Blog 31 Watch out San Diego, Here I Come!!!!!!!!!!

(Lena was a great friend, excellent dancer, and an all-around fun person to be with)

(My trip to San Diego)

While I was stationed in Great Lakes, Illinois, I met another sailor who was also being transferred to San Diego that did not have a car. I made a deal with him to fly to Dallas and share the expenses with me and I would drive him. He agreed. I explained to him that I wanted to leave two days early to sight-see and to meet Sara in Carlsbad Caverns to see her one last time. It was all planned.

While at home, my old car took its last breath. I had no choice but to buy a new one. I new the vice-president of the Seagoville State bank all my life. She had no problem in giving me my first loan for a brand new car. I chose the Subaru Brat Truck. It was a 4-wheeler or highway truck. I pictured using it on the beach,etc, and it got double the gas mileage as my old car. It was the best car purchase I ever made to this day. It had two extra seats in the back with seat belts. It made it a very popular car with my friends.

When we got to Carlsbad, Sara had her brother with her and we spent the day at the caverns. The guy that came with me and Sara’s brother rode in the front of their car, while Sara and I caught up with our time lost. I noticed my friend was not taking it very well, so we left that night to continue our trip to California. I did not realize it a the time, but I had hickies all over my neck. I did not know how it was going to be taken by the Navy for me to sign-in with a neck that looked like I was strangled!

(On of the most embarrassing things I ever did!)

After my friend and I got back on the road, I did not realize Arizona had such strict highway laws. This being both my first adventure and owning a truck. First, at the border, we had to uncover and unpack the back of the truck to confirm we were not carrying certain foods, and more things. Then they make YOU reload the truck by ourselves. But, that was minor because of the second one! I kept seeing signs saying that ALL trucks must go through a weigh station. I did not know their”definition” of a truck. My Subaru Brat was definitely a truck! Soooooooo…. I pulled into the line of eighteen wheelers. If you never saw a Brat, it was smaller than a Toyota. As we sat in this line for what seemed to be over thirty minutes, I realized the trucks ahead of us were pointing back at us and doing a lot of laughing. By this time, Many, MANY other normal trucks had passed. When the man signaled us up, He was trying not to laugh.

Politely, he asked could he help me. I explained what I did because I thought I had to pay to keep going on. As sure as it was yesterday, I remembered him saying,”Son, if I weighed your truck, we would be owing YOU money back! So go on and get out of here!” We had lost so much time that I had to speed to get back on time to make our hotel reservation. This meant we passed trucks that had passed us at the weigh station. Many honked at us and other cars just laughed. It was funny as we thought and talked about it. BUT, we made our reservation!

(Our arrival to San Diego!)

When we finally made it to our destination, we signed in and were assigned rooms on base. When we went in them, we found we were assigned to rooms with two other sailors. I went to my bunk and the rack was soaking wet. It was not long to see my friend entering and said he had met one of his bunk mates and was begging me to go to a weekly hotel until we found a house to share. He did not have to ask twice! The military helps with bills and foods when you live off base. it only took three days and we found a house that was furnished. It was about 1200 feet; two bedrooms, and a sun room. We took it.

Your jobs are always assigned according to your rank. Being Petty Officers, we luckily were not assigned hospital floor duty. I was given a job in the print shop, and my friend was assigned a desk job in the same building, but one floor above me in the main office as a clerk, since he knew how to type. My boss was a Hispanic civilian, very laid back, and very funny. He was going to retire in about one year and I would be there no longer than eight months. To me it was a very easy job.

When we started our first day, we met up with three girls that were in my boot camp sister company and then were ,also, in our corpsman class that also got stationed in San Diego. Two of them got an apartment across the street from our house, while the third stayed on base. For three full months, the accommodations were great, until something happened. (I’ll tell you in just a moment.)

(Trying to stay busy outside of the Navy.)

The first chance I had, I started looking for a scout troop to help as an adult. It was not just my life, it was my way to protect the boys from the rumors (and truths) of adult messing with them. I was adamant about kids rights and safety by that time, I had no desires of violating my responsibilities. I found a very active troop in Kensington, just outside San Diego. They had about thirty five guys of age 12-17. I humbly say I became very popular because I was only twenty at that time. We went camping once a month, I did Red Cross medical classes (CPR and Multi-media first aid) one Saturday a month. Had a weekend extra detail one weekend, and I went to the beach with the older guys that tried to teach me to surf. It did not work! My other extra time were partying at the base club. (I could not find a close church I liked.) I, also, took an evening college Spanish class on Thursdays.

(The bad thing that made me move.)

(SORRY……. Blog 32…..)