Day 20 Bob and Kate's Great Adventure

We made it to our ultimate destination, Albuquerque, New Mexico. After about 4500 miles. This was the reason for our trip. The map below shows our route that we planned in yellow and the route that we actually took in black.
This is the reunion of the men Bob served beside or replaced in the 8th Battalion of the 4th Field Artillery Unit in Vietnam.

The Reunion committee had an early breakfast waiting for us this morning. We ate by 7:30 and loaded busses to go to the train that would take us to Santa Fe. We had a relaxing train ride with friends and then went to the Plaza in Santa Fe to eat lunch.

We met Buddy and Bernadette in Philadelphia 2 years ago and have kept in touch with them for the past 2 years. They are a great couple and we had a fun time just strolling through Santa Fe for the afternoon. We did a little shopping and we bought a Skip-Bo card game for the train ride back to Albuquerque. The train had 4 seats facing each other and some had tables between the seats. We had a fun time re-teaching Bernadette and teaching Buddy how to play!

God was present yesterday. As we were waiting for the train back to Albuquerque I decided to take the time to talk to Ava, a "little sister". She attends most of the reunions, because her dad served and was killed beside some of these men. I wanted to get her input about Bob contacting the daughter and wife of the man/friend that Bob was with when this man was killed. Bob has been debating when and whether he should contact them as part of his healing process. As I was discussing this with Ava, she introduced me to a wife of a man that had about the same situation and he had tried to contact a man's wife years ago but had no luck. This man walked up and I started to talk about Bob's situation and he started telling me about the wife that he had tried to find. As he was talking, he mentioned the state the man had come from and it was the same state has Bob's friend. I asked the man's name. I'm not sure how I held it together, it was the same man as Bob has talked about and felt responsible for, for the past 40 years.  I took this man to Bob and explained what we just discussed. Bob's mouth dropped open and the discussion began. Bob never knew that there was any other men in the foxhole his friend was killed in. Most likely his friend saved this other man's life by being on top of him. Bob is hoping to fill in some holes in his memory by visiting with this man in the next few days. This was truly a God moment and I am hopeful good will come from this connection.

We returned to Albuquerque and had a Mexican Buffet for our dinner. We had more time to visit anda little time to dance.

This jeep is parked outside the conference room where we have been meeting. Buddy and Bob had to pose.

The evening was concluded by watching the win for the Cubs!

Watch our video for the day: