Anyway, I think he really wanted to be career army, even though he took a discharge after WWII. He did continue serving in the peacetime National Guard. So (no big surprise), he applied for and got orders for temporary duty (TDY). Orders read Ft Monroe at Old Point Comfort. So we packed up our few possessions (and what we couldn't pack we left in his parents' garage.) So follows our trek cross-country from the Pacific Coast to the Atlantic Coast. We later referred to this as our honeymoon trip, as we had been married just five months when all this started to happen.
We left Long Beach on 1 November 19--. :-) Our route took us mostly on old Route 66. Anyone remember that one? I can tell you the cities we went through, but I can't remember where we made our over-nighters. Anyway, we headed to northern Arizona through Needles, Flagstaff, Winslow. Remember now, this was November, and it was cold! With snow.
Then we crossed over to New Mexico, through Albuquerque. Then across the Texas panhandle through Amarillo, and on to Witchita, Kansas, Kansas City and St. Louis. We crossed the Mississippi after dark, and it was quite a site with the lights of the cities on either side shining on the waters. That river is HUGE!
I think we spent the night somewhere in St. Louis, but I'm not sure about that. Anyway we progressed on through Indiana and made a brief stop in Indianapolis, the proceded on to Ohio.
In Ohio, we went to Dayton and saw the home where my husband had been raised until his family moved to California. He said it looked pretty much as he remembered it. Then from Dayton we went to Columbus, where his only remaining uncle and his wife lived. We arrived at night. S called his uncle, but declined the invitation to stay overnight. His excuse was that we had been on the road and were dirty and tired. So we spent the night in a hotel. Remember, all this was being paid for by the Army.
After Columbus we travelled onward to the East through West Virginia. What a beautiful state that is! We did go through coal mining town which wasn't so beautiful. We stopped briefly in Charleston, then headed on to Norfolk, Virginia and our destination Ft Monroe on Old Point Comfort. Actually it was called a fortress, but I'm not sure what the difference is.
We were billeted at the hotel, and when Stan reported to Hq, there was no record of his orders. Hmmph! Well, we're talking about the army. It took awhile, but somebody finally found out that we should have been going to Ft Sill (Lawton, Oklahoma).
While some bright clerk (you know they're the ones who run the army), searched for and finally found the proper orders, we visited Williamsburg and Richmond. In Richmond (lovely city) I saw some huge antique music boxes that put out the most sublime music. We wandered around Richmond for awhile, and on the way back to Ft Monroe, we bought some apple cider being sold from a roadside stand. Oh, my! such wonderful, cold nectar of the gods!
I must tell you something of the Officers' Club at Ft Monroe. It is (was?) one of the oldest fortified bases in this country. The walls of the building were hung with portraits dating from before the Revolutionary War. It reeked of history. The dining room was toally elegant. White linen tablecloths and napkins, flowers, candles. Enlisted men served as "mess attendants," which as I recall was considered a real cushy job.
The hotel was no sorry job, either. Elegance, Southern manners, very dignified. I never did get used to chicory coffee, though.
More tomorrow.