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Chapter 2
California—here we come!
My wife Kay and I had a few weeks R & R after I graduated from ‘The Basic School’ ( Summer 1964 ) and we spent time with our families in W.Va knowing it would be a while before we would see them again. Little did we know that I would be on my way to Viet Nam a year later. After a month long leave Kay and I drove across Country which was a first for both of us. We took a week to make the journey enjoying the scenery along the way. We stopped every 400/500 miles trying to time our stops to coincide with tourist attractions along the way. We enjoyed nice restaurants and shopping in places we had only read about. One of the most breathtaking places we came to was Albuquerque, NM. We arrived on the outskirts of the City on Rt. 66 coming, of course, from the East--the Sun had just gone down and the City stretched out on the plains below like a sparkling jewel. We pulled the car over and simply sat and stared at one of the most beautiful sights either of us had ever seen. The lights seemed to stretch out forever and the spot at which we had parked was on a high elevation
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