We finally have some family here in Tennessee.
Earl's sister Lisa moved out here on the 4th. Her and her kids traveled for three days by way of a Greyhound bus. It's nice to have some familiar faces in the area now. So we've been helping her get settled in for the most part.
Earl and I have built up a nice little basic routine during the week. Either he takes the car with him to work for the day, leaving me here to clean up the apartment a bit ... Or, I'll get up with him at the crack of dawn, drive him to work and then go about my day running errands. On the weekends we'll usually end up going out to eat, out to see a movie or we will go down and visit Lisa and the kids for a bit.
I am meeting more and more people around here, thankfully. Earl's platoon had a small party at someones house last weekend, so I got to meet some of the guys that Earl works with (along with some of the wives). I am happy to say that Earl will be going to Afghanistan with a good (a couple very experienced) bunch of people.
Life is pretty normal around here, things have slowed down quite a bit. This area is becoming less and less interesting as the days go by.
Our road trip back to California is coming up fast, so we're starting to prepare for that as well. I'm very excited to see the coast once again, being land locked is a bit annoying at times. At least we have a big river near by though and there are a few lakes not too far from here, which is better than nothing.
Things are slowing down and moving by fast all at the same time.
A west coast couple living the typical "Army Life" down in the "New South"
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Out and About
Earl got back last Tuesday from three weeks of JRTC down in Louisiana. I am more than happy to have him back. He got a four day weekend thanks to Memorial Day, which was awesome. We got caught up on a lot of things and explored a lot of new areas.
One of those areas being Land Between the Lakes, which is an hour and half drive from here. It's a beautiful area and very immense. We got lost several times both on our way in and on our way out.
For all of you back home who thought I'd be moving to a flat, farmland, hillbilly, middle-of-no-where area ... Well, you were all mostly wrong. This area of Tennessee seems to mostly consist of medium clumps of flat farmland surrounded by huge, lush, forested, rolling foothills.
Which is exactly what Land Between the Lakes was like. We drove for what seemed like a million miles of a never ending stretch of flat highway (I learned that I hate driving in a straight line for more than 5 miles), only to turn down the road leading out to the lake and come upon huge rolling hills and a massive green forest.
I've never seen a lake that huge before. The pictures I took don't do it any justice at all. For a split second I almost thought I was looking out across the ocean. It was gorgeous, I wish we had brought a canoe or something to paddle around in.
The forest surrounding the lake was broken up by a few, flat clearings here and there. I guess farmers had decided to make the most of those clearings and plant crops of corn, because every clearing we came across either had a small corn field in it or the remnants of one.
We saw plenty of wildlife in the area as well. A couple of turkey vultures scavenging on something I couldn't recognize, lots of chipmunks and squirrels, a single raccoon, a single wild turkey, a few deer (not like the kind in CA though, they were smaller and had brown/reddish fur) and a couple of turtles trying to cross the road ... And, of course, lots of bugs. There are some very strange bugs around here, and they all seem to be twice the size of the ones in CA (I blame the warmer climate here).
We spent a good two hours out at Land Between the Lakes (mostly driving around and getting lost), which was enough for us in one day.
So that's my story of our mini-adventure. I'd like to go back someday, perhaps with a little bit more planning in mind.
Again, I'm happy to have Earl back home with me. He has a three day weekend coming up, so we will see where we go then. Then in two weeks we'll be driving back to California for a quick (but much needed) visit.
On with the adventure!
One of those areas being Land Between the Lakes, which is an hour and half drive from here. It's a beautiful area and very immense. We got lost several times both on our way in and on our way out.
For all of you back home who thought I'd be moving to a flat, farmland, hillbilly, middle-of-no-where area ... Well, you were all mostly wrong. This area of Tennessee seems to mostly consist of medium clumps of flat farmland surrounded by huge, lush, forested, rolling foothills.
Which is exactly what Land Between the Lakes was like. We drove for what seemed like a million miles of a never ending stretch of flat highway (I learned that I hate driving in a straight line for more than 5 miles), only to turn down the road leading out to the lake and come upon huge rolling hills and a massive green forest.
I've never seen a lake that huge before. The pictures I took don't do it any justice at all. For a split second I almost thought I was looking out across the ocean. It was gorgeous, I wish we had brought a canoe or something to paddle around in.
The forest surrounding the lake was broken up by a few, flat clearings here and there. I guess farmers had decided to make the most of those clearings and plant crops of corn, because every clearing we came across either had a small corn field in it or the remnants of one.
We saw plenty of wildlife in the area as well. A couple of turkey vultures scavenging on something I couldn't recognize, lots of chipmunks and squirrels, a single raccoon, a single wild turkey, a few deer (not like the kind in CA though, they were smaller and had brown/reddish fur) and a couple of turtles trying to cross the road ... And, of course, lots of bugs. There are some very strange bugs around here, and they all seem to be twice the size of the ones in CA (I blame the warmer climate here).
We spent a good two hours out at Land Between the Lakes (mostly driving around and getting lost), which was enough for us in one day.
So that's my story of our mini-adventure. I'd like to go back someday, perhaps with a little bit more planning in mind.
Again, I'm happy to have Earl back home with me. He has a three day weekend coming up, so we will see where we go then. Then in two weeks we'll be driving back to California for a quick (but much needed) visit.
On with the adventure!
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