I know that I have not been as great at keeping this page up lately as I should be. Life has been really busy lately. Work has been extremely busy and I have also been busy with wedding work as well. It is good to be busy. At times it can be slightly overwhelming. This weekend was no exception.
After work on Thursday I met up with Josh Parker and Chad Newton and we headed out to Fort Knox Kentucky. I don’t think that any of us new just how awesome of a trip this was going to be. It was a long 800 mile trek. At times it was touch and go with the staying awake, but God was watching over us the entire way. As the sun was coming up Friday morning we had a little jam session, rocking out to the Newsboys. It was really cool. Pulling into Fort Knox Kentucky the excitement was building. We were here to see my best friend Jonathan Rhoads graduate from his basic training. It was completely awesome. When we arrived on post we were a little lost and tired, but we knew that in just a few minute we were going to see our friend and brother. It was so awesome. As we walked through the doors into the theatre, we rounded a corner and there he stood. He looked good there in his uniform. I could tell that he was really happy to see us as well. It was really hard not to run up to him and give him a big old bear hug, but we restrained ourselves because we didn’t want to get him in trouble.
The ceremony was really pretty short, then we went outside and waited for Jonathan to be released. The reunion was just so awesome. The first thing that he wanted was to get in the car and get off the base, but then as soon as we got in the car he wanted a Mountain Dew. We spent time eating and getting him some food that he had not had in a while, then we went over to the campground where his sister and brother in law were staying. Chad and Josh decided that it was more important to take a nap. Even though I had been up since 6:30 Thursday morning, there was no way that I was going to take a nap while Jonathan was around. So Jonathan and hung out with his family. We went swimming, we talked, it was really fun.
Friday evening we went out for pizza at Pizza Hut. Let me just say this, if you thought that the any size any toppings for just ten bucks was a great deal, that is nothing compared to the deal that we got. We realized that we need more military people in our lives because they get awesome discounts. Ten of us ate Four Pizza’s, cheese sticks, bread sticks, and drinks for $36.00. That is pretty awesome right? It was a good time around the table talking about things and telling stories. We all went back to our hotel room afterwards and just had a sweet time of fellowship.
Late Friday night we went to see “The A-Team”. Funny story about that. The post where Jonathan is at is in the Eastern time zone. So first thing when we got up there we all changed our watches and the like. Well apparently the hotel that we were staying at in Cave City was in the Central time zone. So we showed up to the movie about an hour early. It all worked out ok for us in the end though. I was doing pretty good on no sleep right up till this point. I think if I had not already seen the movie the week before I would have been ok, but since I already knew what was going to happen I really struggled to stay awake. It is an awesome movie though.
I slept so good Friday night. I was just so tired. It was great. We woke up very refreshed on Saturday and fully utilized the continental breakfast. Josh and Chad went to see another friend of theirs in Kentucky on Saturday and they were gone all day. Jonathan and I hung out with Scott and Christine and the kids all day. We had good food, great conversation, some swimming, and some fun putt putt. Jonathan and I went geo-caching, sort of. It was leading us through a field of quite tall grass and since they have a pretty big issue with ticks in Kentucky we decided not to proceed further. We had a good walk and a good talk as well. It was pretty crazy because I knew that I had missed him, but I don’t think that I knew quite just how much I missed him until this weekend.
We bought some crickets and had fun eating those with the kids. Very interesting. We bought a half gallon of chocolate milk and Scott, Jonathan and I sat around talking and drinking it. It was awesome. About this time Josh and Chad arrived back. We had smores and played cards and talked. It was a lot of fun. Then we went back to the hotel and went to bed.
We woke up bright and early Sunday morning because we did not want to waste any time with Jonathan on the last day that we were going to be together. After all of us guys had showered we sat down and just spent some quality time in prayer. We were able to lift one another up before the throne of grace. It was a very encouraging time. After that we went down to breakfast.
Then came the part of the weekend that was not so fun. We met up with Scott and Christine to hand over Jonathan for them to take him back to his post. It was very hard to say goodbye. We said our goodbyes, gave hugs all around and hit the road headed south. We had gone about 10 miles when we got a call that Scott and Christine were having vehicle troubles and needed us to head back up there to pick Jonathan up and make sure he got back to base on time and would not be AWOL. We all agreed that this was awesome. I don’t think that we were really ready to say goodbye. Anyway, we met up with them, grabbed some lunch together and just enjoyed some more fellowship. Then we brought Jonathan back to the base. Once again we said goodbye. This time though it seemed like there was some closure. We left Fort Knox and headed south. And the rest is history.
After work on Thursday I met up with Josh Parker and Chad Newton and we headed out to Fort Knox Kentucky. I don’t think that any of us new just how awesome of a trip this was going to be. It was a long 800 mile trek. At times it was touch and go with the staying awake, but God was watching over us the entire way. As the sun was coming up Friday morning we had a little jam session, rocking out to the Newsboys. It was really cool. Pulling into Fort Knox Kentucky the excitement was building. We were here to see my best friend Jonathan Rhoads graduate from his basic training. It was completely awesome. When we arrived on post we were a little lost and tired, but we knew that in just a few minute we were going to see our friend and brother. It was so awesome. As we walked through the doors into the theatre, we rounded a corner and there he stood. He looked good there in his uniform. I could tell that he was really happy to see us as well. It was really hard not to run up to him and give him a big old bear hug, but we restrained ourselves because we didn’t want to get him in trouble.
The ceremony was really pretty short, then we went outside and waited for Jonathan to be released. The reunion was just so awesome. The first thing that he wanted was to get in the car and get off the base, but then as soon as we got in the car he wanted a Mountain Dew. We spent time eating and getting him some food that he had not had in a while, then we went over to the campground where his sister and brother in law were staying. Chad and Josh decided that it was more important to take a nap. Even though I had been up since 6:30 Thursday morning, there was no way that I was going to take a nap while Jonathan was around. So Jonathan and hung out with his family. We went swimming, we talked, it was really fun.
Friday evening we went out for pizza at Pizza Hut. Let me just say this, if you thought that the any size any toppings for just ten bucks was a great deal, that is nothing compared to the deal that we got. We realized that we need more military people in our lives because they get awesome discounts. Ten of us ate Four Pizza’s, cheese sticks, bread sticks, and drinks for $36.00. That is pretty awesome right? It was a good time around the table talking about things and telling stories. We all went back to our hotel room afterwards and just had a sweet time of fellowship.
Late Friday night we went to see “The A-Team”. Funny story about that. The post where Jonathan is at is in the Eastern time zone. So first thing when we got up there we all changed our watches and the like. Well apparently the hotel that we were staying at in Cave City was in the Central time zone. So we showed up to the movie about an hour early. It all worked out ok for us in the end though. I was doing pretty good on no sleep right up till this point. I think if I had not already seen the movie the week before I would have been ok, but since I already knew what was going to happen I really struggled to stay awake. It is an awesome movie though.
I slept so good Friday night. I was just so tired. It was great. We woke up very refreshed on Saturday and fully utilized the continental breakfast. Josh and Chad went to see another friend of theirs in Kentucky on Saturday and they were gone all day. Jonathan and I hung out with Scott and Christine and the kids all day. We had good food, great conversation, some swimming, and some fun putt putt. Jonathan and I went geo-caching, sort of. It was leading us through a field of quite tall grass and since they have a pretty big issue with ticks in Kentucky we decided not to proceed further. We had a good walk and a good talk as well. It was pretty crazy because I knew that I had missed him, but I don’t think that I knew quite just how much I missed him until this weekend.
We bought some crickets and had fun eating those with the kids. Very interesting. We bought a half gallon of chocolate milk and Scott, Jonathan and I sat around talking and drinking it. It was awesome. About this time Josh and Chad arrived back. We had smores and played cards and talked. It was a lot of fun. Then we went back to the hotel and went to bed.
We woke up bright and early Sunday morning because we did not want to waste any time with Jonathan on the last day that we were going to be together. After all of us guys had showered we sat down and just spent some quality time in prayer. We were able to lift one another up before the throne of grace. It was a very encouraging time. After that we went down to breakfast.
Then came the part of the weekend that was not so fun. We met up with Scott and Christine to hand over Jonathan for them to take him back to his post. It was very hard to say goodbye. We said our goodbyes, gave hugs all around and hit the road headed south. We had gone about 10 miles when we got a call that Scott and Christine were having vehicle troubles and needed us to head back up there to pick Jonathan up and make sure he got back to base on time and would not be AWOL. We all agreed that this was awesome. I don’t think that we were really ready to say goodbye. Anyway, we met up with them, grabbed some lunch together and just enjoyed some more fellowship. Then we brought Jonathan back to the base. Once again we said goodbye. This time though it seemed like there was some closure. We left Fort Knox and headed south. And the rest is history.
