A Brief Family Update

Hello friends!  I have a lot to talk about — but I need time to sit down and just do it.  Things have gotten pretty busy here…between my involvement in the base Spouses’ Club and Cub Scouts, I’ve been spending more time with community work than ever before! The boys started baseball a couple weeks … Read more

My New Running Partner

This is from last May.  The boys did a 1 mile fun run, even though those running numbers say “5K”.  Jacob saw a classmate at this race who was registered to run the 5K itself and he asked, “Mom, why can’t I do that?”  Well, no one ever said you couldn’t! Meet my new running … Read more

The Runner Girl’s Spawn

You can say I tried. I think Jacob might have a future in long distance running…Timmy probably won’t. At a Mother’s Day function this past week, one of Timmy’s classmates’ Moms tipped me off to a 1-mile kids’ fun run in Navarre Beach last Saturday.  That night I headed over to one of our local hangouts in … Read more

The Runner Girl Returneth!!!

I’d like to thank the kind young Marine pilot candidate for taking this nice picture.  I gave him my 3 beer coupons in return.  Like the bling?  They were handing out Mardi Gras beads near one of the water stations. Today was the 15K race I’d mentioned last month.  I was feeling pretty discouraged going … Read more

The Return of Runner Girl?

That’s what I’d like to think… 🙂 Especially before we had kids, Dave and I enjoyed long-distance running. Obviously, our training dwindled some after the kids arrived, and between Dave and me and our double-jogging stroller, we’d always managed 1-2 races per year even after the kids were born.  Then we hit a lazy streak … Read more

Florida Discoveries 1: Where are the Reindeer? Reindeer Lichen

Prepare yourselves, this is going to be one of my most bewildering blog posts yet.  More so than vermicomposting, toilet odors and pumpkin reproduction. This morning I enjoyed another run through my new neighborhood.  I’ve been mapping out my runs on this website (so I know the distances I’m covering) and this is the one … Read more

Nebraska Discoveries 13: Historic Fort Crook & SAC Chapel, Offutt AFB

Today I’m sharing some of the history on Offutt AFB.  Unfortunately, everyone can’t just get onto Offutt.  You need to have a military ID card to get onto the base freely, or make a friend with a military member who can sign you in as a guest.

As mentioned before, I started using this software to track my runs. The software doesn’t seem very stable on my iPhone (probably because I downloaded the free version and they want my money before it works the way I want it to…). So this isn’t the most accurate thing out there, but it’s fun to give it a go.

So here’s a map of the most recent run I performed:

If you choose “view full” in the lower left, then select the satellite map (or Hybrid), you can see that I’m running the perimeter of a large field. This is the parade field of what was formerly Fort Crook, which was the original military installation that is now the home of Offutt AFB. Fort Crook was established in 1888, and was completed in 1894.  Today, many of the buildings surrounding the parade field are from their original mid-1890s construction, including the buildings of “General’s Row” which are seen in the background here from the late 1890s:

And here are the same houses today, the same ones as on the left side of the above photo: