Land Lubber at Last!

My sailing season ended on May 31 when the Sette docked into Honolulu after 100 days sailing to, around and from the Samoan Islands. Now it’s rest time and work in the office. I used to write on how delighted I was not being an “office zombie” but after five continuous years of sailing and neglecting my home life, it’s time to do what I didn’t like to do back then.

Those five years the wife and the family became more of an entity. My life as a workaholic geo-bachelor was starting to be met with reluctance. Thanksgiving, birthdays, anniversaries and other celebrations were being passed up and motives for that only subsisted during the time I was at sea. If you were to be ask me now why I did so, I could not give you an answer except maybe the mortgage was due. The bank account was nice but there were chores that needed tended to. I wanted to do some work around the house but didn’t have the time. When June rolled in, I realized that of the twelve months we owned the home, I only spent total of two months there! Rest of the time I was at sea or working to prep the ship for next project during short in ports. 

Whenever I was home, I enjoyed Sunday morning breakfasts, but that was just a memory and a longing of what I would rather be doing than sailing on a Sunday. The Internet at sea allowed us to look at social media. I was self-absorbed in melancholy by witnessing my grandsons grow up on Facebook instead of being an actual grandfather and enjoying time with them. I didn’t look forward to evening chats on Messenger with the wife as it was more of an obligation than delight to find out the day’s events from her. Not that I didn’t want to talk to her but would rather sit across from her at the dinner table and chat that way instead of relying on the marvels of modern technology. I was burning out and the time at sea was taking its toll as I was coming in for a hard crash landing.

As I wrote in previous blogs, I started to contemplate retirement. Opportunities to move into a promoted position were nil. The organization became each man for himself.  It seems to have lost its purpose and now drifted aimlessly. Recognition for what you done were non-existent. Instead of appreciation, encouragement or motivation, you were met with criticisms and management's timidity of auditors that only added to the mistrust that were not there before. The bright spot was I had two and a half weeks’ vacation to visit my daughter, son-in-law and grandsons and away from all the balderdash that came with the job but it was only for two weeks! Though the clocks had to move four hours from the home time zone, you hoped that the ticking of seconds were slower than usual. 

We left Honolulu on a redeye flight to Phoenix, Arizona and bought tickets to sit in First Class. Weather reports showing temperatures in different cities on the mainland are never broadcasted on local Honolulu TV stations. Unless it’s a calamity, such as fires or record setting temperatures either in the summer or winter, the stations metaphorically expressed how lucky you were to live in Hawaii! We had no idea that temperatures on the mainland were in triple digits and that heat warnings were issued by the weather service. When we landed in Phoenix next morning, the flight attendant had mentioned that the high temperature was to be 119 degrees. Whether I heard her right or not anything above 100 degrees is high! We waited for an hour and a half before catching the next flight to Albuquerque. We landed in Albuquerque and greeted the dry climate associated with the Southwest. 

We got our rental car and I wanted to drive by the old areas where I spent part of my adolescence. I sort of grew up there but only for two years! I was a GI Brat and didn’t live in any one place for a long duration. I stopped in front of the old junior high school I attended, now known as Wilson Middle School and the apartment complex across the street was still there!!! Absent were the corner Dunkin Donuts, strip mall with Piggly Wiggly Supermarket and small hamburger joints such as Henry’s Hamburgers and Burger Chef that populated Gibson Boulevard. Of course this was 1969-1971 when they existed! Afterwards, we went to Kirtland Air Force Base to buy drinks and snacks for the three and a half hour drive to Clovis. The old “ham club” and MARS station was there by the gate and the structure hasn’t changed in over four decades! After we got our goods I wanted to see my old neighborhood! The street was still there but all the houses on Ivy Place were gone! The church around the corner still stood and looked as if it were active, but not a single dwelling remained! I can still name who lived where as I drove down the cul-de-sac. I snapped a photo of a lone tree that occupied the property between our house and the walkway but was not there years ago. I drove by the building where my father worked. The site and the communications group that my father was assigned to and was the First Sergeant at the time were still there though the building was rebuilt several times over past 47 years! The old gas station/convenience store called “The Grubstake” was closed but the gasoline pumps and small building stood static showing signs of inactivity. I continued traveling down reminiscence lane and finally made a U-turn by my younger brother’s elementary school. Enough of nostalgia and it was now time to drive to Clovis to see the future and spend time with the kids!

We were eastbound on Interstate 40 and the overall scenery was sentimental. Was it only two years that I spent my adolescence in New Mexico? I felt as if I were raised here but I can feel like that anywhere I lived. The gypsy blood that flowed in my veins was spirited. The vacation I longed waited for has finally arrived and to think that only four months earlier I was in the South Pacific visiting the in-laws during a port call in a completely different world more than six thousand miles away! I was home there too! Sometimes I envy those who stayed in the place where they were born, and grew up with those they went to kindergarten, high school and college with. It may be a cubicle lifestyle but they have a place they can genuinely call home and say that is where they are from. I only claim San Diego as my “hometown” because I graduated from high school there. But I can also claim Tokyo, Seattle, Honolulu, Los Angeles, El Paso and Albuquerque as pseudo hometowns. I can’t forget the seven years in Utah but I didn’t live in Tooele or Salt Lake City but on a military base. I’m not embarrassed to say I lived there but whenever I mentioned I lived in Utah, people always assumed I was a Mormon and would ask me questions about it or make a stereotypical jokes about polygamy.  Nevertheless I always felt I was in transit while I worked and lived at Dugway. There were times I had seriously considered setting up a business and moving to Salt Lake City and settle there. I really liked Utah’s capital city. However, karma was not to dictate so.

There are some things that never change with time. After we left Albuquerque the few small towns that dot Interstate 40 seem to have never left the last century. I’m not saying this as a put down. It’s nice to see that some things never change after seeing what was left of my old hangouts in Albuquerque as a kid. Also to re-experience things you cannot do after living in the islands for some time such as stopping at truck stops on the Interstate for that gut fouling coffee or greasy hamburgers! Actually the coffee is good and can’t beat the price as compared to those designer coffees that are five times more per cup with fancy Italian names. And I still like those hamburgers and fries despite of it’s negative contribution to my health! I still like my Hawaiian Loco Mocos  (no it doesn’t mean the same in Spanish), Portuguese Sausage or Spam with rice for breakfast.  However, it was a delight to have full size ham or pancakes with eggs, omelet and hash browns at small town truck stops such as Cook’s Restaurant on Highway 60 in Clovis.

The wife was struggling to get accustomed to the dry climate. The air conditioner was working overtime to cool off the miniature SUV that replaced the Toyota Corolla sedan I had requested. We stopped at a roadside rest stop to eat lunch. The first thing I cautioned my wife was to be on the lookout for rattlesnakes, especially in areas of shade. Afterwards we continued our journey on I-40 or historical Route 66 to Santa Rosa where we had to turn off to take us towards Fort Sumner. A town I visited as a child when we lived in El Paso to see where the infamous Billy the Kid was shot and buried. Of course that is the only claim to fame of Fort Sumner and if not for that piece of history, it would be another dot on the road map to nowhere.

We finally reached Clovis after four hours or more on the road and stopped at Cannon Air Force Base to buy basic toiletries and some food. The Exchange and Commissary were empty as compared to activity of Pearl Harbor or Hickam Air Force Base. Afterwards, with the aid of maps from the iPhone, we found the bed and breakfast (bed only though) place where we made reservations.  It wasn’t fancy but for the price we paid and the length we stayed it wasn’t bad. It was off to bed and visit the grandkids the next day after rest from a long trip.