When Duty Calls

Posted by brideblog

Posted: August 29, 2008 - 1:48 pm

Brian's promotion. Marlena's short.
Less than a year into my Big Wild Alaskan engagement, my fiancé who serves in the US Air Force was promoted to the next rank. As the saying goes, rank has its privileges, and with Brian’s promotion came a new assignment: Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi.
So this past July, we left AK for MS, saying goodbye to moose, bear, fireweed and two weeks of -20`F below and saying hello to crabs, shrimp, magnolias and hurricanes. And getting there was half the fun, let me tell you! Brain, Gretchen (our German Shepherd) and I loaded up in our trusty Toyota Forerunner and drove cross-county, nay cross-continent, from Anchorage, Alaska to Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

Here it is by the numbers--- duration: 16 full days; logged: 5,200 miles (most by car, some if by ferry); border crossings: four; National Parks, Forests and Monuments visted: 13; Wildlife spotted: moose, bear, big horns, elk, mountain goats, bison and some serious bug splat. The most we paid for gas was in Beaver Creek, Yukon, Canada: almost US$6/gallon. The saddest sight: seeing cheaper gas prices in Ketchikan than anywhere in Anchorage or Eagle River…Ketchikan has cheaper gas… what gives…

We reached our final destination 16 July and began Day 1 of a whole new life together along the Gulf Coast. Still being engaged after 384 straight hours on the road together: Priceless.
We took a break from Life as a Highway when we crossed through Chicago and took a weekend detour to visit my family and friends. It was very nice, being parked in the same place for three days and taking care of a few wedding tasks (dress fitting, flowers and cake, check!)--- plus some road-trip maintenance things, like getting the oil changed, shaking out ten pounds of dog hair, and giving our digestive track a three-day vacation from Subway.
Cut to: Ocean Springs, Mississippi. We’ve been here a month and a half now. As I familiarize myself with my new surroundings (hot), new routines (sweating a lot), new people (all very nice, full of Southern pride and sweet tea), new record-amounts of dog hair I pull off of Gretchen every day… with so much change, I have some continuity in the things that remain the same: We’re still planning a “destination” wedding for 11 October 2008, and we still love each other. It’s a Christmas miracle, really. And it’s nice to still blog about it, especially when I really should be checking my e-mail, writing vows, tallying reply cards, making the seating chart, starting dinner, doing laundry, reloading bait in the crab pots, reading up on hurricane preparedness…
Change is good, exciting and at times exhausting, and this area is lovely but believe me when I say, “I miss y’all!”
xxxooo

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