Catching Up - Day Trip, Race & One More Veterans Day Entry

I wanted to sit down and catch up on a few things that I have been taking pictures of for the purpose of blogging about them. It is amazing how fast I find myself several events or ideas behind if I keep saying, "I'll write it tomorrow". Rather than stressing about getting it done I just faced the fact that we all know that "Tomorrow Never Comes" so I just had to come to the realization that it was fine to just wait until I really wanted to make the time to do it. The reality is that if it is important enough to me to do it then it will get done. With that said, here are a few things that have been going on.

APPLE HILL

There are similar places all over the country to Apple Hill. I have been hearing about it on the news for weeks and my sister told me that she had taken my parents there in the past. So we decided to do a day trip and it was definitely a trip worth taking. It is one of those trips that you really want to take if you enjoy the Fall season; orchards, vineyards, wineries, restaurants and breweries, what's not to like. 

I think one thing that made it so much fun is that we had no agenda; I have really learned to love doing day trips or even longer trips that don't have to be so planned that they are spoiled if you happen to miss something that you had planned. 

The trip was a kickoff for my sister Donna's birthday week.

Donna & I

This past weekend I did a half marathon in Clarksburg, California. I've mentioned before how much I enjoy going to races where I can see new places and Clarksburg was no exception. It is a beautiful area in the Delta region southwest of Sacramento, just west of the river. The course ran along miles and miles of vineyards and was beautiful. It helped that the weather was perfect.

While going through pictures looking for some of my Dad for Veteran's Day I found some as well as some pictures from my time at Aviation Fire Control Technician "A" School near Memphis, Tennessee. I was stationed there after boot camp and before I was sent to my duty station in Lemoore, California. So here are some final pictures for Veteran's Day 2013.

MEMPHIS - NAVAL AIR TECHNICAL TRAINING CENTER

These pictures are of Ted, one of the five of us that enlisted together and one of three of us sent to Memphis for training and Pete, who we met and became close friends with in boot camp. The other pictures are some of us who graduated from AQ "A" School.

Writing, reading and running. Three things that I did a lot of while stationed at Memphis when I wasn't in class. While stationed at Memphis we used to have to march to class, lunch, etc. One of the advantages of being on the track team was that we were given a pass exempting us from marching. Nice!

These pictures are of times that Pete and I spent with Rob, another of the five and his wife Jenny who was also a friend of mine in high school. Jenny and I ran on a relay time together at a coed all school track meet. It was great having them stationed at Memphis and living in base housing because it gave us a chance to get away from the barracks and Rob had a car so we could get around when we had liberty.

Our barracks and our chow hall, nothing fancy. Pete, Ted and me at the Memphis Zoo. We would go to Memphis when we got a chance and since we had very little money we went to the zoo, the movies, where we actually watched Gone With The Wind in a huge old theater, we visited the place where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and several other tourist areas. It was good to get away from the constant structure of school and military duty. 

I'm sure there will be future posts about my time in the military experience. While readers may find some (all) of it boring, I find it somewhat therapeutic. 

So I'm caught up for now through mid-November!