Back in the States

Well after a full day of flying I made it back to the States. I guess I should back up here and explain what happened. I left my camp at the appointed time and everything was gongon schedule until I hit BIAP- Baghdad Airport. After we landed they shut the airport down as the security company went on strike. I was stuck in Camp Victory for several days until they reopened and then we flew to Dubai. Of course by this time everyone had missed heir flights so we all had to be rescheduled. I must give credit to the HR travel folks for their hard work and dealing with all of the complaining people.

I had to spend the night there and was figuring on another but they managed to get me out on short notice. I had spent the day with some friends (explained below) and then returned to the hotel to check on the status of my flight. The second time I checked with them they told me I needed to be at the airport within the hour to check in for my 1:05AM flight. I took a quick shower and then a taxi to the airport. I flew from Dubai to Paris to JFK to Charlotte and then back to SC. It's taken me a few days to get onto a computer....

I met up with some friends in Dubai. We went to a nice restaurant for lunch, visited a mosque (I had to be and taught what to say and how to enter it- first and only mosque I've ever been in) and we had coffee at Starbuck's. The conversations were nice and I really had a good time- Thanks guys! I'm sorry I didn't get in touch with you again before leaving, but it was really rushed getting out. If I return to work in Iraq I will definitely call you and we'll have to get lunch again (yes, I'll pick up the tab :) ).

Since I've been at the folk's, I've mowed the grass, fixed two toilets, picked up Chris' Jeep, and an assortment of other stuff and still feel like I'm way behind on stuff I need to be getting done (including updating this thing). With that in mind, I need to get to sleep so I can get an early start in the morning- I plan to go run first thing since it's been slightly over a week now.

I'll update more later........