I thought that I would write about each of the cities we visited on the trip but I have changed my mind and will do this one last post about the trip. Nancy did a journal during the trip that outlines all that we did, you can find that on her facebook page, she did a good job and you will enjoy if you take the time to read it. I am going to relate our trip to Nha Trang, the area that I was at in 1968-69.

Nancy and I broke off from the main group to make the trip to Nha Trang, we flew into to Cam Rahn Bay and took a taxi to Nha Trang. As soon as we were on the road I realized that it was no longer 1968, we were traveling on a new 4 lane super highway and nothing looked familiar which from our earlier travels I was not surprised. It was dark when we got to our hotel so really could not see much. After checking in I met our guide for the next day, he had be recommend by our friend Charlie who we had met in Hanoi(American). We talked about where I wanted to go and he thought it would be best to go by motorcycle, cheaper and faster, I agreed that that would be fun and a real adventure. With plans made I went back to the room to report to Nancy about the trip. It didn't take me long to realize I had made a big mistake, she was not happy about riding all day on a motorcycle, and in hindsight I should have realized that motorcyles would be a bad idea. The next morning when I met our guide I told him we would need a car, he said no problem but it would cost me more, at that point price was not a problem. Our goal for the day was to find Khonh Duong, the village I lived in for my first six months in country. I was on an Advisory Team, five of us living 60 miles from the nearest American, with no communications except through Vietnamese channels. I knew the village was in a valley with nothing around for miles so it should be easy to find. We traveled on the road that we knew was the correct road to get where we needed to go. Our guide thought he knew where we wanted to go, but when we got to where he thought I wanted to go, it was not the right village. We continued down the road and after a while we decided to turn around and go back to Nha Trand. We stopped at a roadside cafe for something to drink, not really a cafe, but a covered area that sold warm drinks. While there our guide and driver talked to some of the locals that were there and were told we had not gone far enough. So, we got back on the bus and headed west through the mountains, we went so far that I thought we would be in Cambodia soon. At this point I was tired and discouraged and was ready to turn around again but they said a little further. Nothing is looking familiar as there are houses all along to road, and I thought we must have passed the village. Then there was a toll booth in the road(it reminded me of the toll booth in the movie Blazing Saddles) it was so out of place in the middle of no where, we paid the toll and about 100 yards down the road I spotted the village, or at least the montinyard houses I remembered. We stopped and walked down to the houses and I was sure it was the same place although the houses had been updated, from straw to wood, but looked basically the same, in one of the houses there was an elderly woman weaving some material. She did not speak VN nor did she want us to talk with her. Our guide was able through the woman's granddaughter ask her if in fact Americans had lived there and she said they lived across the road up on the hill, and that's where I lived, so I had found the village 43 years later. We took pictures and looked around but the building I had lived was gone. Mission accomplished we headed back to Nha Trang, stopping for a late lunch at a shrimp farm, great food. Great day but very tiring.

In Nha Trang, I could not find the building I lived in nor could I find the building where I worked, all gone and forgotten but to those of us who served. In all of Nha Trang I only found one landmark that I remembered. Every morning going to work I would pass a tennis club that was a left over from the French days. It is still there and people were playing tennis. The city no is a wonderful tourist area.

Great trip, many old memories came flooding back, but as we like to say, that was another life, nothing stays the same...I would recommend to any Vet that it is a worthwhile trip, you will come back with a totally new view of the country and the people there....

Sometime last year Nancy came home from an ADK meeting and asked me if I wanted to go to VietNam. I thought she was just joking. Then she told me about a school that ADK was building in a small town west of Hue, this was being done with a group called the Vietnam Veterans Recovery Project. I really didn't think much more about it as I thought it was one of Nancy Fancy trips that she is always thinking about. As time went on she kept talking about the "trip" and how she would pay my expenses if I would go. I was not sure I wanted to go, as most of you know I was there 1968-1969 and did not have what I would call a good time. Around the first of this year it was put up or shut up. Nancy really wanted to go, so I gave in and said I would go. Then I find out that the trip was a group of 12 women and me, which I was not real excited about. As it turned out there was one other man, and he had been in country the same time that I was, so that helped. Actually Bud had been an Army pilot and flew L-19s, the same plane that I spent a lot of time in myself, so we hit it off quite well. The preparations for the trip proved to be time consuming and expensive, shots, visa, prescriptions, new clothes, the right shoes, rain gear, snack food etc...

We flew to JFK, in New York, and from New York, it was a nonstop flight to Hong Kong, 16 hours in a Boeing 777, I watched 7 movies on that flight. From Hong Kong another flight to Hanoi and then the adventure began. Arriving at the Hanoi airport all I could think about was the book Up Country by Nelson Demille where the vn Vet goes through customs and they take him to a room and interrogate him. The customs area was bare with only a military officer standing waiting for us, all went well but it sure made me wonder. Now we are on a bus with all the luggage in route to our hotel. The ride from the airport was interesting and a preview to the next two weeks. This is part 1, I will do my best to up date daily this next week, as there is a lot to tell about the trip.

I have listening to all this debate about the health care bill and the effort to repeal etc. I got to thinking about my situation, I guess I have a bad health history and doesn't look any better in the future. Do I know that I will be able to continue to get help. Will I be classified as one who is not worth spending more money on, I think I am but will people like me fall through a gap in coverage. Another year I will be on Medicare, not sure if that will be a good thing or not, hope so.

Why does health care cost so much, well yesterday my heart cath went like this, check in and fill out three pages of forms, pay $100.00 co pay. next off to have blood drawn,( two employees) on to the Cath Lab waiting room, one clerk, three more pages of the same questions as at check in. Person(not sure if nurse or not) came to get me to go to the prep area. After the usual undressing and put on the wonderful gown on(no help here) two nurses(I think ) start putting in two Ivs, another came in to do an EKG, followed by yet another to check BP. Next comes another nurse to ask me the same questions I have answered twice in the preceding 30 minutes. In the next hour prior to going into the operating room I am visited by three or four more asking questions and making sure I have left and gone home. Then the doctor pulls up a chair and asks me another 20 questions. Now I'm ready to hit the OR, a new person, Chuck comes and takes me to the OR, here a whole new ballgame starts. Four people, who do whatever, talk to me and tell me I'm about to go sleep and all will be well.
After the procedure, its back to the prep area for a little recovery before being released. Here I seen more "new" people, not sure again who or what their jobs are but they all act very important, one of them tell me I can go home at 4:00, good, 4:00 comes and I think everyone was on break or in deep conversation in the break room. About 4:45 I got to leave....How many people does it take to get me in and out, about 16 and we wonder why a day in the hospital costs so much, I'm sure none of the people who attend me make mimimun wage. Will be interesting to see the bill and to think I get do the same thing next week, double the cost, double the fun.. Can't complain, I am able to get up tomorrow and play golf....Life is good.

This morning I wrote a long piece and then published it but only about a third came up so, I will try again.Monday I have to go in for a Heart Cath, been feeling less than the way I should for awhile and my Doctor and I felt it was time for a tune up, my warranty on the by pass expired about seven years ago. Talk about borrowed time, been there done that so we will see what they came do to get me back to at least 90%, but this is not what I was writing about, but it lead me to think about my life and the decisions we make through that time. My first big decision was to go to college, not a good choice at the time, lasted one semester and came home, bottom line, wasn't ready for what it took to be on my own and be successful.

We all look down many paths in our life and did you ever think what or where you would be today if you had chosen a different path? What if you hadn't married who you did, lived where you did, had a different job. This can take a lot of time and thinking to weigh the good and bad for each of us.

I joined the Army, I wasn't going to let them draft me, so off I went on what would turn into a seven year adventure. An adventure that as I look back on it was the path that brought me to where I am today. After about 18 months in the Army another path was opened to me in the name of Nancy Jean Howe, we were married on a sub zero night at the South Tunbridge Church on 26 Dec 67. This was a path that we both thought was the right way and as we are still married, I guess it was. We had been married six months when I was sent to Viet Nam (we are going back there in April) and Nancy went back to UVM to finish her degree. By the time I came back from VN I was a Captain and thought I would make the army a career. We went to Germany for three years. What a great time that was for two young recently married people. It gave us the opportunity to travel and see places we never thought we would see. In our third year there Andrew was born, no he does not have dual citizenship, but his birth certificate was issued by the State Department, hope he never looses it. After Germany we spent time in New Jersey and the Army said the War was over and they really didn't need me any more so a new path opened for us, and we moved back to Vermont. I settled into a new career in banking, most likely the last thing anyone who knew me would think I would be doing. But I did and stayed with banking until I retired five years ago. Again, a strange path, but it lead us to a good life. We stayed in Vermont for about six years and our path changed again. Before we left Vt Hannah Broughton was born, 1976, our bicentennial baby.

Florida, a different place for two Vermonters, but this path we took has served us well. We did not have to move south to retire, we were already here. We have lived in Fl longer than any other place in our lives. I continued in the bank and Nancy taught school until her retirement three years ago. What if we had not come to Fl, I wonder where we would be.

Have the paths that we have been down always been smooth, no, of course not, there are pot holes in every path, but the trick is to not let yourself get stuck in them. Get in and get out and continue on the that path.

Our path has brought us much happiness and continues too with the addition of our wonderful six grandchildren. Children are great but the path through grandchildren one of the greatest paths you will follow through out your life.

I will end this today with this thought, we are handed many paths in our life, some we choose and some are chosen for us. Looking back, I think I have traveled some good ones and not many bad ones. I hope that all who read will tale a minute and think about the paths you have taken or will take in the future, until next time....

Happy New Year, strange to write 1-1-11, oh well, its only for one day but fun. I know that as the new year enters we take time to reflect on the past year, the newspapers talk about the big stories of the year, TV runs specials on what happened, and the radio(yes still have one) replay all the hits of the past year. Well I guess I would be remiss if I didn't do the same, although I'm not sure mime will be that interesting.

I am going to start with the recent past, like yesterday. Yesterday I lost my cell phone, not really lost, I think it was stolen. Played golf, came home and realized I had left my phone in the cart. Went right up and found the cart we had used, empty, I asked around, etc. Tried to call my number, went straight to voice mail, whoever "found" my phone had turned it off. Not a big deal but hate to loose all my pics, and address book, plus it was only a couple months old. Back to my old phone, not a good way to end the year.

On a brighter note, the new year finds our family in good health, employed and growing. Wow the twins will be two this month and Abby was a year in October, not forget the older girls, Britt, Anna, and Addie are all doing great in school and involved in many fun and educational pursuits.

Last summer Nancy and I spent about six weeks in Vermont, Hannah, Wes and family came up for a week, and Andrew, Sarah and the girls came for about two months. The high light of the summer was the baptism of Abby at their home in Tunbridge. About 60 family and friends attended. Short service and great party after. It was great both great grandmothers were able to attend. The next day we all went to Randolph for the 4th of July parade, which has been a family tradition for many years.

In the fall we went to Denver to visit Andrew and family, actually we went to baby sit for the girls while Andrew and Sarah went to Vegas to attend a wedding. What fun we had with the three girls. I had a chance to play golf one day and enjoyed a great dinner at Elways, at the Denver Ritz Carlton, a great place to eat. While there Nancy and I traveled to the Rocky Mt National Park, The Gardens of the Gods, the US Air Force Academy and point in between, a great vacation.

All in All a very good year for the Rogers family. This next year looks like it will also be great. Nancy leaves next week on a cruise with a friend, I get to stay home and play golf, In April we are taken a two week trip to Viet Nam, more about that another time, not my idea, Nancy's plan.

Wishing everyone a great 2011 and may all your wishes for the new year come true, and find good health, pros parity and most of all, enjoy life.