Goodbye

I woke up from a very restful night of sleep about 0800 the next morning. Trying to be quiet, as not to disturb my room mate, I shuffled around to try and find the hotel information binder. Once found I was astounded to see breakfast there was $12 a plate. I wanted to freshen up, but I realized that all of my bathroom items were still in my checked baggage, on the plane. I had to put on the same socks, t-shirt and everything I had been wearing all day yesterday. Then I realized, I was going to have to have this on for at least another 24 hours until got to my final destination. Ick. I took a shower and put on my dirty uniform from the day before and went down to get my overpriced breakfast. I found the restaurant in the hotel and waited to be seated, the gentleman working the front came and whisked me away to a ballroom filled with tables and food. Ahhh yes, the Army did not fail me. Eggs, bacon, biscuits, coffee and oatmeal. I could have as much as I wanted and it was free. I figured this would be my last full meal for awhile so I ate up and returned to my room to await further instructions. 

My room mate had woken up and already heard that we wouldn't be going to the airport for hours. I didn't want to sit in a hotel all day knowing that just 30 miles away my family was just sitting around the house, so I decided to go against what everyone else was doing and break free for a couple hours. I was only 1 of maybe 10 that was local Atlantan. Everybody else was from different units in different parts of the country all in Atlanta because it was the last stop before they went back to work in the mid-east. I say back to work, because I was on a flight bringing hundreds of solders back to the mid-east from their R&R break. If you are deployed for 365 days or more, you get two weeks of R&R leave to go back to the states and enjoy time with your family. All of these soldiers decided to take their R&R over Christmas to be home for the holidays. I called Rachel and we arranged a pick-up at the hotel. We decided not to tell the kids so they would be surprised and go out for some lunch before I had to be at the airport for check-in.

It worked great. Rachel came to get me and I hopped in the van and the girls were flabbergasted. Ellie says, "You're back already!?" It was cute, but bittersweet because she then realized I was still going away. Because Atlanta doesn't have snowplows or treat their roads everything was closed. We ended up eating at the airport. After lunch I wasn't satisfied with my family time and I knew of a Target close by we could waste more time at. We got there and walked around and enjoyed the last hour we had together. I got some plane snacks and reading material and headed back to the airport. Timing was impeccable, because when I walked through the doors to the check-in point, my bus was being unloaded from the hotel.

I snuck right in line and checked-in as if I had never "escaped". Once I was good to go with a new boarding pass I headed back to the USO for snacks and free wi-fi. I made a little corner for myself, charged all my entertainment devices and watched the local news. The story was about GDOT and why they never did anything about the roads. Their excuse made me giggle. "Well, we started to plow the roads when the snow started, but when we went to plow the secondary roads, the main roads iced up again!" It was like they had never done this before hee hee hee. "Soon, the ice got so bad, our plows were flying off the road, so we pulled them". Interstate 285 had 3" of ice on it by the time the storm was over and it had to be closed, along with numerous other highways in the metro area. The whole city just had to sit and wait for everything to melt. After a good laugh at northern weather happening in southern locations I realized it was time once again to get to the gate. This time I didn't feel so sad and lonely. Everything just seemed okay. I went through security and, once again, made the long walk to the last terminal where my plane awaited.

"This is really it" I thought to myself as they called for my section to board the plane. I grabbed my backpack and filed into the jumbo jet. When I entered the plane, a sergeant put his arm out so I couldn't go any further, "This one's the start of section 2!" I waited until everybody sat down in the rear of the plane and I got my pick of seats in the second section. I got the window seat right over the wing. The seats were very comfortable with plenty of legroom in front of me and no one behind me so I could recline all the way. They gave me a little blanket and pillow and I was pretty satisfied with my luck. It must have taken another half hour before the plane was filled. We quickly taxied to the end of the runway and the pilot instructed us that it would be a bumpy flight to Germany and we would be landing at our destination in 7 hours and 45 minutes. The engines howled and I watched Atlanta disappear under the fog beneath me. In my mind I said I love you and goodbye to Rachel and the kids and watched the moon and stars come out from the clouds.