Week Three

Well it will have been three weeks this Sunday when I left the United States. So far we have had pretty decent weather here a couple of days of really bad sand storms but tolerable. Mostly we just have a haze which is the sand kicked up in the lower atmosphere. Imagine powder, like talcum powder, that is pretty much what the sand is like here. As in Kuwait they can't build with it so it is pretty worthless for anything.

Had a couple of more trips out into the city of Al Jubail, and to Al Khobar which is about an hour and a half trip. John was going to be late one night and said I should try and catch a ride. I went into the HR office and asked Robert the HR manager if I could catch a ride. He said sure but he had to stop at the book store for a few videos if that was ok. Well of course I am not going to turn down a trip to the store so we planned on 5 sharp.

As I packed up to get ready, Robert came by and asked if I was ready, I told him I was shutting down my computer and would meet him at the front door. I finished up, stowed my Laptop in my Piper Gear Bugout bag and was off. We hopped into the SUV and were off. As we exited the refinery gate, we turned left onto the road narrowly missing a sideswipe by a 16 wheeler, whew that was close. As we tooled down the road, he said he wasn't sure if he remembered how to get there. I had been there once, well close anyway and I said, "I think you turn right, then left, then right, then left, then right again". He said, " hmmm I don't remember that but we'll find it, no worries". Robert is married to an Iraqi that he met when he was working in Iraq with Parson's. She is an Engineer who graduated from the University of Baghdad. Once they got married she moved t0 the US and now works for us.

We made the first two turns ok and then we were in trouble. As we went straight instead of turning again, we drove for about 5 minutes until we saw the highway ahead. I said I didn't think this was right because we should see an overpass ahead. He said I was right and turned around. We made our way back to the road we turned on and turned right and went to the next light. He took another right and we were back on another road that was not the correct one. It was becoming comical and so he turned in a residential area to try and cut across. Well in this part of the world, there is usually only one way in and one way out. Yep you guessed it we had to turn around again. Back on the main highway, we went back to the light turned right and finally ended up where we were supposed to be.

We made it to the Book store and went in. He was looking for a few new release video's. They really didn't have anything new since he had been there before so we just browsed. This was like walking into a Best Buy with books, electronics everywhere. Some had pretty good prices but mostly just about the same or a little more than home. We milled around for about 20 minutes and he finally said lets go. I told him I needed to pick up a couple of things at the grocery store since we were right there and he said I do too. So we walked around the inside of the "mall", not like a real mall, and went into the Panda. It is like walking into a Kroger or a Randall's. Wow what a difference compared to the Giant. Anyway we shopped for about 20 minutes and had to check out because it was prayer time again. We took our things to the checkout and we were on the move again in less than 10 minutes.

Back at camp it was just enough time to get a bite to eat and settle in for the night. Since I have been getting up at 3:30 every morning to go to work, I need to be in bed as close to 8 as I can. So it was get ready for bed, chat with Diane for a few minutes and then head off. More to come on the trip to Khobar tomorrow.......