Crossing the Pond; Capter One: Leaving San Antonio

Yes, chapters. It's my first venture as a serial writer, but only because there is so much to cover. It's taken me a while to post because I've been rather put off by the volume of blogging I need to catch up on. Also, so I don't get further behind, I must tell about our early days here in the UK, although the journey here will come later.

We are staying in temporary lodging on RAF Lakenheath. It's quite nice. It's bigger than the first two apartments Brandon and I lived in after we got married. I must say, I'm getting rather spoiled, as there is housekeeping service everyday. And, we are told, that upon moving out of TLF, we will no longer enjoy the comforts of air conditioning or the convenience of a garbage disposal. These are things I'm sure I'll survive without, but I'm not sure I'll like it all that well. The air conditioning thing might not be a problem, except everyone keeps telling us that we've arrived during a heat wave. But we are still searching for a place to call home. It's been difficult with no car. Presently I'm glad for the excuse not to venture out on the other side of the road. But it is eminent. We pick up the old family van on Friday.

We also took our first trip out to a little English village. We explored the tiny village of Wymondham and the abbey there. Our sponsor and his family were kind enough to break us in on the traveling around. It certainly whet our appetites. There is a lot of ground to cover over here. It's too bad the whole reason we came over here was for Brandon to work. It's going to put a major kink in the traveling plans. Anyway, this is already getting too long, so I present, without further ado, Chapter One: Leaving San Antonio.

I last posted on July 24th as I sat in my house watching my things being packed into boxes by strangers. That night, we left our house to check into TLF at Lackland. We had stayed among the boxes on our last two moves and we didn't want to do it again. The following day, I returned to the house to await the truck that would hold the crates that all the boxes would be loaded into. Arrive it did, with three men to do the work. This took all day, and because Brandon had to be at work, I could not leave until he got a ride home. Fortunately, that happened around lunch time. So, nine crates later, the three men still were not finished, but they were out of crates. The trip to get more only took an hour. Two more crates. Eleven crates, nearly all our earthly possessions.

July 26th was the day to get the house ready for inspection. Now, from the moment we moved in, this house remained cleaner than it had been when I looked at it to rent it. I wasn't too worried, but I did want it to be clean. Two adorable women, who I wish I could have spent more time with came to help me with my task. I felt terrible having them cleaning my home. I would have been happy to borrow their supplies and let them keep me company while I did all the work, but they were wonderful. They simply went to work. I will always remember and be grateful for their kindness. Thanks, ladies! You know who you are.

That evening was Brandon's graduation. It's official. Brandon's education is finished and he is an orthodontist. I told him that if he decides to do any more schooling, he will do it alone. I was keeping it together pretty well for the ceremony until the slide show came on. When the pictures of the boys came up, I was reminded that I missed them terribly, which reminded me how terribly I would miss all the friends we had made over the last two years. I let a few tears go, then got a hold of myself. Only one more day to go.

I awoke the morning of June 27th with little on my mind except that this was my last day in San Antonio. We had to check out of TLF by 11:00, but wouldn't be leaving until later that evening. Brandon would be playing in the dental wing golf tournament all afternoon, so I had to figure out how to spend the day. I would have gone to the mall, or a movie, but our car was packed to the hilt with all of our carry on items and several other things. After dropping Brandon at the golf course, I decided to spend the day at our house waiting for the property manager. This actually turned out to be a good idea. We still had air conditioning and Internet access, so I was able to take care of a few last minute things. The property manager was over an hour late, but this actually turned out to be a blessing as well, because once I turned over the keys, I really had nowhere to go. At this point, I know several of you are thinking, "Isn't June 27th...?" Yes. It's my birthday. And I left it until now because that's pretty much how the day went. It wasn't until I was dropping Brandon off that either one of us remembered. And I'm not sure when I would have thought of it, had Brandon not wished me Happy Birthday as he was getting out of the car.

Thirty years old. I'm sure there are a lot of women who would love to forget their thirtieth birthdays. Ironically, I'm not one of them. Thirty did not scare or depress me at all. I guess it's because I don't feel like thirty is old. I'm sure I used to think thirty was old, but that was when I thought fifteen was wise. And I can't imagine a better way to begin my next thirty years than the great adventure that lies before me.

So, the golf tournament ended shortly after turning in the keys. I picked Brandon up at the golf course and we were on our way. Our intent was to drive all night, or at least until we couldn't drive anymore. That turned out to be Fort Stockton, Texas. That's right. We didn't even make it out of Texas. It's a big state. I don't know what we were thinking. Brandon had been golfing in the heat all day, and I was developing a terrible headache. So we stopped. No point in killing ourselves. A good nights rest was just what we needed. We woke up the next morning ready to face the task at hand: a 16 hour drive to northern Utah.

As we were walking to our car we heard a voice call out "Williams!" I almost didn't want to turn around. Who here would know us? It turned out our good friends from the residency had decided to leave the night before as well and had made it as far as we had. Pretty amazing to end up at the same hotel and be leaving at the same time.

So that's it. Leaving San Antonio. It was a long time coming. One of the hardest things about the military is knowing as soon as you arrive somewhere that you will eventually move away. So you put it out of your head as long as you can. But eventually it comes around and slaps you square in the face. Join us again for our next installment; Chapter Two: Reunion in Idaho.