Our trip to South Carolina and Emma’s BCT Graduation
We left very early on Wednesday morning after getting all the cats taken out to the garage where they would be staying while we were gone. We arranged for a neighbor girl to feed and water them. The sheep and horse would be cared for by a person experienced with larger live stock. The dogs were at sleep away camp, just down the road from home. And of course, Grand Pa was in respite care. So far, everything was falling into place perfectly. So we drove for several hours. Once we got into Virginia, I think, we had breakfast at Shoney’s. They had a very extensive breakfast bar, so we had that. Ernie was in hog heaven. By golly there were all of his childhood favorites there, lol. Grits, biscuits, sausage gravy, etc… No okra though. I was expecting that but Ernie said, no, we weren’t far enough south yet. 
After we all had our appetites sated, we got back on the road. There were a few stops for bathroom breaks and to gas up the Durango. When we were in Roanoke on the highway the engine light went on and Ernie pulled over to the side. Looking rather perplexed and worried he said, “Shit, now we’re going to have to get a rental car!” Many things at this point were complicating things. First, Ernie hates to break with original plans; secondly, Ernie hates not being in control of what is going on with the car and tertiary Ernie hates having to spend money he hadn’t counted on. I am with him on all three of these things. Ok. So we get off the highway and make a turn or two and almost immediately locate a Hertz rental place. They had a car for us to rent, but, the car was a bit smaller than the Durango. The Durango was ok for us and our stuff, but it was going to be tight once we had Emma on board. Now we were dealing with even less room and just as much crap. Ok, we had a car that we now knew was going to get us to South Carolina. That was my major concern, getting to South Carolina and seeing Emma.
We made it to the hotel after more than 15 hours on the road. Thank God that the hotel didn’t screw up the reservations and we got the room we were promised. Clean, two queen beds, and a small fold out couch. Just as promised also were an indoor pool, hot tub and gym. NICE! George went with Chase to go swimming. George came back and said that the pool was too small. I dubiously listened to him and went ahead and got ready to go swimming to the sound of a snoring Ernie. The pool was wonderful! I swam up, down and all around for about 40 minutes. It was definitely a great way to wind down and work off Shoney’s, lol. I think that Chase turned into a fish that night. He was in that pool as often as he could when we were back at the hotel.
FAMILY DAY AT FORT JACKSON
I was surprised that I slept the night before. I was pretty damn excited. We all were. Even George was lol. So, after breakfast and showers and all we set out to Fort Jackson. Luckily we weren’t too far away. Maybe ten minutes, but it seemed like ten hours. It was pretty easy to find where we needed to be there were signs everywhere for Family day and where to park and so forth. We were told ahead of time to wear comfortable walking shoes. I’m glad I did. We did a lot of walking! Good thing too, all that Shoney’s food needed to be walked off. So of course we couldn’t see Emma right away, but at this point it was exciting to be within feet of her and breathing the same air. We could hear them marching down to the Solomon Center from a far. While they were marching down we were herded into the auditorium/gym area. They gave us an overview of what sort of changes to expect in our ‘soldiers’. They would call us ‘sir’ and ‘ma’am’, want to eat anything not nailed down, and walk tall and straight. We got to meet Drill Sergeants and shake hands with them. At this point I was nearly in a frenzy of excitement to get to see Emma. I managed to ‘chow sling’ my enthusiasm though. Emma would have been proud of me had she been there at that point. 
Ok, so then the speeches were over and we were told that we could go out and meet our soldiers!! Wahoo! We wandered around looking lost for a moment, and then…. There was Emma!! The first thing I noticed was her eyeglasses. They call them BCG’s (birth control glasses). She saw Chase first and hugged him hard! Then Ernie and then she saw me and I couldn’t help but say “Hey, Where’s Waldo?” Then I gave her a huge hug and kisses. God I missed her! She looked amazing. Grown up and beautiful. And very happy. She glowed.
We got to meet a lot of her buddies, “her Mormons” and Drill Sergeants. I of course pulled her dog tags out to look at them and was reallllllly shocked and upset to see she had Atheist on them. I yelled at her and told her she had to have them changed. But sizing up the situation that she had been attending church services with ‘”her Mormons” and commented that she actually liked the services I felt a tiny bit relieved. She took us around and showed us her barracks, the DFAC and the PX. Coolness.
Later in the trip her Father finally caught onto why I kept telling her to have her tags changed. :eyeroll: Contradicting what the Colonel said about the voracity of a soldier’s appetite Emma said she wasn’t all that hungry at this point in time. It was nearing lunch time and we were asking her where she wanted to eat. I forget where we learned about the hibachi steakhouse but that’s where she decided she wanted to eat. She did want to go to Siamsa, but that would have meant a trip to Pennsylvania. Not conducive to being back at the barracks by 20:00 (8 pm to you civilians, lol) I think we actually found out about this place on a placard or something in the hotel room. So I went to the front desk where they were kind enough to print out directions for me. We made reservations (as requested in the ad) for 17:00. So that left us with time to visit with Emma and just relax.
We watched King of the Hill together and took a walk around the hotel checking stuff out and people watching. In the meantime Ernie was calling Hertz in Columbia, SC to get a larger vehicle to transport Emma and her stuff to Ft. Bragg. They were kind enough to drive the SUV over to the hotel. I could get used to that sort of service! Then we took a drive looking at houses and pointing out where we want to live when we become millionaires, lol At this point we reached the restaurant. It was a nice little building with plenty of parking and attractive landscaping. We sat down and the waitress came to take our orders. I couldn’t comprehend what she was trying to tell us, which would have been understandable if she were Asian. It was obvious to me that she was a native South Carolinian. She kept saying the specials and saying that we could have a choice of steak 2, chicken, and shrimp. I kept asking her over and over, “What?” lol. Then it dawned on me that she meant that I could choose 2 of these items for the early bird special. Yup. That’s me sharp as a wet mouse. Lol
Then our chef came and introduced himself as Raul. He was from Jamaica and really put on a great show. Even George clapped. Now you know that means it’s a great show, lol. The food was amazing! I had steak and scallops, EXCELLENT! After dinner we went book shopping and then it was time to take Emma back to the base. Ernie kept saying we could just take a trip to Pennsylvania and Emma could live in the root cellar. Yeah, that would be so possible, lol. Overall it was an excellent day. The weather was wonderful, warm and a bit overcast. Since we were doing a lot of walking it was nice. I was a bit surprised when we returned Emma to the base and they told her that the graduation was scheduled to be indoors. Bummer, I really wanted to see them do their parade. It ended up being a short graduation ceremony. I was able to video tape it and I focused on Emma during most of it. It was so cool to see them marching in together with their class B uniforms. She looked so neat and pressed. I was surprised that they didn’t make the women wear skirts though. They all wore trousers and shiny shiny shoes.
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