Coming Full Circle
Nov 03 2009
We’ve seen many military friends from all of Mary Claire’s assignments. The last few weeks have been fun because we’ve taken the kids back to where they started their military lives. First, we stopped at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas. Joe was born there 13 years ago this coming December 20. We took him by our old base house and around the hospital. Mary Claire even ran into old friends still working in the clinic where she started her Air Force midwifery career.
A couple of weeks after that, and after our resort stay at Pendleton and Fiddler’s Cove, we meandered into southern inland California to a small town outside of Temecula. There we met up with the Navy midwife and friend (Al Runzel) from Okinawa who delivered Anna and Sam (funny, he didn’t recognize the two).
Another interesting aspect of the visit is that it introduced to a whole new community of full
timing RVers. Al is now retired and working at Pendleton and Balboa. To afford the southern California life, he and his wife live in an RV community where RVers buy a plot of land, park the RV, and then build up outside amenities to suit their tastes. Al had a full kitchen and outdoor living room built, as pictured. This trip has exposed us to a whole culture of life in the U.S. that we never knew.
Back to the visits- we knew we’d be meeting up with old military friends on our trip, but we didn’t realize that we’d be able to take the kids back to the people and places involved with their origins. Now, we just have to catch a hop to Okinawa to really close the circle.
Hello. Saw your article in the Highways magazine. Thought you might have some comments on places in the Rio Grande southwest Texas. We are heading down there next week from Canada for a few months and very much looking forward to it. Look forward to hearing from you.
@Bernadette, email us at wahlsacrossamerica@mac.com – we have some ideas. Guadalupe Mountain National Park is a must see! So is Fort Davis, TX. Email us.
Tom
Wow that outside living space is beautiful I could live there it is bigger than my house!
Hey if you catch the hop to Okinawa let me know I would love to go back. I never thought I would say this but I miss some of the food like the tan tan noodles YUM.
So how is Nellis has it changed much? Another place I would like to go back and see.
@Pat, the base housing is being torn down and replaced by the “private” base housing that will be open to non-military members (if they don’t mind yard maintenance restrictions). They even tore down the O-6 houses that were built 13 years ago! These were nice houses.
I don’t know about this privatizing of houses. I’m sure someone is making money off the government.