Day 17- October '11

Day 17 – October 27

A C17 is coming in today and tomorrow. Tom is having Christen and I do the crew tours today and tomorrow because we won’t have another opportunity being on nights. By the time we get back on days near Christmastime, the runway will have moved to Pegasus and no crew tours are given because it’s a 2 hour roundtrip ride out there.

Tom wondered if I should drive and do the spiel. I explained that I’d only been out on tour once with Talia. I wasn’t sure of the route or my way around or the town’s history or landmarks. I asked if I could observe and listen to Christen today and I’d do the tour tomorrow. Tom agreed to this plan.

Again the crew was super nice. So nice, that the pilot/commanding officer asked if there was anything the next crew could bring down for us from Christchurch. I offered up “avocados” because they were easy to come by and inexpensive. The officer agreed. I later apologized and asked Christen if that was alright having answered for the both of us. She thought it was great because she couldn’t think of anything offhand when he asked.

Avocados were on my mind since the day before; Talia had scored one in the freshies line at lunch but sadly were gone already when I got there. When I asked a DA if there were more, she offered one up from her stash because she’d never seen anybody so excited with hope or saddened by disappointment all at once over an avocado.  That was very sweet of her.