Shoup Airlines

Mikey’s New Address

So get those letters in the mail! He will answer them as time allows. He has also requested no packages for the time being.

You didn’t tell me there’d be humidity!

So I’ve finally reached that place known as Bama, Alabamer, where?, Hazzard County, isn’t that where Deliverance was filmed?, Rotor Country or Ft. Rucker and it isn’t humid.

No, humid is a sticky day in Orange County. Once on base they issue you a regulator so you can breath outside in the water that the locals crazily call “air.” It took me ten minutes to unload the car into a storage unit, it took me 30 seconds to be completely drenched in sweat.

“You’re not from around here, are you?”

“Ah, you got me there. What gave it away? The bald head or the pool of sweat I’m swimming in?”

“The Texas plates.”

“Ooh, sarcasm. I think I’m gonna like this place!”

The surrounding area is quite interesting. It is exactly what you think when I say “backwater,” but there is definitely character. Enterprise, the town to the west of Rucker, is home to the only monument that praises an insect, the bull weevil. I kid you not, there is a statue in the middle of town. Photos will come later. They also have a drive-in! When’s the last time you went to one of those, huh? I distinctly remember seeing Teen Wolf at Highway 39.

Directly on the gates of Rucker is Daleville, blink and you missed it five minutes ago.

Twenty minutes to the east is the bubbling metropolis of Dothan. Population: 64,000. Surprisingly, larger than Grand Forks. Anyway, they’re large enough to have airline service. Unfortunately, it’s Delta and you have to sign over your first, second and third born to afford it but they still gotcha covered like a jimmy hat!

And that’s where I’ll be spending the next year and some change. Feel free to drop by, just make sure you bring a scuba tank.

I start in-processing tomorrow, so this will be the last post for a while. Be patient. And yes, that’s directed mainly at you, tk. As for you, no look, keep the squabbling with tk to a minimum this time around, the server can only handle so much traffic.

See ya in six weeks, hopefully as a Warrant Officer.

Requiem

It was with a tear in my eye that I removed your key from the ring and left it on the dashboard this morning, never to see you again. I still remember the first time we met in 1999 through an underhanded introduction from my parents. I was quite dubious at first, simply because it wasn’t I who espied you, but nevertheless like any good relationship ours stood the test of time and distance.

As much as you would never admit it, I know you hated it when I transplanted you to North Dakota, but you were still there always willing to start even in -80 degree weather. When we moved to Virginia I know it was bittersweet for you, the weather being much improved but me not needing you more than once a week. Your age began to show as things started creaking, yet you immediately perked up as I pointed your nose west once more. Sadly, more and more of you began to need special attention. You didn’t like the heat anymore, your skin began to crack. More than once I was advised to part ways with you and I even considered it but I’m glad I didn’t follow through.

After three times across the country and again having to depart your home you still dutifully began trip number four back into the heat of the desert and the humidity of Alabama. I’m still not sure what happened and afraid I never will, but in your death throes you continued to protect me from harm until I turned the ignition off for the last time.

Thank you and goodbye my friend.