Shoup Airlines

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.