Virginias trip continued...

The Alleghenies in the area of West Virginia in which we stayed are made of sedimentary rock. No matter where the cut is in one of these mountains, it reveals such rock and sometimes you can see hundreds or even a thousand feet of exposed layers at once. Pretty cool! The deer looked like he wanted answers but didn't know the questions. Anyway, my cute little wife modeled the latest in outerware at 3,000 feet and later we went much lower and clambered around on the rocks of a creek somewhere around Buckley.

The purpose of the visit, primarily, was to see my son. There is a picture of me and the cute little wife in front of the 24-mile bridge-and-tunnel across the mouth of Chesapeake Bay after we'd brought back a bunch of shells from the Atlantic shore. I guess you just can't see the bridge behind us, oh well! Then there is my son in front of his bomb, a 1992 Camaro, showing just how fast an Army Sergeant can grow facial hair in a 48 hour period off-duty! Behind his ride sits our good old Grand Voyager that ate up the miles with a vehicular smile. Nothing beats a van that can use cruise control going UP the mountain! But I think that Rob prefers his Camaro. I must mention that Rob defeated me in Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit one night.

It was great visiting with the Rob and checking out a few historical sites. It seems there was a massive building boom in Virginia in about 1670...I managed to have a couple of portions of great crab cake, which was absolutely essential for a trip to these environs and we got to take some time out with Rob, who is close to ending his Army stint and entering into the world of academics. He did show us an absolutely hilarious video of him and two compatriots teaching Afghani nationals how to deal with riot control situations that was made during the time he was in Kabul. Some of the thirtyish recruits looked to be closer to seventy and a couple of them would have made Gomer Pyle look quick on the draw. He also had some great pictures of some of the mountainous regions he'd explored while doing other duties in the East, mountains that made those we passed look like little hills.

Rob had a great deal of latitude with his group during training sessions and they made a lot of decisions on the run. One day they decided to avoid the area they had planned on utilizing and go elsewhere. On that day a major attack took place right where they were supposed to have been, killing several nationals and one U S troop who was there. But Rob had led his charges elsewhere and his commander was both surprised and pleased when they reported in later quite unscathed. God knows how we prayed for Rob's safety when he was there and also when he was running operations in the more dangerous Eastern part of Afghanistan. Very nice to have him in Virginia, as a desk sergeant for a local base and it will be even nicer when he arrives home in June! Hurrah!