Mike Victor vs Clam shell

Here are the pictures I pulled off of the security forces website. Turns out the clamshell doesn't mess around. In fact when you hit it going 25 it doesn't even flinch. The name of the minivan is Guadalcanal but we were able to get a replacement for her a couple of days later. No one was hurt except the van. According to the gate guard they had a "gate runner" 5 hours prior to the incident when they initially hit the "button". That should make everyone on base feel a little more comfortable about the relaibility of the system. I approach the barriers with a little more reservation these days.

Guam Jungle 1 Weekend Warriors 0

No luck this time. We hiked for 2 1/2 hours in the jungle searching for the elusive double reef beach. It's so elusive in fact we gave up after multiple run-ins with the local banana spiders, komodo dragons and the occasional 3 pound poisonous toad - only if you lick them. Serious. The look on Ashley's face in the bottom picture pretty much encapsulates the feeling for the day. That's right I said encapsulate - not sure if it's a real word but I like it. I posted some more of the pictures on the Guamania July page - see below.

Ashley sent me this picture of me chasing the Komodo up a tree to get it's picture. In hindsight probably not one of my better ideas.

Tarzan Falls

Ok so there are waterfalls and dudes sitting under them. Not exactly the fighter pilot kind of thing to do. So here's the story. We (Steve, Ashley, Josh and myself) set off this morning to find Tarzan falls - it's in Central Guam. The trailhead is on the side of the rode and depicted by a small turnoff and several pairs of shoes hanging from a powerline. So far so good - found that. There is also a sign no larger than a cereal box that says "Tarzan Falls - 1.4 miles, moderate/difficult". What it doesn't say is a "keep left". So off we go to find tarzan falls (to the right) - how hard could that be - should be able to see / hear it right? 2 miles later we're in the middle of nowhere - actually we did find a nice overgrown trail - plenty of johnson grass - I thought that only thrived in Texas. Nope it grows just fine in Guam too. So we turn around and trace our steps back up to the top only to find we went exactly 180 out from where the falls were. So far our 1.4 mile hike has taken us about 3.5 - but we make it, and let me say it was well worth the effort. The falls were infeugo. There were 4 or 5 tiers of falls and once you make it to the bottom and look back up it's eye watering (it's also eye watering thinking about the hike out). We were the only people there and it was really spectacular being surrounded by the forest and all you can hear is the water crashing against the rocks and pool at the bottom. It was an awesome hike and worth the sacrifice (the crocs exploded and the heel strap is no longer a part of the sandal). I took several more pictures you can see on the http://picasaweb.google.com/keith.l.mcdaniel/GuamaniaJuly

That's all I've got for Saturday. Happy Early Birthday to Jenn - it's actually your birthday here in Guam. I wish you could have been here with us today - you would have loved it. Not the hike so much, or the mosquitoes, or the spiders - actually you would have hated most of it, but you would have liked the falls.

Life Lessons

One last tidbit before night night. So far there have been a few lessons I've learned around here. So far the most important one is - you don't want to be the first dude to fall asleep. Nothing good can possibly happen if you're the only fella catching some zzz's. These are just a few examples of what can happen. There's actually a whole video of Brock getting his nugget shaved but it would crash your computer trying to download it. Off to bed, I'm not the first so it's safe.

Ashley made it!

And now I have a room to myself. Of course one of the first places Steve has to take Ashley is to Haputo. I can't over emphasize how awesome this beach is. Because I'm fighting to keep my eyes open and I'm flying in the morning here's a run down of todays events:

gym, breakfast, listened to Cavalry church cd (thanks for sending them), navy exchange, lunch, totaled our mini van - pictures and story to follow, motrin, haputo beach, dinner, racquetball, movie - Ironman - good flick, sleepytime

I hope everyone has a good Sunday- it will be my Monday.

Earning my $3 a day

Here are some pictures of us from one of the KC-135 tanker dudes. I guess one of them put down his sony psp in time to take a few snaps - just kidding Garrett. I put some more pictures on the web album if you'd like to take a look : http://picasaweb.google.com/keith.l.mcdaniel/GuamaniaJuly

The past couple weeks we've been flying quite a bit. Afternoon takeoffs are getting gas from the tankers in between the fights. The morning goes are landing hot pitting and taking off again. It's put a bit of a damper on the ol golf game, but the flying is great as long as the weather cooperates. We're in the "rainy season" which really should be named the "sucky season" because the weather is just that. It rains every day and when it's not raining it's misting when it's not misting you better hurry because it's getting ready to rain.

Another Day Another Milestone

Yes, I've done it. I honestly didn't think it could be done, and in the past oh I'd say 5 years I can't recall having done it once unless I was sick. I stayed in the house 95 percent of the day - and it was beautiful. I left only to eat and go to the gym. I've overcome my fears and I think I could possibly do it again sometime in the near future. Here's how I occupy my time while hiding from the sun in my hooch. I talked to Jenn and the boys on the computer, searched for a wii fit for about 5 hours (still didn't find one - sorry Jenn), looked at plane tickets for another 3 hours (no luck there either - sorry again) applied aloe with lidocaine to a 1 by 6 inch swath on my neck that didn't receive the proper amount of spf and got torched yesterday (10 minutes), sport bitched with the fellas about how war is hell (30 minutes), shaved my noggin in the sink (10 minutes), searched new dvd releases to add to our collection (1 hour), reshaved my noggin after finding a shorter guard (10 minutes)... I'm sure there were some other important things I did throughout the day that I forgot. Actually the day was a bust and I had to go play some racquetball after dinner to get over my cabin fever. That was all good until I got popped in the back of the dome during our second game. Something about a racquetball getting implanted right behind the small of your ear and neck to make you want to go back to your happy place. Tomorrow will be more productive....