I got to have a late breakfast with Coral and Preston. The place was packed and they had special menu items, like fruit salad and home-fries. I went to Lulu’s to buy baby socks and rubber bands so I can walk the dogs on the bricks in the heat of the day.  I got a small hazelnut gelato, after the guard got the lady’s attention, as she was standing behind a column eating chips. This would be my first time eating and driving in Bahrain. 

I had passed the first sentry to drive on base and was waiting to show my credentials to the second when the security bars came down and we had to wait for a blacked-out SUV to come in the exit and disappear through a special gate. I was told that it was our people — the men in black. I went to the bank to get our first rent check for $2,769.95. 

Two people had to handle the transaction because it’s over $2,500. I waited, showed my two forms of ID, and then went upstairs to the cash exchange and got a check for BD 1041 made out to Mr. Husain. I waited 30 minutes for Caleb to get off work just to have him tell me to go home because the boss wouldn’t let him leave. An hour later he’s ready. We went to Lulu’s to exchange one of the ‘pairs’ of socks I bought as it only came with one sock. The process was easier than I thought, but I had picked the only one with ladybugs on them and settled for matching yellow panda socks for both pups. 

I thought we’d go by the new place so Caleb could get a look at it before we move in, but we went to Señor Pacos where some of the guys were going too. We order the spicy salsa and then OG, Douglas, and CK show up and order two pitchers of margaritas; CK orders another pitcher and then another. There’s a couple – one on the guitar and the other on the microphone singing karaoke. 

The guys had arrived by taxi and had planned on pouring themselves back into one. We found our way through the souq and then Douglas took the wheel to reverse us out when I got us stuck in a dead-end. A couple of local guys noticed our predicament and told us to follow them and then followed us when we got lost again until we found the Grand Mosque.