Australia

Crossing the equator for the first time.

Amazing sunsets in Darwin.

In the Officers' mess there was a painting of the Japanese attack on Darwin. More bombs were dropped on Darwin in this attack than in the one on Pearl Harbor.

Huge termite mound, this was the inspiration for the aliens on Attack of the Clones that gave the plans for the Death Star to Dooku.

They call them magnetic termites because their mounds are on magnetic headings, but really it is because of direction to maximize heating from the sun. In the southern hemisphere you have to face north to get the most sun.

We saw an emu on the side of the road and pulled over to take its picture.

Yeah, I'm not swimming here. Note the different graphics for the fresh and saltwater crocodiles.

Wangi falls is a beautiful swimming hole at Litchfield national park in the Northern Territory of Australia, the same territory where Ayer's rock is, but you can't swim in it when its closed for crocodiles... I thought about going to Ayer's rock, but it was 1300 miles away and I didn't have that much time off. While this one was closed, there were two upstream that were open, and I did go swimming in Australia. Something I never though I would do. Some of the guys that were with us had water proof cameras and I will try and get some of their pics and post them. It was really fun, and the water was clear, spring fed and fresh with a slight emerald color to it. It was great fun and the best part was the park was free.

Odds are high there are crocodiles in there.

No joke, almost every day we were there the front page headline was something about crocodiles.

If you think this is impressive, watch the video.

At the Humpty-Doo pub we had lunch. I got mini burgers of (from left to right) crocodile, water buffalo, and baramuni (a fish).

We went to see an Aussie Rules Football game. We paid for the cheaper tickets and got to sit on this hill across from the bleachers, but the view was incredible.

It took a while to have the rules explained to us. If I were explaining it to someone else I would say that it is rugby mixed with ultimate frisbee.

On Thursdays there is a big open air market at Mindle beach where you can get food from all over the world, didgeridoos, boomerangs and then watch the sunset.

We got to refuel Navy F-18s off the boat pre and post fight.

The Adelaide, the same river from the jumping croc tour from the air.

The billeting they put us in looked kind of like Darmaville from Lost.

Aerial view of the harbor.

Fruit bats all over the place in Litchfield national park.

They call these guys "freshies" instead of "salties" since they are freshwater crocs, as seen in their narrow snouts. They are supposedly scared of people, but I don't want to go swimming with them.

Moving purses.

This is half the reason you have to be careful in the water in this part of the world, the other half is huge sharks!

So which draws your focus more the chops or the chompers?

I got to hold a baby crocodile, and it was heavier than I expected.

Not the best looking sea turtle habitat, but they seemed pretty happy.

Kangaroos are active at dusk and dawn, the rest of the day they just lay around.

How about that water print left on the cement? The female is in the top left with her mouth open. These are the breeders that have gotten large enough to just eat and breed. Much better than the ones that become purses, wallets, and hamburgers.

Aussie money.

Nightcliff beach.

Everyone gathering on Mindle beach to watch the sunset.

Sunset over Darwin Harbor

The beautiful sunrise on the morning I left, knowing that I would in fact make it home before our second son arrived. It was a good feeling.

Texas and Oklahoma City (Stuck for 2 weeks)

I have been gone for so long, that now I am here and have a moment, as we are stuck in the hospital waiting out the typhoon (all pregnant women past 37 weeks have to spend the typhoon in the hospital as they close all the roads...but that is another post) and I wanted to talk about the TDY that just wouldn't end. It was supposed to be over the weekend and then took two weeks.

They augmented our crew, giving us a 24 hour crew duty day, allowing us to fly from Okinawa to Oklahoma straight (that's a 14 hour plus flight). The craziest thing was we went so far north that even though we were going east, this is the darkest it got over Alaska.

We went to Chevy's in Austin on our drive back to Tinker. We flew into OK, spent the night, then flew to San Antonio and drove up to Dallas. We spent the night in Dallas then drove up to OKC. There we sat for two weeks as the jet we were supposed to pick up was still not crew ready.

My good friend and member of the posse Joe, came and picked me up, since he's stationed in Enid, and I got to see him and his beautiful family.

It would have been one thing is they had slipped us for two weeks at the start, but we would get up every morning and find that we had slipped another 24 hours. My stubble started to become a beard, so I had to document it. I finally got to come home, spend 4 days, and then I left for Talisman Sabre in Darwin Australia.