OH

Tonight I find myself in the Buckeye state, alone in a hotel room with 2 beds, free wireless & cable, expecting a nice complimentary breakfast in the morning. Its a rough life, and I venture to say my dad will draw a stark contrast against his first overseas military experience for the rest of my chronicles (I like using that word). It is beautiful here, when driving to our hotel one person commented "I feel like we've gone back in time" another "Is this where home and garden takes all their photos" The hardwoods are in the height of there change, the air is crisp, rich green lawns, rolling hills with various crops ready for harvest and small barns filled with pumpkins. It does a nice job of curbing the frustration of taking so long to get somewhere in the Herk, we left cheyenne, I should be in Iraqistan, i'm just too anxious...

This morning was a different beautiful, the eastern horizon was turning deep red when I left and the western snowcapped peaks were being lit before all else, not a cloud in the sky letting me watch them the entire ride up (since I didn't drive, my nav's girlfriend drove to say goodbye) No one rode up for me, but the buffalo were closer to the rode than I had ever seen them, literally pushing on the fence, and I'm 98% sure they did that for me. One of the load's (we have 2 loadmasters with us) parents came to see him off and of course his mom's eyes were getting red even though this is his 4th deployment. My AC (aircraft commander) didn't inform me of this but he was/is supposed to be getting married 2 Jan in Hawaii (we don't think we'll be back by Christmas) (a testament to his attitude, not once has he shown disappointment or frustration about this deployment) Needless to say his eyes were red too when he stepped in the passenger seat of the crew bus, I acted like I hadn't noticed and stared straight ahead as I drove. Its funny to juxtapose the emotions I see to my own, those being of pure anticipation of what will happen next. Then juxtapose that to my AC, this being his eighth deployment, nothing is new to him and he laughs at my excitement over the smallest events; loading the pallet with our bags, arriving at a new base, doing everything together as a crew - which at present is turning into one of my favorite things, it feels like I'm in a gang. I'm sure I'll talk more about them later, I'm writing more up front than I'm sure anyone cares to read but expect this to quickly wane as things become standard.

PS. I didn't make the above comments out of self pity, b/r interesting observations, i have received more than enough well wishes to last the short 2 months. Best coming from Meg & Ben before bed tonight.