This Sunday (7/1/07) I packed my gear on the Beemer, strapped on a helmet and left for Virginia with my daughter in law Kristina and her dog Moby following behind to meet and welcome my son home from six months at sea aboard the USS Bataan. My son has been in the Navy for 6 years and this is the longest he has been deployed, ironically just a few months after he was married which made it even more difficult. We left at 5 AM to beautiful weather the whole way, and arrived at my motel around 6PM, then Kristina left to go stay with friends for the night as their new apartment had to have the furniture moved in still. After a night in the worst motel I've ever been in during which time I thought I would be mugged and have my motorcycle stolen, I left for the navy base mall before 3 AM, where the families met to sign in for the big journey which got underway at about 5 AM. Wives were not allowed, so it was all dads, moms, sisters, brothers, etc... We hopped a bus to Camp Lejeune, NC where I met a really great guy who ironically happened to be the dad of another guy in my kid's dept. on the ship. Caught a few zzz's on the trip, in between chats with my new friend Earl. After 4 hours on the road, we arrived at the marines camp, and were taken via hovercraft to the awaiting Bataan. The sailors still hadn't set foot on land, but all of the marines were gone to make room for us, app. 800 or so family members. The ride on the hovercraft was very unusual, and kind of reminded me of a roller coaster as the waves were very choppy that day, and they ride on air so it was even more bouncy than if we'd been taken aboard on a smaller boat. The hovercraft drive right inside the ship, power down and let you out. We spent the night on the ship, and shared meals and quarters with all of the guys. Our guys took us on tours to the vaious parts of the ship explaining some of the operations involved in keeping the ship running and what defenses the ship could deploy if necessary. I took lots of pics, but unfortunately my memory card started going bad, and I lost about 3/4 of what was on it. Luckily I had 2 more smaller cards which I used for the rest of the trip the next day, and got the most important shot of all, the first hug and kiss of my son and his gorgeous Russian wife after not seeing each other for 6 months. This was easily the most fascinating, and emotional event I have ever been involved in, and if you ever have a chance to do it, you'd be crazy not to. The trip home Wednesday (July 4th) was not quite as nice, after getting lost and going almost 100 miles out of my way, I was caught in a torrential downpour that lasted 3 1/2 hours. I didn't stop, in fact the harder it rained, the faster I drove, and was soaked to the bone and shivering when I finally arrived home, 13 hours after I left Virginia. You can view the photos in the slide show under turn ons on my page. Enjoy! Ed
