I've Been Everywhere

I love music. I really do. Even though I'm not in the US 75% of my life (ok, slight exaggeration, however I did do the math today and of the last 18 months, I have been out to sea for 13 of them, which equals being gone for 72.22222% of my most recent past, so for once in my life, I'm not actually THAT far off) and so I rarely can keep up with the Joneses in the "New, Hip Music" department. I have also been (rightfully) accused of butchering the lyrics to even the most simple of songs ("eat that old Georgia pie, anyone? :)) and only a complete deaf man could call my singing anything other than completely 100% off key, 100% of the time (has that ever stopped me from doing karaoke? Absolutely not. In fact, remind me to do another blog about Asian karaoke in Hong Kong).

Anyways, I digress (I've also been accused of that too :))

Like Chris Cagle, I too feel like my life can be a country (or any other genre) song. I've danced with George Strait, I've lived those teenage Friday nights with a pyramid of cans, and I definitely remember where I was when the world stopped turning. And like Kenny said- "every time I hear that song, I go back".

So it comes to no surprise that pretty much everything on my iPod that I've listened to in the past 2 years or so has had connection to my life. I was reminded of this today on the treadmill when I flipped to my "Deployment Workout Mix"- however, when you've spent 14+ months on deployment alone in the past 3 years, you soon realize that one workout mix is not sufficient. Specifically, I tuned to "D.W.M 68 style"- as in, when I was on the NIMITZ (CVN 68). This mix includes a classic travelin' favorite by everyone's favorite Johnny Cash- "I've Been Everywhere".

Other than the cheesey Motel 6 commercial, this song strikes a particular chord with me (no musical pun intended. ha ha ha [insert sound of me cracking myself up, which is a more frequent occasion the longer we stay out here]). Last August (which feels like a life time ago!) Dan and I drove cross country. Armed with Coke Light, plenty of snacks, comfy shorts and tees, and 2 full iPhones of music (plus free Pandora, in case we ran out of songs!), we spent 7 glorious days driving across America. No seriously, they were truly glorious days and minus one (very small) hissy fit that I had after a 2+ hour excursion OFF the highway to see a some petrified forest that we couldn't POSSIBLY miss which turned out to be a slight disappointment to say the least, it was an AWESOME trip. (actually, in hinds sight, the trip to the petrified "forrest" was worth it. I will have to do a few blog posts on the road trip for a few good laughs).  If you've never driven cross country, I urge you to fill up your gas tank, grab your BFF, log onto roadtripusa.com and head out. We didn't even get lost once! (thankfully, that would have been embarassing. Our directions were as follows: Get on I-10 at the Atlantic Ocean. Drive West on I-10 for 7 days. If your car splashes into the Pacific Ocean from I-10, you've gone too far. The End)

So with 7 days on the road, we were able to get into a bit of a RTR- Road Trip Routine. Every morning, we would take a picture of the odometer and hit the road, kicking off the drive with our routine of songs. First we listened to Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again", followed by Johnny Cash's "I've Been Everywhere" and then conclused with our geographic-specific song of the day. "From Callin' Baton Rouge" to "Rock and Roll in Pensacola"," God Bless Texas",  "There is No Arizona" and "California Girls", thanks to our 2 iPhones of music, it was super easy to come up with songs about states as we drove through them. In fact, I think there was a whole song about I-10!

It made me smile so much when I was on the treadmill today and "I've Been Everywhere" came on my iPod. It took me back to our roadtrip and 7 glorious days gladly stuck in the car with my favorite person in the world. It also made me realize that after the road trip, the adventure was no where near over! In fact, after this deployment, I feel like I've been everywhere too! From Bahrain to an Iraqi oil platform (eww) to Dubai and an aircraft carrier, to Thailand and Malaysia and Hong Kong and ending up right back where my road trip dumped me out 7 months ago, I feel like I could give Johnny Cash a run for his money. I'm just not sure my song would be as catchy, or rhyme quite as well...