Day 28

Yes, a day late but better late than never, eh?  Back on the Yellow Brick Road…

One good way to define this day? Boredom to the extreme. Saturday morning began late and quiet. Many people had stayed out overnight, getting a hotel, etc. so the barracks were pretty scarce. For those around, we were packing our seabags and often, you’d see someone jumping up and down on one, trying to get it closed. On average, we all had 4 to pack and take further along the Road. Once packed up, we commenced the cleaning of the barracks which hadn’t been done in 3 weeks. Dust bunnies, galore! Outside, my other sailor friends were bag-dragging their seabags to one of four ½ ton trucks staged to take our bags to the airport. Yep, it’s time to get this show on the road and move very close to Oz.

The remainder of the day was spent in a singular room, quarantined on base. Yes, we were not permitted outside the gate. Just to be safe in case someone might get cold feet before leaving the country, everyone must stay aboard. I was one of the first to that room. Why? Well, there are only so many outlets to charge my electronics and ensure I’m fully charged for the 14 +/- hours of air travel. Yes, I am Type A through and through.  Throughout this day, I watched a few movies, shared a pizza, and had countless phone calls with friends and family. I even connected via FaceTime a few times. As bedtime for Tin Man and Scarecrow approached, I tried to emblazon my chest with a breastplate of strength for I knew this bedtime prayer might crack what armor I had. Scarecrow was first. She sounded very happy and told me about her 2^nd day of birthday celebrations where she spent the better part of the day with my mom doing whatever she wanted followed by the Mother/Daughter Banquet at our church along with Tin Man.  I prayed and told her I missed her and loved her. I nearly lost it but held it together. Next up: Tin Man. Tin Man had felt sick at the banquet but now felt good…claimed it was the heat at the church. (Tin Man, be advised should you ever go to combat training in 90F heat, wearing 60lbs of body armor!!! Ha!) Anyway, we talked about the day where she spent most of it alone with Dorothy. Great mother/daughter time! As we closed in on the dreaded goodbye, I told her I won’t be able to call anymore and pray with her each night. That opened the flood gates as I told her I missed her, loved her and thanked her for being such a big help to Dorothy so far and for being brave and a big sister/leader to Scarecrow. We cried together. It broke my heart in two and I told her it was OK to be sad and cry, as I was, too. (Oh geez…here I am typing this blog draft at 39,000 feet in the air somewhere over the earth and my eyes are welling up again.) We said goodbye.  Then the buses showed up along with the Patriot Guard motorcycles, adorned with Old Glory flowing behind them. (shown above from my seat on the bus) They were here to escort us to our flight. As midnight approached, we headed on out.