El Paso, TX

I arrived in El Paso yesterday.  The drive was pretty easy.  It amazed me to finally see the desert and the beautiful mountains.  I even enjoyed the multiple dirt devils I saw.  One literally ran into my car and moved me all over the road.



Look at these colors!



I checked into a Holiday Inn.  I figured that I deserved a little bit of splurging on myself after spending nearly 5 weeks sleeping on a mattress as soft as a rock and with a roommate who sleeps with the TV on.  After taking a nice hot shower to erase the road weariness from me, I stood at the sink to brush my teeth.  All of a sudden, I heard a bang and felt water splash onto my foot.  When I looked down, I realized that the pipe running from the sink to the wall had completely come disconnected and was lying on the floor in a puddle of mucky black water.  So, I spent the evening with the having a maintenance man fix my sink.  Lucky me!

I went on base today and signed-in.  I will start my in-processing tomorrow at 0845.  We'll see how the day goes.  I met the Head Nurse of the ICU today, too.  He didn't really know anything about me, but I was able to let him know that the Deputy Chief Nurse (who outranks him) knew I was coming.  Jorge's buddy, Barry, works in the Radiology Department, so I swung by to see him.  Unfortunately, he wasn't in the office today.  I'll try him again later this week.  Won't he be surprised to learn that I'm in the Army? 

I'm staying in an extended stay hotel/motel, so I went to the PX and Commissary today to get some staples.  Tonight's dinner was turkey sausage and spaghetti with a nice bottle of Cabernet.  Tomorrow will be leftovers, but that's still better than dining facility dinner!  (-:  It was really nice to be cooking again, even if it was only on 2 burners.

I will keep all of you posted as I try to figure out what the plan is down here.  I'm hoping that I will find an apartment relatively quickly and be able to spend a good amount of time in Wisconsin.  We'll see how that works out.  Worst case scenario, I'll just hang-out at an apartment with a new bed and no other furniture until I can get home and drive down here with Jorge and some of the furniture I wanted to bring down.  Don't worry, I'm definitely going to find a place that has a pool!  (Hint, Hint!  I would love company.)

I hope all of you are doing well.

--DV