Home at last!

After 5 months of being separated as a family because of military school, we are finally back together again. I had to go to military school to become certified in my new career field and after doing the research, we found that it would not work to bring the family down. Unfortunately that made it 2.5 years that we have been apart in our marriage of 6 years. I was so glad to get home to Holley, Brooklyn, and Zachary. It was good to see their faces again.

I spent 2 months in Biloxi Mississippi. I was glad to spend time their since I had always dreamed of being in Mississippi since it was one of my favorite words to spell growing up. I know that does not sound like a very good reason, but it was reason enough for me, and when it worked out, that was kind of cool. Isn’t that every child’s dream to go to Mississippi after going through a spelling bee? OK so maybe not. It was good to spend some time down there. I was able to see some of the ruins from Hurricane Katrina since Biloxi was one of the worst hit areas. That was one of the sadder parts of the trip. Biloxi is a good community and overall I was very impressed with it. I was able to get trained in Electronic Principles which is kind of a crash course in Electronics, a very exciting class. I was able to live about a mile from the Gulf of Mexico since my hotel I was staying in was right off of the beach. Too bad the water was not really clean enough to go swimming in. I was able to go fishing for a day which was really fun. We had a really cool couple missionary down there that really made the stay a lot of fun. They were Elder and Sister Thompson. They made sure we were well taken care of on Sunday and we had a cool Home Evening each Tuesday since most of us were away from our families. I was so glad they served their mission since it had a large impact on a lot of people. I was actually kind of sad to leave their after my two month stay was over and I graduated from EP.

My next trip was to Augusta Georgia where they are huge into golfing. Unfortunately I was not able to golf while I was down their, but I was able to have a lot of fun. Holley and the kids were able to come down twice and they stayed for a week and a half both time. That worked out very well since I was able to concentrate on my class work and do quite well, and still see the family a couple of times. Fortunately it worked out really well because the times they came down were the times that I had the most time off of school. I was very lucky because the air force works on a compressed work schedule which means that I had every other Friday off while I was at school. They kept us plenty busy thought so I never got bored.

While in Augusta, I was attending the SWATS (Satellite Wideband and Telemetry Systems) course for the Air Force which is actually on Fort Gordon which is an Army base. I can honestly say I was not all that excited to go back to an Army base, but it all worked out very well. I lived in off base housing and stayed in a hotel about 3 miles from the base. It was a little crowded for me and the family, but when it was just me, it was not all that bad. I was so glad to have good AC since the temperatures down there were almost constantly in the high 90’s or low 100’s with very high humidity. Air Conditioning made my stay pleasant.

I was able to attend the South Carolina Temple on several occasions which was definitely an added bonus. I actually had a very unique experience of meeting my cousin in the Temple who consequently had moved down into the same Stake I was living in and I had lost contact with him. I wrote about it in one of my other blogs. It was a very unique miracle how it happened. I was very impressed with the faith of the members of the church in that area. They definitely lived overall as you would expect Latter Day Saints to live.

While in Augusta, I was in charge of 12 other non prior service students which means they were just joining the military. I was prior service since I was doing this for my second go round. They were a good bunch of kids and overall we did very well as a class graduating with no failures and a very high class average.

On August 12, I graduated and I started my trek home; a long trip covering over half of the country. I decided to make the best of it since I was going to be driving for so long and see some of the sights along the way. I was able to stop in Nashville, Tennessee and see that city. Unfortunately that was not my favorite stop. It was nothing like I had expected since I was expecting this small town with a large number of places to go visit to hear your favorite country singers. To show how naive I was, I was hoping to be able to stop in and see some friends from Kooskia near where I was raised who sing there. Well, when I actually got their, I realized that was kind of naive considering the actual size of the town.

My next stop was at the St. Louis Missouri arch. Now that was an awesome spectacle. It had a much larger base than I had expected. It also has a large museum that is free to the public in the middle of the arch. It is definitely a place well worth visiting. I regretted not being able to go up in the arch since I discovered it is actually hollow in the middle and you can take a ride to the top. I would have ridden to the top, but I was parked on the street and it said to secure all your belongings. Since my trunk was completely full and the rest of my belongings were in plain sight, I figured I had better get back on the road before my transportation became a part of St. Louis. I was glad I stopped though.

I saved the best stop for last. This was the bread of butter of the trip and the part I was so excited to go and see. I have always wanted to go back to Zion in Independence Missouri just to reminisce about the past in that area and the future that area will hold in both church history and world history. What an exciting place. I was willing to go out of my way to go see it and when I map quested my route, it just so happened that it was right along my route. I was able to go and see Liberty Jail, Far West, Adam-Ondi-Ahman, and all the sights in Independence Missouri including the Community of Christ Temple, Conference Center, Church of Christ building, (The place where the Temple was originally to be built) and last but not least the LDS visitors center. That was well worth the stop and one of my favorite experiences ever to be on such hollowed ground. I could definitely tell how that was once the Garden of Eden since it is one of the greenest places I have ever seen. It is a very beautiful place. I can’t wait to hopefully move there with the Saints someday to settle that area. What an awesome time that will be.

This is a list of all the states I went through on the trip:

Colorado Kansas Oklahoma Texas
Louisiana Mississippi Alabama Georgia
South Carolina Tennessee Kentucky Illinois
Missouri Iowa Nebraska Back to Colorado

Total Miles for the Honda: 3,600 miles + driving around town
Total days spent in a hotel: 146 Days
Days without a maid: 0
Total days Holley took care of kids: 122
Fingers lost during time away: 1 (Zachary's Right Index finger)
Getting your hotel taken out by a military truck! (Priceless)