Back in the the saddle....

An email from Eli:

Dear friends and family,

I returned to Al Asad this morning at 5:00am my time to a not so welcome homecoming....the door was locked and so I knocked, but that did not wake up my snoozing roommate, so I pounded on the door. After not seeing each other for two weeks Seth opened the door and said, "why'd you have to knock so loud, probably woke up the whole base," and with that he jumped back in bed and fell back asleep. I wrote a quick e-mail to my family and one to Katy (I could not talk to Katy as she was at work) and then I jumped in bed and attempted to sleep some despite my internal clock being all out of whack.
I woke up at 11:00am and went to lunch with Seth and some of the guys with the platoon. I was prepared to be given a hard time by everyone for getting an additional 10 days at home for leave, but instead everyone was genuinely concerned about how I was and if I was feeling better after having kidney stones. I am sure once everyone is satisfied that I am feeling better I will hear all about my long vacation. It was good to see everyone (2 guys had babies while I was gone) and it is good to get back in the swing of things. I will go back out in just a couple days for a three day mission.
Other then the goodbyes, the traveling and the adjustment to the change in time zones are the worst parts of leave. From the time I left my house in North Carolina to the time I stepped foot on Al Asad I spent over 60 hours traveling! Dad drove me to the Greensboro Airport (Katy is full throttle into her graduate program and could not miss school....she met her cadaver the day I left so dad kept giving her a hard time that she was losing a husband but gaining a cadaver) and from there I flew to Atlanta, then on to Germany, from Germany I flew to Kuwait City. Once we got to Kuwait City we rode a bus to a base in Ali Saleem where we stayed the night. We then got bussed to the air field and once we boarded the C-130 (a miserable aircraft to fly in) we were told instead of making the 2 hour flight to Al Asad we would be first flying to Qatar to drop off soldiers (10 soldiers from the Japanese Army) and pick up some soldiers, over 6 hours of flying on the dreaded bird! We were picking up soldiers from Qatar who had been given a pass there...Qatar is a small little peninsula country that borders Saudi Arabia to one side, and the rest is bordered by the Persian Gulf.
It was a lot of traveling (about 24 hours in all with the extended C-130 trip) and I am fighting jet lag but will be back at work tomorrow as I have to be at the motor pool for briefings. The end is in sight and I am staying focused on that. It was great to see all of you (everyone I got to see) and I look forward to seeing everyone in May when I get back! Take care!
Love,
Eli