It's Good to be Back Home Again

Back home now after my recent trip. Last half of the trip was pretty exciting. We left Turkey and flew to Baghdad to upload some helicopters. While there we saw Barak Obama land for his visit to Iraq. I told him that I knew a couple of Democrats in SC (one budding, one hard core) that were probably going to vote for him. He said he appreciated that, though he was surprised they would with all of his recent flip-flops. Just kidding. Just trying to get a rise out of Rick and George. I really did see him land, though it was across the runway from where we were parked.
We flew from Baghdad to Rota NAS, Spain, where we spent the night. We were all pretty ragged out with the long, hot day, so we kept the festivities that night to a mere dinner on the beach. Life is tough. The tuna steak I had that night, however, was not. Spain is nice, by the way. Nice, balmy temps with a cool breeze blowing off the ocean. We were put right into crew rest for the next day, so we didn't get to enjoy some sangria.
We flew from Rota to Savannah, Georgia to drop off the helos. We flew right past lakes Marion and Moultrie (named after Martha's famous great-great grandfather, Tom "Fatback" Moultrie of the revolutionary war era--I think that's true, but I can't back it up). I just starred out the window as the SC/GA lowcountry passed underneath our wing. Absolutely beautiful.
We quick turned at Savannah and pressed on to Travis AFB, CA to finish up our mission. Just passing Atlanta, and in the middle of a system of thunderstorms, our weather radar crapped out. We spent the next 3 hours dodging storms with the help of air traffic control and using the old mark 1 eyeball. Pretty hairy.
It was nice getting home yesterday. My wife's family has converged on our new house, so it's like a zoo right now. Kids are running around everywhere. My mother-in-law's RV is parked in the front yard. Wouldn't have it any other way.

Happy 17th anniversary to George and Jennifer.