Are We There Yet?

Day Off 4/18/2023

The gang spent the day doing laundry, going out for Thai Food for lunch, and then going to the Army Air Museum on base at Fort Novosel, formerly known as Fort Rucker. It was a treat going to the museum with Cory because he was able to give us a lot of great insight from his perspective as an actual helo pilot. My favorite display was an ancient, beefy looking helicopter that was the first one to be used to ferry the POTUS, in this case Dwight D. Eisenhower. Today, this role falls under the purview of the Marines, and when the POTUS is onboard the callsign is “Marine One,” but at the inception of this mode of presidential transport, it was the Army’s job, and therefore the callsign was “Army One.” Additionally, the B747 that carries the POTUS on longer jaunts is run by the Air Force and is therefore known as “Air Force One” when the big guy is onboard. Hopefully someday in my lifetime these same callsigns will be used to ferry “The Top Gal” from point A to B.

Tomorrow we will finally cross into the Eastern Time Zone, and since we’ll be losing an hour, we’ll be getting up around 5am to begin the day. I know we’ll still have the same amount of daylight, but crossing the entire country at roughly 14-15 mph ties you to the concept of time much more intimately because everything takes longer. There’s one more map to conquer and one last state to cross before we can dip Hank’s tires in the Atlantic and say, “we did it!”  And yet anything can still happen (yesterday was a stark example of that philosophical outlook). But this plan of ours that started with a very simple question over a year ago has actually worked, which surprises me at a deep level. I haven’t ever doubted that we were capable of doing what we’re doing, but a bigger part of me than I’d like to admit has always anticipated that some event or breakdown would arise to stop us in our tracks. “Are we there yet, are we there yet, are we there yet???” No we’re not kids, but we are oh so very close…