Pride seems like a weak word to describe the feelings this morning when our grandson Lucas Buehner, daughter Jennifer's boy, enlisted in the United States Army. Lucas had delay-enlisted earlier this year like I did, but today was the day he had to report to the Military Entrance Processing Station for his official enlistment. So last night Lucas and family went out to eat and then this morning he reported to MEPS for the enlistment and then departure for basic training. This is what the ceremony looked like:
From there he boarded a bus and they traveled to Grand Rapids to board the airplane for.... Well it was originally scheduled to be Ft Sill in Lawton Oklahoma. The Army conducts basic training in four locations: Ft Sill OK, Ft Leonard Wood MO, Ft Benning GA and Ft Jackson SC. At the last minute they switched his to Ft Jackson in South Carolina. So the trip we designed all the way out to Oregon to put us in Lawton OK the last week in August will now not work! We cannot get from there to Columbia SC in time for his basic training graduation. This is what the trip was going to look like:
So we have officially
cancelled the remainder of the trip and we will be headed home from here on Thursday. Our trip now looks like this:
We coordinated a camping spot at Griff's, where we launch and recover from, and we can have that site from Thursday until 1 Aug. That will give us time to facilitate the replacement of our furnace and air conditioner, and plan the remainder of our trip, which will take us to Ft Jackson SC and then back. We have no idea what that will look like yet, but we will get it sorted out. Buckle-up folks. The ride will be fun!
I spent 42 years, 2 months and 16 days in the military, and one thing we learned was to be flexible. Things change, and you usually have no control over the changes. You may not always agree with the changes or understand the changes, but you must adapt. In the Marine Corps their motto is "Semper Fidelis - Always Faithful". In the Coast Guard it is "Semper Paratus - Always Ready". Well, neither the Army nor the Air Force have an official Semper____ motto, but unofficially it is "Semper Gumby - Always Flexible"! You have to be flexible and ready for change, and that is true when dealing with RV life as well. Stuff happens, things change. Be ready, be prepared, be flexible, and in the words of Clint Eastwood, "Improvise, adapt, overcome". We will get safely home, We will redesign the trip. And most importantly, we will be in Ft Jackson South Carolina to see our wonderful grandson graduate from basic training! No exceptions! Hooah!
So this afternoon we headed out to the local HyVee food store and replenished the fridge and pantry. On the way back we drove around a bit, past my old house to start with. I lived here my sophomore-senior years of high school and then I headed off to basic training in June 1973. It sure looks a lot smaller than I remember! Looks like they are doing some landscaping.
Then we drove through "College Hill". Cedar Falls is home to the University of Northern Iowa and our High School was the Northern University High School. College Hill was where we hung out at the pizza joint and checked out the college chicks LOL.
Then we drove by Doreen's house, which was just a block from our high school and a few blocks from College Hill. She lived there throughout her childhood until we married in 1974:
Finally we drove by what remains of our high school building. They tore down most of it but saved the field house.
When we got back to the campground I commenced cancelling campground reservations and notifying friends we would not be able to meet up with them. This continued on throughout the afternoon into the early evening as I was able to contact some of the Mountain Time zone campgrounds later on. We have 23 campgrounds to cancel. Some have a small cancellation fee, most have no fee, One so far does not offer a refund on a full deposit. No worries. Tomorrow I will continue to cancel reservations and then make preparations to bug-out on Thursday and head home.
That's it for today. That is enough!
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