Tony is gone

Tony had to report to North Dakota as of 4pm Sunday afternoon. Camp Grafton, apparently a small, itty-bitty base at least half the size of Fort Custer, and for those who haven't been on the actual base of Fort Custer, I'll explain it for those who have been in the camping part...it would probably be considered MAYBE 1/10 or less of the entire campground. Like ONLY where the camping happens. No trails. Itty Bitty base. In the middle of nowhere.

So, last Wednesday, Tony noticed one of his tires was hissing at him, then he noticed a GIANT crack in the side of one...which is where it hissed at him from. Knowing he had to leave Friday, he freaked out, knowing we couldn't afford a new tire, let alone 4 new tires, which he needed. He almost was forced to take my mothers Ford, which at first, I wish he did, but now that hind sight is 20/20, I'm glad he didn't. But, his mother (her and Will are apparently rich again...) bought him new tires. Four of them, in fact. which was awesome. The reason I say hind sight is 20/20 and I'm glad he took his truck is this: Tony left Friday, probably about 1:30pm...his journey was going to be about 1007 miles one way. He had to travel through a chunk of Indiana, a chunk of Illinois, a chunk of Wisconsin, completely cross over Minnesota, then through half of North Dakota. He stopped in Illinois some time near 11pm that evening to sleep, since he was tired. At 3:30am, he woke up, and wide awake, continued on his journey. Some time that Saturday, It snowed like 18 inches in Minnesota along highway 94, which sadly was where Tony had to drive straight through...It was VERY snowy.......which sucked....

Thankfully, he had his 4-wheel drive truck (not mommy's car) and 4 brand new pretty tires. He made it through just fine, he got into Camp Grafton about 4pm Saturday afternoon, he had left early from Michigan just because he wanted to make sure if something like taking 4 extra hours to putt through 18 inches of snow, he'd have the time to do it safely.

But he's safe, he says North Dakota is a baron flatland with no trees to block the wind so it's super windy, and the base is so small, and the nearest town is probably the size of Potterville. Sucks for him but on the plus side of him driving down, he gets 47 cents per mile, which means $470 one way, so he only spent about $200 in gas going down there, and he's getting double back. Totally awesome.

Tony comes back somewhere near the 12th of May, but he plans to stop in Wisconsin somewhere to see one of his friends from basic training, I have only heard him be called "Lugenbeel" so whatever. We'll see him soon :)