Sunrise

The date was November 29, 1973 and (having just completed tech school at Keesler AFB in Mississippi) I was on my way home to Eugene, Oregon for my first extended leave since joining the Air Force in February.

I left Argyle, Texas (my prior stop) early that morning headed for Deming, New Mexico (where I had a reservation at the Holiday Inn)... The distance was over 700 hundred miles, but since it was Interstate through the plains and desert I figured I could make it in a lot less time than my self-imposed daily limit of 12 hours. (They didn't enforce the speed limit on rural interstates back then.)
To be honest, I don't remember a darn thing from that day's drive (there's nothing more boring than driving across west Texas), but I remember arriving in Deming in the late afternoon (as planned), and after checking in and having dinner at the hotel restaurant I spent the rest of the evening lounging around in front of the TV...

Aside: Before I left Keesler I was concerned about gas availability because the Arab oil embargo had been in effect for 6 weeks, but there were no worries so far. Gas was plentiful and dirt cheap (less that 30 cents a gallon).

Now - before I get to the next part of the story I want to say a few words about breakfast - namely that back in those days I rarely ate one... Yeah - I had gotten into the habit of skipping breakfast when I was 13 years old, and (with the exception of basic training) I didn't start again until after I got married... Of course, during basic I didn't have a choice. (And you'd have to be crazy to skip meals when doing something that physically demanding.) But the point is that my travel plans did not include breakfast. The idea was to get up, get dressed, get in the car and drive.

It was still pitch black out when I got onto Interstate 10 westbound the next morning (November 30th). And after about a half hour or so I started (inexplicably) feeling a bit peckish, so when I saw the Stuckey's sign at the next exit I stopped to grab a snack...
Now for those who are unaware, "Stuckey's" was a combination gas station, restaurant and candy store that was always open... Back in those days there were Stuckey's locations all over the country, but for some reason they almost all disappeared within the next decade... But none of that has anything to do with the story at hand :-)

When I stepped up to the counter I had absolutely no idea what to order, but after perusing the menu board for a minute or two I realized that what I wanted more than anything in the world at that particular moment was a chocolate milkshake (I hadn't had one in a really long time), so that's what I got...
Yeah - it must have been an odd thing to order at 5:30 AM, because I remember the waitress staring at me with a puzzled expression on her face for a couple of seconds before saying "ok..." and heading off to make my milkshake... Then it was back on the freeway.

All of this leads up to one of those amazing moments that I've never forgotten:

To begin with, I had been under stress since the age of 12 - constantly moving from place to place at the whim of my mother and sister - always trying to be the "voice of reason" but never having any say. And during all those years every penny I had went to the household - I couldn't afford myself even the simplest pleasures... Then I joined the Air Force and spent the next 10 months surrounded by TIs (training instructors) subject to the rigors of military life... And finally, just a few days earlier I had graduated with honors from one of the most academically challenging tech schools in the Air Force... It was the most significant accomplishment of my life up to that point.

So it came to pass that I found myself cruising across the New Mexico desert with the top down and the cold early morning air wafting around me. Everything I could see was bathed in the reds and purples of the pre-dawn light, and I was sipping on the best milkshake I could ever recall having... And that's when it hit me.
Everything I had gone through in past 8 years was finally over. I suddenly felt a sense of peace and well-being that I had never experienced before... Nothing could have made the moment more perfect.

And that's the "sunrise" story :-)