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| The Pana-Gals Celebrating Their Victory in the Snow |
The drive down was the usual
combination of hilarity and opinions offered at breakneck speed. It was good day to visit Newport Bellevue Avenue
We stopped at a coastal park
so the beautiful Panagals could take some pictures. I wandered up to a knoll which had a very
nice monument to the victims of the EqyptAir disaster in 1999. My sister in law and her cousin and cousin’s
daughter were the only ones who braved the rocky shore for photos. I enjoyed climbing the rocks although I did
take note that I’m not as spry as I once was.
My wife stayed in the warm car so I was not bombarded with a constant
stream of “Be Carefuls!!”
The short sight seeing trip
accomplished, we then headed for the real object of the trip – SHOPPING!!! They had an actual Navy sailor on the gate
and he saluted me when we came through the gate. That was kind of nice and made me realize
that I do still miss the military (a little).
The gals approached the Base
Exchange with an almost reverent awe around 12:30pm. I was summarily dismissed and quickly
forgotten about. I settled into the
attached Blimpie’s with my book and a superb roast beef sub. The book, Memory of Light, was so good
as I immersed myself in the final battle while time sped by. I was vaguely aware that my wife came by once
for a rest room break and insure I hadn’t abandoned them. She reported the girls were having a fabulous
time and had found some amazing bargains. I reacted with appropriate awe.
I looked up at one point and
noticed the Blimpie’s had closed and it was getting dark outside. My wife’s cousin’s daughter came by to
excitedly report that snow was falling outside.
It was fast approaching 5pm and I was completely amazed at their ability
to shop for five hours straight without breaking for food or even coming up for
air.
Since the snow storm was supposed
to be bad near the coast I decided we needed to get on the road. I was a little daunted of the task of trying
to extract the gals, dedicated shoppers that they were; especially when they
were as embedded as deeply as they were.
They employed a fairly unique defense by spreading to the four corners of
the exchange while I tried to locate my wife, the ring leader.
Luckily I’ve spent thirty
years learning her tactics and I was not distracted and went straight to the
dressing room where I pinned her down.
(I read your book, you magnificent etc, etc!!!) I told her it was time to leave the almost
deserted exchange as other shoppers had already noticed the rapidly worsening
storm. My wife agreed to head towards
the check out and set out to corral her fellow shoppers. Twenty minutes later I went by the check out
area and ascertained they had finally reached the counter. I wandered over to help with my ID card and
watched an amazing amount of material build up on the counter. These ladies can shop!!!!
Despite not eating since
breakfast the ladies were in a completely celebratory mood. I got the impression they were in a similar
mood to athletes who had just won the big game.
They were also extremely excited to see the snow falling, a unique
experience for them. I was less excited
about the snow since I had to drive through it, Rhode Island
We made it home with just a
little bit of adventure. I enjoyed
hearing my wife explain about snow storms; never realizing she had achieved
expert status in her years in New England . A very late dinner for the tired shoppers
allowed them to hold forth on their victories of the day. I get to go back to work today but I’m going
to miss my times in the car with the Pana-Gals (a little bit).
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| The Rocky Newport Shore |
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| My Sister in Law Made the Climb and was Typically Camera Shy |
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| The Rest of the Brave Ones |
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| The Entire Gang |
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| The Cool EgyptAir Monument |
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| My Wife Supervising Chaos at the Checkout Counter |
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