Saturday, June 1, 2013

The trip to Schofield

I've been meaning to write this post for a while now and somehow, after being here for over a month I'm just sitting down to write it.  Looking back, I can have a good, hard laugh (and have several times) but I didn't want to at the time!



When we first arrived here on Oahu, we didn't have a car. Normally, it would have been on it's way with the rest of our belongings, but we didn't have one to ship in the first place ... so we were really very car-less.  Pete was able to ride to base in a shuttle provided to military, but I was left by myself with no mode of transportation except for "The Bus", which I really didn't like. "The Bus" carts people all over the island and is a good way to get around if you absolutely have no other way.

The first Monday we were here, I decided I was just going to jump right in and take the bus to Schofield in search of Kekoa CrossFit which met at 9am for a WOD.  Because I had to take the bus, the boarding time in order for me to make it to the workout was 6:45am.  The trip to Schofield actually takes an hour and a half (just so you're warned) because of the thirty something stops made along the way.  If you drive your own car, it might take you thirty to forty-five minutes coming from the Ohana Airport Hotel.  I made it to base, no problem. However, the stop on base wasn't where my trusty, all-knowing google maps app was telling me it should be!  I didn't think to ask the driver and stepped off the bus.



How hard can it be to find the gym?  Honestly, I still don't know where I exited the bus but I'm pretty sure it was on the other side of base.  It took me forty-five minutes to find the Martinez Physical Fitness Center.  This is pronounced, "mar-TI-nes" People look at your really weird when you say it, "mart-en-NEZ", like any good southern girl would.  The weather is quite strange here, with it breeze and sunshine one minute and the next bringing along a ten minute downpour.  Well, it started pouring as I was walking along lost on base, but I finally got to the gym.  The workout was great and I met a lot of awesome ladies.  Then, I missed "The Bus" pickup.

I didn't think that would be a problem.  The next stop would be in fifteen minutes right? Wrong. The bus doesn't stop on base nearly as frequently as it does around the rest of Oahu. I waited for about thirty minutes before taking a look at the schedule on my phone, which at that point was almost dead.  I didn't have my charger with me either.  Naturally, I called Pete to let him know that my phone was dying so he wouldn't be able to reach me, and oh yes, that the bus wasn't coming for a very long time.  Being the sweetie that he is, my husband called a taxi for me, but thinking that he was getting off early I decided to cancle it.  My phone died.  The bus still wasn't coming.  After being on base for about four hours longer than I had expected, I ended up walking back to the gym and used the office phone to call a taxi.  That was one expensive ride.  By the time I got back to the hotel, the bill was $60!

Needless to say, I decided to wait about visiting Schofield again until we had a vehicle!

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