13 May to 2 Jun – Emergency Leave

16 May – Job Notification – Respond within 24 hours; Computer challenges, library to library

15 Jun – Orders, finally

21-24 Jun – Pack Our household goods

Household pack out:the truck pulls into the drive and out of the cab come four men to being our move. They begin by offloading bundles of boxes – 40 to 100 in many different sizes. Our biggest collection of boxes will be book boxes. In the end, about 50 of them. Once in the house, they take up stations – one in the kitchen to pack, one in the living room and one in the bedroom.

Slowly the contents of our home disappear into cardboard cartons. We offer the workers refreshments and we pay for their lunches. The packing goes on for 2 days and then on the third day, the boxes and the furniture all wrapped in bubble plastic and corrugated cardboard, begins to move outside to be staged for packing into the large wooden crates. These wooden crates are 4 feet by 8 feet by 12 feet. Once our house is all crated, we have 8 large crates and one smaller crate. The job is complete and the truck drives away with all our worldly goods. That’s always a trying time as you wonder will we ever see any of that stuff again?

In Turkey, we now have a loaner kit: bed, chairs, table and sofa, temporary living at its ‘not so fine’ stage. A week later we move into base lodging. Nice suite – we stay for 12 nights.

29 Jun – Car Shipment

8 Jul – Last Work Day at IAB

12-13 Jul – Travel:  İncirlik/Ramstein/Baltimore; Baltimore/Charlotte/Augusta.  Air Travel pretty easy overall.  Customs and baggage nearly 2 hours at Baltimore.  Rental Car – Only one left, Black on Black Lincoln Continental Town Car – only one left.  Buy New Car – Sandy Beach Metallic; no physical address, cash doesn’t matter.

Details: Left out of İncirlik on the government charter "Patriot Express" on the morning of 12 July. Flew to Ramstein for 2 hour stop-over, then on to Baltimore MD. Overnight there and then on to Charlotte NC. Stop-over – about 2 hours; visited with Carol’s niece Carrie. She met us at the airport for coffee and conversation. Then on to Augusta. Arrived the 13th around 2 in the afternoon. Got bags and rental car. Very hot in this place. Found our hotel – Wingate – checked in and set the A/C on COOL. Long trip safely travelled and successful.

Ramstein Goat Rope: we deplane and wait for the plane to be serviced. When we re-board, it’s a free-for-all! All seat assignments were cancelled; the plane was boarded by families first and then all other passengers. Even those who came a long distance had their seats taken! So, all carry-ons from before were not where we were finally settled. Very annoying! Add to that, every seat on the plane was taken!

No way to run an airline – the flight attendants took a lot of grief – they weren’t very pleasant even before this major mess. Carol and I found ourselves in the very rear of the plane now but fortunately, in good seats – just the 2 of us together – but many others were in a mess!

Once this challenge was conquered, we lifted off and spent the next 8 hours or so in the fits of sleep and awaking. Movies and food service; most uneventful flight, really.

On the ground, now, in Baltimore. We’re in a very long and slow line for customs – well, not too slow, took about 40 minutes. Then on to baggage claim where the bags never seemed to appear! We must have been over an hour waiting to see the first bags – then they came in fits and starts.

After bag claim, we had to call for a hotel. We went to the airport kiosk for hotels and only one of the two phones worked. We were third or fourth in line – but we got a room and left the terminal to meet their airport shuttle. Our hotel, A Loft, was very nice and a very welcome stop after all the hassle of the trip and the bags. We landed around 7:00/7:30 and left the airport for a hotel about 10:00.

14 Jul – Got Post Office Box

15/16 Jul – We go car shopping the day after we arrive, look at several at Nissan/Honda/Toyota and settle on a Toyota Camry. I didn’t intend to buy new, but do so anyway. Car has 34 miles on it when we drive away. Talked with USAA to get pre-approval for home loan

16 Jul – Returned BIG Rental Car

16 Jul – Spoke to Realtor – Will Look at Houses on Monday

17 Jul – Went to Liturgical Service on Ft Gordon; two of about 20 people – all our age!

18 Jul – Start Work; 9-1 Personnel Orientation (no breaks and no lunch);

Will be 5 days for CAC! No computer access and no work w/o CAC; Also,In-process checklist has 2 week-time limit; Carol House hunting – 200 miles just driving through neighborhoods

The Army Garrison is huge – my office is third floor of an old building, maybe an old dorm/barracks; however, there are windows!

Carol started looking at house with Andy and Allison – narrowed 19 to 12 pre-looks to 3 possibilities

Number two is great! A 3 bedroom, 2 bath house with nearly 1,900 square feet. Too much carpeting but a great house with only small lawns in front and in the rear. The front yard has a sprinkler system. It has a 2-car garage and lots of space.

We do the paperwork for an offer on it –: Carol has been busy researching homes for sale online. She has found 19 she wants to see. We contact a realtor and Carol spends an afternoon looking at houses. After looking at about 12 (and immediately deleting 7 on the realtor’s advice) she decides there are 3 that I will need to see. We agree to drop off one from that list and tell the realtor we want to see remaining two. The first one I walk in to has a nice layout but the smell is more than I can stand. Dogs, cats and kids lived here! The strangely shaped triangular back yard is a minus in our book too!

Number two is great! A 3 bedroom, 2 bath house with nearly 1,900 square feet. Too much carpeting but a great house with only small lawns in front and in the rear. The front yard has a sprinkler system. It has a 2-car garage and lots of space.

We do the paperwork for an offer on it. (After looking at the final two we chose a home on Sweet Meadow Court and make an offer over dinner with Andy and Allison at Cracker Barrel!) The asking price was $169,000 (the original purchase price was $183,000). Our offer was $159,000 which was countered at $167,000. We made a second offer of $165,000 (the exact amount we have been approved for!) and it was accepted! We have a house! (or will have in about 4 weeks, as closing is 22 August.)

20 Jul – Owner comes back with counter offer; we make a second offer via FAX at the front desk

21 Jul – Offer Accepted! Carol spent hours on phone getting the info to USAA for loan; House closing set for 22 August

23 Jul – Went shopping for appliances at Sears

24 Jul – Carol went to ER (infection!)

25 Jul – House inspection – very thorough!  Termite inspection – no problems

26 Jul – bought refrigerator, washer & dryer, electric lawn mower