I had a little adventure today. I drove to the Onslow County Albert J. Ellis airport and helped out at the USO. As I was driving to the airport I couldn't help but think of all the airports back in California that I'm familiar with. To get to each one of those, there's considerable time spent on the freeway, driving 65-70 miles per hour, and often times only going 10 mph because of stop and go traffic.
To get to the A.J. Ellis airport today, I drove on two-lane roads going 45-50 mph and most of the time, there was not another car in sight. The drive was through country settings with some homes, some farms, and lots of wide open spaces. I love the names of the roads around here: the drive took me from the house, to Haws Run, to Burgaw Highway, to Pony Farm Rd, then to Fire Tower Rd (where's there's actually a fire tower) then to Catherine Lake Rd (where there's a lake!) and finally to A.J. Ellis Airport Rd. A 20 minute drive is all.
It was such a pleasant drive. No one cutting you off, driving erratically, and no reason to stress or have "road rage." Now I know how Elaina would feel when she came home to California to visit. California is a different world when it comes to getting where you need to go.
The USO was quite busy today. It's a small room with a few recliners, a couple of tables and chairs, and lots of coffee, cookies and easy to fix snacks for the microwave. The room was filled with Marines a lot of the time today, waiting for their flights out to other bases. One of the airlines had computer trouble so there were many flights that had been cancelled until they got the glitch worked out. The center is only open until 5 p.m. so those that were waiting for evening flights would have to make themselves comfortable within the airport somewhere. Some had even spent the previous night in the airport. The TV was running all day but even so, one female was attempting to sleep in a recliner with a blanket over her head.
It's always encouraging to see these young men and women (and I mean young). They're polite, respectful and grateful for what you have to offer them at the USO. We need to continue doing what we can to show our appreciation for what they do.
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2 comments:
You are doing your part to show your appreciation. You have an awesome job! Hope you continue to enjoy it.
What a wonderful way to spend the day! Driving country roads and then helping our military! Thanks Cindy, I'm happy you have such pleasant activities there!!
(Won't include how I wish our drive to an airport was like yours....)!
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