Perpetual spontaneity and good fortune. A global perspective

I have been told by some people that it gets easier with time. I say to them, if it gets easier then there's something wrong and you need to look back to when you were in love with your wife. Karly just left to head back home where we will be back together again in three weeks. Let me tell you I don't think I've experienced anything as hard as what I just went through. It's not over yet I can tell. I love Karly more than I possibly could have imagined love could be. My lovely wife tends to be good at holding in her emotions and not crying but when she was hugging me at the airport and started crying it was the saddest feeling I've ever had. If it's supposed to get easier each time I think we both fail because I think this was harder than the first. The old saying that abscense makes the heart grow fonder is extremely true. So true that it is my firm belief that as God put us together only he can tear us apart. Karly is my one true love and no matter the distance that the world puts between us we will always come back together.

Anyway to caption the picture above and to fill in on the weekend since I didn't post for the entire time as I said I wouldn't, I will sumarize. Friday, pick up Karly (yea) go eat good Mexican, go to Bliss hotel for shower and unpack, tour Fort Bliss with Karly. Go to PX to get ACU pants, go to Class 6 for toasting champagne ($5 bottle on sale but still good), drive around outside of Bliss some. Go to makeout point on scenic drive where Karly sees her first foreign country and is amazed by the sea of lights that is Juarez after dark. Drive onward on scenic drive to ridge road. Head toward loop 375 which runs along border so Karly can be really close to Mexico but unfortunately never enter. Get lost in East El Paso. Finally find 10 and head back toward base. Eat dinner at Senses do Brazil churrascaria (which beared a resemblance to real churrascarias but left a whole lot to be desired). I'll be honest the meat was good but I've had better churrasca in a podunk backwater village in Brasil for 10 Reales ($4) maybe I'm a little biased so I need to try other American versions but my first impression was not so favorable as they haven't figured out how to do it right yet. I digress, back to hotel for bed.

Saturday, get up 6:15AM shower get ready and eat breakfast. Go to commissary to get cheer laundry detergent. Ft. Bliss museum was the first stop. On to trans mountain road. Get off at top for some hiking. Decide to go straight up canyon, find out two hours later that it's a long steep rocky hike. Gave up 250ft from top when I started causing a rock slide on my 50+ degree incline ascent up an older rockslide, and Karly started getting afraid of the height. Towards the end the hike was more consistent with rock climbing than hiking. Anyway, made it back to bottom after letting Karly have 10min head start so she didn't get crushed by a rock that I sent plumeting down the hill. Got in car headed to Mesilla NM for lunch. 30min wait at restaurant decided we were too hungry and went on. Found a middle eastern/mediterranian restaurant with what was quite probably the best chicken Karly or I had ever had. Head to white sands. Get on road which heads northeast and see 38mi to national monument. Randomly stop at dept. of interior campsite/national park within the mountain range due east of Las Cruxes and due west of White sands (town). Head to White sands town which is actually the military base. Go through the high security to get in. Visit the VTF and see a whole bunch of missles. Drive on to the natn'l monument. Drive around on the cool road which they have to plow the sand off of every day (it's gypsum sand so it is truly white as in the pictures). We were reminded of Iowa except it wasn't as cold. Headed to Alamagordo NM on the way to dinner which was south of El Paso. Headed southwest on 58. Made jokes about the prison inbetween White sands missile range and Ft. Bliss and how a prisoner would be foolish to escape and that we could just see the headline (military declares training excercise for escaped prisoners. ADA and infantry have had live fire authorization) he he he. Go through El Paso and head down 10 to Fabens exit and "North over overpass into desert" as the specific directions state on how to get to "Cattlemand's steakhouse". Had really good steak and sides. Got back to Bliss late.

Sunday, Wake up 0715 get ready and go to breakfast. Church at 0900. Pack at hotel. Lunch at 1115 at the officers club. 1400 airport, 1430 security, 1515 Karly heads off on her way to Ames (ter, tear, tear). Just the thought of her departure brings the emotion back.