Carlos came home

On September 11, 2007, Carlos arrived at DFW airport. We hadn't seen him in a year and a half. We were met at the airport by members of the Southern Cruisers Riding Club, Scott Rasco, Mike and Ron. Scott and Ron are from the Ft. Worth Chapter and Mike is from the Denton Chapter. Their group tries to have members present whenever a member of the US military returns home from over seas.
Southern Cruisers colors.

Scott holding the coin they brought to present to Carlos.
Carlos was suppose to arrive at 1800 hrs. but with the time spent going through customs it took him longer to make it out to the waiting area. The Southern Cruisers were very patient and helped us indure the wait. Every time the doors opened and someone walked out from the area of the international flights we expected Carlos to walk out. That door must have opened 30 times!!
Then Ron said, "There's a Marine coming now!" Elfida took off running!!! Carlos was wearing his uniform and looked great. He hugged Elfida and picked her up. His luggage cart kept rolling down the walkway.
After a few minutes, Elfida let go long enough for Carlos to meet Scott, Mike and Ron. You could see Carlos' appreciation for the support shown by the members of the Southern Cruisers. He received the coin and some very heart felt hand shakes. We really appreciated their dedication and support in showing up at the airport even though Carlos' flight arrival had been delayed for three hours. Originally he was to have arrived at 1500 hrs. but the flight was delayed for unknown reasons in Tokyo, Japan. Carlos called us at 0200 hrs to let us know, Elfida let Scott know of the time change at about 0800 hrs. Scott had to let the other members know about the change that same morning.
Ron, Mike, Scott, Carlos and Elfida.

Me, Elfida, Carlos, Maiko and Angie.

Angie and Elfida pushing Carlos' luggage cart to our truck.

Somewhere along the way they dropped the luggage, but quickly picked it up. Angie had taken the day off to go with us to pick up Carlos. She had been the one who had picked up Carlos on two other occasions when he had come home from Florida and from North Carolina..

We stopped off at a restaurant along the way to eat dinner. Carlos ordered a 22 ounce steak! Yep, he ate it all. He also picked up the dinner tab for everyone. He had a restless ride to Waco. He said his back and legs were hurting from his 14 hour flight and the time change. His body was having to adjust from what use to be night time now being day time. The first 3 days he spent mostly sleeping.

Carlos accompanied Elfida and other members of the Central Texas Marine Family Support group on Sunday when they went to support the Marine recuits that were shipping out to the San Diego Marine Depot. Carlos will be here for a couple of weeks and another fellow Marine is coming down to visit him next week.

Thanks again to the Southern Cruisers Riding Club for coming out to meet Carlos with us.