Great Expectations

As I sneeze and sniffle today (not sure if it's allergies or what), I think about my good friend Myles. I wrote to Myles probably a good year ago now after finding him on the web, and have stayed in somewhat regular contact now.
I originally met Myles in Pirmasens, West Germany (back when there was still an East and West Germany) when we were both in the US Army. He was in a Transportation Unit or something, and I was in a Signal company. We probably met through another mutual friend, Tom Stull (much more about him later). In all likelihood, this was in 1983. And we probably met in a bar, or in Tom's room getting ready to go to a bar.

I believe Myles is just slightly older than I am, and I only think this because he seemed to have been in the military longer than I had. It's not by much though. What struck me as odd with Myles - and what made him a very comfortable and compatible friend - was his calm quietness. It was different than the 'strong silent' type that many chicks thought was so mysterious (and is usually more realistically characterized as 'strong and stupid'). Myles certainly wasn't stupid. In fact, he seemed to know most of the answers, but you had to kind of pull it out of him. He didn't volunteer up advice. That's refreshing nowadays after dealing with countless people who not only volunteer their advice, but hound you until you start taking it.

That's not to say Myles lacked energy. We had a sort of yin-yang relationship. He was quiet and introspective, but could chatter away with the girls in attempts to pick them up. He was very 'smooth' without being fake. Me, on the other hand, had to play class clown, live in the spotlight, and ended up trying more to get laughs from the ladies in an effort to get them to ....like me. (I think we all know what the real goal was for us guys, but there could be children reading). We made a good pair, Myles and I, and as I mentioned before, Myles was quite smooth and more often than not, very funny.

Myles was (and is) from Montana. A little (and I mean little) town called 'Eureka'. (You don't smell so good yourself). That was one of his best ice-breaker lines. Granted, it didn't work all that well on the German girls (English was taught, but not a thoroughly saturated language with them). And to be honest, it sometimes didn't work on the female members of the military that we were trying to make acquaintances with. Why? Well, to put this gently, when Myles and I were in the military, they would take just about anybody. In fact, they ended up taking SO many that I was offered an 'early out' just to help reduce the number of troops and reduce the money spent paying us. So there were quite a few soldiers -male and female- that were of the 'Duh factor'. And remember here, I was in my late teens (18 or 19) and trying to score was pretty much all we thought about. So, if the girl wasn't all that bright, it seemed a lot easier to entertain her with jokes and one-liners. These were the bright, shiny objects that kept them around long enough for the alcohol to take effect and to loosen them up enough to get better acquainted.

Myles was a genius at talking with girls. Unlike most of the rest of us, he had standards. So many times it ended up that he would be trying to get to know the smarter girl and her 'less-smart' friends were considered our conquests. He didn't end up as 'lucky' as us many times, but he ended up with second and third dates, and the rest of us were lucky to NOT get slapped the next time we ran across a previous 'date'.

Anyway, Myles was usually never the initiator of dumb ideas, but he was usually the one who tried (sometimes not very hard) to talk us out of them. He was also usually (usually, the one who would think quickly in order to get us out of the jams and difficult situations that our dumb ideas resulted in.
However, Myles was always up for the fun and many times ended up just like the rest of us, too drunk to walk straight, at 5 or 5:30am on a weekday, staggering back to our unit in order to make it to Physical Training (PT) on time at 6am. After trying to run a couple miles (no pun intended) and only making it about 200 feet before depositing the contents of our stomachs on the side of the road, we would go back, shower and prepare for another work day. In that respect, Myles was no brighter than the rest of us. Sorry about that Myles, but in retrospect, we did some dumb stuff.

Myles and I last saw each other shortly after I got out of the Army. He was still in, although I'm not sure where he was stationed, and I had been out for maybe 6 weeks. There was a sort of 'reunion' party for many of the folks who had been in Germany together at least a year or so prior. Myles was one of the few there that I actually remembered (most of these people weren't in my unit). So we spent most of the time there talking and reminiscing about events that were only about 18 months old. So here we were in New Jersey somewhere, back ON a military base (which I thought was stupid and ironic since we all loved to sit around wishing for the day we would no longer be soldiers). Myles and I kinda figured that we'd likely never see each other again. Sure, we talked about the next reunion, but seriously we didn't think it would really happen. I was pretty sure that Myles, like so many of my Army buddies from the past would just be in the past. It's hard to express, but it's a difficult thing to say goodbye, especially at that young age.

Flash forward to about 2007 or 2008. I track down Myles through the Internet (thank goodness he stayed in Eureka) and we made email contact again. I learned that unlike so many of our pals, Myles is now a successful business owner in Eureka, he went home and married his high school sweetheart (well, it's more realistic than that, she had dumped him before he joined the military, but he met her again at their 10th HS reunion and it was 'on'), and raised three children.

By lucky happenstance, Myles mentioned that he rides a Honda Magna motorcycle, as I was telling him about this trip. Originally, the plan was to just stop and see Myles, meet his wife, learn about his little town that I joked about for so many years, and get on with the trip. After talking with Myles, he's decided to join Matt and I on the Vancouver Adventure at least for the portion through Glacier National Park, Montana, then through the Northern Cascades in Washington state, on to Vancouver and back down and into Oregon. He will likely peel off and visit his sister in Oregon while Matt and I continue the VA.

I am so pleased to be able to spend some additional quality time with Myles. I fully realize that at the end of our portion of this trip together, it'll be another 'until we meet again' moment, but just having the chance to touch base with Myles again after 24 or so years, will be wonderful!