I am a traveling machine!



So I got back into Utah from New York on a Friday night. I had Saturday to recover and then it was back on the road on Sunday morning. The first stop was Hell Paso. Seriously, I think I have found the end of the earth and its in El Paso, Texas. As we were flying into the El Paso airport on our 1960s Regional Jet all you could see for miles and miles was desert and the few plants that grow in the desert. We landed in the smallest airport I have ever seen and went to our hotel which was around the corner. In the process we met some of the enlisted guys that were going to be traveling with us for the remainder of the week. The conversation went something like this:

Sam: Hey, what base are you guys from?

Guys: Vandenberg

Sam: This is Shannon, she’ll be traveling with us.

Guys: Yeah, we saw her at the airport.

(Sam and I walk away)

Sam: See they always spot the girl on the trip first. I was invisible but they saw you at the airport.

Me: That’s why you are here to be my chaperone.


This entire week trip was a unique experience for me. For starters, I was the only girl. Now I know I hang out with the guys a lot and I am one of the bros and all that nonsense, but I was the only girl with 11 guys. And not 11 refined ivy league guys...11 enlisted maintenance guys. There was lots of beer drinking, lots of fart jokes and lots of harassing the only girl on the trip...in a funny way...not in a bad way. In order to survive I had to start dishing out the sarcasm at the very beginning of the trip and I soon became known as the sassy one...should be no surprise to those who know me.

We all decided that we were going to do dinner that night at a steakhouse 2 miles from the hotel. The only problem…we had 1 car. Rather than make 2 trips like a sensible bunch of people…we crammed 7 grown military men and me into a Jeep Compass. It was reminiscent of the time that we crammed 8 people into a Ford Escort but this time my knees were squashed into my nose as I sat in the trunk with another guy that I had only just met. I wish I had pictures on the faces of the people that were behind us on the road. Dinner was good and we crammed 8 of us back in the car and went back to the hotel. The tour was fine and I learned a lot. All in all a productive trip.



The next stop was Clearwater, Fl. The first night at that hotel was off the chain. I will not divulge all the details to protect the not so innocent but if you want the hilarious story in which I drank more than I should have, ended up married (not really but that was my cover) and made a late night phone call I should never have made, ask me. The tour the next day was a little rough on everyone involved. Luckily, I had already done that tour twice before. The second night was much calmer and I actually got to bed before midnight.



The next stop after that was illustrious Heath, OH. Talk about the armpit of America. There is NOTHING in Heath, OH. Oh yeah and it was cold too! We went to a cute pub the first night and I was taught how to keep score in darts. I actually did a half way decent at throwing the darts as well. The tour in Heath was very in depth and let me tell you, to understand everything I need to understand about my job I would have to be a rocket scientist.



Saturday it was back to Utah. I had a very busy wonderful weekend, the details of which I am withholding to protect the innocent. Again, if you want to know ask me.



Now it’s Tuesday. I went into the office to deal with the 215 new emails I had. I’m not even kidding. And I am getting ready to fly back to Hell Paso for another 3.5 days. Then it’s back to Utah on Friday. Fun times!



I am so ready to be done traveling. I never thought I would say that. I just want 1 week and a full weekend where I can do whatever I want and not have an airport involved in any way shape or form. I am done stripping down in front of TSA and making sure that my lipgloss is in a 1 quart bag. But I still have several weeks before I can get that time to myself…in the meantime I will try to enjoy the frequent flyer miles I am racking up.



That is all!