PGR - Welcome home USA Sgt Michael Snodgrass - Mission Accomplished
Click on a pic for a larger pic, text for a pic is under the pic, blog is top to bottom. Blog is in two sections, Mike's Welcome Home and my visit, return trip and cleaning the mess up.Mike's year in Afghanistan is over and time for a PGR Welcome Home! Going to be great to get him back home! Askin' the Good Lord for all of them to come home soon!
Uneventful run up to Portland, I went up 5 as 97 thru east Or was 31.5 and snow flurries two days before and I didn't want to push my luck.
Arrived at my motel at the airport and started swapping messages with Chris Keller, Or State PGR co-captain about Mike's mission. Finally got it all straight Sat night for a Sunday night mission, kind of normal, sigh..... She did a FANTASTIC job! Thank you for what you do!!! Our RC Was Bob Williams, and thank you for what you do!
We had ~24 members and three of Mikes stateside unit showed up for 27! Outstanding!!! Mike said he was VERY impressed! Thank you ALL! I think by default, I get long rider pin! GBG And as a foot note, the only time I got rained on was headed into the airport, but Portland got me again....
My "on the road again" pic, wife said they're all the same, I said Yup! Onea more time! On the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again, sing it Willy!
The reflection blocks the impact of the flashing led's on the sign, very nice!
The 3 young ladies from Mike's stateside unit let us join them! GBG
The flight before Mike's, soldiers from his unit coming off their flight!
I didn't know they from Mike's unit at the time, but GREAT timing! They got a welcome home too!
A young man visiting and having a fun moment.
More get together moments...
The main body of the PGR group coming in, they were having a briefing and made it in time to get some hugs and salutes.
Like I said, some hugs....
More coming in...
Folks getting into "formation".
On my right, caught a pic of Chris K next to me.
On my left, I walked over there so I could be the first to see them coming. Mike's family opted to get passes and go to the gate, I explained with all my gear and some metal in my right knee, I did not want to do security.. plus I felt that the family should be the ones up front, only right.
Getting ready for the big moment, a passenger walking thru...
Here comes Mike's oldest daughter Samshel and you can see Mike over by the sign on the glass.
Big smiles! He's home!!!!! Mission accomplished!!!! ... sorry for the pic, it's what I have...
Just aw struck!
And folks, here is the money pic!!!!! Mike and family, son Wyatt in front Samshel to his left and wife Nisel... Of course the Cranky ol' dude had to horn in on the pic!!!! GBG
This concludes the welcome home portion, we let them get their bags and head home to Tillamook. It was late and I had no desire to ride thru the country side and hills so stayed one more night at the airport Super 8.
Went out early afternoon the next day for a short visit, this is THEIR time! I did stay one more day to help with things like getting a truck started, an off road Jeep and a few little things, and wanted to leave them alone.
Mike visit, trip home and cleaning Ruby follows.....
The kids had a special request, Smores, trip to the store for the makin's and start the fire for the marshmallows!
Wyatt and Samshel waiting for the fire to burn down a tad...
OK, patients be darned... GBG
It was cool out, Nisel was foot toasting...
Next day - Tues, Wyatt does like my scoot! Methinks Mike will have a challenge in a few years!
He knows how to do it!
Well we got Mike's Ford 350 Diesel running, on to the Jeep, if Ya look close, you can see the tail light on, it's running! Had a coolant leak, so another day. That is the "it's only temporary" shed we built last year before he left. He wanted to protect it from the Tillamook weather.
Mike bought a laptop off Ebay and it didn't work, well it looks like we have it working, on a roll here. He gave me his netbook to fix, it went belly up.... I used some linux programs to determine the hard disk operated.... up to a point... DEAD, ordered a new hard disk for $50 bucks and will load a Win XP Pro on it, and GTG.
Wed - Time to hit the road, on to Crescent City, 300m of slow road down 101 and the Or coast, then a 400m stretch to San Jose.
I've traveled that road many times, fog, cold, rain, fire smoke, dunno what else. For ONCE I had a beautiful day!!!!! The coast was CLEAR!!! Gorgeous! Loved it!
I like to hit a deli or if I have a breakfast at a restaurant, I get a sandwich to go so I can pick a nice place in the middle of nowhere to eat and enjoy.... this is the middle of nowhere! GBG
Some of the waves were smacking pretty hard as they came into this narrows. No big blow, but nice smacks.
I've always wanted a pic of the beach line, as you can see, where I stopped was not too smart, I forgot that there was another spot not too far up....
Not too far up, sigh, about 1/2 mile. Love this shot! Ore coast...
Ocean was gorgeous... Just have to take pics...
So. Ore or No Cal, forget, nice shot of a long beach.
Time to pay the piper.... the front of my scoot looked like my right mirror, sigh, can't stand it.... hours...
Left mirror, after...
When I started the trip, I would've normally changed oil, got lazy, run Mobil full syn 15x50 and don't really worry about it.
Well, while I was cross threading my side oil drain, I got a good look at my front motor mount..... A lot more than I should've!!!! Sigh...
Did a stoopid on restarting the plug, it started to get snug and I felt the gap, and said, hum, that is NOT right, backed it out and got it straight. I find sooooo many ways to @*)!#$*%!#$*%! an oil change, it is unbelievable!!! $*$)#!#$%*
As to the motor mount, it has obviously pulled out of the other side and guess what? Well, duh, the weight of the motor sunk down a tad and the $*)!$%*% thing didn't want to go back in!!!
Had some 2x4 chunks, wedged 'um under the pan and rolled the bike up and the wife smacked it back in, good fix coming soon, sigh... guess the torque spec was a tad loose, sigh...
Nice little 1542m trip! ... just about 6K more planned for the summer... on the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again.... Sing it Willy!
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