What a difference a week can make

So spring is certainly on its way. As is the fashion in Bavaria, the feet of accumulated snow that we had last week, has retreated so quickly, it is as if it was never there. I sense this is not the case back home in NH, from the pictures Mum has sent me over black berry messenger. This week was busy for us, but considerably more fun than most, as we have been able to ride every day, except for the days I was in the field.

These riding adventures started last weekend. Nate and I planned to get our friend Chris off the indoor trainer for good last weekend. On Saturday, we had a chilly yet uneventful ride through the rolling hills in the direction of Weiden. Sunday, was much more eventful than Saturday due to the propensity of Grafenwoehr weather to be as unpredictable as New England's storm fronts. When the three of us started out on our ride, although cloudy, the air was dry and not very winding. We were enjoying our ride, yet seemed a tad dismayed over the increasingly darkening sky. Despite the potential for bad weather, we continued to ride only to be caught in the most impressive of snow/ sleet storms. We suffered through over ten miles of misery with precipitation that felt like razors hitting us in the face. When we finally made our way home, and took off our shoes, my feet were so swollen from cold that they looked liked like sausages with toes!

Despite bad weather and very icy conditions, Nate and I braved the cold to ride over lunch of Monday. On Tuesday and Wednesday, my company went to the field for some training. It is the battalion commander's guidance for us to gain experience in a more classic style of warfare than we are used to fighting, as he is trying to prepare us for less traditional deployments which may come down, such as for Africa or Eastern Europe. In otherwords, we are learning how to be the Army of the 80's. Although foriegn to many of my Soldiers, ROTC has prepared the officers for this task just fine. The infinite knowledge of my 1st Sergeant and older NCO's has proven indispensable. We convoyed out to the field site (with a slight detour, thanks Sam). Once out in the muddiest place I have ever seen, we set up our tents, camo nets, etc. and started digging in. This may not seem to be much of a process, but when you sink up to your knees in mud (Bean would have HATED it), it is not very easy! After spending the night, and teaching some different skills to our Soldiers, we packed up and started home, but not before Sam's platoon baptized him in the mud, as it was his first field exercise with the unit.

The rest of the week was uneventful, except for a poorly timed flat tire on Nate's bike over one of our lunch time rides. Luckily we were not far from home. Yesterday, we attempted to ride again with Chris, hopefully under better conditions. The weather held out, except for some killer wind. We wandered around our favorite ride routes and discovered many more. We climbed over 3/4 mile vertical, which was quite impressive, seeing that we rode less than 40 miles. We did see some great old ruins on top of one of the taller hills we climbed. Riding makes the week pass so much more quickly, and hopefully the weather will cooperate! Hope everyone will get a dose of spring like we did (not that we expect it to stay that way!).