Northwest Passage

So I'm in Bangor, WA for the course of three weeks to complete two schools for my new assignment on USS HAWAII (SSN 776), unfortunately Tiffany wasn't entitled to accompany me on this part of the trip. I realize that this would be a great chance to explain what I do on-board a submarine for all you who don't know.

First off I'm a Navigation Electronics Technician or Nav. ET, which doesn't really provide and accurate description of my job at all. As you might assume I deal with navigation systems including GPS, Radar, and a Ring Laser Gyro (RLGN). GPS and Radar I believe most people are familiar with, the RLGN probably not. It is an inertial navigation system that utilizes a series of lasers and accelerometers, and electromagnetic sensors to equate ships movement into a position from a known location and provide the ship with an accurate position while submerged. The other part of my job is to monitor and maintain the ships electrical indications to include the ships control (steering/diving), atmosphere and internal communications. If you have any questions please feel free to email me and ask I really do love my job and talking about it.

I've completed the first school that was for an updated atmosphere monitoring system, after a little hiccup here on base. The second day I was here was the hottest in quite a few years here in the northwest we had a high of 95 F, not exactly a crisis down south but here it was quite dramatic. Unfortunately the "extreme" heat caused a fire in one of the power substations and took out power to about half the base, resulting in my five day course becoming three. I'm now starting class for our newest radar system which will take the remaining two weeks to complete. Both these courses are heavy on the practical application which is helpful to me.

Last weekend I took the oppurtuinity to catch a Mariners baseball game against the Yankees (see my blog http://thatguyssports.blogspot.com/ for more on that) with my friend James whom I served with on the USS FLORIDA. I took a couple of photos with my iPhone while on the ferry since I didn't bring a real camera. If you look closely in the center of the picture you can see Mt. Rainier which is over fourteen thousand feet high and about 50 miles away in this picture. I had some pictures of the baseball game but I've apparently lost them. The heat wave has stopped and it gets down in the low fifty's at night and beautiful sunshine during the day. I'm missing everyone back home both in Texas and Connecticut, love you guys.

Whirlwind!

Wow, I can't believe it's been more than a week since my last post! Since South Carolina, we've been to Tennessee, Arkansas, and finally Texas.  Once we hit Texas, we started going so fast and furious, today's the first time I've had a few minutes to sit on my own!  We didn't take many pictures in the last few days of our drive, but don't worry - we have a ton since we've gotten here, so you won't be picture-less for long!

Here's the story, to catch you up:

Saturday: After leaving my Aunt Janet's in South Carolina, we drove back north, past Asheville, NC, on interstate 40.  What we didn't know was that I-40 had an avalanche more than a year ago, and was still down to 1 lane for about 5 miles.  That part wasn't really a problem - it was the 3 miles of backup to merge into one lane that caused such a problem. We sat in almost stand-still traffic for about an hour and a half!  When we finally hit the Tennessee state line, we were ready for lunch, and to get moving, for sure!  We made a quick stop at the first Sonic we found, then hit the road for Nashville.  We still managed to pull into my cousin Daniel's house around 5pm, thanks to the switch to Central time right before we hit Nashville.  He lives on the east side of the city with his wife, Charissa, and two kids, Bennett and Norah. We played with the dogs and kids in their great backyard, then shared a delicious pot roast with all of them.  About 15 minutes after we sat down to dinner, we heard a HUGE clap of thunder, and then came the biggest downpour of the whole trip.  Charissa said it looked like the kind of rain they got when Nashville was flooded, just a few weeks back.  Thank God, this storm didn't last nearly that long, and was done before we woke up the next morning.

Sunday: We all got up early Sunday morning, Daniel & family to get to church, and Jarrod & I to get moving to Little Rock.  It's about a 6 hour drive from Nashville to Little Rock, which made this one of our longer days of driving, but it would be our only overnight in a hotel, and we actually were looking forward to it!  As much as we love our friends and family, after 5 hard days on the road, we were ready for a break from people and driving. We stopped for breakfast, then headed out.  The drive was very uneventful, and we made it to the hotel before 5pm.  We settled in, ordered a pizza, and proceeded to do absolutely nothing for the entire evening.  The dogs got a whole bed all to themselves, in the same room with us, so I'm sure they slept hard that night. I know they slept comfortable - Molly arranged the bed all by herself:

Monday:  We slept in and got a pretty late start - we didn't finish with breakfast until 10am.  It was nice to have some leisurely time with no agenda.  This would be our last day on the road for a while, and we only had to make it to the Farm (my parent's place) in time for dinner.  The drive from Little Rock to the Farm is about 4 and a half hours, so we had an easy day ahead of us.  We stopped in Arkadelphia for a quick trip down memory lane: I graduated from Ouachita Baptist University there, and we walked around campus a bit.  They've made alot of changes and improvements, but it's still the same OBU.  It was fun to see the place again.  Maybe I'll have to make more of an effort to get to Homecoming one of these years.

We sure were excited to cross the state line into Texas - it felt so good to be home.  I know it was hot outside, but it looked beautiful!  Check out the sky that day:

We were both disappointed - there was no giant "Welcome to Texas" sign at the state line.  So I snapped this as we drove in instead:

I also caught this sign as we drove by, and I thought, "ahhh, it's so good to be back where we don't hide our crazy people - we give them state sanction instead!"

We made it to the Farm around 4:30pm, and found my sister Alisha with her kids waiting there for us with my Mom & Dad.  We were so glad to see all of them, and to finally be home!  We introduced our pups to my parents' two dogs, Ginger and Walker, and they introduced them to the horses and cows!  Ella and Walker both thought chasing the horses would be fun, but unfortunately, Walker didn't teach Ella to steer clear of the back legs.  One of the horses literally kicked her butt, and she learned to keep her distance!  She's doing fine now, and hopefully learned her lesson for good.

So that's the first half of our journey, in a nutshell. I'll keep posting things that happen as I'm here in Dallas, and hopefully lots of photos too.  For now, it's time to hit the hay - I actually have to go to work tomorrow!