There

Got the hardest part of the deployment over: Kneeling down, hugging my crying children, and telling them how much I love them and will miss them.  Kissing my brave and wonderful wife and then trying not to look behind me as I set my jaw towards the path that would lead me on a grand adventure in a land far far away.  Loaded up into the Delta Airlines plane that would take me to Germany and then on to Kuwait and was surprised when I was told that a First Class Seat had been set aside specifically for me!  I have never ridden in First Class in my life, and I felt a twinge of guilt right up to the point that I sat down in the most comfortable fully reclining lazyboy chair in the world. It had lumbar adjustments, individual Television set, reclining and adjustable legs, computer outlet plugs...wow.  While in flight a stewardess asked if I would like to come sit with the pilots and my first thought was "Oh Lord if the pilots are asking for a Chaplain we are in serious trouble."  They just wanted to say hello and let me take pictures.  I was expecting a two handled steering device like in the movies.  It wasn't there. They had an Atari joystick that they only used on takeoff and landing. The rest was automatic. I was allowed to come and go as I pleased in the cockpit.  The coolest time came when we were flying over Turkey and the pilots had me come take a photo of the mountains of Ararat as we glided over them, flying past clouds like we had road-rage.  I'll check the footage later for any Ark sightings.  Made it to Kuwait and am working on getting over jetlag.  I think its a combination of the flight and the fact that I'm trying to go cold turkey on all sodas that has me so physically zombied-out.  Hello everyone, my name is Stephen and I am three days clean from sodas.  Coffee has been affixed to me permanently via IV however.  Did rollover training today.  I discovered that when a vehicle rolls over and I'm inside, I have the capacity to roll over as well. Fun times!