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My life for the first 24 years could be summed up by the lyrics of a little known folk singer named Alex Bevin "skinny little boy from Cleveland Ohio come to drink your women and chase your beer". To say I lived a carnal existence would be understating the fact.

Then jobless and without direction, I decided to pull myself out of the rut. With little in the way of career prospects I turned to Uncle Sam. The Army would be the vehicle to give me direction and a future.

That it did and more, so much more. God was already actively working in my life, I just couldn't see it. I was sent to Germany right out of AIT (advanced individual training) where I had trained as a medic. First it was to a city called Aschaffenberg where I was to meet my kindred spirit and best friend Brian. We were out of control back then. Not to say we are in control now, but we are better, with Gods guiding hand.

Maybe a year in Aschaffenberg and the whole battalion move to a little base located in a sheep field near the town of Giebelstadt. The base, a former Nazi army compound was so well hidden that the Allied forces found it after WWII was over!

It was in Giebelstadt that things started accelerating. Brian introduced me to a beautiful blue eyed young women named Carole. I literally couldn't take my eyes off of her. We engaged in a torrid love affair for the next few months. Then as happens in the military, she left Germany. It looked like the end of our relationship, but God had a plan for us.

We kept in touch via letters, the old fashion kind. When it was time for me to leave Germany I was faced with a choice, visit New England a place I had never been to or catch a flight home to Ohio. Flying into a New Jersey air base the name of which escapes me, my intent was to catch that flight to Ohio. We got into New Jersey late on a Sunday, the flight crew put an NFL wrap up show on just before we landed to much applause.

By the time we got our luggage everything was shut down for the evening not to re-open until the following morning. Here I was stuck at the airport without any accommodations. At this point even I could see it was time to go to plan B. I would hop on a bus and go visit Brian who lived in Ellsworth Maine. Little did I know just how far Ellsworth was by bus from where I was.

The first bus took me to New York City, Grand Central Station, where I was to catch another bus. This bus would take me straight to Bangor Maine. First I'd have to wait the four hours until the bus was to leave,

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