Aaron's bachelor summer

For those 7 of you who have actually followed all my summer posts, you have undoubtedly noticed that most is about the kids and myself.  During the months of June and July our family was together a total of about 23 days.

Aaron was living up the bachelor life this summer!  Spent two weeks in Texas, a week of motorcycling, a week of backpacking, riding during Rally Week... nothing but good times for him!  Here's Aaron's summer recap.

June 20 - July 4
Aaron left his Father's Day celebrations early to fly to the heat and humidity of Texas.  Brooks AFB is a stripped down base without a commissary, BX, swimming pool and the fitness center closes 1 hour before Aaron was done for the day.  He was the second most senior officer in his group and one of two out of 25 who didn't get a rental car in their budget, so he had to bum a ride from all the 2nd Lieutenants

Classes included a  night vision lecture, high altitude physiology,  fighter/bomber/mobility/recon missions, and his favorite history of Air Force ophthalmology.  He also spent some time in the high altitude chamber.

Unfortunately for Aaron, Hurricane Alex was on its way to the area so he was the only one in his program who didn't get to fly in the aircraft pictured below.  He did get to spend an extra two days of extended holiday in Houston until the weather cleared and he could fly home.

 He was able to see his brother Nathan and his wife Leaa and their baby Corinne and finished the first 2 books of the Hunger Games series. He also paid tribute to his fallen brother's-in-arms at the Alamo. All in all not a bad 2 weeks.  He spend 40 hours with his family until we took off for Utah and left him to his next adventure.

July 12-17
After a grueling 4 days back at work Aaron hitched the trailer to the Altima and drove the motorcycle over to Spokane and the start of his Wild Hogs week.  Their planned destination was a trip up through Canada but the day before they left a passport went missing so the route was changed to follow the Cascade Highway along the Washington/Canada border.

Although the boys seemed to be disappointed in the change, Aaron was secretly excited as now they would be traveling through Forks, WA and he would be able to watch for vampires and put his feet in the sand at the La Push Beach.  After visiting his vampire Graceland Aaron is definitely Team Edward!

Other highlights of the trip were the general scenery, hanging out with his brother, dad, and brother-in-law, and eating a container ship.

Halfway through the trip Aaron got the stomach flu. Apparently it's a bit trickier being sick on a motorcycle than on a car trip.

Yes this is Aaron puking over the guardrail.  Thanks for the picture Trent!

Alex has already started getting ready for the time when he will get to pilgrimage to Forks, and become a man.

July 27 - July 31 (but actually 30th)

The male side of the Nelson family went on a backpacking trip.  It originally was going to be 20 miles in 4 days with about 1200 feet gained in elevation, it got changed to 30 miles in 4 days with 5000 ft gained in elevation and ended up being 30 miles in 3 days with the 5000 feet gained in elevation.  The final count was due to the persistent rain in the Rocky Mountain National Forrest.  They had a great time and made it over Flat Top Mountain without be electrocuted or lost in a white-out (you have to have Aaron or someone from the trip tell you about the guy who told them to turn around before making it to the top).  A fun time was had by all.

yes that's Aaron packing heat

a little rain never hurt anyone

August 10

As if there hadn't been enough fun had by Aaron, he went on the tenth annual Dakota Thunder ride sponsored by Ellsworth AFB as part of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.  The ride left the flight line, rode down the runway and then headed off base and took a back road to Sturgis.   This sounded like a great father-son opportunity, and it was at first.  After pictures, getting into a B-1, waiting for the ride to start and drinking lots of water to stay hydrated on a hot August day they were on their way.  They rode with the medics near the back of over 500 motorcycles.  It was great until somewhere on the two lane highway to Sturgis, Alex said he had to pee.  Aaron tried to get him to hold it, but after bouncing around on the back seat for 10 minutes they pulled over and Alex was able to relieve himself on the side of the road.  Through a series of unfortunate events they were separated from the rest of the group and missed a key turn to get to Sturgis.  They ended up in Deadwood, SD with Alex falling asleep on the back of Aaron's bike.  Deciding to call it a day they hopped on the freeway and head for home.  They will try to make it all the way to Sturgis next year.

Aaron has now resumed being a father to our children and states that the bachelor life is too exhausting.  We'll see what happens next summer!