Long time coming

So I came back late Monday night from seeing Nathan, it was an amazing trip. We really had a great time together. Not necessarily a fan of Ft. Leonard Wood however.
When I arrived in St. Louis I was surprised at how awkward I felt with Nathan initially, I didn't know if I should hug him, kiss him, or what. This quickly passed and we were able to quickly reconnect, but I was really taken back by how I felt initially. I then started thinking of how it must feel to see your loved after they have been deployed for a year. We have done really well communicating while Nathan has been gone, but I guess this has shown that we still have room to grow.
Ok, for my time there we had a lot of fun and tried to do something different each day. The first day I didn't come into St. Louis until later evening, we stopped for dinner on the way to post. We ate at Steak 'N Shake, we had seen them in practically every town on the drive down, so we decided they must be pretty good to be everywhere. We quickly discovered why people in Missouri, who by the way seem to be exceptionally overweight, they were the greasiest hamburgers we have ever had.
The second day we went for a walk, and I quickly discovered why Ft. Leonard Wood is nick-named Ft. Lost in the woods, you really could get lost in the woods. Not to mention all of the bugs, lizards, and snakes we saw along the trail. We also went to the army museums on post, the museums focus on the three branches that call the post home, chemical corps, military police and engineering. We were going to go golfing, but after talking with the pro shop decided to go on Sunday instead. So then we decided to go check out a cave that we had heard about, apparently we missed the spot but we ended up driving pretty far down this gravel road and got a flat tire. So we both worked together to change our first flat tire, mission accomplished! It was a pretty drive even though we weren't able to find the cave. That night I made Nathan spaghetti, in his little, tiny kitchenette. He loved the home made meal.
The next day after we got the tire fixed we went canoeing down Jacks Fork river part of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways. We canoed about 8 miles, around Eminence, MO. We packed a lunch and headed out, it was a ton of fun and we wished that we had Ellie with us as she loves the water. We saw lots of people with their dogs, which is what made us really miss her. We did see plenty of drunk Southerners yelling and screaming, and jumping off of cliffs.
The next morning we went for a run, it was so muggy that our run didn't last long, we were so hot and sticky. We went and did some shopping and then went golfing. I gave Nathan a quick lesson before we headed off and he ended up doing much better than I did, I really was not having a good day. I guess we will just have to play again so that I can show him up. After golf I made french onion soup, salad and garlic bread for dinner, I wondered what Betty Crocker or Julia Child would say about trying to make dinner in the little kitchenette with 2 burners and a microwave, and no counter space.
Then came the day I had to leave. Before Nathan dropped me off at the airport we did go the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, we did not go to the top, the lines were too long but we did watch a really good film on Louis & Clark, we would highly recommend it to anyone who visits the arch. We had a lunch and then Nathan took me over to the airport. I had a really hard time saying bye to him for another month.
My trip was awesome and I am already counting down the days until the next time I get to see Nathan!