Secret Mission

My secret mission was to drive from Austin, Texas to Fort Rucker, Alabama, in order to surprise my brother who is graduating from the Army's Warrant Officer School on May 4, 2010.  He is then going onto Aviation School with the intent of flying helicopters.

The journey would take us through Louisiana, along I-10, where we spend the first night with Stephanie and Frank Chalona in Independence, right outside of Hammond.

Stephanie made a wonderful dinner of crawfish pie! It was fantastic.

Their two cats kept all of us company as we watched the rain fall from the porch, and contemplated the ever growing oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico.

 

What a mess?!! It is going to ruin the fragile eco systems of the area. Sunday morning we got up early to continue our journey across Louisiana, through Mississippi, and into Alabama.



At a McDonald’s, where we got coffee, I was reminded that we are in the South. A stranger held the door for me while I threw away some trash and then made it into the restaurant. He told me, “A lady always goes before a man.” Nice.

In Alabama we caught I-65 outside of Mobile and headed up towards Atlanta. On the way I managed to exit the interstate, and mom being the stellar navigator that she is, forgot to mention that we needed to stay on the interstate. We got to see a lot of the Alabama country side.

Max and Sarah were surprised that I managed to come all the way from Austin for his graduation from Warrant Office School at Fort Rucker. For lunch we met Dad and Diane at a pizza restaurant, and it was surprisingly good for Alabama.

Mom had to have her picture taken with the Boll Weevil monument in the middle of Enterprise, AL.

The Boll Weevil is the unofficial mascot of Enterprise, AL.  Even the radio station is WVVL.




Monday night we are going to a dinner reception with Max’s class at the base, and then the graduation ceremony on Tuesday. It should be a lot of fun.