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This month I thinkI'll reflect on a recent trip we took to Columbus, Georgia. It was a trip that we had been planning since the beginning of the year, also our first road trip of the year. As with most trips, this one had its unexpected twists and is a 4 days I won't forget. The first step in planning a trip for us is the usual online search for directions especially when it's completely foreign to either Brandi or myself on how to get there. This was also the first step in the wrong direction. I tell you it was just one little left turn that we missed, one left turn and we ended up miles off course. After conferring with each other, and a local who we questioned to attain our location we chose a new path. The new path would take us east for a ways, then south, then back west to our desired destination of Columbus, GA. Half the fun in going is getting there, right? Okay, so what if it took us about twice as long as it should have. The second step in planning a trip is choosing accommodations. I firmly believe that the Internet cannot possibly tell you everything about a hotel, and don't let the name of one fool you. In the end of the second step we had opted for a Motel 6. Although it didn't sound as good as some of the others on the list, it was cheap. Once we got to Columbus we had to ride by some of the other hotels on the list to get to ours, and let me just say the motel 6 looked rather good compared to some of them. With a pool that was closed, a liquor store in the parking lot, and strip clubs right across the street the Motel 6 still wasn't that bad. The best part was the lumpy ass bed that made your back scream after a night sleep. After dropping our stuff off at the hotel it was time to head over to the Army base to try and catch up with our buddy before he had to be in for lights out. This, too, was an adventure where we missed the turn off the highway and ended up driving miles out of the way. Luckily we only went about 10 miles before there was a turn around. Once on base, we proceeded to get lost again and rode around for about 20 min before finding the right barracks. Believe it or not, this too was credited to making a left turn instead of going straight at a four way stop. Now that we found the barracks we needed not only to park, but to find our friend in a building that housed quite a few people. Getting parked, since we went in the wrong entrance to the place involved driving on the sidewalk, through some rocks and grass, and finally off the curb into the actual parking area. It was one time on the trip I was glad we were in Brandi's Tahoe. To make this part of the story shorter, we managed to find our buddy, hang out for about ten minutes, and then it was time to get back to the hotel for a needed shower, and some sleep.
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Friday, April 19th, 2002. With kinks in our necks, and feeling rougher then when we had laid down, we headed to the Army base. Arriving early, we got a good parking spot, and waited for the ceremony to begin. Watching 400 soldiers graduate from basic training is a very emotional thing. Not just because one of them happened to be a good friend of mine, but because these newly trained Infantry men were answering the call to defend our freedom. A sadness did arise in seeing that some of the people graduating didn't have any loved ones show up to share this special day. One of the speakers at the ceremony told us of a nine-man squad that went into a hot spot last year, and killed 400 enemy troops before getting killed themselves. Granted them getting killed isn't something most want to hear, it does, however, say to me that our troops our very well trained. Along with speeches, there was a demonstration showing a squad in action as well as a tank that picked up the troops once it was over. With the ceremony over it was time for Pvt. Short way to rush off on a bus to sign up for his next schooling. This left Brandi, and I the rest of the day to kill. We didn't get lost leaving the base, we did however get lost trying to find a Walmart to have the photos Brandi had just taken one houred. Our first source of directions came from a gentlemen in the Army getting gas. Our second source of directions came from a group of MiniTruckers at a McDonald's. Between the two sets of directions, we took another wrong turn and drove miles out of the way. Finally deciding we were lost yet again we ventured back towards or point of origin to try and follow the directions again. During this whole process I had made a few calls trying to get a hold of Mike Mock who resides in Columbus. Being a local, we figured he'd be someone we could call to find out where we were, where Walmart really was, and maybe we could meet up since we had the day to kill. Mike finally got us to the Walmart. The pictures looked good too. Don't worry that's not the end of the story about Mike. Yeah he got us to Walmart, after that though his mapquesting skills start slipping badly. "It's the Parker store you'll see the sign at the road it's yellow and black." In reality, the sign is on the side of the building that you can see from the road, which is actually an access road that you have to cross over too. The parker store in Columbus is pretty cool though once you find it. Mike's got a cushy job with a bag setup in the store that customers can play with. With a couple of hits, the unmounted bag hops around the shelf to the switch players delight. Next to the bag setup is a life size card board person holding two issues of MiniTruckin' which was pretty cool.
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