strange sound

Your sleeping well and then about 230 in the morning you wake up. No real reason to wake up but you wake up and you are not sleepy anymore. So you just lay there and wonder why you can's sleep or think about what you have to do during the next day and so on. I decided to get up and get some water. But the odd thing in an empty house is the echo of every step. With each one the sound reverberates through the house. It is kind of spooky in sound.

The sound makes me think how odd it is to be moving out in a few days. 17 years in one place and then one day you move on to a new place. For us it isn't a new place but a temporary place. It will be a different kind of home but still a home temporary. I reminded Trey this morning that the good memories will always go with us and are not going to be left behind in the old house. He seems good with it and excited about the positive change going forward with our lives.

The final move out completes today. We are down to a mattress and 2 trunks of clothes and a clean up of the shell that is our home for just a few more days. There is a lot of anticipation and excitement as school is almost out and summer is nearly here for the kids and a new adventure for me. I have a few more days to get in some more miles but honestly the miles are harder to get in as I complete the move and get the packing in full force for the trip.

Packing, wow not sure what I am taking can be fully tied to packing. 1 month on the bike in Europe. How much do I need and how much can I carry? 1 pair of pants, 1 pair of shorts, 2 t shirts, 1 colored shirt, 2 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of underwear (insert underwear joke here!), 1 long sleeve shirt, pullover, hat, 1 pair regular shoes (1 cycling shoes), arm and leg warmers, toiletries, backpack (camera, journal, laptop, phone and chargers and passport), raingear, gloves, helmet, bike and tent with sleep sack. That's about it. Weighs out at 17 lbs total and most of that is the backpack and tent. Wow. Yeah there are a few other things like bike spares and tools but those are already on the bike and water bottles, cant forget those!

I learned during a study abroad in college to pack light and wait till you get to Europe for a lot of the essentials most people pack like toiletries and snack items. I am using the same rule for the most part since I will need a crash course in French and Spanish for this trip and I am making sure to know the basic essentials. You know like yes, no, thank you and coffee.. I think Coffee will be the most used phrase I will need to know since I generally like a few cups a day.

Its memorial day weekend so I must remember those went before us and did it for this great country and our way of life. The list is long but I will only put a few in this blog. Brian Mescall, bike riding partner from the Citadel. He was my knobby for the bike rides in college. Great guy, father, brother and citadel grad. He was a major in the army. Another to look up is Major Thomas Dry Howie (the major of St lo). I will be writing about him in about a week when I visit the Normandy American cemetery and the village of St. Lo. Amazing man.

Then there are those like my grandfathers (and grandmothers)(neither were KIA but both served and past a few years ago). 1- boots Harrington, served in the in the army air corps during the 2nd world war as a mechanic. He would never talk much about it but I believe the experience made him the mechanic he was (and not sure I know of many people that could work on anything like boots could) and cant forget my grandmother who served as a cryptographer (she decoded traffic messages for the army, her unit has a memorial at Arlington national cemetery). Grandfather Oscar Sullivan Served as an aid to a general during WW2, he was a sargent and was doing a check out ride with a pilot (I believe a 2nd lt) when the pilot asked what would happen if we flew under the golden gate bridge. My grandfather replied, you would get a slap on the wrist and I would get busted down and shipped overseas. When they returned to base after flying under the bridge Oscar ended up getting shipped to North Africa as a tailgunner on a b17 or b25 (not sure I remember which one). His plane was shot down and he ended up in a VA hospital in PA where he met my grandmother (who was an officer). She would not wear a uniform when they out for fear of getting caught fraternizing with an enlisted man. That is a tiny piece of the Sullivan family I know today and the service brought my dad's parents together.

So off to another ride and get the house done today. Sorry for the ramblings but writing down these thoughts as they come. I have a feeling the long miles will give lots of great things to show and discuss.

So keep our fallen troops in mind. I believe that all that served that are no longer with us should be honored on this day and the many that have fallen in the line.