Trip to Turkey

PLEASE NOTE PICUTRES FOLLOW THIS NARRATIVE
Wow I can’t believe that April is here already. March sure flew by. I guess all the travel helped that happen. Turkey was an interesting place. It’s not a rich country and the standard of living is well below Germany or America. I saw a few farmers using horse drawn wagons for transport. I didn’t get a chance to travel much and I would really like to go back to Turkey as a tourist. It’s an ancient land that has the relics and ruins of many different cultures. I did drive a past a few castle ruins and I hear that there are many Roman era ruins as well. The largest town I was near was Adana. I flew into Istanbul and it was interesting from the Air. It reminded me of Salt Lake. You see Churches all over the place in Salt Lake when you are flying in and In Istanbul you see mosques with their minarets poking up into the sky. I flew in on Monday and with all the layovers and such it took me most of the day to get to Incirlik Air Base. I stayed on the base. On Tuesday I went to see the truck loading operation for Iraq. The majority of the jet fuel used at our locations in Northern Iraq comes out of the depot I went to. I went to see loading procedures because one of my jobs is to monitor large variations between loaded quantity and what arrives in Iraq. You can imagine that is a challenge. The men driving the trucks usually travel in extended family groups. They may have to wait several days to load fuel and then after a day’s drive wait another couple days before a convey forms to cross the border into Iraq. They live out of their trucks the whole time. These are not nice semi’s with sleeper cabs. I think it would be a hard life. On Wednesday I followed an old pipeline we need to shut down to the old sea side fuel storage terminal we don’t use any more. I went with a local Turkish guy who has worked for the Air Force for 25 years. He took me to a little restaurant where we picked fresh fish out of cooler and they cooked it for us. They also brought us a couple different salads with different kinds of greens, lemons and onion. I didn’t know about trying raw onion, but my host assured me it was very good with fish so I gave it a shot. The onions were sweet and mild with almost no after taste and it was really good with fish. Off the shore just a bit from where we were eating was a little spit of land that has some ruins on it. I asked my host if he knew the history of it. He replied that the locals claimed that it was built by a king who wished to protect his daughter. He kept his daughter there and brought her food to her himself to ensure no one could poison her. His enemies still found a way to kill his daughter. My host wasn’t sure the story was true but it adds to the flavor of the trip. The local food I tried was good except the beet juice. It’s one of those things I felt I had to try, but it was rough finishing the bottle. This Saturday I walked out into the woods for 3 and half hours following logging roads. Germany has a lot of forest land. The weather is beautiful right now and it was a glorious time! I’ve also caught the sessions of general conference. I am grateful it is so easy to do on the internet. Elder Richard G. Scott’s talk in the Saturday afternoon session was touching and reminded me how grateful I am to be sealed to all of my family eternally. I know that our parents wait on the other side of the vale to welcome us home. I have felt their love and presence before and know that they watch our lives and families.
Until next time,
Don



These are pictures of a couple different mosques.

I took this picture because I found it funny that they lived in a crumbling stone hut, but still had a satellite dish. That and to help you understand how poor most of the villiages I saw were.

The small runis of the fort that failed to protect the princess. I enjoyed a wonderful lunch looking out over the ocean

The area of Turkey I visited was covered with citrus groves and other fields produce. There were a lot of ruins as well. You can see the remaining walls of an old castle below.

This is me and the yummy beet juice. You should all try some!