Everyday Life

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.

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!

Tennessee, Here I Come!

Alright, lets start this thing off with the story of my first three weeks here:

Movers came on Monday, April 26th. They were very quick and packed everything up within a few hours. The rest of the day I spent with my family, driving around, doing some last minute errands and deep cleaning the (now completely empty) apartment.

I spent the night at my parents place and woke up, bright and early, around 4:30am on Tuesday to catch my plane from San Francisco to Nashville. I got to the airport on time, no major hassles or delays and was up in the air, on my merry way to Nashville, TN around 6:30am (PST). I had stop over in Houston and connect flights (apparently there are no direct flights from San Francisco to Nashville).
I had approximately 45 minutes to cross one huge, huge airport and get to my connecting flight gate. I made it about 15 minutes early and took the time to relax, go to the bathroom and make a few phone calls. From what I could see on the plane, Houston seemed extremely flat, although I think I could make out the Gulf Coast off in the distance, which was pretty cool. I got on my connecting flight and made my way (finally) out to Nashville, TN.
The plane we were on from Houston to Nashville was the smallest plane I'd ever been on (only 3 seats across) ... It was more than a little nerve-wrecking. You could feel every little bump and bit of turbulance there was (and there was quite a lot!). Thankfully though, I landed safe and sound in Nashville, TN around 2:30pm (CST). The entire trip from San Francisco to Nashville was a long and grueling 8 hours (longer than my trip from San Francisco to Georgia, oddly enough).

For the first time in two long months, I saw Earl! I really didnt think I'd get as emotional as I did when I saw him, but I cried like a little baby. After reuniting we hopped in the (brand new!) car and made our way out to Ft. Campbell/Clarksville, TN. I was amazed by landscape in this part of the state, it was so green! It was raining and cloudy! There were huge rolling hills! There were long, sweeping turns in the highway! There were huge, winding rivers! There were massive rock cliffs! ... Where the hell was I? This wasn't the flat, hot, dry, nothingness, middle-of-nowhere that I had imagined. If I had seen the ocean off in the distance, I would have thought I'd never left California. This place was fantastic!
We got to Clarksville, Earl showed me a few places he had already been. He pointed out some of the gates leading in to Ft. Campbell, and then we drove up to our new apartment. Ah, home sweet home!

Earl and I only had a measley 5 days together, before he had to leave down to Louisiana for 3 weeks of pre-deployment training, so we tried to make the best of each day. We went out in our new car and purposely "explored" the area (mostly by getting lost). I went to a mandatory "Family Fun Day"for Earl's unit out on the post somewhere, met some of Earl's battle buddies, and quickly made myself a few friends. We walked around Dunbar Cave one day, headed out to Nashville another day and then I experienced my first southern summer storm (not realizing at the time just how powerful and damaging it would turn out to be) over the weekend.

Earl left on Tuesday, May 4th for Louisiana and I was now left to fend for myself for three weeks in a place I hadn't even heard of a couple of months ago.
I've tried to make the most of my time here since he's been gone. The few friends I've made here have greatly helped me in adapting to this new environment. I know how to navigate Ft. Campbell better, I've found out new areas (the river front of downtown Clarksville,a few new stores and an Amish community in Kentucky), I've experienced the infamous (and awful) humidy (and amaing thunder storms!), and Im slowly meeting new people and doing new things each and every day.

It's been more than 2 weeks since Earl left, more than 3 weeks since I arrived here, and I think Im doing pretty well so far. Earl gets back sometime in the middle of next week. I am looking forward to spending the next 2 and a half months with him, exploring this area some more and hopefully taking a roadtrip back out to California before he leaves for the big and scary deployment.

New Adventures

So, I wasn't going to continue with this blog after Earl got out of basic training.

I didn't really see the point, since most of you already know what's going on in our lives through other means.

Then I thought about it a little more, though, and thought to myself, "why not?"

So, here we go again with the many updates, stories and adventures of Earl and I.

Don't expect too much information on when and where Earl deploys. No news is usually good news and the less information I give out about him being over there, the better.
This blog will mostly be about our time here on the Tennessee/Kentucky border, around Ft. Campbell and the surrounding area.

So keep and eye on this blog, once again, and check back for updates and stories. I'll be posting some of the adventures we've had since I've been here in the next couple of weeks.

Big Change of Plans

First, the Bad News:

Earl is not getting in to Airborne School.

He had a PT Test at 4am this morning and failed it. It's not that he couldn't make the requirements, it's that the instructors were being complete douche bags while giving the test. Earl would get to about 30 push up's and the instructor would start counting back down, or keep counting the same number over and over again, so poor Earl had no idea how many push up's he was really doing.
Apparently all the instructors were doing this exact same thing to almost every other guy taking the test. Earl was told that he could immediately reapply for Airborne School if he wanted because what the instructors were doing wasn't right. He made a choice though and isn't going to reapply.
He feels like he might need more time before taking the Special Forces route and that he just wants to get to a duty station and get "settled down". He was also concerned about the amount of time he'd be able to see me while training for Special Forces and was worried that we'd hardly ever get to see each other.

Now, on to the Good News:

I was surprised at how well Earl was taking all of this. I really thought he had his heart set on being in a Special Forces group. I think I was more bummed about the news than he was. I honestly thought that he'd be devastated to not get into Airborne .. But he couldn't be happier. He said that he missed me terribly and is now looking forward to hopefully spending more time together. I too love the fact that I'll get to see him sooner than expected, and am happy that we will be moving to a new duty station sooner than expected as well.

So what does this all mean, exactly? Earl will continue to wait around on Ft. Benning until someone somewhere assigns him to an Infantry unit, which could lead us anywhere in the United States (not completely sure if there are many Infantry units oversea's).

Now ... On with the Adventure!

Back In From the Peach State

So, Im finally back ... And what an experience it was! I apologize for the lack of photos, I didn't have much time to take very many.

Seeing Earl and watching him graduate OSUT really opened my eyes to everything that he has gone through and everything that he will continue to go through. Absence really does make the heart grow fonder.

This trip was full of "firsts" for me: This was my first flight by myself in 10 years, my first visit to Georgia in 10 years, and my first time stepping foot on an actual military post ... Again, what an experience it was.

Going there, doing everything on my own and coming back really made me realize just how independent I can be. I really wanted someone to hold my hand and walk me through every step of the way ... But I did it, all by my little self.

So that's that ... I could go on and on about my trip, but I'll spare you all the long and boring read.

Next stop: Airborne School!

Oh, one last note: Earl doesn't have an address anymore that people can write to. So please don't send him a letter or anything, unless you would like for it to get lost somewhere in the mailing system. He does, however, have his cell phone and he has more free time than before. So send him a text, send him a photo or give him a ring sometime.

The Beginning of the End

I know, I know .. I said that I wouldn't post anymore until after Earl's graduation. I just got three letters in the mail from Earl today, though, so I figured I'd share a bit.

(Wednesday) 1/20/10

Earl and his fellow soldiers went on a 4 mile run early that morning wearing every single bit of body armor that they have. Later on in the afternoon they practiced drill and ceremony marching for hours on end. They then spent the rest of the evening packing and going over their gear for their FTX (Field Training eXercise). Earl is exhausted be he is prepared to retake his PT Test again on Friday (he needs to pass it in order to keep his 18X contract).

(Thursday) 1/21/10

The weather in Georgia has be amazingly random. Just two weeks ago the temperature was in the mid-teens and there were reports of snow. This week though, it's been raining, muggy and the temperature has been in mid-sixties. Earl talked to the Special Forces liaison today about his contract, and the guy said that Earl just needed to pass his last PT test with a score of 240. After Earl's PT test on Friday, his company will have a thorough inspection of their bay. On Saturday morning Earl and everyone else will leave for their FTX, they will be out in "the field" until Wednesday (1/27/10 - today).

(Friday) 1/22/10

Earl passed his PT test with a score of 249! He did 43 push-up's, 67 sit-up's, and ran 2 miles in 2 minutes and 40 seconds. The rest of the day Earl spent packing more for his FTX.

So that's it. This is the beginning of the end. I hope to hear from Earl sometime this weekend (hopefully he will get a chance to use his cell phone). Like I mentioned before, this will (really) be the last update until I get back from Georgia the week after next. Thank you again to everyone for reading this and thank you to everyone who have supported us through these long few months.