Adventures in travel and the NFL

The week before last we got the opportunity to travel to Knoxville Tennessee to attend our oldest son's graduation from Air Force NCO school. It was a great time, beautiful scenery, hardly any traffic other than going through Nashville and when we got to Knoxville, and we got to see our daughter in law Stephanie as well as an old buddy from the Army and OIF days who switched to the Air Force and was going to the same school. We came back to the farm for a day then headed up to Kansas City for a Chiefs game that our son treated us to...it was a fun filled and busy week.

 The school was at an Air National Guard base in Alcoa which is right outside Knoxville. It was mild weather and the base itself was pretty nice but really busy.

 Jay and Stephanie make a great couple, we just are waiting for them to transfer to Oklahoma so they can be closer. Jay prefers his flight suit but I think the military needs to get back to wearing their dress uniforms more often.

 Quite the outfit isnt it?

 We came back to the farm for a day before going to Kansas City for the game. We mostly relaxed from the long drive and caught up on some chores.

 All the kids like the animals. We never really had any when they were little because we moved so much and its one of my biggest regrets.

They came right up to Jay and almost wouldnt let him get the feed into the trough.

 NFL Games are truly events. Here the cheer leaders are welcoming the Kansas City players. When the Dolphins came onto the field they played Flipper.

 We had nose bleed seats but we were at the 35 yard line and had a great view of the game right below the announcer booth. If you ever do get to go to an NFL game bring lots of money, even bottled water was $5.

 This is KC Suzie....I'll just leave it at that without further comment!!

 It was 19 years ago almost to the day that I had promised Jay I would take him to a Chiefs game (we were stationed in Kansas City at the time) and about 2 days after buying tickets I was pulled off independant duty and sent to Somalia. We never did get to a game and so this trip meant a lot to both of us. We shall do it again.

It was military appreciation day and there were several nice tributes including to some severely wounded Soldiers attending the game. It always makes me feel sick when I see so many young people who are missing limbs, severely burned or psychologically affected by their service. The crowd was great to these guys and when they played a tribute that showed the photos of all the fallen from the surrounding area, and that tribute kept scrolling for 10 minutes with picture after picture of young men and women lost in the last ten years it was hard not to be affected.

 And the game was fun to watch even though Kansas City lost to the previously winless Dolphins.

 Luckily, we had a good view of the Jumbo Tron so we didnt miss the closeups of the cheerleaders...I mean football game.



And Holly really, really loves football. She had never been to an NFL game and she had a blast but she kept getting the crowd riled up over a Dolphins fan sitting in front of us. Poor guy!