Hey all,
My original plan was to cover the game in Atlanta. I was going to stay in my South Carolina house the travel down for the game and take a full vacation. At the same time we sold the house, a separate trip I was supposed to go on had to get 'redirected' a bit.
The backstory: While I was in the Marine Corps, in 29 Palms we met a girl (Katie) about our age whose dad was a gunnery sergeant (E7 for those that do not know the Marine rank structure). He was not in our unit, but he considered his duty to go beyond his particular unit and welcomed young Marines into his home to help guide and mentor them. I was one of the young Marines his family took in as their own. They were 'mom and dad' and their daughters (they had four) were our sisters.
A side note, if anyone remembers the story of the Kansas City pharmacist (Robert Courtney) who gave diluted cancer medications in Kansas City - Dad was one of the victims.
Over the years we stayed in touch and have seen each other at separate times, but have not all been together in the same room since 1987. Last fall, we started planning a road trip with two of my Marine Corps buddies and the whole family meeting up for a RV trip to Yellowstone. Victor - who I went to MOS school with and roomed with my the entire time we were in 29 Palms - retired from the military in 2019 (he was a command sergeant major in Army reserve by that point) and was set to retire from Homeland Security this year (which he did about a month ago). The trip was going to be epic. But earlier this year, one of the sisters was diagnosed with breast cancer (has had a double mastectomy and chemo in this time frame), another was diagnosed with a heart ailment, Katie had major hip and back surgery and our youngest sister went through a very painful divorce after 20+ years. Needless to say, this kind of stopped our RV trip.
So I worked with my buddies and we arranged to all fly into Kansas City (except Victor who is in his RV traveling the nation, so he is driving in) and spend the week with the family. I was going to make it overlap with the game in Atlanta - but that did not really work with anyone else's schedule, so I will not be going to the game. I leave tomorrow and come back next Tuesday. I will still have all of my columns up between now and then, but probably will not be on the boards much. Will definitely look to post some pics when I get a chance!
My original plan was to cover the game in Atlanta. I was going to stay in my South Carolina house the travel down for the game and take a full vacation. At the same time we sold the house, a separate trip I was supposed to go on had to get 'redirected' a bit.
The backstory: While I was in the Marine Corps, in 29 Palms we met a girl (Katie) about our age whose dad was a gunnery sergeant (E7 for those that do not know the Marine rank structure). He was not in our unit, but he considered his duty to go beyond his particular unit and welcomed young Marines into his home to help guide and mentor them. I was one of the young Marines his family took in as their own. They were 'mom and dad' and their daughters (they had four) were our sisters.
A side note, if anyone remembers the story of the Kansas City pharmacist (Robert Courtney) who gave diluted cancer medications in Kansas City - Dad was one of the victims.
Over the years we stayed in touch and have seen each other at separate times, but have not all been together in the same room since 1987. Last fall, we started planning a road trip with two of my Marine Corps buddies and the whole family meeting up for a RV trip to Yellowstone. Victor - who I went to MOS school with and roomed with my the entire time we were in 29 Palms - retired from the military in 2019 (he was a command sergeant major in Army reserve by that point) and was set to retire from Homeland Security this year (which he did about a month ago). The trip was going to be epic. But earlier this year, one of the sisters was diagnosed with breast cancer (has had a double mastectomy and chemo in this time frame), another was diagnosed with a heart ailment, Katie had major hip and back surgery and our youngest sister went through a very painful divorce after 20+ years. Needless to say, this kind of stopped our RV trip.
So I worked with my buddies and we arranged to all fly into Kansas City (except Victor who is in his RV traveling the nation, so he is driving in) and spend the week with the family. I was going to make it overlap with the game in Atlanta - but that did not really work with anyone else's schedule, so I will not be going to the game. I leave tomorrow and come back next Tuesday. I will still have all of my columns up between now and then, but probably will not be on the boards much. Will definitely look to post some pics when I get a chance!
