Busses are for Suckers

Well, the results are in--we're flying from here to Fort Bragg after all. I think it's worthwhile to examine this decision, as we need to dig just a tad deeper in order to reveal the true brilliance of "fly" vs. "ride".

Fort Jackson and Fort Bragg are about 175 miles apart, give or take.

We're leaving Fort Jackson tomorrow at 0700 for a--wait for it--1230PM flight. That's 5.5 hours to move 25 miles to the airport, check in, and make our plane.

That first plane will take us in the exact opposite direction of Fort Bragg, to Charlotte, NC. From there, we take a second flight to Fayettville, where bus/van transportation to Fort Bragg will await our arrival. For those of you keeping score, that's another 15 miles of driving.

That said, we should arrive at Fort Bragg at around 4PM tomorrow. So all told, we're looking at 40 miles driving, and 9 hours of total travel time, all so we can spend MORE money than it would take for the 4 of us to load in a car and do the 2.5 hour drive from here to there.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the above: my thesis statement on why the Army is awesometastic, and the terrorists don't stand a chance. Keep on Surgin' boys, keep on Surgin.

Back at Jackson...again

Hola, folks, and apologies for failing to post yesterday--my second miss in only a handful of days.

And it's not that I'm no longer smitten with you, my faithful supporters and avid readers--it's that the nice people here at Fort Jackson gave us the 4-5th of July off to spend as we pleased.

Unfortunately, I could not get out to Colorado, and Lauren--who only had off the Fourth--could not come back out to Carolina. So instead of spending time with my wife, I got a ride from my Columbia based pal Andre down to Charleston. Together, we attended various celebrations and beach related revelry, while Lauren was stuck in Colorado doing little things like, you know, organizing our cross country move (Colorado Springs to Alexandria) all by herself. She is truly a saint, and while I appreciated the time to relax, I really wish that I could have been with her, helping out with our household. As Lauren said to me recently, if/when we move the next time, I'm doing all the work, and she's going to the beach with her friends. Fair enough.

All the same, I had fun and enjoyed Charleston, a beautiful old town that everyone should check out. At the very least, our tourist presence--and by "our" I mean all non-native South Carolinians--annoys all the Charlestonians like you wouldn't believe. And as I've said for years, there's nothing wrong with a little good natured annoying when there are Southerners involved. Besides, if we don't keep them in a state of nearly constant peevedness, this whole "rising again" business that they're always blathering on about might finally come to pass.

One last note before I go--I had a long conversation this weekend with one of Andre's law school classmates, an avowed Conservative and son of an Air Force officer who went out of his way to tell me how great what I'm doing is, and how he really thinks that we're doing the right thing in the middle east. I did not and do not begrudge him his politics, nor his assessment of the overall political situation over in Iraq...but if you feel so strongly about all that, guy, let me take you on down to your friendly neighborhood recruiting station, so you too can help the rest of us Surge our way to victory. But no, actually signing up to support these policies you espouse would only serve to inconvenience you, and you enjoy your cable TV and marijuana far too much to be inconvenienced.