Well, my "I wanna do this before I die" project was to travel to Europe and walk the ground my dad fought over during WWII with his artillery unit. A friend of mine, Kathy H. posted an advertisement for the Band of Brothers tours. Bingo! Here was the mechanism to get this dream realized. It was affordable, looked very organized and fit the time frame I had open (i.e. any time before I died). And just by chance I happened to be talking to my friend, Keith (a retired Navy pilot who worked with me at Anna) and he said that sounded like a great thing to do and maybe he could go with me. Great idea -- he's a good guy and it's always good to have someone with you (wingman) when traveling overseas. And it's especially good when your wingman knows the airline reservation system backwards and forwards and likes the challenges.
So our first stop in our "Great Adventure " was to fly to Boston where we would catch a flight to Paris. We got to Logan International in Boston the day before our first connection "just in case." We got there at night and it was kinda fun to get to see some of the sights. Also had a great seafood dinner in a restaurant overlooking the Boston Harbor.
We spent the next day looking at the Charlestown Navy Yard where we saw two ships anchored there: the USS Cassin Young and the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides). What a great way to start this trip.
I was surprised how short the ceilings were in the Constitution. I walked around the "below deck" area and had to really lean over just to keep from knocking myself out on the ceiling beams. On the Cassin Young, it was fun for an Army guy to get his hands on real deck guns and take a short pause for a "cup of coffee" (the pot didn't work). Keith said lots of officers looked just like me when he was on a ship -- huddled around the coffee pot!
Well, we're off. Long flight ahead!
I don't know where I'll end up, but I'm on my way!
Hooah
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