Cross Country Trip to Homeport San Diego!

After RMTEX field training, we finished off chaplain school with TEAMS week, some final information and preparation for our first assignment as a Navy Chaplain. I also attended my first Marine Corps Ball.

Me, Dan, Rafi, Gunny, Ryan, Jamil at the Marine Corps Ball

We graduated on November 15th. My Cheerleading squad, my Mom and sister Jill, showed up for graduation.

My Cheerleaders

After Chapschool, I stopped in Toms River for the weekend to pack. I loaded up my trailer with the help of Cat and Mike and Pat (awesome friends!)

On Sunday, I baptized my niece, Morgan Grace, Kelly and Andy's baby. It was a great experience! How cool to be a brother/uncle/priest!!

Cross Country Trip #1 -- San Diego!

That Monday I started my 2700 mile journey to the West Coast. The farthest I had been by car or bike was Illinois. So this was pretty cool. It was long days of 400-500 miles. Driving, stopping to eat, or get gas, take a photo, etc. My trip was to take me through Columbus, Ohio, St Louis, Missouri, Oklahoma City, Albuquerque, New Mexico and Phoenix, Arizona.

 

I'll post a couple cool photos from the trip. The first day I tried to put on some good miles to Ohio. Then I got into the swing of things by stopping at something interesting on Day Two. Here I found the World's Largest Wind Chime and, at the golf course, the World's Tallest Golf Tee in Casey, Illinois.

It had a scripture quote on it.

I didn't see the golf ball though....

A 55 foot Wind Chime. Cool Christian fish and Star of David symbols.

I stayed with Navy Chaplain, Fr. Joe Coffey, at the Cathedral in St. Louis. I was able to concelebrate mass there in the morning. It is a beautiful church, looks kinda like ones from France.

Pentecost

How about this altar. Nice!

Mary's altar

Fr. Joe took me to the St. Louis Arch at night. It is big!!

This thing is huge.

Like something from outer space....

Day 3

In the morning I took the tram up inside the Arch! Driving up to it...

Once inside you are up very high. That's my blue pickup and trailer down there....

630 feet high. There's room inside with windows to look around (obviously).

After this things got pretty flat. I visited a Chaplain friend, Episcopal priest, Kenneth Orsbourne in Tulsa, Ok. I stayed outside of Oklahoma city that night. The next morning I headed to Albuquerque, New Mexico. I passed through the panhandle of Texas and stopped at Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo.

Just some cars stuck in the dirt.

It was so cool that day. 40 something degrees and windy. But I am enjoying it!

Covered with years of graffiti. Pretty cool.

I stayed in Albuquerque, which is a pretty big city. I got up and went to St. Therese Church. It was small but pretty. There was a nice daily mass community. It is enjoyable to stop in and see local churches and the fact that they celebrate the same mass everywhere gives a sense of Universality of the Church.

After Albuquerque, I started to see some cool mountains and desert. There are the cool plateaus in the desert, we talked about in grade school.

Then I hit Arizona. It got colder and rainy. By the time I hit Flagstaff, it was 31 degrees. It seemed like a Pocono or New England ski town.

I drove up steep hills and was glad I recently had bought a pickup with a V6 engine. My Escape would not have pulled the trailer up the highways into Phoenix. Phoenix is a pretty busy city, too. Lots of shopping centers off the main highway.

The next day was more desert as I entered California. Luckily I was listening to a book on tape that keep me occupied (It was boring). Although I enjoyed the difference in scenery.

I headed west on Interstate 8, I came very close to the Mexican border. I crossed over some more mountains and entered San Diego. I arrived at the Naval Base at 32nd street, which would be my home area for the next six weeks.

The first ships I saw in San Diego were Arleigh Burke destroyers....the type I worked on at Lockheed back in my previous life!!

A few days in the area and I moved into the rectory at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Rancho Penasquitos - about 20 miles north of base. I had asked the diocese if they could find a rectory for me to stay in and luckily Fr. Anthony Saroki invited me there. A beautiful, new church and a lovely congregation. I really enjoyed my short time there and look forward to returning with LHA-6, the America, to our Homeport later this year!