Indiana Trip Days 3-4

Tuesday, we woke up to snow. No big surprise! It hadn't snowed that much overnight. Just a couple of inches or so to cover everything (that wasn't covered) again. We went to the base around 9am.

My pants legs and boots after traipsing through the snow... :) FUN!!!

Dad took better pictures of snow and the Camp Atterberry signs (another post). They packed up into this big hanger thing like sardines. There had to be 500 people in there. The announcer and speaker said they were surprised at how many people came because of the weather. (If you gonna drive 10 hours to get there, you're gonna go, no matter what right!?! Lots of people flew there I'm sure.) They had to delay the ceremony by 10 minutes because people were still trying to find a place to park and get inside. There was one set of bleachers on one end and chairs set up on either side of the podium. We sat on the top row of the bleachers in the far corner. (dad's got a picture of it.) It was about 20 degrees outside, after about ten minutes, I was sweating. We shed our jackets, but I kept getting hotter. There was no ventilation. I had to stand up and fan myself. It was sweltering!! Once everyone sat down and the ceremony started it got better. I recorded most of the ceremony on our little HD camera. (Posting later) Pete was sitting with us because he had a bad cold and didn't want to cough and sneeze while standing at attention. We learned about Pete's group. He is a member of PRT Paktika. PRT stands for Preventional Response Team. Paktika is a region of Afghanistan. There are a dozen or more groups (all named PRT ___) Each group has over a hundred members. Here's a few pictures.

After the ceremony, we walked to the PX while the traffic was heavy getting off base.

Depth of the snow.... We were walking on the plowed road which was covered with black slush.

Outside the PX, snow piled up on the tables...

Outside the PX

Dad went into the barracks with Pete (only men were allowed.)

After the ceremony, we left the base and headed to Best Buy so Pete could buy a computer. Then we headed to Indianapolis (30 minutes away). Pictures from downtown Indianapolis. Nice city, reminded me a lot of Atlanta. Not much too it. Really nice mall. Not that many tall buildings. It was busy though. Still snow everywhere. We passed Lucas Oil Stadium. (Basketball & Minor league hockey) While we were in the mall, we met Jacques Demeres' son. His dad coached the Red Wings, Lightning, and The St. Louis Blues. He also coached Montreal and won the Stanley Cup. He's now a Canadian Senator. Cool stuff.

Us after the deployment Ceremony. Pete doesn't leave the country until Sunday.

On Wednesday, we headed home. In the post with Dad's pictures, we took a lot of pics of barns and things we saw on the way home...