So what happens when two sailors from Austin, Texas meet and find out that their from the same town. Well you get stories about what each did while they grew up, the friends that are back home, well, you get two crazy Texans who come up with a crazy idea...
Let's drive home for the weekend!!!
Now... that wouldn't be a big deal if they were close to home but these two sailors happen to be my Best Shipmate David and myself and we were stationed onboard the USS Albert David, Fast Frigate 1050.... in..... San Diego, California...
Ahhhh. so just how long would it take 2 Crazy Texas Sailors to drive to Austin, Tx from San Diego. Ca? Well... with a few pit stops and driver switches, about 20-23 hours with good roads, good weather and a strong tail-wind. Hmmm. that means about 10 hours of driving each without stopping. Hmmmm..... need more drivers.....
So this is where being a Texan and being able to "Spinning the Yarn" on how great a Night In Austin would be to 2 other innocent, unknowing Shpmates to the point that you convinced them that well. of course they had to go....
Here is how it went.. Simple... 1 Pilot, 1 Co-Pilot (shotgun seat, he could drink as we went, A Navigator seated behind the Co-Pilot , he also could drink, from the cooler located between him and the Next Pilot, seated behind the Pilot. The biggest rule... The Next Pilot had to sober up before getting behind the wheel which usually meant "crashing" for about 3 hours prior to driving.
At the pit stop, Pilot goes to Co-Pilot, Co-Pilot goes to Navigator, Navigator goes to Next Pilot position. Next Pilot grabs the steering wheel for the next 3 hours.
Three hours of driving, pit stop, pilot switch and on we went.. The meals consisted of chips, some type of sweets to keep the sugar level up and some type of bread to soak up all the beer... Ahhh Pizza.
We would all acquire 2 day leave passes... yes only 2.. It was up to you to talk your Division Officer into letting you loose at noon on Friday... If you couldn't do that, you were not "worthy" of the "experience".
So off we would go... by 1pm on the road Frin David's 1977 Impala... which fit 4 and one cooler well.
Rules of the Road were properly followed.. Which were.. Flaps down. Full Throttle, Don't get caught speeding because that would cut into our time-line. The Navigator's job was to handle the "Radar Detector and man the binoculars while traveling IH 10 through California, Arizona, New Mexico and the seemingly never-ending West Texas....
Did it work? Lets just say we entered Travis County which is where Austin, Texas is if your not a Texan usually about 1pm Saturday afternoon. We now had about 5 hours to, visit relatives, shower, shave and 1 hour to pick and get to the first Honky-Tonk by about 7pm to catch the last hour of "Happy Hour."
Now the clubs in Austin closed at 2 a.m. which was perfect.. Because that meant 2 Texans and 2 now, Honorary Texans could climb back into a certain 1977 Impala and head west on the 24-26 hour trek back to San Diego, Ca. , a little longer cause we were a kind of worn out, about 4 a.m. approximately 2 hours before Reville on Monday morning.
One backlash that we found out about our Texas Trips... For some reason.. We could NEVER get the same 2 Shipmates to make the "experience" a 2nd time... I guess 1 time was enough.... For Them...
How many times did we make this little trip. If I remember right we introduce 8 shipmates to Texas over the next 2 years.
Ahhhhhh Texas and being a Sailor... Ya Gotta Love It....
Johnny
Let's drive home for the weekend!!!
Now... that wouldn't be a big deal if they were close to home but these two sailors happen to be my Best Shipmate David and myself and we were stationed onboard the USS Albert David, Fast Frigate 1050.... in..... San Diego, California...
Ahhhh. so just how long would it take 2 Crazy Texas Sailors to drive to Austin, Tx from San Diego. Ca? Well... with a few pit stops and driver switches, about 20-23 hours with good roads, good weather and a strong tail-wind. Hmmm. that means about 10 hours of driving each without stopping. Hmmmm..... need more drivers.....
So this is where being a Texan and being able to "Spinning the Yarn" on how great a Night In Austin would be to 2 other innocent, unknowing Shpmates to the point that you convinced them that well. of course they had to go....
Here is how it went.. Simple... 1 Pilot, 1 Co-Pilot (shotgun seat, he could drink as we went, A Navigator seated behind the Co-Pilot , he also could drink, from the cooler located between him and the Next Pilot, seated behind the Pilot. The biggest rule... The Next Pilot had to sober up before getting behind the wheel which usually meant "crashing" for about 3 hours prior to driving.
At the pit stop, Pilot goes to Co-Pilot, Co-Pilot goes to Navigator, Navigator goes to Next Pilot position. Next Pilot grabs the steering wheel for the next 3 hours.
Three hours of driving, pit stop, pilot switch and on we went.. The meals consisted of chips, some type of sweets to keep the sugar level up and some type of bread to soak up all the beer... Ahhh Pizza.
We would all acquire 2 day leave passes... yes only 2.. It was up to you to talk your Division Officer into letting you loose at noon on Friday... If you couldn't do that, you were not "worthy" of the "experience".
So off we would go... by 1pm on the road Frin David's 1977 Impala... which fit 4 and one cooler well.
Rules of the Road were properly followed.. Which were.. Flaps down. Full Throttle, Don't get caught speeding because that would cut into our time-line. The Navigator's job was to handle the "Radar Detector and man the binoculars while traveling IH 10 through California, Arizona, New Mexico and the seemingly never-ending West Texas....
Did it work? Lets just say we entered Travis County which is where Austin, Texas is if your not a Texan usually about 1pm Saturday afternoon. We now had about 5 hours to, visit relatives, shower, shave and 1 hour to pick and get to the first Honky-Tonk by about 7pm to catch the last hour of "Happy Hour."
Now the clubs in Austin closed at 2 a.m. which was perfect.. Because that meant 2 Texans and 2 now, Honorary Texans could climb back into a certain 1977 Impala and head west on the 24-26 hour trek back to San Diego, Ca. , a little longer cause we were a kind of worn out, about 4 a.m. approximately 2 hours before Reville on Monday morning.
One backlash that we found out about our Texas Trips... For some reason.. We could NEVER get the same 2 Shipmates to make the "experience" a 2nd time... I guess 1 time was enough.... For Them...
How many times did we make this little trip. If I remember right we introduce 8 shipmates to Texas over the next 2 years.
Ahhhhhh Texas and being a Sailor... Ya Gotta Love It....
Johnny
No comments:
Post a Comment