The pine trees along the high way followed us for as long as I can remember on our drive. I noticed the miles coming to a end on our Navi system & I told Gabe there better be a BIG city really soon because I ain't living in the woods. Moments later we were greeted with a Welcome to Ft. Jackson sign and more TREES. We finally made our way to our new duty station all the way across the mainland in Columbia, South Carolina. This is home for the next two & half years so let the fun begin. Gabe is going to be a Drill Sgt., he isn't totally thrilled with the assignment but he is going into it with a open mind so that's good. Not to mention that this is really good for his career in the Army, so you can't complain about that. For the next 2 & 1/2 months he will just go to work as normal reporting to his new unit (which he seems happy with). January 9th he has a drill school date were he will go for 3 months a be trained on how to be a Drill Sgt. We were told that the school will be here on post but he will stay in the barracks for the 3 months. I'm really hoping that changes between now and then. After just getting off a year long deployment, then with this assignment ahead of us & the crazy schedule he will have I want every minute with him I can. So we will wait it out and see, I can only hope for the best.
We were able to get a house as soon as we officially signed out of Schofield. I have to say that was one thing I was really worried about. I didn't want to have to stay in a hotel with the dogs. They had been through so much over the last month & half I just wanted to get things back to as normal as possible & stable for them. We had a appointment with housing at 1pm the day we got here & within 45minutes after that we were handed keys to our new place. I'd be lying if i said wasn't bummed that we aren't able to get newer housing. It's quite nice, I'd say nicer than Schofield, it looks allot like Schofield housing but in a RowHome type of set up. However Gabe & I both agreed it still wasn't THAT nice were we'd want to have kids to be able to get into it. I guess we will be waiting on that next rank E7.
The house we were assigned is very similar to what we had at Schofield as far as layout. The difference is this one is more updated with carpet through out the upstairs, laminate hard wood flooring downstairs, central AC & semi smaller. There are four homes in a section A-D and we are C so in the middle (we were offered a end unit as well but for personal reasons we turned it down). As soon as we got to the house & started unloading the car we were greeted by the 3 other families that live in our section. They were very welcoming with open arms and smiles letting us know if there was anything we needed fill free to ask. I was so happy that we had great neighbors, at Schofield we kinda kept to ourselves & so did everyone else in our area no one really came out of there homes unless they were leaving.
About a year ago the Army started letting Retired Soldiers live in government housing, with that being said two of the families living in our section are retired & the other is Active Duty. It's nice having such a divers group of people living around us. It makes me that much more happier with the home we picked, I look forward to getting to know them more & hearing their stories from when they were in the Army. To give you a idea of how long ago one of the couples retired, it was the year I was born '86 & his son just retired from the Army as well with 20 something years in CRAZY!!!!
Once we got the car unloaded, showered & freshened up it was time to do a bit of shopping at the PX. But first a stop at the lending closet, which ended up being a total life saver. They have a life time supply of stock on hand to GIVE you until your HHG's get here. Out of everything we got we only have to take back the microwave, coffeemaker & vacuum. The other things like a entire set of dishes, cooking pot set, table ware, cutting board, mixing bowl, mop, broom, laundry basket, can opener & knife set we get to keep. Now we have all of these things in our HHG's so as much as a help as its going to be we don't need the extra (frankly its a very basic set of items as well not really my taste) so we plan on donating everything to the local thrift shop on post. I made out a list of everything else we needed for the house & we went to town shopping at the PX. I have to say it was pretty fun shopping around and seeing all the different things they had.
Our next stop was the Commissary we had to get some basic items to get us through the next two weeks before we plan to do a mass shopping trip. I didn't mention above about how much smaller the PX was here VS. what we are use to but OMG the Commissary just about drove us nuts. It was set up completely different than the SB Comm. it was nearly half the size & just made no sense at all. I guess it goes along with "I DON'T LIKE CHANGE" just another thing I'm gonna have to get use to.
It was a long day and a very tiring one, we drove around checking out the post a little bit & the city its self some but we mainly took the rest of the day to get settled in.
Ft. Jackson is a big change from were we came from not only the environment but the post its self. It's small like SB but more spread out and more challenging to find things. I know with time we will know it by the back of our hand like we did our last duty station but until then its still all very much a blur to me as it still is all setting in. Being on a Training base is very different in many way, I'm sure I'll blog about it here and there over our stay here so keep a eye out for that.
Follow our journey through my blog here over the next 2 & 1/2 years at Ft. Jackson, I will be posting a picture each day from something we saw, did, something new or something that happen in our life. It's our life captured by daily photographs, just another way for us to remember our time here and I hope you enjoy seeing life through my eyes (photographs) as much as I enjoy taking the pictures & living it.
DAY 1
Our First Meal in our New Home!!
To tired to cook so take out it was, yummy pizza for two please.
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