Rockingham, NC, Nov 14-18

Another work trip to teach ACS had brought me to a new (to me) town. This time I'm in Rockingham, NC; exactly halfway between Charlottesville and Fayetteville. Unfortunately, this is not the place I would ever want to return. It is small and poor. The only restaurants were fast food, and they looked stretchy. I ended up at the Food Lion buying groceries for my dinners. I can't imagine a life here. Really sad collection of run-down houses, a bunch of churches and graveyards, a few low-cost stores, and a railroad running through the middle. Maybe the countryside just outside of town would have been pretty, but I did not go exploring.

As for the work, the unit was in the final stages of prep for a year-long deployment to Kenya. They were set up in a field on a non-controlled airport. They had their mobile tower and GCA equipment out there and a C12 flight-checking their gear. The ACS class was conducted in a tent! I'll admit though, it was a very nice tent and well insulated, the ACS units worked properly, and the students were enthusiastic. The class was actually quite fun. 

There are the two ACS units and my "classroom". They eventually moved us to the bigger tent and gave us a monitor so I could project my laptop for the class to see. Turned out to be a great class, but boy was I worried when I first arrived!