Back in the "Army"

After a whirl-wind of a week and a half at home following my trip to Korea I now find myself back in Fort Gordon, Georgia. It has been nearly 17 years since I was here for my initial Army training back in 1993. Wow, has it been so long, am I really getting that old? Scary!

I  really don't like coming back to big Army bases. It is not nearly as fun as it was when I was young and dumb... and perhaps not quite so lazy and set in my ways. Luckily for me, I find myself in a bit better circumstances now than I did 17 year ago. I have my own room with a microwave and fridge and most importantly of all A/C! Although it is not the Hilton it is better than an open bay to share with 50 other dudes! There is also a lot less yelling and screaming and we don't get dropped to do push-ups all the time. On the other hand there will always be all the "Army" junk that I could do without just fine; formations all to many times a day, raking the sand to have nice lines in it, army chow halls, and a bunch more things that don't seam to have any more purpose than to annoy you. 

We also get weekends off and it is quite nice to recover from the stupidity of the week. So for my first weekend I Googled some local places to visit in Augusta, GA, the nearby city.

I read up briefly on the history of Augusta and found out that the Augusta Canal was instrumental in the survival of the city back in the late 1800's. I decided to take a short boat tour of the canal and learn more about it. Built in 1845, it was devised to harness the power of the fall line of the Savannah River for mills and to provide drinking water for the city. It is the only canal in the world still used for its original purpose of providing power to textile mills.

Also along its banks once stood the Confederate Powderworks which manufactured all of the gun powder for the Confederate Armies during the Civil War as well as everything from canteens and blankets to pistols and cannons.

It was interesting and fun, I also saw lots of wildlife along the canal. The Yellow-bellied Slider Turtles were especially cute. They get there name for, one, there yellow bellies and two, for the way they quickly slide into the water at the slightest sign of danger. 

Sunday after attending church at a local ward I made my way to the edge of Augusta which boarders the Savannah River. They have built beautiful walkways and gardens along the river and the weather was just perfect for a Sunday stroll.

Of course the weekend couldn't end without something going wrong... As I was heading back to base I realized that in my haste to make it to church on time I had totally forgotten to bring my wallet. If you have ever tried to get on to a military base without ID you'll know that... well, you can't. In the end I was blessed enough to have remembered my phone and to have put in the number of our class leader earlier in the week. He was able to get my through the gate. What a maroon! I guess it was a good thing that I hadn't gotten pulled over! I'm grateful for small mercies!