Friday Morning, September 4

Internet photo

Each photo from this point on is from Deb’s cell phone.

After leaving the graduation ceremony, Jere said we would be stopping at the Marine Exchange Department Store for a bathroom and food stop before heading north. He said it would be more than two hours before our first stop at Buc-ee’s.

This is where “God Thing” #6 happened – and this one was for me. While Cerwin relaxed on a chair in the food court, I headed toward the restroom and in the process walked through the food court. This is when the counter attendant said, “Doris, I have been looking for you. You left your credit card here yesterday.” I hadn’t even missed it! But it was not in my travel purse. When he handed it to me, I rewarded him with a nice tip. 🙂

Jana and Jesse with their Starbucks purchase at the Exchange. It was good to see Jesse in street clothes.

We left the base about 11:30 am.

Deb with Buc-ee. Buc-ee’s was a crazy place with wall-to wall people because it was Labor Day Friday.

Several of us took naps – including Jesse. It was probably the first time all summer that he had time for a nap.

He told us about a time in Boot Camp that he was at the end of a very long line while waiting for a haircut and kept falling asleep while standing.

Jere drove during the entire trip – about 11 hours each way. A few of the others had offered to drive, but Jere was up to every mile. We praise God for safety and that we didn’t even have any scary situations.

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset before heading into the dark and an occasional downpour.

We arrived at Roy and Deb’s place about 11:30 pm. This is where Josh and Kelli also got out of the van and headed home. We got to Jere’s about 12:30 am and to our place at 12:45.

Oh, what a wonderful experience we had on this three-day trip to and from Jesse’s graduation from Marine Bootcamp.