Back in Charleston for a few days

From Myrtle Beach, we travelled back to the Navy base to get Nicolas back in time to start T-track.  This is the waiting time he’ll have until he starts his next school in early July. 

It won’t be all time off, though!  For the next few weeks he’ll be on the watch billet, which means he’ll be schedule to stand watch somewhere on base for 12 hours, and then off for 24 hours.  After the first few weeks, there will be more classes graduating and joining his class in T track, and then he’ll have more free time.  He’s hoping to get a little camping in on the weekends!

We got back on Monday, and he took his things back to his room, caught up with a few friends who were also back from leave, and then came back to the campground to have dinner with us and watch a movie.

He officially reported back on Tuesday morning, and while he was working we busied ourselves with laundry, grocery shopping and changing the oil in the car.  He was done in the early afternoon, but had to stay on base until 4pm, so he came over to the campground and hung out with us in the afternoon – another benefit of staying at the base campground!

 

This little tree was between our site and the one we were on before our vacation – it smelled SOOO good!

 

 

 

 

Tuesday was my birthday, and Wednesday was Tom’s birthday, so Nicolas was taking us out to dinner.  He’s been hungry for Cracker Barrel, so that’s where we went.

 

We had a very nice dinner . . . Thanks, Nicolas!!!    

When we got back from dinner, Nicolas and Tom changed the oil in the truck, and then he headed home so he could get up in time for his 5am watch duty.  That’s early!!

On Wednesday, I did a little more laundry and made spaghetti and meatballs for Tom’s birthday dinner, and Nicolas joined us when he got off watch.  Another yummy dinner followed by apple pie and ice cream!

After dinner, Nicolas drove us to the recreation area on base.  It’s where they can have picnics or go fishing – they also have hunting areas there, and mountain bike paths through the woods.

It’s a nice area . . . but lots of mosquitos and no-seeums!

Nicolas watched TV with us for awhile, and then home to bed.  He promised to stop by in the morning when he was done with muster, to say goodbye.

 

He arrived just as we were getting hitched up, and leant a hand one last time.

We were really glad that we have the flexibility in our lives to be able to stay on base and spend time with him.

We’re so proud of what he’s doing, and glad we can be here to share his accomplishments with him!

 

We love this guy so much, and after 3 weeks of being back together, it was really hard to say good-bye and drive away!  We had hoped he might get Memorial Day weekend off and be able to come up to the RV-Dreams Rally for a couple days, but it looks like he’s going to be on watch. 

We’ll be back around in the fall to spend time with him again, though!

Until then, bye-bye, Sailor-boy; we miss you!!