Literally in the Middle of Nowhere
Hello to all from Fort Riley, KS. I am without a doubt, out in the middle of nowhere. Driving here, the area was devoid of houses and farmland even for probably 50 miles. This is not to say it's not a nice scenery because it absolutly is. This entire place is gently rolling green hills with trees only in the valleys of the hills.
The drive down took roughly 10 hours. Myself and another guy on my PMT took our own vehicles down so we'd have some transportation while we're down here. This was great until we reached the front gate. The other guy, whose name ironically is Lance Armstrong(no joke) already had his vehicle registered in the department of defense so he drove right on. I however, did not. This is not really a problem, except that my insurance card that I had in the car was not the current one so I couldn't bring my car on post. We decided to leave my car at the visitors center and I just got on the bus that most of the guys rode on. The bus then preceded to side swipe the guard rails at the front gate causing a large commotion with the MP's. Eventually we got to our barracks and were issued rooms. These rooms are nice. I have my own room and I share a kitchen/bathroom area with another guy. However, my room key didn't work so I couldn't get in. Yeah...that was just more fun trying to get that figured out. eventually I did make it in my room.
Today we started our SRP(soldier readiness program?). This went quickly at most stations due to the efficiency of the mini-srp's that Illinois had us do. However, I did receive my first anthrax vaccine and a small pox vaccine. I'm not worried about the anthrax one, it's not too contagious. This is not true for the small pox. It's highly dangerous and all the skin around where they poked me 15 times with it will die and scab over and fall off. I have to make sure and keep this covered as I could accidently spread it to other parts of my body.
I will have probably 10 or so more days of all this SRP stuff and then I will have to give up my room and go 'down range' and live at a pretend FOB(foward operating base) to conduct the rest of my training. I'm still working on the internet situation. It appears I can get it, only it's like 3 times as expensive as we all thought it was going to be. I've resorted to walking a few buildings over and using their free internet. Hopefully I'll get this resolved soon.
Well so long folks.
The drive down took roughly 10 hours. Myself and another guy on my PMT took our own vehicles down so we'd have some transportation while we're down here. This was great until we reached the front gate. The other guy, whose name ironically is Lance Armstrong(no joke) already had his vehicle registered in the department of defense so he drove right on. I however, did not. This is not really a problem, except that my insurance card that I had in the car was not the current one so I couldn't bring my car on post. We decided to leave my car at the visitors center and I just got on the bus that most of the guys rode on. The bus then preceded to side swipe the guard rails at the front gate causing a large commotion with the MP's. Eventually we got to our barracks and were issued rooms. These rooms are nice. I have my own room and I share a kitchen/bathroom area with another guy. However, my room key didn't work so I couldn't get in. Yeah...that was just more fun trying to get that figured out. eventually I did make it in my room.
Today we started our SRP(soldier readiness program?). This went quickly at most stations due to the efficiency of the mini-srp's that Illinois had us do. However, I did receive my first anthrax vaccine and a small pox vaccine. I'm not worried about the anthrax one, it's not too contagious. This is not true for the small pox. It's highly dangerous and all the skin around where they poked me 15 times with it will die and scab over and fall off. I have to make sure and keep this covered as I could accidently spread it to other parts of my body.
I will have probably 10 or so more days of all this SRP stuff and then I will have to give up my room and go 'down range' and live at a pretend FOB(foward operating base) to conduct the rest of my training. I'm still working on the internet situation. It appears I can get it, only it's like 3 times as expensive as we all thought it was going to be. I've resorted to walking a few buildings over and using their free internet. Hopefully I'll get this resolved soon.
Well so long folks.
posted by Ryan at
6:37 PM
4 Comments:
Ryan,
It sounds like you're enjoying your experience so far. Your trip sounds like some of the short vacations we've been on, what with room keys not working and car issues. Keep us posted; I check your site at least once a day. Focus on the front sight!
Ryan,
Glad to hear you doing OK. Watch out for tornado's and stay away from dogs named Toto.
Hey, Ryan ~
So glad you are doing this blog! Hope you are able to get the internet situation figured out soon! Praying for you today.
hi ryan,
i got your site from Dawn. i know we havent formally met. i think you met my husband ben at the memorial day parade :) if anything you guys were in the paper together! glad you guys are settling down some at riley. ben is at mccoy training for a few weeks, home for a few, then off to ft. dix before going to iraq. i'll try to keep the iraqis and afghans striaght! lol.
katie
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