I support Coast Guard Search and Rescue

OK, OK, I know that I haven't updated in a LOOOOOOONG while, during which time lots of things happened. But rather than catching up all at once and perhaps never catching up, I'd better post something small and at least post something!

My brother is officially a Coastie now. He graduated from Coast Guard boot camp on Friday, August 11, 2006, and this very proud sister was there to watch. . . . but only barely! The trip was supposed to take us 3 hours, so we left 3 and one-half hours early. For some reason, every time we drove in PA or NJ, it seemed to take us longer than supposed to (no, we weren't driving too slowly, either!). That particular morning, we had directions from AAA in our hands that first of all told us the wrong name for a street we were supposed to turn on, leading us back and forth past the street we were supposed to be turning on. Then, we hit the change from one highway to another and were in the left lane to merge onto the eastbound hwy when the very next sign we drove under (right before the merge!) told us we were in the westboundlane! Too late to switch! We began heading west, looking for a place to pull off and turn around and noticing that the other side of the hwy was HIGHLY congested. Then were saw a sign at the side of the road telling us were actually eastbound. huh? we pulled off at the first exit to check it out and gas up the car--sure enough we HAD been going the correct way--praise the Lord!!! The final glitch occurred when Garden State Parkway dead-ended into 109S and our directions told us to take 109N which meant turning right. But Mom and Dad had said that we were supposed to stay straight. So we made a u-turn to go back to 109S. Looking at the directions, we found that they included a u-turn, too. Bother! Still we made it to the graduation ceremony in time and cheered as loudly as we could for Thomas. Then I bought a bumper sticker that said "US Coast Guard: Support Search and Rescue--Get lost!" I figured it applied. =)