Names of Winslow residents have been changed.
JUNE 10: Carl buys a 1994 Toyota pickup truck at a tent sale at Jack Murphy Stadium, and drives to La Crescenta the next day.
LATE JUNE: Carl and Lisa break it off again. During the summer he falls for a girl at church, but learns she is taken. Late in August, the ship goes to Hawaii for exercise Cooperation From The Sea.
NOVEMBER: On leave for the first time in over a year, he flies to New York to videotape the wedding of another cousin, and also makes his sixth trip to Winslow.
DRIVING SONG: Bigger Than The Beatles The first stop, as always, is Schultz's General Store. Maybe Carl just needs the emotional boost to get him going. He drives around town to burn off time until Denise gets off work. He gets Room 103 at the Price Right Motel, then parks down the street from her work. |
DECEMBER 2: On a hayride with a church group in Tucson, he sees among the group a young lady in a wheelchair. He learns that she was physically normal until a drunk driver hit her. Soon after this, he decides not to drink any more alcohol.
* * * DECEMBER 25:-( He calls Denise to wish her a Merry Christmas, but gets her sister Rhonda's answering machine instead. Then he leaves a little Merry Christmas message, an act which turns out to be the biggest mistake of the Saga. Rhonda hears the message later and is alarmed because she's never met him and doesn't know what he's like. She cautions Denise not to invite him over.
APRIL 9: Starting another ten days' leave, he drives up I-15 to Barstow, then takes I-40, intending to go to Winslow directly from San Diego. Having started the trip late in the day, he spends the night in room 312 of the Motel 6 in Kingman.
MAY 10: The night before leaving for Hawaii for RIMPAC '96, Carl briefly chats with Denise on the phone.
SEPTEMBER: Carl goes on a liberty cruise to Mazatlan.
OCTOBER 9: He checks out of Amphibious Squadron 5 the day before the Essex goes on a six-month deployment, and goes on leave. His next (and final) duty station is to be in Chinhae, Korea.
DRIVING SONG: Strawberry Wine by Deana Carter By chance, Carl runs into Ken at Arby's and they chat. He shows Ken some photos he took on previous Winslow trips. |
Life goes on......