QM BOLC Week 1

Before we get started on the past two weeks, we'll start with the normal stuff.

Song of the Week: "Crazy Kids" by Ke$ha feat. Will.i.am. A song about living life on the edge and having fun. It's quite a fun song.

Run of the Week: Petersburg National Battlefield. Very nice trail system close to where I'm staying. It's a mix of paved and packed dirt trials and its all in the shade.  The trials work their way through the park and provide a great way to see some history along the way.

So two weeks ago, I drove all the way from Missoula, MT to Petersburg, VA to attend QM BOLC-B at Ft. Lee, VA. It was quite the drive not including the fact that my air conditioning went out somewhere in Ohio. I got to see a lot of the country I would have never seen and drove some roads that were very worth it. One of the highlights of the trip was driving the Midland Trial, aka US Highway 60, from Charleston, WV to Lewisburg, WV. It is a very curvy road that works it way up and down a few of the Appalachian  mountains. It goes through a state park and is very beautiful the whole way. After that, I took some of the back roads (mainly the Glascow road) in Virginia. I got lost and went down a service road of a golf course  (oops) but it all worked out in the end.

I took a few stops along the way, but by far the most interesting one was Appomattox. The thing that stood out to me the most was how the battle and the surrender of General Lee was portrayed. History text book put a very Northern spin on it, so I felt there was a very Southern spin at the battlefield. But hey, history only remembers the winners.

A bridge over a stream at Appomattox. Notice the design of the sides.

I just completed the first week of QM BOLC-B. To put it lightly, it was really boring. We did a lot of paper work, took a PT test and did some health screenings. I can't wait to do more this next week. I'm not quite used to having nights and weekends off during training yet, but I will get used to it. I have adapted to the weather quite well and am starting to enjoy it. That's all I have for now.