Sunburns and headbanging

Hello everybody. I trust everybody had a good Fourth of July. This holiday has really taken on a new meaning for me and my friends now. We are proud to serve this great counrty but even we need a break every so often. So that is exactly what we did this weekend. We took a well needed rest and went on a mini road trip to the ocean. We put the Army, the sergeants, the 3AM wake ups and the drama behind for a few days and decided to be regular 20somethings. Here is a recount of my weekend (a day early at that too!)

Well we werent able to sign out for our weekend untill 0800 Thursday morning even though every other company in the battallion was able to leave after class Wed night. Oh well, sucks to be in Bravo but Im sure you all already know that. Anyways, after we signed out, I rounded up my friends and got ready to go. After we found the last rental car available in a 100 mile radius, which was an adventure in itself, we cranked the radio and pointed the car south towards the beach. 2 hours and numerous fights over radio stations later, we found ourself on the welcome mat of Zupos sisters place. (ed. note: The friends in this trip include Zupo, Miranda and Mitchell and Zupo grew up in the greater Savannah area) We said hello, threw some laundry in the washer and headed out for McDonalds with her and her kid. You guys might be like "why did you get McDs when you could of had a good sit down meal?" Simple. We havent had Big Macs and Double Quarter Pounders in 6+ months and it sounded good. Real good. Plus they had a ball pit for the kid to play in. You cant really find that in your normal Applebees or Bob Evans. Anyways, after the chow, we headed back to the apartment to shower and get ready for the night. Zupos sister lives about 25 minutes away from Savannah which is right on the ocean. So we went into the city and had ourselves a good old time. It is such a beautiful southern city. Cobblestone streets and old stone steps so steep and narrow that you know they have been there since the Civil War. Of course, Mitchell and broken leg was having one hellava ttime trying to crutch it all. Haha it was so funny to watch him crutch those cobblestones and the stairs were a joke. I felt bad for him so when we had to do the steep steps, I picked him up on my shoulders and carried him to the top. A: it saved us a good 10 min waiting for him to make it to the top and B: it really impresses the ladies. I look strong and like a good friends and he get the pity for the cast. Oh we were working that one all night. So we have a good night out on the town and retire to a friends hotel room. Zupo jumped in the bed with Thompson and Gillian before anyone else could call it, Miranda and I shared some floor and Mitchell slept in the back seat of the car. After Zupo had a good night sleep and us three felt worse than we did before we fell asleep. We made Zupo feel bad enough to buy us breakfast (Burger King, we were on the fast food world tour) so that worked out. The whole reason for the trip was to get some beach time so we pointed the car in the direction of the salt water smell and put the pedal to the metal, but seeing how we were driving a Kia Optima that ment that we got up to a blistering 55 mph. Didnt really matter how fast we were going because there was a wreck on the bridge that took 45 minutes to get around and then another hour to find a place to park close enough to the beach so that crutch boy wouldnt have that far to go. It was near impossible to find a spot. 4th of July on the beach in 98 degree weather. Whodathunkit? Eventually, we took a spot right on the beach from someone who was leaving. We had to fight an old lady for it but we got it. She was a tough old broad, trying to threaten us, waving here walker at us but we just pulled out the crutches. We had a cripple standoff for a few minutes just like in the old west. A tumbleweed/Spiderman beachball rolled by. But alas, I digress. The beach. The sun. The ATLANTIC OCEAN! The last time I say the ocean was on my senior trip to Myrtle Beach back in '03 and it was about the same for Miranda so me and him put down our bags and headed straight for the water. Oh it was glorious. Warm and salty. Oh yeah I forgot about the salt the first time I dove under water and got a mouthful and eyeful of saltwater. Ah the memories came rushing back of summers in Myrtle with the family as I was coughing up half the Atlantic. After about 15 minutes in the water, miranda and I went on a mission to get some towels to lay on because we were guys who forgot to bring any. The only thimg we were concerned with bringing was the cooler. We were going to go ina hotel and grab some from the pool but that Army integrity got the best of us and we bought some. We got 3 green and blue ones and a preatty pink and purple one for Zupo. Oh it was funny watching him try to be all manly laying out on that thing.

Ok well my phone is about to die so I got to post this before I lose it all. I will continue where I left off when I get back on post and can plug my phone in.