This was our last day at Chattanooga TN. Like so many other places we visit, we have ran out of time. We really enjoyed our stay here but we did not get to see everything and everyone we wanted to, so that just means a return trip! Right?!
So today being the last day here brings our pre-departure prep. This morning Doreen did some laundry while I knocked out a list of small maintenance and cleaning tasks. Our little fan needed cleaning and I also cleaned under the bed and under the stove - both areas hard to access. I also defrosted our RV fridge freezer and then completed our pre-departure stuff like flushing and dumping our tanks and stowing our hoses.
This afternoon Brad Herren, our Air Force buddy we served with in Maine, drove up from his residence in Big Canoe GA to see us. Brad retired 11 years ago as Vice President Sales, North America Kimberly-Clark Professional. Brad and his wife Beth had planned to camp with us in their RV here, but Beth has been ill so Brad drove up solo to see us.
Brad, Doreen and I go back all the way to 1974-1977 timeframe when I was serving in the Air Force at Loring Air Force Base near Limestone Maine. I worked at a long haul high frequency radio transmitter site which was located off-base in the middle of a potato field between Loring AFB and Caribou. I was a radio electronics maintenance technician and Brad was in power production. He and his team kept our emergency generators working. Obviously our equipment required reliable power and with the nasty winter weather in the northern tip of Maine, the generators were critical to our operation.
These pictures are from the going-away party that was held for Brad and I, as we both left Maine about the same time.
As mentioned before, Doreen and I were one of the few married couples at our site, so Doreen was kind of a mom to a lot of them and we hosted many of the holiday dinners and parties at our apartment. Brad was like family and we have stayed in touch with most of them all these years. Our daughter Michelle "Goober" was born up there and some of "the boys" from Maine including Brad attended her wedding!!
Those were great times that we will never forget. Charlie and Elaine Philbrook who we visited just a few days ago in Mississippi were a part of that group. My buddy Greg Noskowiak that I fish with every year was also there, along with Armand "Hammy" Lambert from Vermont, Ernie Reid from Ohio, Ernie Souther from Maine, Chick McCoubrey from Maine, Bob and Joyce Childre from Florida and the list goes on. Friends for life!
So it is always great to reconnect with our comrades, relatives and friends. The last time we saw Brad and Beth was in 2021 on our way through Georgia and we drove south to Florida. Today we spent some time here in our RV and reminisced and laughed a lot. Brad brought up a bottle of his favorite bourbon and we sampled it along with some I had brought for the bourbon tasting at the Alliance Rally in a couple weeks.
Brad, Doreen and I headed out for dinner and then back to the campground to say our goodbyes. We talked about our tentative travel plans for next year and we will try to intersect with them.
Thanks for tagging along!
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