Bob left for Basic Training on June 7, 2004. He spent the past 18 weeks in Virginia at For Lee. He passed every test and spent the last month as the Platoon Guide. He did all of this on his own. I'm proud of him.

He graduated from his Army AIT training early Wednesday morning and got on a jet bound for Utah. Of course, most of us recognize Wednesday as the busiest travel day of the year. Bob thought of is as just another day in which he was able to head for home after a 5 month absence. He got to O'Hare Airport at the front end of a big snow storm. Just like being in a John Candy movie, he got stuck traveling home for the holiday.

We expected Bob to arrive just after 10:00 PM local time. I cut a fishing trip to Idaho short by several hours just to make sure I could make it to the airport on time. We checked the Internet and chatted with Bob all through the late evening. The departure of his flight slipped further and further behind. We were pretty sure that he would leave in time for a 1:30 Thursday morning arrival and even set the alarm clock to wake us up at 1:00. But Bob called just after midnight to let us know that his plane was still on the gournd in Chicago.

Finally, just before 1:00 AM we received confirmation that Bob's flight was in the air. He arrived at 3:45 AM. All of us were very tired for Thanksgiving day. We slept late, called all the friends and relatives to delay our Thanksgiving feast until 2:00 Thursday afternoon and enjoyed a sleepy, lazy day.

We are all Thankful for Bob's arrival. It's good to have him home.............
6:17:54 PM    comment []