On Hitchhikers and the Army

If you know Dave this will not surprise you...he likes to pick up hitchikers. I could probably give a million reasons why he would do this kind of thing...and I can give you a million reasons what I would never consider doing this kind of thing.

This past Saturday we went to a party and on the way home stopped to get some Starbucks. We pulled back onto the main road and while we were sitting at a red light a pedestrian crossed the road and stopped in front of our car. He yelled at Dave and asked if he was military. This is not too strange, because Dave still has his military plate on the front of his car, so anyone who at least has been to Europe with the military would recognize it. Dave, of course yelled back he was a contractor and wouldn't you know, this dude said he was army and needed a ride. Always willing to help out humanity and especially a stranded veteran was happy to pull into the gas station to pick him up. I jumped out of the car and was greeted by "Col. Carter" with a hug. The Col. then jumped into our car and proceeded to tell us his life story as we drove him to his hotel.

Col. Carter is an infantry Col with the 101st out of Ft. Benning. A couple days ago he flew from Iraq to Shannon, Ireland, to Ft. Carson to outprocess and retire after 22 (glorious) years in the Army (special ops). Saturday he flew from CO to Atlanta, and when he got to the gate they made him check his bag...apparently it was gate checked, but when he arrived in Atlanta he found out that his bag went to Athens...Greece. On and on the story went until he finally ended up at this hotel with no clothes and no money. As he was about to get out of the car he asked if we wanted to go and get something to eat with him because he had no money. Dave politely declined and thankfully "Col. Carter" got out of the car and we headed home. Hmm...it was a nice story...that sounded decent. He was probably was with the army...and he definitely had been to Europe with the army because he knew the plates...but there is NO WAY dude is a retired Col. Sorry. And what retired Col. doesn't have any money? And what recently retired Col. stays in a dump of a hotel on the outskirts of Atlanta, far away from Marta and far from the airport (while waiting for his bag to return from Greece)? It might be a possibility, but highly doubtful.

The whole thing ended up being mildly amusing...only after I realized he was not going to shoot us. I made Dave promise he would not do that again...don't know if I can hold him to that.