Yeah, I just got back. It was 900 miles each way, 1800 miles round trip... It was a herf fest while I was in the truck. Except today my allergies were flaring a bit. But on the way there (Friday) it was an Opus Dbl Corona, PAM torp, and a UTS. On the way back (Sat afternoon) it was a PAM 1926 robusto, another fine gar I can't remember, and my favorite of the trip, a Maximus double corona. For some reason, it seemed to be much better than the others, even though they were ALL top shelf smokes. Then I stopped in Arkansas and slept and finished out today.
My dad's service was a little tough, it's been 7 weeks and I've been trying to get past it, it was like picking the scab off.
Dad had a military funeral with a 21 gun salute from the local boys in uniform. And I was presented the flag with a nice speech thanking my family for his service. I collected the shells from the salute and took some pictures and said my goodbyes again.
My sister was saying there’s room there for all of us and was asking if I would be laid to rest there. I said it was a conversation I wasn’t ready to have just yet…
One thing that was really cool was a small museum there in St. Paul KS. They have my grand dad's uniform with his medals from WW1 with pictures of him and his unit in France. They also had a print out of a transcription of his daily journal that he kept from the time he enlisted to the time he went to war, and some very interesting stories he had written while in country. It was an amazing piece of my own history laid out there before me in the museum.
