FINALLY! It took me about 40 tries to get my shoes to catch on this wire above the Camp Victory MWR gym parking lot. Scroll below to see my successive attempts...

Guess what!?

Well, I got to Kuwait, and I took the free embassy bus to the Hilton, where some smart people had registered online for free rooms in these really swank villas on the beach. I was not one of those smart people, because I failed to plan ahead and ask the right questions. SO, I was going to book a regular room and pay for it, but the cheapest room turned out to be $250+ per night. I pitched a private fit while they kindly found me a cheaper hotel and arranged a free ride there for me. By the time I arrived at the new place, I was already sick of Ramadan and decided to leave the country as soon as possible. I got online at the new hotel before checking in, changed my flight plans to depart 24 hrs earlier, hopped into a cab, and went directly to the airport to catch my 0125 flight to Frankfurt.

Sooooo...here I am, a whole day early. And thank God, because I did NOT want to spend another 24 hours and several hundred dollars to waste time in Kuwait during Ramadan, where even so much as drinking water during daylight hours could land you in jail. No thanks!

I am waiting for my flight to Houston here in Germany, and I'm on a T.Mobile Hotspot. Man, I hate paying for wireless. I hope it is all free one day...

Here are my last pics from Baghdad. I decided to throw my "famous" purple Pumas over the only wire I know of, which is in the parking lot at the Camp Victory gym. Anybody who knows me who sees them hanging will know they're mine. Nobody else has purple running shoes. These poor beauties were worn out and full of holes by the time I retired them, and it is fitting to leave them here as a lasting memorial to my Baghdad running days. This shoe-on-a-wire tradition is big on every USMC installation I've been on, but I've never seen them hanging here in Iraq. Perhaps this will reinstate the tradition aboard this installation. One can only hope.

Cheers from Germany. See you in the motherland...Texas!