Unpack and Head for a Hotel after Semper Fi

We went to the pier in Oceanside for a Valentine's dinner.  I wasn't at my best.  There was the lingering news of the engine replacement which will take a week plus, the cost of such, the interruption of the lifestyle that we enjoy so much, and the Marines.  Oceanside is at the southern boundary of Camp Pendleton.  Over our two day stay here, helicopters are frequent,  giant hovercraft landing craft were sighted as they stormed a beach, and the everpresence of America's finest.  As we sat at the oceanfront restaurant last night we were surrounded by young men (like 19 year olds) and their wives, sometimes their children, as they celebrated the holiday.  So young they are, making huge sacrifices for all of us, it put our set back in obtuse perspective.  The soldiers have little, their families less.  A couple set their infant, 9 mos old, at my elbow as they ate.  They longed for the private moment, a meal, looking into the sunset on the water, hoping to enjoy the ambiance.  The grandparent I am, I noticed that the infant dropped her bottle.  The parents didn't notice.  I reached over and reinserted the nipple into the baby's mouth and held it there.  The parents thanked me but it is me who should give thanks.  I travel the world safe and relatively unencumbered.  Safe because some are the "proud and the few".  I pay few taxes so I can afford the big rig.  Our troops are off protecting the oil fields that provide a situation that I can afford 8 MPG.  Somehow it doesn't appear fair, my comfort and their sacrifice.  Imbalance.

On Tuesday morning we checked out of our Oceanside hotel and headed to the RV.  We spent 3 hours packing out.  We couldn't throw away the 3/4 empty mayonaise jar or the last slice of cheddar cheese.  Everything was loaded into the Jeep.  As we left the Ford dealership, we may have resembled those vehicles depicted in the Grapes of Wrath.  We motored into the Chula Vista area to a Comfort Inn that is "animal friendly."   So now we are settled.  And unlike the Grapes of Wrath immigrants, we are blessed with the resources of survival, but still trying to figure out this "life with a dog in a hotel, thing."