"2006 highlights" by benwrite

In March, Dick Cheney came to my base. Sure I was working hard, but Bettina and Sydney from Channel 2 along with the other reporters from the local area made the day fun. This was the second time Bettina and Sydney hung out with me for an extended period, as they flew with me on a C-17 to cover the evacuation of people out of New Orleans in 2005. Bettina did a week long special on the mission and Sydney got some incredible footage.

In January, Steve Harvey and his morning show came to Charleston. I had the chance to get an autograph and had my picture taken with Nephew Tommy in the background. He was pretty cool and wanted to mess with all the military members at the base. The night before he ate at my favorite little hang out, more on that in my tips on Charleston.

The week of Mardi Gras, I was in San Antonio and hung out along the Riverwalk every night. It was a great week, thanks in part to my friend Lisa from VT, and all my fellow friends that were at the conference with me (see my San Antonio page).

I travel to Augusta frequently and this city is really growing on me. Every time I go I find another reason why I like Georgia so much. The people there are so friendly and hospitable, the food is truly Southern, and the things to do for a small city is vast. Check out my tips on my Augusta page.

April brought in the annual air show to my base, and it was the biggest one yet. In fact, it was the second biggest one-day air show in America this year with more than 78 aircraft on display. I worked media the whole week and it was a blast. Hanging out with Amanda Fitzpatrick from Live 5 News was cool, talking and working with the Blue Angels was surreal, and driving in a golf cart through 130,000 people was a challenge.

In April I ran the new Cooper River Bridge 10K Run, which more than 50,000 people accomplished that day. Running is one of my passions, but running in a group so large (as you can see in the image below) it was hard to get a good stride going. I finished second, OK, I was the 5,422 person to finish, but I had a respectable time of 1:03. Not bad for my first official 10K race and not being able to move in the huge pack of runners. I'm still training for more races and longer distances.

In October I got to return to Charlotte to meet a few Carolina Panthers and to see the game while along the sidelines. Another dream come true. Too bad we lost.

After 20 years, the gang got back together for our high school reunion. I can't believe it has been two decades since I cruised the halls of STC. It was great catching up with old friends from the football team and seeing how the years have aged us. Thank God most of us hadn't changed inside, but most of us changed on the outside quite a bit. About 130 people showed up from the class of more than 500 and I was amazed that I knew almost everyone there. The reunion started with a get together at a minor league baseball game where I ran into Karna and Susie who used to live a block away from me and my sister and I would play with them almost every day way back even before kindergarten. During the game I caught up with Scott Ward who I blocked in football practice from junior high through high school. Later that night about 50 people went to McSweeney's and had a few while catching up. At the reunion we all talked all night, danced a little, and then about 75 of us went to Jay Rodgers house to look at old yearbooks and talk.