Posts Tagged ‘travel’

• So about that trip…

  Date: 2010.08.19 | Category: Flying!, photos | Response: 0

  I took a trip that started in Tacoma, Washington that ended in San Antonio, Texas. While on the road I took some video and some photos. I made stops in Boise, at Arches National Park, Mesa Verde National Park, and Carlsbad Caverns. The photos are in order – the video does it much more justice but I won’t be able to edit that until I get home. For now, the pictures will have to suffice.

  At times I was bored of the scenery – miles upon miles of nothing. Notably eastern Oregon, northern Utah, and parts of New Mexico were the worst. There were times that I wanted to stop and other times I simply did. Our country is so diverse – it’s amazing. I know that there are parts that are far less amazing. I just hope to never live in those places.

• Something different every day

  Date: 2010.06.18 | Category: Life as we know it | Response: 0

  We’ve hardly had any real downtime since I’ve been home and it isn’t a bad thing. We’ve been busy hanging out with the extended family, attending weddings, playing with the dogs, cleaning the house, and we’ve been having a great time doing all of that. We won’t have any slow days until sometime next year if we ever have one again. This is the life we live and its busy and a little bit different each day.

  The wedding is right around the corner and we’re putting all of the finishing touches on the planning. I’ve still got to make a few reservations for our honeymoon in Kauai but we’ve got the important bits done (airline tickets, hotels, and a rental car). I figure I’ll set up one or two things ahead of time but I’ll leave the rest open for free time. We’re supposed to go and relax – I’m bad at relaxing. I guess that’s why I don’t mind the pace our lives have taken.

  Parent, grandparents, and other relatives will be traveling to the Pacific Northwest for the wedding. I want to make sure that I thank all of them for taking time out of their schedules (which are probably as busy as ours) to make a trip out here. I hope I have the time to fit it all in. It’s going to be a crazy couple of days as we see everyone come and go – in fact, we’ll leave before some of them do (my parents are included in this group).

  Ok, I should stop typing – change my clothes and head to the garage – I’ve got some unfinished projects and I don’t mind a bit.

• Travel

  Date: 2010.05.15 | Category: I was too lazy to organize these | Response: 0

  Travel has officially begun. I’ve been awake for 6 hours and I have a few more hours before my show time. I looked at the flight board and it looks like I am going to wait for 5-6 hours after my show time.

  By the time I land, I will have been up for 22-24 hours. At that point I’ll sit around for a few days before I get on the next round of flights.

  Ahhh military travel at its finest. Hurry up and wait and wait and wait and then wait some more. I wish I could get a direct flight – that would be awesome.

• Almost done

  Date: 2010.05.08 | Category: Life as we know it, desert, rants, work | Response: 0

  The replacements are here and the pass-on has been completed. The new guy doesn’t have any of his worker bees yet but I can’t do anything about that. If all goes to plan – and there is no plan – I’ll be home within the next 14 days. Isn’t that an overly broad swath of time? Isn’t there an overwhelming lack of preciseness?

  I wish that I was being overly vague because I’m not allowed to write about time lines for redeployment. In reality, they haven’t told me anything. I’ve got to find a way to keep myself busy over the next week (or two) or I’m going to loose it.

  I can’t wait to be home with my woman… anybody got an aircraft that has fuel tanks large enough for international travel? Want to come pick me up (along with a few thousand others)?

  For free?

  Guess not. Oh well.

• Stuck

  Date: 2010.02.12 | Category: desert, rants | Response: 0

  A few days ago I left on another trip and to be the “fixer.” We did what we had to and I put some stuff on a pallet. We thought that we were going to get out today but it wasn’t meant to be. I’m stuck here for yet another day but at least we found a way to get around the base. (I’m at this wonderful place called Al Asad). We were waiting for our flight today and we got about as far as roll call before we were told the bad news. We went up front and they checked us off the list. We were hyped because we were ready to go. Not more than ten minutes later they announced that our flight was canceled. We had to get our rooms and linens back. I don’t have enough clean clothes for another day – I guess I’ll just have to be the smelly guy. Leaving my base is cool and all but trying to get travel around this country sucks.

• Photos

  Date: 2010.02.01 | Category: desert, photos | Response: 0

  I’ve uploaded some photos to Facebook. Some of you don’t have an account and others are random strangers that browse my website (and thus aren’t on my friends list). Click Here to view em.

• Routine

  Date: 2010.01.31 | Category: desert, rants | Response: 0

  We all have routines that guide us through our day. My routine at home is far different from the one that I have when I deploy. My routine on the weekend is far different than what I have on weekdays. One constant always remains regardless of the situation – I attempt to adhere to my routine all of the time.

  I’ve been “out of the pocket” for the past few days and my routine has been absolutely destroyed. I have been waking up two hours later, not working out (don’t have the necessary shoes – At Balad you can walk in and workout in the shoes you are wearing as long as we aren’t in mudcon. At Sather you must carry your gym shoes with you – I only have one pair of tennis shoes with me so I can hardly carry a second pair. Sure, I have my boots and I thought about wearing them in and changing but I also have a transportation issue. Here, unlike Balad, I can’t walk everywhere. In fact, its almost a three mile trip from where we are staying to the rest of the base. ), eating terribly (I don’t have any motivation without working out), and generally accomplishing nothing. We finished our required tasks yesterday and have been waiting ever since to find transportation back “home”. We’ve been all over the “camp victory base complex” and we’ve almost gotten good at the navigation.

  I did get to take a tour of the “Victory over America” Palace. Saddam thought that since he was still in power after the gulf war that he should be a victor – so, he built a new palace for himself. This palace, unlike some of the others, was left unfinished when the war started. Our boys in the sky did a little renovation with a couple of 500lb JDAMs. I took a BUNCH of pictures. I’ll have to upload them at some point in the future.

  I can only hope I can resume my routine tomorrow. Sure, its not exciting but it’s what gets me through my day and makes the time fly by.

• Traveling

  Date: 2010.01.30 | Category: I was too lazy to organize these | Response: 0

  I’ve traveled on a C130 and a C17 and numerous other civilian aircraft. All of them have had one thing in common: fixed wings. Recently I took a trip on a Black-hawk Helo and it was awesome. I had to travel to another base to inspect some stuff and we found it was far easier to arrange transport via chopper over a C130 or anything else. I took a bunch of pictures on the way over – there is no cooler way to see a country than from 1000 feet. Pictures will follow when I get back to Balad.

• Electronic pushpins on a map

  Date: 2010.01.09 | Category: desert | Response: 0

  I’ve done a little bit of traveling in the past few days and I’ve got one more leg of the trip before its all over and I reach my final destination. Since I was here last, wifi has propogated across almost everywhere that I’ve been. If I’ve turned my laptop on and accessed my google account it keeps track of where I’ve been. If I had my phone on at some point it also tracked my location. I allow it to track my location history and I can choose whether to share it or keep it for personal use. I think this image is interesting – who else can say that they’ve been to all of those points on the map in less than a week?
  

  
  
  

  Where I've been traveling this week

  
  

  I did make a short stop in Ireland but the wifi was down – that would have made one more stop in the middle. Odds are that I won’t be able to get something in my final destination. I don’t know if they have any wifi available.

• Leaving home

  Date: 2010.01.06 | Category: Life as we know it, desert | Response: 0

  It’s that time once again. I’m set to get on a plane and travel half way across the planet away from everyone that I know and love.

  I’m headed to Iraq for another 4 month stint in what should be a relatively easy trip. I’ve got my bags packed and this time my trip will be all about distraction and self improvement. I’ve got textbooks for two classes and some workout gloves so I know what I will be doing with my spare time. I should have lots of it. It’s probably going to take 3-4 days to actually get there so I won’t be able to update this for a bit.

  The dogs, Duke and Havoc, will have to keep Jessica company while I am away – I’m going to miss her greatly. Luckily for Jessica, her family is nearby and she has friends all over the place. Hopefully they’ll keep her distracted enough so that the time passes quickly.