I felt very badly for this driver who was missing her back window. Not good weather to be traveling with that problem...

 

 

We began to periodically see these signs the closer we got to Beckley. The entire message read: "BLIZZARD WARNING: MONDAY EVENING THROUGH WEDNESDAY" We knew that meant that if we had to stop it was unlikely we'd get to North Carolina in time to meet Nick. We kept going and praying...

 

 

Sure enough before long the rain began to turn to sleet...

 

 

We were getting closer to Beckley and decided to stop one more time to make sure we were tanked up and as prepared as we could be. Tanya saw this sign posted at our stop. Captain Obvious was here!

 

 

 

We were getting higher into the mountains. The 2000 ft point seemed to be the dividing line between rain and snow.

 

 

 

On one side of an overpass it was rain and sleet mix, on the other, snow!

 

 

After that the cause/effect was a simple formula. The higher we were, the more snow there was...

 

 

Despite all of the weather warnings and blizzard communications we were hearing, the roads stayed fairly clear and the snow wasn't much worse than a typical Wisconsin snow storm...

The radar revealed why...

 

God had provided a break in the storm that traveled with us through most of the higher elevations!

Before too long we hit the tunnel, and then...

 

 

...we were in Virginia!!

 

Tanya was still setting the pace so we made pretty good time, she can be an...energetic driver. The guys had to work at keeping up sometimes! :)

 

 

The snow soon turned back to rain which followed us all the way to...North Carolina!!

 

 

We were safely past the blizzard threat - which we learned later had worsened quickly, but the only warnings for the area we were traveling through were for strong wind gusts. This proved to be an accurate prediction!

 

 

About an hour into North Carolina the rain stopped and we were officially through Hurricane Sandy. God was very good to us. By his grace we had managed to get through the mountains ahead of the blizzard and to North Carolina after the major hurricane wind gusts had gone through. The timing could not have been more perfect, and we owe it all to God allowing Tanya to forget her wallet at the college!

 

It was about 10:00 and very dark by the time we arrived at Camp Lejeune and met up with Jimmy.

Getting onto the base went smoothly, at first that is. About twenty yards past the gate we were stopped by a civilian police officer because Frenchie's car does not have official plates and were told we had to take it off the base. The "gentleman" officer was incredibly rude and unnecessarily disrespectful about it. We ended up taking the car to the Walmart parking lot which made us all unhappy. After dropping off the car we finally arrived at the beach houses which turned out to be adorably cute little cabins right on the oceanside.

 

Exhausted from the trip but happy to be here!

Jimmy!

Can't wait to check all that out tomorrow! Wait, it is tomorrow! We didn't get unpacked and to bed until almost quarter to 1:00 a.m. Right before bed we got news that due to the hurricane Nick's return was going to be delayed twelve hours. We are disappointed, but keeping all things in perspective he IS still coming home and although the hurricane is raging north of us, we are all safe here. May God deliver those in the path of this terrible storm!

 

Video of the Day:

 

 

There were several runaway truck ramps on the downhill side of the mountains. They are intended to be a safe stopping alternative for semis that get going too fast or lose their brakes. We saw this guy parked right in front of a sign that says "RUNAWAY TRUCKS ONLY". That guy better hope one isn't headed his way!

 

 

Scripture Verse of the Day:

 

Wait for the LORD and he will deliver you." Prov. 20:22