April 25th

Well, one last quick blog before hitting the trail on our way out to the desert. The last week has been pretty cush compared to the first two. We got off early on Thursday so a couple of us headed down town to Columbia to check out the Ale House. Fantastic beers and food by the way. The "old section" of Columbia is being rebuilt and is a combination of new architecture and the ols style south brick buildings. In a couple of years when the ecomnomy rebounds, this place will be a hopping town. There's already a lot of bars (classy ones, not just USC college dives although I hear in 5 Points, these are aplenty) and really nice restaurants (non chain, local type). In any case, a room at the Hilton, a workout before dinner and off we go. I guess Thursdays are big nights here and the hard an "art show" akin to First Friday in Honolulu. All the local tourist and art shops stay open late and host a free wine bar at each place. After that and a sotp at the local outfitters (because you simple can't walk past a kayak shop or an Army/Navy surplus place without going in for a $5 t-shirt...in this case a nice pair of wool boot socks and a new wrist band after ruining the originial in the sands of the rifle ranges). The next morning was another workout, a nice breakfast in the all-ya-can-stomach gut-buster (or butt-guster) and then lunch at IHOP for more gut busters (mmmmm....pan crack...). We finished out our time downtown with a very brief trip to the South Carolina Capitol Building. Very interesting. There was a highly conspicuous lack of anything having to do with the Civil War. All the artwork inside (it was beautiful and extensive, very nice cupola and about 50 foot ceilings) was of the Revolutionary War era. Everything is open for public viewing although you can't just wander through the aisles of the Senate Room. My last night in the US was with another 13 mile run, some laundry, and then my feet up while watching the Cavaliers stick it to Detroit. No beer but after yesterday's hangover, yeah, not so much. We have some time before getting on the buses for our all nighter. Haysoos for one, is packed up and ready to go. Being a lot of dry land operations we done here, he's been somewhat negelected for safety purposes and is anxious to get out and get some fresh air. That's about it from Camp McCrady/Ft. Jackson, South Cakalaky. It's officially the calm before the storm...