The drive back to El Paso seemed to take forever. We slept for approximately 4 hours in Oklahoma. Thank God there weren't any tornadoes that night. My poor car did a great job pulling the extra weight of the trailer and my stuff, but the hills made it really tough. I can usually go nearly 300 miles on 1 tank of gas, but we were finding that I could only get 180 or so. 10 miles outside of Santa Rosa, TX, we ran out of gas. We had only gone 168 miles since our last tank fill-up! That was another delay. $100 later (after paying the wrecker to bring us 5 gallons of gas) we were back on the road.
When we were 40 miles outside of Texas, we saw an unbelievable sight. The sky darkened as if it was night. But it was a strange, brown color as far the eyes could see. As we got closer, we realized that it was an enormous sand storm that was underneath a thunder storm. Imagine having mud raining down on you. It was one of the strangest things I've ever seen!
Once we got back to the apartment, we spent several hours unpacking the trailer and setting up the place. Jorge put my living room together while I tackled the kitchen. We sat on the futon and watched a movie while sipping on some wine. That was a great way to unwind after 1600 miles. We didn't fall asleep until 0200, but we slept like the dead.
On Friday, I had a follow-up appointment for my ankle. I got a clean bill of health and can start running again. That was some excellent news!
Jorge ran into a few of the guys he knew when he was stationed here. That was also great. We went to the HR office at the VA. His application was actually sitting on top of the HR Rep's desk. Because I'm stationed here, he will get preferential treatment and be notified of openings before they're even announced. I guess there are some benefits to him being my dependent! (-:
Jorge surprised me with a new flat-screen TV for my living room and I bought a Blue-ray DVD player. We watched a movie through Netflix last night. Man, that was definitely better than watching it on my netbook! Better sound, too.
So, today is a chill day. I'm hoping to go see a movie on base. It was 100 degrees yesterday, but only supposed to be in the high 70's today. I might need a jacket!
Having Jorge here has been heaven. Seeing my friends when I was home was great, too. Shadow went crazy when she saw me. It was a much needed boost. I appreciate that everyone took the time to see me. I know it was last minute for everyone, and I loved every moment I spent. My flower gardens look beautiful. And I got the vegetable garden planted (with help from Ninette and Peggy).
--DV
No comments:
Post a Comment