Over the mountains, and through the desert
We got up at 8:30 on Saturday morning... I think I fit about five hours of sleep in there... we checked email and that sort of thing (free Internet!), went to breakfast at the Denny's with the hidden sign, and then started off for Yuma, AZ, where my little brother is stationed with the Marines. It took us 2 and 1/2 hours to drive... the mountain pass goes up to roughly 4,100 feet and then comes back down to sea level in the desert on the other side. It was smooth sailing pretty much all the way. I had used a car rental business that didn't let you take the car out of state (I had been planning on my brother joining us in San Diego) so we parked in a church parking lot in "Winterhaven, CA", two miles from Yuma, which, judging by the size of the town (one deserted street) probably had a population of 20.
Winterhaven, where we parked:
My brother came and picked us up at 1, and we headed directly for lunch at In & Out, which I had never had before. Their hamburgers came with tomatoes, a thick slice of onion and lettuce and their special sauce. A far cry from Mc'yD's. We saw a military antiques store (across from the base - had all sorts of WWI - WWII uniforms, swords, rifles, accessories, genuine McClellan saddles... but we only had a minute; the owner was closing down. Across a side street from this was a horse stable (odd location, right across from a Marine Corps Air Station) hmm. But we got to pet a very cute young horse that kept trying to nibble us. :) He was sort of forward. lol
We then took a look at his new post exchange (PX) and his new room on base. It was after watching the trailer for "The Blind Side" on his computer that we decided to go see it. So we took off for the mall and got there in time. It was a beautiful movie! Believe it or not, it wasn't a sports movie. At least it didn't act like one. A big part of this True story was the football, but they didn't have the annoying trappings of a generic sports movie. It was all about the relationship this family had with this down-and-out boy. Very good!
Afterwords, we went to Outback Steakhouse (and had to wait for a bit for a table). We had good conversation, and much to our surprise, a generous customer paid for half our dinner because my brother was (obviously, because of his hair cut) active duty. That was a neat surprise.
We then went to his room, watched a couple silly episodes of the TV show "Arrested Development" and then we had to go. At nine o'clock he took us back to our car and we took off for our motel. It was a great eight hours with my brother... it was needed. We got safely to the motel about 11 PM, and boy, did we sleep well!
We drove I-8 West this morning to I-5, and took the exit we had yesterday that went right to the car rental place. The van was there, ready to go, and we were off to the airport in minutes! They had vastly better service in the morning! :) All the airports had free Wi-Fi, so email and Facebook could be checked. But mostly we played Phase 10. A good pass-time. Our first flight (we had a connection in Sacramento) was so crowded we had to sit apart. I ended up next to a black WWII veteran (wow) and we talked the entire time! He was with Transportation in the Army/Air Force during the occupation of Germany from 1945-1949. He had so many stories... mostly about the German family he became friends with. I don't think I've ever had such a good flight. He joked about talking my ear off... lol! I so didn't mind. :)
So here I am at home. We got back in the middle of my Grandma's 96th birthday party (glad we made part of it!) I thought I'd get to bed early tonight, as tomorrow is going to be awful (it's always proportioned evenly against how good the weekend was - and this is going to be catastrophic), but of course, I first put away the stuff from the trip, then read the first chapter in a book that came in the mail (an interesting new theory about another level of meaning in the Narnia books from a C.S. Lewis scholar), and then watched a short movie with my parents. So what is new? I'm going to bed at 11:30. :)
'Night.
Jp
No comments:
Post a Comment