Life in Oklahoma

Things have been interesting here. Where should I start? How about we talk about the Brown Recluse Spiders? Julie you will love this story, props to you for telling me to shake my shoes out! When we first got here the word on the street was to watch out for the Brown Recluses because they are everywhere and they will hide in your clothes and bite you. I took the info in, but kinda brushed it off because we had them in Virginia (or so I was told) and I'd never had a run in with them. I go about my business at home as usual, cleaning, folding laundry, putting shoes on like a normal person, etc.

On Wednesday Matt had his medical briefing. During the Community Health portion they decide to scare the crap out of all the guys by showing them pictures of the spiders and bite wounds. They are very gross!





Needless to say it worked to scare Matt. I again was still a little skeptical, but decided to take a little more precaution since Matt and the guys were pretty freaked out. The next morning I went about my business as normal, but decided I should shake my shoes out before putting them on. Well sure enough there was a giant spider in them!!!!!! Ew! I was so freaked out! I was livid! How am I supposed to live a normal life if I have to shake out my sheets before I get in bed every night? If I have to check under all the pillows before I sit on my own couch? How will I do laundry? Ugh! Gross! I can deal with a spider crawling across the floor, but hiding in my clothes? Ahhhhhhhhh!!!
Needless to say I am a believer now. There are tons of icky spiders here. I immediately had someone come over and spray the house so I could at least function again.
I started asking people everywhere I go if they've ever been bitten. EVERYONE has a story. The lady at the barber shop, "Oh yea I have a giant scar on my leg where I got bit. I was in my bed!" The exterminator, "Yea I've been bitten 3 times!" An instructor pilot I met, "Yup I got bit on my leg!" Everyone has a story, I just hope I make it out of here without a bite story.


I mean look at this map of Brown Recluse habitat. It's all Oklahoma! Help! Matt and I couldn't sleep that night after the spider attack. Our minds were just playing with us all night, every little brush of the covers, every movement you think it's a spider and end up slapping and scratching all over. I'm getting the creeps just talking about it now! I gotta go shake out my clothes!

Stand-By

So you'll never guess where I am right now...
Apparently they do drills all the time on base and you have to stay where ever you are or limit movement outside. We're stuck in the family readiness building. We've been here for about 40min. We're on "Stand By" whateve that means. I mean what if I was at home and just decided to go for a run and didn't know there was a drill going on? Would they tackle me and take me to jail? All I know is I can't leave the building. And I'm starving. Welcome to the military!
Yay, we can go! Later!

St. Francis Xavier

This is our church in town. It's just as beautiful inside as it is outside!

State Signs

Here are a bunch of the state signs we saw in no particular order (I think maybe backward order). I always try to get all of them, but I never seem to be able to. I think I'm missing Alabama and Oklahoma due to lack of light and a lot of them aren't the greatest pics, but you get the point.

Tennessee!

Arkansas!

Mississippi!

This is just a road in the middle of Mississippi. There was so much of nothing most places we drove!

Georgia! Shortly after we crossed into Georgia we stopped for gas in Athens near University of Georgia. Matt went into the store to get some coffee and this is what some old guy said to him, "You lookin' fer sumpin' to jump start yer pace maker?"
That was one of the best lines of the trip!

South Carolina!

North Carolina!

When we finally got to Enid we had some trouble finding the road that went south to Vance AFB. When we got directions, we were told to just turn on x road and it would take us straight into the Base. Well that's what we did, except we drove straight up to an important looking gate. It was pitch black and the wind was howling. After about 1 minute of scratching our heads trying to figure out where we were supposed to go, 2 cop cars and the Military Police pull up to the gate inside the base! They spared no time getting to us! We explained our situation and they kindly (yelling because of the wind) told us where we were supposed to go. We somehow managed to turn our tank around (took about 5 minutes with the Mazda in tow) and headed to the main gate. Mind you it's about midnight, we'd been driving for 16 hours, Matt has an afro and a beard and I'm in desperate need of a shower! We stop for the security guys to check our Id's. The man is scrutinizing them and tells us to hold on and goes back to his little hut. He comes out about a minute later and hands me my ID. He looks at Matt, looks at the ID, looks at Matt again and says in a southern accent, "Sir, this doesn't look anythang like you!" Haha! We started rolling because in Matt's ID he's in uniform and clean shaven with a military haircut. What a mess! We just wanted to get to lodging and get some sleep! Needless to say they finally let us in after we assured them he just needed a haircut. We ended up making another wrong turn towards the flight line and the police stopped us again! The were very nice and understanding though, and they escorted us to lodging.
We'd finally made it! What a great way to start our journey in the Air Force. Exhausted, we showered and passed out til reveille at 0700...

Our little house...

As we're pulling up...our driveway is on the right.


This is the family room, my back is to the kitchen.


Slightly to the left of the previous picture


Just turned around from the previous picture.


Our bedroom! I love the bed we have! It's soooooo comfy, I seriously haven't slept this good in a VERY LONG TIME! Probably also has something to do with it being a Queen and I can't feel every little movement Matt makes throughout the night. Nothing like a good night sleep in your own house!


The "Man Room", Matt is extremely pumped about this room. It's turning out great too!


More to come as we get things further put away. I made a lot of progress today and things are really coming along. Love to all, miss you!

We Made It!!

We're here at lovely Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma! I can't believe we made it in one piece. Only with the help of family, friends and God did we make it here without a glitch. We successfully moved ourselves and the only thing left is to see if they pay us back or not! Yikes, they better!
Anyway things went really well. Above is the pic of Grandma and Matt at the Peanut Festival.


This is the monstrosity we were lugging around. I was so afraid for the little Mazda, but she weathered the storm with barely a scuff!



Somewhere in the middle of America...



And after 25 hours of driving somehow we ended up back in Winchester! I wish!



I just couldn't resist, it's been so long since we've seen prices like that!

Mid Travels

Hello Blog Readers!
We're in Dothan, AL spending time with Matt's Grandmother. We arrived late last night after 13.5 hours of driving. We spent the day with Grandma and even went to the Peanut Festival and ate boiled peanuts! Apparently Dothan is the peanut capitol of the world. You know how Blacksburg has fiberglass Hokie Birds all over the place? And Winchester has fiberglass apples? Well Dothan has fiberglass peanuts! And they're doing all kids of fun things like waving, playing golf or reading a book. Very amusing. Everyone here is really nice though. We decided to leave the towed Mazda in park and see if the back wheels roll...they do...so I think instead of running the battery out again on the way up to Oklahoma we're gonna leave her in park and hope it's ok! I'll keep you posted, hope we make it to Oklahoma in one piece!!